Fact #52358
When:
Short story:
The Byrds and Peter Fonda attend a party at The Beatles' rented home in Benedict Canyon, Beverly Hills, California, USA. During the party, Fonda and George Harrison have a conversation which will, in due course, inspire John Lennon to write the song She Said, She Said. During the day, two girl fans hire a helicopter to fly over the Benedict Canyon mansion, one of whom jumps from it into the swimming pool.
Full article:
Alf Bicknell (Beatles chauffeur) : I remember being in this big mansion Derek had rented in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles, and I'm walking around looking for anybody and there's nobody to be seen. Big games room, swimming pool, six bedrooms, huge lounge and there's nobody, but I knew they were there, so I went completely quiet and I could hear this distant sort of murmur, so I went down this hallway and it got louder, and there was another room, and a room off that, and another room beyond that and as I opened that door the smell of the gear hit me.
Sitting on the floor is Derek, with a joint a foot long and thick as a big cigar, and when I become accustomed to the dark I can see John, Neil, Paul, Mal, they were all there, stoned, in this little hidey-hole. So I joined them on the floor.
Girls hired helicopters and flew over. One actually jumped out of the helicopter and landed in the pool, but we just dragged her out and threw her out the gate.
This was the house where they met The Byrds, Joan Baez and Peter Fonda. I remember the day they dropped acid for the first time.
Peter Fonda : I made my way past the kids and the guards. Paul and George were on the back patio, and the helicopters were patrolling overhead. They were sitting at a table under an umbrella in a rather comical attempt at privacy. Soon afterwards we dropped acid and began tripping for what would prove to be all night and most of the next day; all of us, including the original Byrds, eventually ended up inside a huge, empty and sunken tub in the bathroom, babbling our minds away.
I had the privilege of listening to the four of them sing, play around and scheme about what they would compose and achieve. They were so enthusiastic, so full of fun. John was the wittiest and most astute. I enjoyed just hearing him speak and there were no pretensions in his manner. He just sat around, laying out lines of poetry and thinking – an amazing mind. He talked a lot yet he still seemed so private.
It was a thoroughly tripped-out atmosphere because they kept finding girls hiding under tables and so forth: one snuck into the poolroom through a window while an acid-fired Ringo was shooting pool with the wrong end of the cue. "Wrong end?" he’d say. "So what fuckin' difference does it make?"
(Source : feature by Fonda in Rolling Stone magazine)
George Harrison : [Fonda] was showing us his bullet wound. He was very uncool.
(Source : The Beatles Anthology)
John Lennon : We didn't want to hear about that! We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing (some from Playboy, I believe) and the whole thing was really beautiful and Sixties. And this guy – who I really didn't know, he hadn't made Easy Rider or anything – kept coming over, wearing shades, saying 'I know what it's like to be dead,' and we kept leaving him because he was so boring. It was scary, when you're flying high: 'Don't tell me about it. I don't want to know what it's like to be dead!'
(Source : Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Said_She_Said)
John Lennon (guitarist, The Beatles) : She Said She Said was written after an acid trip in LA during a break in The Beatles' tour, where we were having fun with The Byrds and lots of girls ... Peter Fonda came in when we were on acid and he kept coming up to me and sitting next to me and whispering, 'I know what it's like to be dead.' He was describing an acid trip he'd been on.
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Sitting on the floor is Derek, with a joint a foot long and thick as a big cigar, and when I become accustomed to the dark I can see John, Neil, Paul, Mal, they were all there, stoned, in this little hidey-hole. So I joined them on the floor.
Girls hired helicopters and flew over. One actually jumped out of the helicopter and landed in the pool, but we just dragged her out and threw her out the gate.
This was the house where they met The Byrds, Joan Baez and Peter Fonda. I remember the day they dropped acid for the first time.
Peter Fonda : I made my way past the kids and the guards. Paul and George were on the back patio, and the helicopters were patrolling overhead. They were sitting at a table under an umbrella in a rather comical attempt at privacy. Soon afterwards we dropped acid and began tripping for what would prove to be all night and most of the next day; all of us, including the original Byrds, eventually ended up inside a huge, empty and sunken tub in the bathroom, babbling our minds away.
I had the privilege of listening to the four of them sing, play around and scheme about what they would compose and achieve. They were so enthusiastic, so full of fun. John was the wittiest and most astute. I enjoyed just hearing him speak and there were no pretensions in his manner. He just sat around, laying out lines of poetry and thinking – an amazing mind. He talked a lot yet he still seemed so private.
It was a thoroughly tripped-out atmosphere because they kept finding girls hiding under tables and so forth: one snuck into the poolroom through a window while an acid-fired Ringo was shooting pool with the wrong end of the cue. "Wrong end?" he’d say. "So what fuckin' difference does it make?"
(Source : feature by Fonda in Rolling Stone magazine)
George Harrison : [Fonda] was showing us his bullet wound. He was very uncool.
(Source : The Beatles Anthology)
John Lennon : We didn't want to hear about that! We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing (some from Playboy, I believe) and the whole thing was really beautiful and Sixties. And this guy – who I really didn't know, he hadn't made Easy Rider or anything – kept coming over, wearing shades, saying 'I know what it's like to be dead,' and we kept leaving him because he was so boring. It was scary, when you're flying high: 'Don't tell me about it. I don't want to know what it's like to be dead!'
(Source : Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Said_She_Said)
John Lennon (guitarist, The Beatles) : She Said She Said was written after an acid trip in LA during a break in The Beatles' tour, where we were having fun with The Byrds and lots of girls ... Peter Fonda came in when we were on acid and he kept coming up to me and sitting next to me and whispering, 'I know what it's like to be dead.' He was describing an acid trip he'd been on.