Beatle Photo Blog

November 197(8?). Freezing cold, doorman tips me off “Joe, he’s on his way down”. I’m over on 39th. Sped over to Dakota. No one on the street! Huge snow drifts. Double park the car still running. John walks out of entrance towards me smiling with cigarette. Slips on ice! I help him up, we laugh. I am rambling on like a nervous Ralph Kramden, but he’s cool and we’re making small talk about music & living in NY. I ask him where he’s going. He says “some party, I don’t even really want to go”. Limo pulls up. I say “What are ‘ya crazy, I’ll drive you”. He cracks up again. Too nervous to remember to ask him for an autograph. I take one shot of him quick waving before the smile. Damn! I had about 5 minutes with the man. He was so NY friendly. I’ll never forget that meet. He was murdered right where we were standing. I still can’t believe it. Two years later I wrote a song about it. It’s posted. Man, do I miss his genius. I love that guy.

Ran into Yoko on Central Park West. First thing I immediately remember thinking was “Wow, Yoko’s somewhat of a babe!” She was very sweet & signed an autograph for me.

Had lunch with Julian & his bodyguard (This would probably be Nishi) on 72nd. Nice kid. Polite. Surprised that his Japanese bodyguard was only a little taller than him. I asked him where he was headed after lunch. He said “To see a guy play my dad in the Beatlemania show”.

With thanks to Joe Sombrotto for the photo’s, and his memories (Joe had the photo of John dated 1980, but it must have been a mistake, as John looked different than this photo in November 1980, you can date it by John’s glasses, the wire frames had long since gone by 1980)