Why did Paul take pot into Japan in 1980?

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.  

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!”

 

Linda during a press conference in Japan 

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.   

Strange but True: Neil Aspinall and Mona Best

One of the stranger things that has came out over the years would be the relationship between Neil Aspinall and Mona Best.     Their relationship and child was hush-hush in Liverpool at the time with few people knowing the truth, although there were rumors going wild.      It wasn't until after Mona's death in 1988 that the story started to slowly get out and then 10 years later a book was published  that told about it.    And while today most fans know that Neil and Mona were an item, it is still an interesting footnote to Beatles history.


Neil Aspinall had been friends with Paul and George since they were in school together.   He and Paul were in the same class, but he was also friends with George and they both smoked their first cigarette together (ironically and sadly they both died as a result of smoking).     Neil went to school for accounting, but like most young guys during that time, enjoyed hearing music and would go hear his friends play at the Casbah Coffee Club, which was owned by Mona Best and her family.


To make extra money and since her home on Hayman's Green was very large, Mona would house boarders.    After getting to know Mona and her family, Neil became a boarder in their home.   In 1960 Neil was 19 years old and Mona was 36.

Mona Best was married to Johnny Best, who was a boxing promoter in Liverpool.   (Interestingly Rory  Best is the only  biological child of Mona and Johnny).     When the couple first met in India, Mona was studying to be a doctor.  Instead, she moved to Liverpool after her marriage to Best in 1944 and was a housewife.   It has been said that Johnny did not approve of Mona's carefree and what we now would think of as "feminist" ways.    She was independent and took it upon herself to purchase the large home on Hayman's Green by pawning jewelry and betting on a winning racehorse behind her husband's back.    She also opened the Casbah for teenagers in the cellar of their home without her husband's blessing.

By the time Neil came to live in the home, Johnny and Mona were somewhat separated.   Johnny was  traveling for his boxing job and was not home very often.   He refused to give Mona a divorce even though the couple had drifted apart.

No one knows for sure how or when the romantic relationship began between the two, or how much others knew about it.    Neil and Pete Best became close friends and along with the close friendship he had with Paul and George, he quit his accounting job and became the road manager for the Beatles, driving them to gigs.  

By the spring of 1962, it was obvious that Mona Best, who was 38, was excepting a baby.   This caused a lot of gossiping because everyone knew that Johnny had not been around in a very long time.  However, no one questioned Mona about the baby.   Victor  Roag Best was born on July 21, 1962.    Wanting to make sure that her child was legitimate, Mona decided to list Johnny Best as the child's father and give him the same surname as everyone else in the family  

However, another big change was about to happen in the Best family when on August 16, 1962, Pete Best was fired from the Beatles.    Neil was with Pete at the time of the sacking and the two had some pints in the Grapes afterwards to drown their sorrows.     Brian Epstein assumed that Neil would pledge his allegiance to the Best family (and who would have blamed him?) and lined up a new man to take Neil's place as the Beatles' road manager.    However, Neil remained friends with Pete and involved with Mona and still worked for the Beatles.

Many things I have read said that Neil moved out of Mona's home and they broke up directly after Pete was out of the Beatles, however I am not sure if that is totally correct.     Neil may have moved out of the home, however he still was there often.    He would store the Beatles' equipment in the home and at times John, Paul, George and Ringo would be sitting in the van outside of the house while Neil ran inside to grab some equipment.

Once Neil came to London, his relationship with Mona did not end.    There are several stories about Mona coming and visiting Neil at his flat in 1963.    But the relationship between them was over for good once Neil met Suzy in 1964.   They were married in 1968 and remained married for 40 years until Neil's death.

Strangely, even though Mona was very vocal about how upset she was about the Beatles' sacking her son and she blamed it all on the jealousy of the others because of Pete's good looks, she STILL remained on friendly terms with the Fab 4.    And while none of the Beatles spoke to Pete Best after he was sacked, they still spoke to his mother.    Mona loaned John Lennon her father's war medals, which he wore on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album.    John was so thankful that he returned the medals along with the music award that is also seen on the cover and the same year they also sent her an "All you Need is Love" doll.     Maybe the fact that Mona was the mother of Neil's son had something to do with this?

For many year Roag denied the rumors that Neil Aspinall was his father.    But in recent years, Roag  has been very proud to say that he is the son of Mona Best and Neil Aspinall.

The ins and outs of the Beatles' circle is enough that a soap opera could have been written about it!

Truth is Stranger than fiction: Eleanor Rigby

Sheet music for Eleanor Rigby, drawn by Klaus Voorman 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the song, Eleanor Rigby.    It is a song that is still much loved among fans of the Beatles as well as music fans in general.    Paul McCartney sang it in his 1984 film "Give my Regards to Broadstreet" and continues to perform the song in concert to this day.  


Paul began writing the song earlier in 1966 and explained to Hunter Davies in a 1966 interview how he got the idea:

‘I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. Just like Jimmy Durante. The first few bars just came to me. And I got this name in my head – Daisy Hawkins, picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been. I don’t know why. …

So as the legend goes---Eleanor Rigby started off as Daisy Hawkins.   However, that doesn't really fit with the tune and Paul was looking for another name.    He didn't have to look far---he was acquainted with a woman  named Eleanor, as he explains,

We were working with  Eleanor Bron on ‘Help!’ and I liked the name Eleanor…I’d seen her at Peter Cook’s Establishment Club in Greek Street, then she came on the film ‘Help!’ so we knew her quite well, John had a fling with her…it was the first time I’d ever been involved with that name.”

So the first name of the lonely woman in his song was set, but how about that last name, Rigby?
In January of 1966, Paul was visiting Jane in Bristol when she was doing a play and saw a wine and spirits shop with a good name

 

I was in Bristol when I decided Daisy Hawkins wasn’t a good name. I walked round looking at the shops and I saw the name Rigby. You got that? Quick pan to Bristol. I can just see this all as a Hollywood musical ...

‘Then I took it down to John’s house in Weybridge. We sat around, laughing, got stoned and finished it off. I thought of the backing, but it was George Martin who finished it off. I just go bash, bash on the piano. He knows what I mean.

And that is the story Paul has always told about Eleanor Rigby.     He even says in his 1966 interview with Hunter Davies, 

‘All our songs come out of our imagination. There was never an Eleanor Rigby.

But Paul was very wrong about that.   There WAS an Eleanor Rigby and she lived in Liverpool.  She was born in 1895 and died at the age of 44 in 1939,  before any of the Beatles were even born.  The odd thing about this is not that Ms. Rigby had lived in Liverpool and died there,  the strange thing is that she was buried at the cemetery located next to St. Peter's church in Woolton. 

Her grave stone is actually very close to John Lennon's uncle George's grave.    Of course this was the very church where Paul McCartney first met John Lennon during the church fete.    Who would have ever thought that the place where Lennon and McCartney met had on the grounds the name "Eleanor Rigby?"     Surely Paul had seen the name on the tombstone and wrote the story around the name?

Paul has always denied this has he said in 2000, 

"It was either complete coincidence or in my subconscious,  “I suppose it was more likely in my subconscious, because I will have been amongst those graves knocking around with John and wandering through there.  It was the sort of place we used to sunbathe, and we probably had a crafty fag in the graveyard…but there could be 3000 gravestones in Britain with Eleanor Rigby on.  It is possible that I saw it and subconsciously remembered it…So subconscious it may be – but this is just bigger than me.  I don’t know the answer to that one.  Coincidence is just a word that says two things coincided.  We rely on it as an explanation, but it actually just names it – it goes no further than that.  But as to why they happen together, there are probably far deeper reasons that our little brains can grasp.”

I have always just thought this was a really, really strange coincidence and just chalked it up to yet another "strange but true" story of the Beatles.

Strange but true: Tara Browne

Tara Browne at his home a few months before his death

Most Beatle fans know that the song "A Day in the Life" from the Sgt. Pepper album was inspired by newspaper stories that John Lennon read one morning in January 1967 in the Daily Mail.    One of the stories was about Tara Browne, the heir of the Guinness beer fortune, who had died in a car accident a month earlier.    John wrote the lines "He blew his mind out in a car/he didn't notice that the lights had changed..." based on the news story.

But there is much more to this tragic story.   Tara Browne and Paul McCartney were actually very good friends.   They ran in the same circle of artist types including John Dunbar, Barry Miles and Robert Frasier.  The group met Tara one  night out in a club, most likely the Bag o' Nails.       Paul described Tara as a "sensitive" guy and he often invited Tara to hang out with him at his Cavendish home.

Tara is sitting in one of his mod cars.  He is the middle in the back.

Two important things happened in Paul McCartney history that involve his friend, Tara.    The first one was in December 1965, Paul felt Tara to be a good enough friend that he invited him on a trip back to Liverpool to visit with Paul's family.      The two friends were traveling around the streets of Liverpool on mopeds, on the way to see Paul's aunt when Paul was looking at the full moon and ended up crashing his moped, causing his tooth to chip.     Paul didn't bother to get that tooth fixed until late in May of 1966.

Paul had not taken LSD when the other Beatles did.    He was not with George and John when the dentist slipped it into their drink in 1965 and he did not take it during the  "she said she said" inspiration trip in L.A. when the other three took it.     Paul would not take LSD with his bandmates until March 1967 during Sgt. Pepper sessions.

However, the three other Beatles weren't the only friends of Paul's that took LSD.   Tara Browne was a regular user and it was with him that Paul had his first trip at his home.  

Tara was an interesting guy.   He was very wealthy and very into the social scene in "swinging London."   He used his money to finance many of the mod shops on Carnaby Street and then decided to open his own shop, Dandie Fashions.    After Tara's death, Dandie changed owners (obviously) and was opened as Apple Tailoring.    It isn't too far fetched to think that if Tara hadn't died, that Paul would have appointed him as the head the Apple Tailoring.      Tara also was somehow involved in Syllbia's club, which was financed by George Harrison.    It isn't sure if he was just a regular customer there or if he had money tied into the club.    Nonetheless, Tara Browne was quite the socialite and was more than just an acquaintance of Paul McCartney's.     For his 21st birthday, he had a huge party, where he paid for the Lovin' Spoonful to fly into London from the States and perform.   No word if any of the Beatles were had the big party, but I would have guessed that they were.

In December 1966, Tara was separated from his wife and there was custody issues with his children, who were living with their Grandparents.   He was dating a 19 year old girl named Suki Potier.  According to the newspaper reports given by Suki, on December 18, 1966 she and Tara left a restaurant at 11:50pm and got into Tara's light blue Lotus Elan.   They were traveling "not very fast" down South Kensingston when a white car that was either a Jaguar or a Volvo suddenly appeared in the crossroads.  The white car was going very fast and did not slow down.   It went behind Tara, who swerved to avoid it, hitting a parked van.

Tara Browne's car after the accident

Tara had severe head injuries and died at the hospital shortly after arrival.   Test results showed that he had a half-a-pint to a pint of beer in his system.   Suki walked away unhurt.

Many reports written today state that Tara was driving 120 miles an hour.   They think that because the newspaper reported that Tara was driving a 120 miles an hour Lotus sports car.   That does not mean that he was traveling 120, but that the car could go up to 120.

As you see---he did not run a red light or "blow his mind out in a car."  But his story did give John the idea for the lines in the song.     John would have known Tara Browne, but he was not good friends with him like Paul.

Truth is Stranger than fiction: The story of Reed Pigman

The Beatles traveled back and forth through the United States during the 1964 summer tour in an American Flyers Airplane  Electra, N13H.  American Flyers Airlines had been founded in 1949 by a Texan named Reed Pigman.  Pigman was quite the pioneer in early aviation  and helped build airplanes during World War II.       Reed Pigman was the not Beatles' pilot while they flew on the Electra, but he sure was proud of have the Fab 4 on his airplane.

The AFA Electra N13H

However, Mr. Pigman was the Beatles pilot during one part of the tour.    As you will recall, after the Beatles left Houston,  Ruby Hickman arranged with her boss (Mr. Pigman himself) for the Beatles not to go to New York City on their day off as planned, but to have a nice day of rest and relaxation at the Pigman Ranch in southern Missouri.     The Electra landed in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas and the Beatles boarded a twin engine-seven seater plane with Reed Pigman flying the craft.    It was a scary flight for the Beatles, Brian and Ruby as George Harrison explained in the Anthology:

We flew from Dallas to an intermediate airport where Pigman met us in a little plane with the one wing, on top, and with one or maybe two engines. It was so like Buddy Holly, that one; that was probably the closest we came to that sort of musicians' death. I don't mean it nearly crashed because it didn't, but the guy had a little map on his knee, with a light, as we were flying along and he was saying, 'Oh, I don't know where we are,' and it's pitch black and there are mountains all around and he's rubbing the windscreen trying to get the mist off. Finally he found where we were and we landed in a field with tin cans on fire to guide us in.

Reed was able to maneuver the plane through the difficult conditions and the Beatles landed safely and enjoyed their time with the Pigman family and their ranch.

This Curt Gunther photo shows Ringo with the Pigman family at the ranch

 

However,  tragedy was right around the corner.    On April 22, 1966 Reed Pigman was flying the same airplane the Beatles used during the summer of 1964, the AFA Electra  N13H,    He was taking some young army recruits to Georgia.     It was a rainy, foggy night and Pigman was set to land in Oklahoma for refueling when he at the age of 59 suffered  a major heart attack.    The plane crashed near Ardmore, Oklahoma killing 83 of the 96 on board, including Reed Pigman.  


It is a very sad ending and yet an eerie one when you consider how George Harrison was scared of flying and considered his flight with Pigman as his "Buddy Holly moment."  

Reed Pigman and stewardesses just a month before the tragic accident