On January 30 , fifty-three years ago ( 1969 ), the last live concert of the English band took place. Where? In London, on the roof terrace of the Apple Records headquarters, with an impromptu 42-minute performance, interrupted by the intervention of the London police. A concert that went down in History and became Legend.
Throughout their career, the four members, John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr , have often been associated with cannabis, meaning marijuana, initially as users and later as anti-prohibitionists and promoters of large-scale legalization.
We'll tell you some curiosities.
The first…
In 1964, at the Delmonico Hotel in Manhattan, New York, in a private suite, the Beatles met Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan , for the first time. During that meeting, Dylan is said to have rolled and given the Fab Four a taste of a marijuana joint. As Howard Sounes recounts in his book “ Bob Dylan: A Biography ”: “Bob awkwardly began to roll the first joint, spilling some marijuana. Since they had the police outside the door, they moved to an inner room before lighting up. Bob passed the first joint to Lennon, who told Ringo Starr to try it, jokingly claiming that Ringo was his taster. The drummer began to smoke it like a cigarette without passing it to the others, and another was rolled. It didn’t take long for them all to be stoned. McCartney said he had discovered the meaning of life and was looking for a pencil to write it down. Starr chuckled. The next day, in the dim light of morning, McCartney looked at his penciled notes to find the meaning of life distilled into a single sentence: “There are seven levels.”
The second…
The Beatles were invited to Buckingham Palace on 26 October 1965 to receive the honour of Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The MBE is one of the most prestigious titles in Anglo-Saxon society and, in their case, one of the most controversial ever obtained. It seems that the day Queen Elizabeth II appointed John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison ' Baronets ', the band smoked marijuana in a bathroom at Buckingham Palace, shortly before the official ceremony. At least that's what John Lennon declared years later: "We smoked a joint to calm our nerves". However, the other three members have always denied this claim. Paul has repeatedly stated that he doesn't remember anything of the sort while George has stated that at most they smoked a cigarette.
The third…
Paul McCartney apparently began growing hemp on his family farm at Peasmarsh near Rye in the county of East Sussex in England .
McCartney said in an interview: “We grow a variety of crops, I like to do things like spelt, rye, we grow peas. We’re starting to grow hemp , the funny thing about government regulations is you have to keep it where people can’t see it… Hemp can be used to make fabric, cosmetics, rope, printer ink, wood preservative, detergent, soap and lighting oil.” Sir Paul began growing organically on his farm about 20 years ago.