18 Days Of McCartney Day 6- Linda Eastman

" Her spirit moves wind chimes When air is still And fills the rooms With fragrance of lily
Her eyes blue green Still seen Perfectly happy With nothing
Her spirit sets The water pipes a humming Fat lektronic force be with ya sound
Her spirit talks to me Through animals Beautiful creature Lay with me
Bird that calls my name Insists that she is here And nothing Left to fear
Bright white squirrel Foot of tree Fixes me With innocent gaze Her spirit talks to me"- "Her Spirit" by Paul McCartney, Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics, 1965- 1999

Lady McCartney, otherwise known as Linda McCartney, maybe one of the most recognized
photographer, musician, and cook of the 1960s, 1970s, and even 1980s. Her work as an animal rights activist is well known for anyone who knew Linda along with her iconic photos of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, many more idols of the 20th century, and her onstage (and offstage) contribute in Paul McCartney and Wings.

Louise Sara Linder, a German Jewish decent, and Leopold Vail Epstein, son of Jewish Russian immigrants who changed his name to Lee Eastman, had gave birth to their second child, Linda Louise Eastman, in New York City on 24 September, 1941.  Linda grew up in Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York with her older brother, John and two young sisters, Laura and Louise Jr. Her mother was  daughter of a clothing store in Ohio called Linder Company while her father was an attorney for celebrities like Jack Lawrence, who in 1942 wrote "Linda" after his attorney's one-year old daughter- the song was recorded by Buddy Clark in 1947.

Linda graduated from Scarsdale High School at age eighteen and went on to study at Vermont College with an Associate of Arts degree in 1961. She then went on to major in Fine Art at the University of Arizona. It was there she had met her first husband, Joseph Melville See Jr. The two were wed on 18 June, 1962 and would go on to have a daughter on 31 December of the same year, naming her Heather Louise.

Eric Clapton on Rolling Stone 11 May, 19968

She started her photography work as a receptionist for Town & Country magazine. Her career began to be recognized after she worked as an unofficial photographer on a Hudson River yacht, the SS Sea Panther, where she was allowed to take pictures of The Rolling Stones during their promotion party.  It was there on her work had became well known, in fact on 11 May, 1968 she became the first female photographer to have a picture featured on the front cover for Rolling Stone with her picture of Eric Clapton. She began photographing Aretha Franklin, Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Simon &Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, The Who, The Doors, The Animals, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, throughout the 1960s.

15 May, 1967 The Beatles were having a dinner party hosted by Beatles manger Brian Epstein, to celebrate the finished Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. After the party Paul McCartney decided to go to 9 Kingly Street in Soho, London to a popular club amongst celebrities, The Bag O' Nails, where McCartney, a regular, had his own private table. The Animals were there with a blonde haired, American girl whom they met in New York.

"They were sitting a couple of alcoves down, near the stage. The band had finished and they got up to either leave or go for a drink or a pee or something, and she passed our table. I was near the edge and stood up just as she was passing, blocking her exit. And so I said, ‘Oh, sorry. Hi. How are you? How’re you doing?’ I introduced myself, and said, ‘We’re going on to another club after this, would you like to join us?’

That was my big pulling line! Well, I’d never used it before, of course, but it worked this time! It was a fairly slim chance but it worked. She said, ‘Yes, okay, we’ll go on. How shall we do it?’ I forget how we did it. ‘You come in our car’ or whatever, and we all went on, the people I was with and the Animals, we went on to the Speakeasy." -Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now

The two, along with The Animals, went to Margaret Street to The Speakeasy club where "A White Shade Of Pale" by Procol Harums were playing; it was the first time they heard the song.

Paul and Linda's second meeting

"We flirted a bit, and then it was time for me to go back with them and Paul said, ‘Well, we’re going to another club. You want to come?’ I remember everybody at the table heard A Whiter Shade Of Pale that night for the first time and we all thought, Who is that? Stevie Winwood? We all said Stevie. The minute that record came out, you just knew you loved it. That’s when we actually met. Then we went back to his house. We were in the Mini with I think Lulu and Dudley Edwards, who painted Paul’s piano; Paul was giving him a lift home. I was impressed to see his Magrittes." -Linda McCartney, Many Years From Now

That night the two got along fine but it wasn't til four days later that they'd meet again. It was 19 May, a press launch, once again held at Brian Epstein's house, was launced for The Beatles release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Many journalist, photographers, broadcasters, and other press memebers were invited, one being Linda Eastman. Eastman was invited to the event after leaving her portfolio with Brain's assistant, Peter Brown. Epstein had found Linda's work great, especially two of them; one of Keith Moon wearing a lace cravat, the second being Brian Jones at a boat party.

"So I went to the press launch where Sgt Pepper was played for the first time to the media, to take my first photographs of The Beatles. Because I was so used to working almost exclusively with black-and-white I didn’t have any color film with me, and had to get some from another photographer. I eventually sold a color print of The Beatles from this session for $100 and I thought that I had it made!"- Linda McCartney, Sixties; Portrait Of An Era

 That night Linda photographed the group in Brian's house and on the front steps. She had taken one she was proud of; Paul and John shaking hands with John giving a thumbs up as Ringo laughs at Lennon, George standing next to him.

After that night Linda had finished her project to take photo's of "Swinging Sixties" musicians and returned back to New York. It was in May again of the following year that the two, along with John Lennon, would meet again as Lennon and McCartney promoted their new business, Apple Corps. September 1968 Paul had called her and asked her to come to London where they started their relationship.  Paul and Linda began seeing each other frequently and would soon become inseparable. Two years later, 12 March, 1969 the couple were wed at Marylebone Register. The streets were filled with crying Beatles fans as the last unmarried Beatle had tied the knot.The other three Beatles didn't attended the ceremony for crowd control, Paul admits that he doesn't remember if he even invited John, George, and Ringo to the wedding.  but Michael McGear (McCartney) and Mal Evans acted as witnesses. From the marriage Paul adopted Linda's daughter, Heather and the wedding ceremony was carried out to St. John's Wood Church, where they were blessed by Reverend Noel Perry- Gore.

In the late sixties brought feud in The Beatles family as they were nearing the end. Their manager, Brian had passed away (read about his passing here), Lennon and been joined at the hip by his new love and inspiration Yoko Ono, Paul had been working on a solo album, they couldn't stand each other anymore and on 10 April, 1970 Paul McCartney had announced that he is officially leaving The Beatles. The McCartney resigned to Paul's Scotland estate where they worked on the only album credited to McCartney-McCartney, Ram (read about the newest release of the album here). From then on the two created one of the most well known bands of the decade, Wings. Linda herself played keyboards, accordion, autoharp, and vocals. With Wings she'd sing backup and take the lead on "Cook of the House" and 'Seaside Woman" which she wrote and was released by a band called Suzy and the Red Stripes, which was essentially Wings. In 1972 Wings were part of a lawsuit with Northern Songs and Maclen Music stating that Paul violated an agreement with his song "Another Day" where Linda's co-writing credits were taken as inauthentic and saying she wasn't a real songwriter; The argument was settled in June 1972. In 1998 Linda released her own album, Wide Prairie.

"I would come back from a run with lines of poetry to tell Linda, and having listened, she would say, ‘What a mind.’ She would fold my words inside her head and though the lines may not have been ‘Supreme’, she wasn’t merely being kind. She meant it, what she said. And I am blessed for she said, ‘What a mind.'"- Paul McCartney, from Triple Ac Ranch

In 1975 Linda, a well known animal activist, had pesuaded Paul to became a vegetarian. From her vegetarian lifestyle she released cookbooks such as; Linda McCartney's Home Cooking, Linda's Kitchen, and Simple and Inspiring Recipes for Meatless Meals.  In 1991 she had became extremley successful with her frozen vegetarian meals line which was released under Linda McCartney Foods.  She was an active member in People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), where she narrated an advertisemen. The Following Video is Linda's Advertisement;

She was also a member of The Council for the Protection of Rural England, Friends of the Earth and a patron of the League Against Cruel Sports. The McCartney's even promoted their lifestyle by appearing on a 1995 episode of The Simpsons called "Lisa the Vegetarian".

The McCartney Clan

During this all Paul and Linda had three children of their own; Mary, named after Paul's mother (read about Mary Mohan McCartney here), born 28 August, 1969; Stella, born 13 September, 1971; and James McCartney, born 12 September, 1977.  The family had a wide countryside home in Sussex and in Kintyre, Scotland, which yes the song "Mull of Kintyre" came from.  Here they would have animals such as sheep, rams, cows, even horses. Linda had always been a fan of horse, riding them growing up and then introducing Paul to them as they grew closer.






1995 was a hard year for the McCartney family, it had been discovered that Linda had breast cancer. She had been through chemotherapy which had appeared that the cancer was in check but unfortunately in March 1997 the cancer spread to her liver and she progressively got worse. It's been reported that the couple, along with their childreen where horseback riding and vacationing in Santa Barbara the week that Linda had lost her battle with cancer on 18 April, 1997.

Linda McCartney has been and is being remembered through her strong attributes as an animal activist, her music with her husband, Wings, and herself, even being awarded with a Grammy for "Live and Let Die", PETA created the Linda McCartney Memorial Award to honor their past supporter, the Linda McCartney Kintyre Memorial Trust opened a memorial garden where a statue of Linda created by Jane Robbins, stands. Paul had donated $2,000,000 towards cancer reasearch at the two hospital's Linda was treated at (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Arizona cancer Center in Tuscon, Arizona), where through the Garland Appeal, were made only if testing was not to be done on animals. George Michael, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Tom Jones, and many other musicians joined together at The Royal Albert Hall on 10 April, 1999 as Paul put on the "Concert for Linda" in memory of his beloved wife, who for their twenty-nine year marriage they only spent ten days apart when Paul was arrested with marijuana possessions, but that another story.

"There’s a lot to be said, there is nothing to be said
My love is alive My love is dead I hear a voice inside my head
There’s a lot to be said There’s nothing to be said
There’s a lot to remember, a lot to forget
My love is hot, my love is wet
As if it was the night we met
There’s a lot to remember, a lot to forget
There’s a lot to be said
There’s nothing to be said"- "To Be Said" by Paul McCartney

 The Following video is Paul McCartney's "The Lovely Linda";