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1974 - Mick Jagger and Bebe Buell, visitors at the door of John Lennon and May Pang’s New York City apartment at 434 East 52nd Street. The sign above the door was an old street sign May saved when the city was changing signs from porcelain to aluminum.

Birthday surprise

…my twenty-first birthday…

After dinner, I was happy on sake, and Mick [Jagger] told me we were going to visit a friend. We hopped a cab to an apartment building on Sutton Place, an exclusive neighbourhood in the East Fifties, famous for housing, among other, Greta Garbo. When we got inside the building, the River House, which overlooks the East River, there was a man standing at the foot of the stairs, and he snapped a Polaroid of us. It wasn’t until he took the camera away from his face and said in an unmistakable Liverpudlian accent, “How are you mate? This must be the birthday girl” that I knew I was meeting John Lennon. Mick is always portrayed as the flamboyant, selfish womanizer, the perpetual devil, but he really is a sweet, caring man. As I followed him into the apartment John was sharing with Mai Pang, I was so moved, I was concentrating on not bursting into tears.

John was in his “lost eighteen months” period, and he seemed to be in great shape. He sang “Happy Birthday” to me on an acoustic guitar, followed by a bunch of other songs. It seemed to be that John was trying to escape from reality. I thought he was trying to have as much fun as he possibly could. (New York, 1974)

From “Rebel Heart: An American Rock ‘n’ Roll Journey,” by Bebe Buell with Victor Bockris (St. Martin’s Press, 2001)

Photo published in May Pang’s book, Instamatic Karma. Scan by Lynn Mayes.

*Please do not remove the credit or change the source.*