Paul is Dead
A good look into the "Paul is Dead" myth.
Did you know that Paul McCartney, the ex-Beatle, never actually left the band because . . . he died in 1966 and was then replaced by a lookalike? It sounds bizarre, and it is. The "Paul is dead" myth is one of the most popular myths set in the world of rock music and perhaps the most fun to follow up.
It all began on October 12, 1969, when Russ Gibb, a DJ for Detroit's underground station WKNR-FM, received a phone call by a man named "Tom," who claimed that some Beatles records contained hidden clues suggesting that Paul McCartney had actually died.
The evidence for a conspiracy revolved around the theory that Paul had been decapitated in an automobile wreck after he left Abbey Road studios in London, where the Beatles recorded their music. Paul had apparently left upset over an argument with the other Beatles, took his Aston Martin sportscar, and perished in a horrible accident that killed him.
Update:
Wikipedia has a
great entry on the myth including a list of clues from several albums.
- The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover appears to be a group of mourners standing in front of a freshly dug grave. McCartney is the only person holding a wooden instrument, representing a coffin, and the instrument is the only one that is black, representing death.
- The inside cover of the Sgt. Pepper album has Paul wearing an emblem on his shirt sleeve whose initials are believed to be O.P.D. (for "officially pronounced dead").However, it is the emblem of the O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) not O.P.D. (However his supposed replacement was a policeman in Ontario.)
- An interesting trick is to take a shiny, polished butter knife (or a small mirror) and lay it horizontally across the words "LONELY HEARTS" on the drum on the cover of Sgt. Pepper. The top half of the words, combined with their mirror image, spells out "1 ONE 1 X HE ^ DIE", the 1 ONE means 3 Beatles remain (1 ONE could mean November, the 11th month, and IX is the Roman numeral for 9, so it could also mean November 9, the day of Paul's death), and the X crosses out Paul. The ^ points up to Paul.
- Also on the back cover, George Harrison is pointing to the lyric "Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins" from the song "She's Leaving Home", a reference to the day and time when Paul crashed and was killed.
And so on and so on. I'm convinced!
