Why did Paul take pot into Japan in 1980?
Marijuana became part of Paul McCartney’s life during the
summer of 1964 and he didn’t turned away from it until after his fourth child,
Beatrice was born in 2003. During his
entire marriage to Linda, marijuana was part of their life together and neither
one of them seemed to think too much about it. Their first run in with the law over pot
occurred in Sweden in 1972. They
claimed that the drug was not theirs and was given to them in a letter from a
fan. They paid a fine and were free to
go. The following year, they were in
trouble with the law because cannabis was growing on their farm. Once again, they used the “fan gave it to us”
excuse and said that a fan had sent them some seeds through the mail and they
had no idea what type of seeds they were.
They were charged a light fee and were free to go once again. In March of 1975 the McCartney family was
traveling along in a car in Los Angeles when they ran a red light and was
pulled over. The police noticed the
smell of marijuana in the car and Linda, thinking it would be easier for her as
an American citizen, took the blame and was arrested. She was let go after once again paying a
fine.
In 1975, Wings was planning the “Wings over the World” tour
and Japan was part of the plans for the tour.
Paul was unable to obtain a work
visa in Japan because of the marijuana charges from 1972 and so the Japan part
of the tour was canceled. Fast forward
to the end of 1979 and Paul has a new lineup for Wings. A new tour is planned for the beginning of
the new year and Japan is going to be the first stop on the tour. I
have read that Paul asked to sign a affidavit that he no longer did drugs in order to be given the work
visa---no idea if that is true.
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Ticket to the Wings concert that never happened. |
We all know that whenever Paul and his family arrived in
Japan on January 16, 1980, the officials at the airport opened up Paul’s
suitcase and looked inside of the hood of Stella’s coat and discovered 200
grams of marijuana. This much pot
would make over 400 joints, which is an awful lot of smoking! Paul spent 10 days as inmate #22 in a
Japanese jail. But the big question
that was asked of him then and remains now is WHY. Why would one of the biggest music stars of
all time carry so much marijuana in his suitcase in a country that has strict
pot laws? Let’s look at some of the
choices.
1. 1. Paul
didn’t realize that Japan had such strict laws. This is the reason he gave once he was
released. He said in an interview a few months later, “I didn’t
try to hide it. I had just come from America and still had the American
attitude that marijuana isn’t that bad. I didn’t realize just how strict the
Japanese attitude is.” I personally have a hard time accepting
this statement. Paul had to have known that
Japan had strict laws. He wasn’t allowed
in Japan in 1975 because of their strict laws regarding marijuana. His father-in-law is a lawyer and he had all
sorts of people working for him. Surely
someone informed him before they left for Japan that they had strict laws. How could he not have realized it?
2.
2. Paul
thought he was a rock star that was above the law. Paul said during the Wingspan time, “I was
out in New York and I had all this really good grass,” he said. “We were about
to fly to Japan and I
knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over there. “This stuff was
too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I’d take it with me.” By 1980 was Paul McCartney so famous
that he believed that he couldn’t get arrested? Those things just don’t happen to him. That while the laws were strict, the
officials would turn a blind eye to him because he was Paul McCartney who was
doing a huge tour in their country and therefore would bring a lot of
money? Paul talks about when the
official found the pot (which wasn’t really hard to find since was laying right
on top of his clothing). “When the
fellow pulled it out of the suitcase, he looked more embarrassed than me,”
McCartney recalled. “I think he just wanted to put it back in and forget the
whole thing, you know, but there it was. “Unfortunately, this is the theory that I think might be the closest to
the truth. Paul had gotten away with
traveling with drugs more than he had been caught. When you get away with doing the wrong thing
long enough, you get sloppy with it and figure that nothing bad is going to
happen to you. Add that mindset to a
famous person and you have a recipe for disaster.
3.
3. It
wasn’t even Paul’s pot. He was covering
for Linda. We know that Linda
covered for Paul in 1975 in America, but did Paul cover for Linda in
Japan? I truly believe that the 200
grams of pot was for the entire tour---Paul, Linda and whoever else smoked
it. The stuff that was found in
Stella’s hood (which was a terrible choice) was probably Linda’s, but the stuff
in Paul’s luggage had to have been for everyone. Why would Linda stash her stuff in Paul’s
luggage? Why would she have so much of
it? It was in Paul’s bag and
therefore, Paul had to take the blame for all of it. Linda sure didn’t keep quiet about how she
felt about the ordeal, “It's really
very silly. People certainly are different over here. They take it so very
seriously. Paul is now in some kind of detention place and I have not been
allowed to see him. As soon as they get someone nice like Paul, they seem to
make a field day of it! I'll never come
back to Japan again. It's my first trip and my last!”
4. 4. Paul is just plain stupid. Paul saying about himself in the Wingspan
promo material, “I think I was just stupid and I paid the penalty.” And his former bandmate, John Lennon
seemed to have shared this thought with what he had to say about it when it
happened “If he really needs weed,
surely there’s enough people who can carry it for him. You’re a Beatle, boy, a
Beatle. Your face is in every damn corner of the planet. How could you have
been so stupid? The thing is that
Paul McCartney is NOT a stupid man. He
had been dealing with pot and traveling for at least 15 years by this
point.
5. 5. Yoko set
him up. This is the theory that I
find to be funny. This theory is that
when Paul was in New York prior to the Japan trip, he came over to the Dakota
and was talking about this great pot he had gotten ahold of. He also talked about how he was staying at
the Presidential Suite at John and Yoko’s favorite hotel in Tokyo. Supposedly Yoko was so outraged that Paul
and Linda were going to stay in HER suite that she contacted the authorities in
Japan prior to the McCartney’s arrival and tipped them off about the pot in his
bag. I have also heard a variation
of this story that says that Paul stopped by the Dakota and had his luggage
with him and Yoko planted the pot in his luggage and then tipped off the
authorities. I find this theory to
be completely foolish. First, just
because Yoko is Japanese, it doesn’t mean that she has any type of “pull” with
the authorities at the airport in Tokyo.
Second, we know that Yoko can be eccentric and superstitious, but really
why would Paul and Linda staying in the suite that her and John always use make
her so mad? It isn’t like they were
going to be over there themselves and wanted to stay in it. Surely, she would know and understand that
the hotel allows other guests to use the room when she and John aren’t in
Japan. This seems like such a silly
reason for someone to make someone go to jail, although the people that believe
this happened also believe that Yoko was trying to keep John and Paul away from
each other so that she would make an album with him and not Paul. Give me a break!
6. 6. Paul
subconsciously brought the pot into Japan to break up Wings. Paul himself was asked the question if he
had brought pot into Japan in order to get out of doing the tour and breaking
up the band. He thought it could be a
possibility, "I think that it
might, psychologically, it might have been that. There might have been
something to do with that, because I think I was ready to get out of Wings. I
think also, more importantly, we hadn't really rehearsed much for that tour,
and I felt very under-rehearsed. I cannot believe that I would have myself
busted and put in jail nine days just to get out of a group. I mean, let's face
it, there are easier ways to do it than that -- and also having to pay a
million (British) pounds to the promoters in default. I think the only thing;
it might have just been some deep, psychological thing. It's a weird period for
me." I think that ending the group
was an after-thought. While he was
sitting in the jail cell, doing nothing for the majority of the time there, he
had time to think. And maybe what he
thought about was how he needed to end Wings and focus on his family and work
solo for a while. Who knows?
Regardless of the reason why, bringing marijuana into Japan
was one of the dumbest things one of the Beatles ever did. Paul himself doesn’t seem to understand why
he did it, so I suppose we won’t ever really know either.
P.S.:
ReplyDeleteand Regarding #5:
It's pretty widely known (and John repeated it in his final Playboy interview) that the last time he and Paul were together was indeed at the Dakota ...but in 1976, not early 1980 before the McCartneys left for Japan; the night they watched SNL together and considered taking a cab down to the studio to accept Lorne Michaels' $3200 offer to reunite you-know-who.
Yes Gary---you are right. However, there are people that say that Paul went to visit John before he went to Japan. Some say he just made a phone call and others say he went there. But then none of the people saying that were there.
DeleteThat is wrong and I really don't know why people repeat this story so much... No one has ever said that the night they were watching SNL was the last time they saw each other. John mentioned the last time they saw each other after telling this story, but he did not say it was the same time, he clearly said it was a different time.
DeleteJames remembers the time he spent in John's lap. He was born in 1977, so, of course, they met after 1966. Possibly in 1980 when James was about 3 years old. Now let's suppose John said for Play boy the last time was in 66. Gosh, he still had some months alive. Paul could have visited him after he gave the interview. Now...Yoko really showed how upset she was that Paul and linda would stay in the same room she stayed with John. I know it is silly, but...she said it. It doesn't mean she tip them to the police, of course not. But...he is from a powerful family in Tokyo.
Deletewould say 2 and 4 - P & L always had pot on them and Japan didn't think that "it's really very silly"
ReplyDelete#2 all the way, with a bit of #4. He really needed Neil and Mal.
ReplyDeleteJAPANESE TEARS
ReplyDeleteGreat topic Sara!!!
ReplyDelete#5 - McCartney didn't "go to" the Dakota, but rather -- according to legend -- told Lennon he had "dynamite weed" and he'd like to toke up with him while in town, thus hipping Lenono to the dope he was carrying. I always read it as a desperate attempt to get back in the same room with Lennon.
Also, "200 grams of marijuana. This much pot would make over 400 joints" -- well, that depends on what size joints you smoke and whose to say that McCartney wasn't smoking bowls???
The fact that always amazed me about McCartney's dope as shown in the Tokyo cop footage and pics is that it's all shake, rather than primo bud.
For more on the Japan arrest, check out the latest FABCAST: "EARLY 1980 - Smuggling Dope & Stepping Out"
https://soundcloud.com/fabcast-870039074/006-early-1980-smuggling-dope-stepping-out
Keep up the great work, Sara.
(You're my favorite bookmark!)
Howie
As someone who has never smoked anything in her life---much less pot, I just went by what I was told on the amount.
DeleteI did want to point out that James McCartney has said in an interview a few years ago that he vividly remembers sitting on John Lennon's lap and playing and Sean. I find this very odd because if the last time Paul saw John was 1976 (which is what we all believe is true), then James wasn't born yet. Maybe he dreamed this memory---memories from when you are young are always sort of fuzzy anyhow. But just for the sake of saying that this was true---January 1980 would have fit in perfectly for James to have sat on John's lap.
If James says he sat on john's lap and played with Sean, then he did (though I remember his comments being along the lines of "I know John held me as a baby"). He would know better than we would.
DeletePlus, it's not like Paul isn't around, James might well have checked the veracity of this memory with him.
The only reason we might think they last saw each other in 1976 is because of something John said in a 1980 interview. Right after telling the SNL story, he tells it was "at a time" when Paul would show up at his door unannounced, and one of hose times he told him off, Paul got mad, and they hadn't seen each other since. He does NOT mention a date, not even by year, when that happened. He puts it at a time "around" the SNL night, but that (especially this being John) could be days or even a couple years apart.
Paul has never said when he las saw John in person. His story (maybe retold by Linda or Carl Perkins) though about how that last meeting went is VERY different from what John told. You know, the story of John telling Paul "think about me every now and then old friend".
Were either of them lying?, was there a meeting very close to John's death, AFTER his interview?.
We might never know.
John said in his 1980 Newsweek interview that he hadn't seen Paul in "two years." BTW the allegation (I knew Fred Seaman and Sam Green who both insisted it was true) says that Paul called the Dakota in an attempt to meet up with John and Yoko answered the phone. Yoko then supposedly called a cousin who was an official in customs.
DeleteI read the Seaman book, but tho it's not flattering to Yoko,she hired crooked cops formerly employed by NYC,to give him a beating because he refused to hand over some papers or letters which John asked him to make sure ended up in the hands of Julian or Sean, I don't recall him telling the Japan bust story. .don't take my word, read his 'last days of John Lennon'.
ReplyDeleteinteresting
DeleteI personally think that Paul McCartney learned a hard lesson about bringing Marijuana with him because he now knows that it's wrong and causes him nothing but trouble for him
ReplyDelete