Fonda Said, Fonda Said

In the summer of 2004 I was at LAX, about 40 minutes from boarding a plane to Paris, when I spotted the actor Peter Fonda. I remembered that something he said spurred John Lennon to write one of my favorite rockers, She Said, She Said from Revolver (1966). I asked Peter if the story were true. He was very happy to recall the story:

The Beatles were staying in a house in Benedict Canyon in L.A., where there were lots of incredible parties and lots of LSD. As Peter recalled, he was "tripping" with John (Paul wasn't present at the time) and a number of other people (Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, etc.). He said to Lennon: "You know, I know what it's like to be dead," referring to the time he had been hit by a car in his childhood and almost killed.

Although I later read that Lennon had been annoyed with Fonda telling him this story over and over, but the phrase stuck with John and he wrote a song called He Said, He Said, which he later amended to She Said, She Said. The lyric is based on what Peter had told him: "She said, I know what it's like to be dead..." Peter got a great kick retelling that story and he kept mentioning how many incredibly pretty girls were at that party.