Paul McCartney Nearly Got John Lennon and Yoko Ono Together Before Their First Meeting
Paul McCartney claims he almost got his bandmate John Lennon and his second wife, Yoko Ono, to meet before they met at the Indica Gallery. He knew the avant-garde artist before John.
Paul McCartney nearly got John Lennon and Yoko Ono to meet before their first meeting
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul said he’d known Yoko since she’d arrived in London in the mid-1960s. Paul met her before John.
One day, Yoko knocked on Paul’s door and said, “We’re collecting manuscripts for John Cage’s birthday. Do you have a manuscript we can have?” Paul said, “We don’t really have manuscripts. We have sort of words on paper, a piece of paper with lyrics on it.” She said, “Yeah, well, that’d be good.”
Paul told Yoko that he didn’t have anything like that with him but added that John might. Paul directed Yoko to John. However, he’s unsure whether Yoko ever picked up on the invitation to see his bandmate. Whether or not she went to see the Beatle, Paul still had some role in how John and Yoko met.
The next thing Paul knew, Yoko had her exhibition at a gallery that Paul and some friends had helped set up. It was called the Indica Gallery, and it was in the basement of a bookstore in Mason’s Yard. It’s where Paul hung out with friends like Peter Asher and the beat poet William S. Burroughs.
In late 1966, John went to the exhibit, and that’s where he met Yoko. Her exhibit, which involved climbing a ladder to see the word “yes,” intrigued John. “So he thought, ‘That’s a sign; this is it,’ and they fell madly in love,” Paul wrote.
The artist was less than intrigued by John when they first met
During an interview on The Dick Cavett Show, Yoko revealed that she wasn’t a fan of The Beatles or John when she met her future husband. Although he was initially apprehensive about it, John was fascinated by Yoko’s art exhibit. Meanwhile, in their first encounter, Yoko wasn’t impressed with John, even more so after he bit into one of the apples in her display as he left.
Yoko told Cavett she didn’t think of John as one of the Fab Four. He was just an artist like her, and they connected over art, not music. Soon, the pair became inseparable. Suddenly, Paul noticed that John and Yoko were serious, and it caused problems for The Beatles.
Paul had to be happy for John and Yoko
Once John and Yoko’s romance became the real deal, Paul started feeling pushed out. Paul and John were songwriting partners, and suddenly, they weren’t writing songs together anymore. John began to do everything with Yoko. He dreamt of leaving the band and exploring things with her.
John made matters worse by inviting Yoko to hang out in the recording studio. Paul thought it was intrusive. However, none of them could say anything about it. They had to deal with it. Unless they had a serious problem- unless one of them said she couldn’t be in the studio-they had to “let it be.”
Paul said it was part of their nature as northern lads to grin and bear it. Eventually, Paul and the others realized they had to let John and Yoko be and support them. He explains it in Peter Jackson’s documentary, The Beatles: Get Back.
Then, after The Beatles split, Paul felt betrayed once again when the pair took shots at him in interviews, etc. It was already a tense time, and Paul felt they had made it worse for him. Thankfully, Paul and John repaired their relationship before John died.
Paul was sympathetic toward Yoko. She’d lost her husband. Later, when Paul was writing “Golden Earth Girl,” he thought of how John compared Yoko to things in nature. For instance, “ocean girl” in “Julia.”
“Yoko often said things like, ‘Look at that cloud,’ or used words connected with nature,” Paul wrote. “I’d always liked that about her work, and then John picked up on it later with his surreal way of swapping things around.”
Paul didn’t always have the best relationship with John and Yoko, but he was happy that his friend found his soul mate and even helped them find one another.
