His bite was just as fierce when turned on colleagues. In 1983, Geffen Records sued Neil Young, saying he had violated his contract by delivering an album, a rockabilly effort called “Everybody’s Rockin’,” that was “unrepresentative” of his prior work and “not commercial.” (Mr. Geffen later apologized to Mr. Young.) A decade later, Mr. Geffen got into a yearslong legal spat with the Eagles co-founder Don Henley.

In the 1980s, Calvin Klein owned a house in the Pines on Fire Island, which became a summer retreat for waifish models, bronzed adonises and fashion machers on the rise. Mr. Geffen was a regular, photographed by Andy Warhol reclining on a chaise longue in a Speedo. “He would say, ‘You get all the beautiful people,’” Mr. Klein said. “‘I get all the people who haven’t taken a shower.’” Years later, Mr. Geffen bought the house and planted a tall hedge around it.

“I asked David, ‘Why did you do that? You are ruining the view,’” Mr. Klein said. “He said he wanted the privacy.”

When Mr. Geffen is not in New York, he is often sailing the Caribbean aboard the Rising Sun, seated in a deck chair, legs propped up on an ottoman, reading. He has a voracious appetite for biographies and thrillers. (Ms. Murdoch said he recommended that she read “The Path to Power,” the first volume of Robert Caro’s four-volume “The Years of Lyndon Johnson.”)

He acquired the yacht from the Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison. It is built to accommodate 18 guests and a staff of about 50. Because of its size, it is tracked online by maritime websites (it was recently docked at Carriacou, one of the Grenadine Islands).

Peggy Siegal, the doyenne of New York publicists, had lunch aboard the vessel with Mr. Geffen in St. Barth’s over the New Year’s holiday. “He likes to greet each guest himself,” she said. She was asked to climb several flights of stairs to the top deck, despite the elevator onboard. “He is waiting for you,” she said, “arms outstretched, while you are gasping for air.”