The city of Los Angeles looms large in Beatles folklore. Outside of London and Liverpool, no other place has influenced the Beatles more than the sprawling metropolis of L.A.

Ringo Starr still lives there with his movie-star wife Barbara Bach. They own two residences: one in Silver Lake, and another in Malibu.

John Lennon spent most of his “lost weekend” during 1974 and early ’75 holed up in various beach homes in the region. He and mistress May Pang briefly rented the private Santa Monica mansion where JFK is rumored to have had several trysts with Marilyn Monroe. Paul and Linda McCartney dropped by one day to hang out with John and May along with regular house guests Ringo, Harry Nilsson, and Keith Moon. A good time was certainly had by all.

Mal Evans, the famous roadie for the Beatles was gunned down by the LAPD in 1976 following an alcohol and drug induced domestic dispute.

The first time John, Paul, George, and Ringo laid eyes on Tinsel Town was at the start of their first US tour, in 1964. The Beatles entourage arrived at 4am on Saturday, August 23, 1964. They had flown in direct from Vancouver immediately following their first appearance in that city. The boys slept late inside their rented mansion on St. Pierre Road in Bel Air. That evening they played the first of three historic concerts at the fabled Hollywood Bowl. The Righteous Brothers and Jackie DeShannon were among the opening acts, and the show was recorded for a possible future release.

There were no performances scheduled the following day, although it was hardly a ‘day off.’ In the afternoon they all attended a garden party in Brentwood hosted by Alan Livingston, president of Capitol Records. Ostensibly a charity event for the Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California, it was really just an opportunity for Hollywood’s elite to be seen with the Fab Four. The Beatles sat together on stools, awkwardly shaking hands as the famous celebrities – and their children – paraded by single file.

Among the guests were Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper and actors Edward G. Robinson, John Forsythe, Rock Hudson, Jane Fonda, Jack Benny, Hayley Mills, and Groucho Marx. Even arch-conservative Los Angeles mayor Sam Yorty showed up. Tickets for the event were only twenty-five bucks apiece, which is mind-boggling, considering how much more they could have charged, even back then. In any case, the event raised $10,000 for a good cause.

Los Angeles was a revelation to the four young men from Liverpool. Ringo was particularly impressed with the laid-back environment. As he relates in Anthology: “I fell in love with Hollywood then, and I am still in love with Beverly Hills, Hollywood.” Los Angeles seemed like a tropical paradise compared to dreary old England. “Hollywood has palm trees,” Ringo explained. “There aren’t many palm trees in Liverpool. The weather was hot and the lifestyle was really cool.”

In Waiting for the Sun: A Rock & Roll History of Los Angeles, author Barney Hoskyns depicts southern California as a kind of Aryan wonderland: a place of sun worship, fast cars, blonde babes in bikinis, endless surf and sand, Annette Funicello, Sandra Dee, The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean. A place where there were “two girls for every boy”: very white, and very un-hip. In many ways that image is justified. L.A. has a long history of endemic racial strife; far beyond the scope of this post.

Despite its vapid facade, Los Angeles became a mecca for actors, authors and musicians from all over the world. Ex-pats from Britain such as Evelyn Waugh and Aldous Huxley were particularly enamored with the glorious superficiality of it all.

By the mid-sixties, Los Angeles had displaced New York as the nation’s music capitol. With the advent of bands that wrote their own material and played their own instruments, the ‘Brill Building’ concept of using teams of songwriters and studio musicians to create hit songs became outdated. The industry realized it had to adapt to the changing times. Most of the major labels uprooted to the warmer, more laid-back climes of Los Angeles, with an endless supply of talented studio musicians like the venerable ‘Wrecking Crew’ to tap into.

A troubled Jewish kid from The Bronx named Phil Spector created his celebrated “wall of sound” recording technique using the echo-chamber at Gold Star Studios in North Hollywood. The live music scene in L.A. exploded during this period, and local clubs began to flourish up and down Sunset strip.

The music industry wasn’t the only thing moving west in the mid-sixties. Young people from all across the country were flocking to the idyllic shores of the west coast in search of a better life amid the palm trees, beautiful people and sunshine. Songs like California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and the Papas were a clarion call to Baby Boomers. They came in droves.

The Beatles’ second visit to L.A. in 1965 would prove to be a major turning point in their lives. They arrived in Los Angeles shortly before midnight on August 22^nd. The boys had five days off prior to a series of concerts at Balboa Stadium in San Diego, the Hollywood Bowl (2 shows), and the Cow Palace in San Francisco. This was the conclusion of their North American tour. Brian Epstein rented a secluded mansion at 2850 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills owned by actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. The property was quite remote, surrounded by thick vegetation and an imposing ten-foot wall. Despite its relative isolation amid the sprawling metropolis, the LAPD had to be called in to keep fans away from the property when the address was revealed by local radio stations.

Tuesday, August 24, 1965 is one of the most significant days in Beatles history. This was the occasion when John and George had their second LSD experience.

Ringo dropped acid for the first time on this date, and the experience had a profound effect on him.

Paul did not participate, still being somewhat leery of the drug.

George Harrison, from Anthology: “John and I had decided that Paul and Ringo had to have acid, because we couldn’t relate to them anymore. Not just on the one level: we couldn’t relate to them on any level, because acid had changed us so much.”

Among the visitors that day were Jim (later Roger) McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds, along with actor Peter Fonda. Eleanor Bron, the actress who appeared with The Beatles in Help! was also reportedly there as well, although it is highly unlikely that she joined in any of the festivities. Daily Mirror reporter Don Short was in attendance hanging around on the fringes, harshing the boys’ buzz.

While the acid was kicking in, Crosby and McGuinn played some Ravi Shankar riffs on the guitar. Roger had tried to emulate the sound of a sitar on a song of David’s called Why? McGuinn and Crosby raved to George about Shankar, and both men insist that Harrison claimed he had never heard Indian music before. From that day forward, LSD and Indian music became key influences on The Beatles. Acid in particular played a pivotal role in the group’s studio experimentation on Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

But the revelations did not end there. In the midst of this intense, profoundly moving acid trip, Peter Fonda began ranting about a near-death experience he’d had as a child. Lennon was particularly annoyed: “He kept on saying, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead.’ We said, ‘What?’ And he kept saying it,  and we were saying, ‘For chrissake, shut up, we don’t care! We don’t want to know.’ But he kept going on about it. That’s how I wrote She Said She Said…”

“It was a fabulous day,” Ringo recalled. “The night wasn’t so great, because it felt like it was never going to wear off. Twelve hours later and it was: ‘Give us a break now, Lord…’”

Los Angeles is also where the meeting of the two greatest musical acts of the twentieth century took place. Prior to their upcoming shows at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday and Monday, August 29^th and 30^th, 1965, The Beatles spent the evening with Elvis Presley at his sprawling Bel Air mansion on Perugia Way. It was a vast, round structure with floor-to-ceiling windows and a spacious garden. Members of the infamous ‘Memphis Mafia’ guarded the gates.

The Beatles arrived at approximately 11pm on Friday night, August 27^th. They were high as kites, having smoked a few joints of David Crosby’s primo stash in the limo. They fell out of the car giggling “just like a Beatles cartoon,” as George later recalled. Once inside, they were greeted by the sight of Elvis in his darkened living room, playing bass guitar to a giant, soundless TV screen. The room also contained a jukebox, an enormous crescent-shaped couch, pool tables and a full bar.

The encounter got off to an awkward start, with a heavy atmosphere and little conversation. “The ice didn’t really break in the early stages at all,” according to Beatles press agent Tony Barrow, who was also there. “The boys and Elvis swapped tour stories, but it hadn’t got going.” As the two sides faced each other, there was an uncomfortable silence.

Eventually, Elvis spoke up: “If you damn guys are gonna sit here and stare at me all night I’m gonna go to bed.” It was John who spoke first, blurting out a stream of questions for Elvis.

The ice was broken, but the story of what happened next is open to much debate. Barrow and others have said that at some point Elvis called for guitars to be brought out and that the five of them sang songs well into the night. Paul, George and Ringo strenuously deny this in Anthology, however. They insist that no jam session ever took place.

What actually occurred that night in the foothills above L.A. may be under dispute; but there is no question that the city of Los Angeles made a lasting impression on all four Beatles.

They came through town again on their final US tour in 1966, of course, but the buzz of touring had worn off by then and drugs had begun to play a much larger role in their lives. They were far more jaded and cynical about fame and all of its trappings. The Beatles played their penultimate live concert before a riotous crowd at Dodger Stadium on August 28^th, 1966.

[Repost from 2014]