Dylan is one of the most distinctive folksingers around. In case he’s not sure of himself, John thinks of Dylan’s lyrics, he makes it double entendre. So therefore he is secure in his Hipness.

Brian Epstein has arranged a reception in their suite at the Hotel Delmonico, on Park Avenue, where various American folk groups such as the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary—whose 1963 cover of Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” was a number-two Billboard single—mingle with the Beatles. At one point, the phone rings.

“That was Mr. Aronowitz,” Brian tells John. “He’s here with Mr. Dylan.”

“Zimmerman,” John says. “Zimmerman is his name. My name isn’t John Beatle. It’s John Lennon. Just like that.”

Though Al Aronowitz will later call the introduction “the crowning achievement” of his career, it begins awkwardly, when Dylan’s customary request for “cheap wine” is botched because Brian Epstein has only vintage champagne on hand.

That’s when talk turns to another mind-altering substance.

“I really like that line in ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’” Dylan tells them. “‘I get high, I get high.’”

“Actually,” John says, “it’s ‘I can’t hide, I can’t hide.’”

They share a laugh, then Dylan adds, “Here I was, thinking you were singing about smoking pot.”

John and Paul exchange embarrassed glances. “We, ah, haven’t really tried marijuana before,” John says.

Dylan’s road manager, Victor Maymudes, rolls a joint for each Beatle.

“Give it to my royal taster,” John says, pointing to Ringo.

Ringo takes several hits…and can’t stop laughing.

John joins in, then Brian.

As Paul spouts existential philosophy and wanders around hugging people, Ringo and George double over in hysterical laughter, especially when the room phone rings and Dylan answers it with, “This is Beatlemania here.”

“It was such an amazing night,” George later says. “I felt really good. That was a hell of a night.”

“Paul came up to me and hugged me for ten minutes,” Maymudes recalls, “and said, ‘It was so great, and it’s all your fault because I love this pot!’”

“I don’t remember much of what we talked about. We were smoking dope, drinking wine, and generally being rock ’n’ rollers and having a laugh, you know, and surrealism,” John said. “It was party time.”

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

I hope I die before I get old.

—“My Generation”

Paul’s the only one left in London.