#mike “tree” meideros

[tavolgisvist]

Cage / Paul and John in 1978

(after this)

Paul and the Eastmans had more business to discuss during that June visit [16-19 June 1978], namely, the still unresolved matter of dividing up the millions of dollars in record royalties that had accumulated in Apple’s coffers since March 1971. Dissolution papers, signed by the four Beatles in December 1974, severed their business ties, but the Beatles recording royalties continued to flow into Apple, with each Beatle receiving 5 percent, while 80 percent went into Apple’s bank account. According to Paul, the main sticking point in reaching a financial settlement was John’s insistence that the others indemnify him against both US and UK tax claims. Until now, the Eastmans had resisted any such agreement, but keen to break the deadlock, Paul sought their blessing to accept Lennon’s terms; after all, what good was a divorce without a settlement?

(The McCartney Legacy: Volume 2: 1974-1980 by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, 2024)

I spoke to the Eastmans. I said, “If we all think he’s not going to have a tax consequence, let’s give [the indemnity] to him.”’Cause, you know, if all sides are that smart, let’s all offer it. Break the deadlock. I went to New York, feeling like the bringer of good news. I rang him up. “Hello, John, how are you? Hello, how’s the kids? Oh, great. What’s all this about publishing? Yeah, great”—laugh laugh laugh—“What about Apple?” Tense. You know, that was the unfortunate thing in the last ten years. The moment you mention the word Apple, all of us go, eeeeep! Dread and horror and shock goes through all our systems. I said, “Look, as I understand it, you need this indemnity.” John said, “Fucking indemnity. Fucking this, fucking that. You don’t need to give me fucking indemnity, you fucking—” I think we ended up just sort of swearing at each other. I said, “Fuck you, ya big cunt,” ’cause I just couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t be sweet and reasonable anymore. I was shaking for an hour after that. Of course, the funniest thing was, I then meant to ring John Eastman and say to him, “No, no, it’s not gonna work, this whole thing. I tried to do the indemnity, it’s not gonna work.” Of course, I got the phone numbers wrong. I rang John Lennon back instead. [When the phone was answered, I said,] “Hello, John? Yeah, listen, I just—oh—yeah well…” But it was Yoko this time, and then I said, “Look, I didn’t mean for it to get like that—but, shit, you know, it seems to have got…” The funny thing was, they knew I was trying to ring John Eastman immediately after, so that would have reinforced their little feelings about me double-dealing. I’ve hardly talked to him since.

(Paul McCartney, 1980, in All You Need Is Love by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, 2024)

Paul’s rage turned to embarrassment. Desperate to set the record straight and not leave New York under a storm cloud, Paul took a taxi ride to the Dakota building. The Lennons’ interior gardener, Mike Meideros, was watering plants when Paul pulled up outside. “It was maybe like five o’clock in the evening,” Meideros recalled, “and the concierge called up. I don’t know the exact conversation because I didn’t hear it, I just heard Yoko saying, ‘No, he can’t come up now.’ And I thought that was pretty cold.”

(Robert Rodriguez, Audio interview with Mike “Tree” Meideros for Something About the Beatles podcast, first broadcast March 10, 2024 - in The McCartney Legacy: Volume 2: 1974-1980 by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, 2024)

The next song Paul brought in was a peculiar but musically fascinating medley. The first part, which he had demoed during the summer [June-July 1978], was a lively track built over an energetically bouncing bass line, alternatively called ‘Emotional Moments’ (after the opening lines, “Emotional moments / You left in a rage”) and ‘Cage’ (after the refrain, which immediately follows, “And if you could love me now / I wouldn’t be in a cage”). In the demos, the bass figure, shadowed by a synthesizer, continued in various permutations through the full track, and included a brisk, ear-catching chordal interlude dominated by the synthesizer. Now Paul added a second verse, which more or less explained the “cage” reference: “Provisional license* / I’m under arrest / But if you could get me out / I’d like to take another test.” The chordal interlude was moved to the end of the song, where it precedes a final verse. In the medley, Paul has interposed an entirely different song between the opening and closing verses of ‘Emotional Moments.’ Called ‘He Didn’t Mean It,’ this second song is slower and more melodic. In its lyrics, Paul revives a trick the Beatles had used in ‘She Loves You’…

(The McCartney Legacy: Volume 2: 1974-1980 by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, 2024)

Emotional moments, you left in a rage But if you could love me now, I wouldn't be in a cage Provisional license, I'm under arrest But if you could get me out, I'd like to take another test I've been sent to tell you That the man you were with last night Is feeling sorry, sorry But he told me to tell you That he hardly ever lies But he lied to you last night He didn't mean it, no Said he didn't mean it, no I've been sent to tell you That the man you were with last night Is feeling lonely only for you He told me to tell you That he hardly ever cries But he cried for you last night, ooh He didn't mean it, no Said he didn't mean it, no

(Cage/Emotional moment)

[thewalrusespublicist]

Mike Tree's Adventures in Nutopia #2 : A HR Car-Crash in Slow Motion, aka Dealings with Yoko

This is the second of a three part series of a write up of the Mike Tree SATB interview. Part one is linked here. This second one is about Mike and Yoko's relationship and his observations of Yoko during his employment. I was going to do John next but getting the quotes have been more fiddly and honestly that dynamic is way less bizarre than what was going on here:

This is hands down the weirdest relationship discussed in the interview. It's pretty clear that Mike neither liked nor trusted Yoko. He considers her a 'chess master':

Yoko kind of treated people and treated life like a grand master chess player. She didn't play chess, but she was always plotting, if I do this, maybe I lose a pawn or a piece here, and then I can gain something elsewhere or trap someone else elsewhere. I wasn't really aware of this when I was working there.

SATB: 277: "Mike Tree" in Nutopia with Michael Meideros, 2024

He believes things like her relationship with Sam Green as part of a psychological game she was playing. The caveat to all this is that he somehow figured this out later, meaning he could very well be projecting what other people have told him onto his own memories and thereby rightly or wrongly colouring them in a different light.

Part of the reason for his mistrust is that he fully believes Yoko was coming on to him and trying to turn him into her version of May Pang:

Mike Tree: When in the mornings when I would meet Yoko, she was clearly used a vernacular hitting on me. I thought there was some sort of teasing going on, sexual teasing, which made me very uncomfortable. Rodriguez: Mm-hmm, like a flirtation? Yes, a flirtation. In the mornings at seven a.m. she would usually be wearing a very thin white gown, nightgown, hair loose about her shoulders and barefoot. Uh-huh. And this was very seductive. Yeah. I couldn't quite compute what was going on because I was just the tree man, as John called me.

Mike Tree: “In fact, one time I was in the bedroom looking after her Ming tree, or the Ming tree, and she came sweeping into the bedroom and bounced onto the bed with a giggle. Which made me very uncomfortable. I said nothing and left the room, just very shy.

SATB: 277: "Mike Tree" in Nutopia with Michael Meideros, 2024

It's really hard to tell what the hell is going on. Is it poor boundaries, is she just having a slight tease or is she actually hitting on him? Is it potentially also Mike being attracted her and projecting it back on to Yoko?

None of this is helped by John telling Mike that Yoko was in love with him and that he should talk to her more.

Mike Tree: Anyway, after she left the room, he says to me, you know, Yoko is in love with you. I was dumbfounded. Yoko is in love with you. He said, yeah, she always talks about you, Michael this, Michael that. Why don't you talk with her more? And I told him, John, I talked to her, but she always says, you know, I can't be on all the time. I'm busy or something like that.

SATB: 277: "Mike Tree" in Nutopia with Michael Meideros, 2024

Honestly I don't know why John is so chill about it considering his past paranoia. Thinking about how he is talking with May again, have they both agreed to have people on the side? Or maybe he's just joking and more means that Yoko likes him and that they should talk more (I lean the latter from his POV).

TBF mike is not the most loyal employee with the May Pang situation and Yoko seems to distance herself when he turns down the assistant role so it seems the situation was a bit more complex than the calculating seductress and the hapless tree man.

Outside of their weird little thing, there are more details about Yoko in the 70s that back up other reports. Yoko is back on heroin in the late 70s

“I'm not sure what exactly. But around that period, she started using heroin, snorting it. I can't say I saw her do it, but I certainly saw the effects. Her interior decorator, Sam Green, his assistant would bring Yoko in the mornings heroin, which she would then snort. I saw her in the apartment where she was very talkative and very friendly and smiling and it's like how unusual and realized that she was high. Occasionally, she would bump into the kitchen table or she would chain smoke cigarettes, but she would drop one cigarette on the floor and then start smoking another.

SATB: 277: "Mike Tree" in Nutopia with Michael Meideros, 2024

Bizarrely it's Sam Green who also brings someone to help get her off heroin when he realises shes addicted. What a thoughtful guy.

It's not a insider story of the Dakota era if we don't have another incident of Paul getting blocked from the place:

Mike Tree: It was maybe like five o'clock in the evening and I was going to go home, but I was finding every excuse to stay there. The concierge called up. Again, I don't know the exact conversation because I didn't hear it. I just heard Yoko saying, no, he can't come up now. I thought that was pretty cold. Rodriguez: This was Paul waiting to be admitted up to the Lennon apartment and Yoko shutting him down? Mike Tree: Correct.

SATB: 277: "Mike Tree" in Nutopia with Michael Meideros, 2024

The more you read the more it becomes clear that the frequency in which Paul saw John was not at all Paul's choice and that makes me incredibly sad.

Mike's reporting of Yoko's treatment of Julian post John's death attempts to be empathetic but is nevertheless critical. Yoko sends him away for the memorial and only meets with him in the presence of an attorney. In Mikes words 'not very nice, but Yoko was grieving as well.' In all honesty I am less sympathetic than Mike if this indeed did happen but Julian and Cynthia never discussed this so I'm not 1000 percent as to whether this is accurate.

Mike confirms Sam Havadtoy rapid move into the Dakota and Yoko going to eat at a restaurant close to the night John died. Both of these however are told far more sympathetically than in Seaman's account as the restaurant thing seems like a distraction from the horror of everything and Havadtoy seemed to be there as a crutch to help Yoko cope by taking charge of things. Far from the unfeeling ice queen from Seaman, everyone in Mike's account are taking it in turns to monitor Yoko on suicide watch.

The big incident at the end with Yoko asking for a lighter and making Mike chase around the room before directing him to a drawer with a gun in it I'll post on it's own as it's ... jesus. You can kind of see both Yoko being in a terrible, paranoid, grieving space when she does it but also why a grieving Mike would be so angry and never trust her again

So overall some confirmations of past stories, some different perspectives on known events and some batshit psychosexual drama! That's the Ballad of Mike and Yoko, next I'll move on to the less interesting albeit still revealing dynamic of Mike and John!

[paulandjohn]

The memoir ‘Barefoot in Nutopia’ by Michael Meideros, also known as Mike Tree, who was hired in 1977 to work on the indoor gardening at the John and Yoko’s Dakota apartments, has his book blocked from being published too.

@bambi-kinos I agree with everything you wrote lol

Nowhere man: The final days of John Lennon. Robert Rosen

Prisoner of Love: Inside the Dakota with John Lennon. Peter Doggett | Release cancelled in 2021

Lennon in America. Geoffrey Giuliano

[thewalrusespublicist]

Mike Tree: Anyway, on, I guess it was Tuesday evening, December 9th, 1980, Yoko had me gather from the archive all the tapes, videotapes, recordings, whatever I had of the Beatles and John. And I was to spend the night with her. And I had a regular cart that they used for moving recordings around, recorders, televisions, whatever. I wheeled it into the bedroom, which reeked of cigarette smoke, which I can't stand. Cigarettes I can't stand. We started watching the movies. And next to her side of the bed was a wicker chair, wicker armchair. So I sat down in the wicker armchair, and Yoko is on the left side, as she would be facing towards the end of the bed. I'm sitting next to her, and she sort of moves over and pats the mattress with her left hand, as though asking me to sit beside her. I totally freaked out. Freaked out. And then we went back to watching the videos. And at one point she tries to light a cigarette, and her lighter wasn't working. And she points to a Chinese apothecary cabinet across the room. I think there's a lighter in there, she said. So I pull open the drawers, hundreds of them, and no, there's no lighter. And then finally she turns, pointing to the wicker desk next to where I was sitting, saying, oh, I think there's a lighter in there. And I pull open the only drawer, which is the center drawer, and this wicker vanity table, and in there is what would appear to be a Magnum 44 lying on its side. That kind of shocked me. I had my back to her at this point, so she couldn't see my expression, which I can't imagine, must have been crazy looking. And I gently close the drawer, and I said, no, no, there's no lighter in there. And as I turn around, I look up on the sort of the shelf above her head, and there is a lighter right there. I'm sure you see photographs of John with the shelf over his head. A Leibowitz photograph, he's sitting there with his guitar. Rodriguez: Yeah. Mike Tree: And then there's a wooden shelf above, I think with a mini hi-fi system or whatever. And this is where the lighter was. I think that's a very poignant story about Yoko. She knew where the lighter was, and she had me bounce around the room. Rodriguez: Yeah, she wanted you to see things. Mike Tree: She wanted me to see the gun. What did she think I would do? I have no idea. Did she think I would kill her? If she did, she had no idea who I was as a person. Right. I'm a peacenik. Rodriguez: Yeah, well, I mean, she's patting the mattress, so she goes from one extreme to another. Mike Tree: Right, right. Well, I didn't move. At that point, it became extremely irritated. Like, you know, my mind was, like, turning over like molasses in the winter when Mintz came into the room to take care of that. I said, Yoko, I'll stay here with Yoko now, Michael. You can go. So I went into the white room, which was a few doors away. The lights were out, but I could look out into the city and the glittering lights, and all I felt was rage towards her. How she kind of had used me or used John, really. There's a word that character in a Woody Allen film uses. Wasted. She seemed to have wasted John, was my feeling.

Mike Tree talking about the aftermath of John Lennon's murder and a strange encounter with Yoko, SATB: 277: "Mike Tree" in Nutopia with Michael Meideros, 2024