Linda Eastman visits Paul McCartney in London

In mid-August 1968, Paul McCartney invited Linda Eastman to visit him in London. They first met in May 1967 in London, spent additional time together when Paul and John visited New York in May 1968 for Apple’s promotion, and their romance blossomed in June 1968 during Paul’s promotional trip to Los Angeles for Apple.

Linda travelled to London, leaving Heather, her daughter from a previous marriage, in New York. Both Paul and Linda remembered she arrived the night when The Beatles recorded “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.” The track was recorded between September 23 and 25, 1968, giving an indication of when Linda arrived.

Linda returned to New York with Paul on October 20, after the completion of the The Beatles’ White Album’s recording.

We re-met in a pretty funky way. I said, ‘Come on over, then,’ and she arrived the night when we were doing ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’. She arrived at the house and phoned, and I had Mal go round to check that she was all right. She remembers the fridge had half a bottle of sour milk anda crust of cheese, a real British fridge. She just couldn’t believe the conditions I was living in.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

Then in September 1968 [sic – mid August according to Danny Fields] Paul rang me out of the blue and asked me if I fancied coming over to England. He said The Beatles were recording an album and that I should just show up. I was still carefully preserving my independence so I waited a while and then bought my own ticket and boarded a plane for London. I just wanted to see what would happen.

The evening I arrived I went straight to Paul’s house and when Paul came back home early in the morning he told me that they had just recorded a song of John’s called “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”, which he was thrilled with.

From then on I started going over quite regularly to Abbey Road where they were recording what became known as The White Album. I was just Paul’s girlfriend then and I didn’t want to intrude too much. I was very shy and I didn’t want people to think I was taking advantage. That’s why I never took as many photographs as I could have done.

Linda McCartney – From “Linda McCartney’s Sixties“, 1992

I got there and I arrived at this house and it was a dark house, a lot of brown, a lot of dark colours, a bachelor’s house, a man’s house. I remember nothing worked, the TV barely worked, the stereo was broken, nothing worked. I remember the green velvet settee, which I called a couch at the time. But it could still be there, it hasn’t changed that much. I remember seeing Apple white labels piled up, the Brenells, you could see that Paul was totally into making music. […] I was in somebody else’s house, somebody I didn’t even know that well. This was like a freaky experience but I took it in my stride because I did a lot of things like that through this period. In fact, from the day I got divorced, it was like my life again and I took advantage of it.

Linda McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

I stayed for a few weeks, while they were finishing the White Album. In the beginning I didn’t go to the studio a lot. I didn’t feel right. I went a lot when they were mixing it and took a lot of pictures. What I liked about Paul when I lived there in London was the books that were around and painting. Paul would say, ‘Let’s paint,’ and he and Ivan Vaughan would get paints and go down in the basement and the three of us would paint on the canvas. It was fun. Paul is so much more cerebral than people think, because he was quote ‘the cute Beatle’. I hate this ‘Was it John or was it Paul?’ thing because they were both talented. They were both artists. They are equal for number one.

Linda McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

When the feisty and formidable Linda Louise Eastman arrived on the scene I was not alone in showing surprise at Paul’s latest choice, although we were careful to do so behind his back. Linda was a 25-year-old American divorcée with a six-year-old daughter. Personally, I expected him to marry some fresh-faced young English rose or maybe a former Miss Great Britain. Instead, Paul was completely captivated by this hard-nosed, intelligent and very worldly rock and roll photographer from New York. Clearly we got it wrong and Paul got it exactly right because his lengthy and very happy marriage with Linda was an absolute success.

Tony Barrow – From “John, Paul, George, Ringo & me: the real Beatles story“, 2006

One of the first things Linda did at Cavendish when she managed to move in was to have the entire ground floor redecorated. Jane had decorated Cavendish Avenue in exquisite taste. Linda, however, wanted to remove every last trace of Jane from Paul’s life. She didn’t want to hear her name. She didn’t want to see pictures Paul and Jane had chosen remaining around the place. It was like a new regime taking over and wanting to wipe the slate a completely clean. So in five days, the first thing I had to organise was the redecoration of the ground floor.

Alistair Taylor – From “The Making of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour” by Tony Barrow, 1999

“Derek, Woman magazine and Disc have been on about Linda Eastman, and they want to know if she’s going out with Paul and there was a call from the States while you were out with Neil, and they asked the same thing and they’re all asking if she’s Eastman of Eastman Kodak—”

“Let me talk to them next time they call, but don’t say anything more to them. Paul’s life is Paul’s life and when we have anything to add to that, we will and not before, and no, she is not Eastman of Eastman Kodak!”

From “The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider Account of The Beatles & the Wild Rise and Fall of Their Multi-Million Dollar Apple Empire” by Richard DiLello, 2014

The book “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles indicates that the song “Two Of Us,” from the 1970 “Let It Be” album, was written during that time and was inspired by drives around London.

When we first met, it would be late at night after a session or something and I would be trying to unwind and so we would go for a drive around London in the late-night clear streets, two in the morning or something, and she’d say, “Try and get lost.’ And I’d say, “That goes against every fibre in my body. As a driver, the one thing you never try and do is get lost!’ She said, ‘Try it.’ And I’d try it; ‘For you I’ll try it.’ So I’d turn off little streets round Battersea and down little back streets — ‘Hey, this is great’ — but pretty soon you’d see a big sign, ‘West End’. Signs everywhere. It’s actually very difficult to get lost round London. We used to end up in the greatest of places that I’d never been to before. We never did get lost. So that kind of freedom was part of our thing; still is, actually.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

Although Linda enjoyed a wonderful relationship with Paul, she struggled with the behaviour of the female fans who camped outside Paul’s Cavendish Avenue house in London and the Abbey Road Studios, known as the Apple Scruffs.

[The Apple Scruffs] gave themselves the privilege of approving or disapproving of Paul’s live-in companions; they adored Jane Asher because she was a British celebrity with just the right amount of upper-middle-class hauteur to elicit their respect and deference — and they thought she was”just right” for Paul, as did the London press and almost everyone else who had given up on becoming his wife or long-time companion themselves. They were a bit wary of Francie Schwartz, but not hostile—she was a “wild” but ebullient American with a good sense of humor, and they kind of knew she wouldn’t be around for a very long time. But they detested Linda, and terrified her.

They hated the way she dressed — it was as if she just threw something on, anything. Jane was a TV star, always immaculate and gorgeously groomed, as if for an important appearance on daytime television or a glamorous first-night in the West End. Linda was, let’s face it, not gorgeously groomed. As she said in her own song, the light came from within, and it certainly was not visible to the Apple Scruffs. Mainly, they hated the fact that Paul appeared to be so happy with her. They wanted him to be happy, but not happy enough to dispense with their adoration. This time, he seemed to need nothing else but that “arrogant American bitch.” Linda was not “charming” with strangers, that was just not her. Paul was the charming one when they were together in public, while she always seemed as if she wanted to get away, with him. In any case, the Scruffs decided that they were going to hate her, and they had more than a few resources with which to demonstrate their aversion.

They shouted epithets at her, even when she was with Paul. They booed and hissed. He would say, “Now there, girls, behave properly!” and smile and tell Linda it was nothing to worry about, that it was quite meaningless. But she had just given up her life in America and had moved into a new home in England with her child; this was virtually her first encounter with the natives, and it was very unsettling.

From “Linda McCartney – A Portrait” by Danny Fields, 2000

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