Paul Is Dead
The Paul Is Dead rumor started with a series of events in the 1960s that led fans of the popular rock band The Beatles to believe that bassist Paul McCartney was actually dead and replaced with a look-alike. McCartney remains alive, as of 2005.
The rumor began in earnest in 1969, when Russell Gibb, a radio DJ from Detroit, Michigan, announced that McCartney was dead. Other DJs, television news reporters, newspapers and magazines picked up on the story and began to look for clues.
The rumor eventually became a full-fledged conspiracy theory as members of the media and Beatles fans searched album artwork and song lyrics for clues to the cover-up and McCartney's supposed death. Believers eventually decided that McCartney had died in a car accident that happened at 5 a.m. on a Wednesday morning (the time and day, mentioned in the song "She's Leaving Home"), and that "he hadn't noticed that the lights had changed" ("A Day In The Life") because he was busy watching the pretty girl on the sidewalk ("Lovely Rita"). According to believers, McCartney had been replaced with the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest. The name of this look-alike has been recorded as both William Campbell or William Shears. Though it has been denied by all four members numerous times, many fans are convinced that the rumor was a hoax perpetrated deliberately by the Beatles as a joke.
Other alleged clues included:
- The words "number nine, number nine" on the track "Revolution 9" on "The Beatles" (aka The White Album) became "turn me on, dead man, turn me on, dead man" when played backwards. The track also includes other obvious clues, such as the sound of a car crashing, and comments by John which seem to indicate what Paul was doing before he "died" (for example, one comment goes "who can tell what he was saying...his eyes was on fire", while another comment played backwards yields "let me out, let me out!").
- A similar reversal at the end of "I'm So Tired" (also from "The Beatles") revealed "Paul is dead, man, miss him, miss him..."
- Another "The Beatles" track, "Don't Pass Me By," has lyrics that read, "I'm sorry that I doubted you...I was so unfair. You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair..."
- The end of "The Beatles" track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" has George seem to be calling "Paul, Paul, Paul..." (indicating George missing his colleague).
- Lyrics from the "Sgt. Pepper" track "Good Morning, Good Morning" contain "nothing to do to save his life."
- Another Sgt. Pepper track has these lyrics..."life goes on within you and without you" (from George's "Within You, Without You").
- Believers think that John said "I buried Paul" at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever" on Magical Mystery Tour (although Lennon claimed he was actually saying "cranberry sauce").
- Another Magical Mystery Tour track, "Blue Jay Way", leads believers to think George is giving a eulogy to Paul (with the lyrics "please don't be long, please don't you be very long, please don't be long, or I may be asleep...").
- The line "I believe in yesterday, suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be, there's a shadow hanging over me. Yesterday came suddenly..." from the song "Yesterday". To believers, this was an admission from McCartney's replacement that he was not the same person.
- On the US release, Yesterday and Today, McCartney is sitting inside a trunk. Believers thought that the trunk was supposed to represent McCartney's coffin.
- The Revolver track "She Said, She Said" contains the lyrics "I know what it's like to be dead".
- The Rubber Soul album cover is supposed to look like the other Beatles (and the McCartney look-alike) are looking down into the grave of the real McCartney.
- The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover appears to be a group of mourners standing in front of a freshly dug grave. Paul is holding the only person holding a wooden instrument, representing a coffin, and the instrument is the only one that is black, representing death. It also appears like he's being propped up by Ringo and George, as if he were stiff. Paul is the only person with a hand over his head, a religious symbol for blessing the dead. The hand belongs to Stephen Crane, an American writer that died at the age of 28. Around the grave, there are several symbols. A doll with a crack head represents Paul's fatal injury. A TV that is not turned on represents the news blackout about his death. Over the letter L in Beatles, one can see Paul's rugby trophy.
- The inside cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 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.
- The yellow flowers on the cover of Sgt. Peppers appear to spell out "PAUL?"
- An interesting trick is take a shiny, polished butter knife 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 images reflected spell out "He ^ Die", with an arrow pointing up towards Paul.
- The Magical Mystery Tour track "I Am The Walrus" clues us in that Paul "died" on a "stupid bloody Tuesday" (if we are to believe that Paul died "Wednesday morning at five o'clock", as in "She's Leaving Home" from Sgt. Pepper, then it would translate to be Wednesday morning U.K. time, while it would still be Tuesday evening in the U.S. West Coast). The chant at the end of the track, played backwards, reveals "Paul Is Dead, Paul Is Dead..." And when played forwards to the end, contains a portion of a BBC radio broadcast of "King Lear" which mentions, "O, untimely death!" Paul is depicted as a walrus according to both the Magical Mystery Tour album cover and "The Beatles" song "Glass Onion" as Lennon sings, "Here's another clue for you all, the Walrus was Paul." The depiction of a walrus is an ancient sign of death.
- In a dancing scene in the film Magical Mystery Tour, Paul wears a black carnation while the other three Beatles wear red ones, another indication of death. The real reason was that they had run out of red ones.
- In another scene in the film Magical Mystery Tour, Paul is dressed as an Army Sergeant with a card on his desk that says "I WAS" (indicating that the man WAS Paul).
- On the back cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band McCartney is facing backwards, which is supposedly because he was dead and replaced with an imposter in the photograph. (In reality, McCartney could not make the photo session and road manager Mal Evans stood in for him).
- The front cover of Abbey Road is a representation of Paul's funeral procession. Lennon is the clergyman or priest (dressed in white), Ringo the funeral director or pall bearer (formally dressed), Paul the corpse (bare feet and cigarette [Sicilian symbol of death] and out of step with the others), and George the grave digger (denim working clothes). Furthermore the licence plate of the white car says LMW 281F. LMW is said to stand for "Linda McCartney Widow (or Weeps)", and 28IF suggests Paul would have been 28 if he had not died. (At the time of the album's release September 26, 1969, Paul was in fact 27.) Additionally, the cigarette in the picture is in Paul's right hand, even though Paul is left-handed. On the back cover, a strangely configured and placed "3" in front of the Beatles name indicates three "remaining" Beatles. Also, the name Beatles has a crack running through the letter S, making it imperfect. Also, if you look at the girl in the blue dress, some people claim that it makes a profile of Paul's face.
- "Come Together" (from Abbey Road) contained several clues in the lyrics..."he got hair down to his knee" refers to the claim that hair and nails continue to grow after death..."he wear no shoeshine" refers to Paul being barefoot on the cover..."he got toe-jam football" refers to rugby, a sport Paul liked to play..."he got monkey finger" refers to a thin frail fingers of someone who's been dead..."one and one and one is three" refers to there being only three "remaining" Beatles..."he's so hard to see" refers to the fade memory of someone who is now gone.
- The 'singer' in 'With a Little Help from My Friends' is announced as Billy Shears, the same name as William Shears, the fictional McCartney look-alike who is said to have replaced Paul.
In the years after this rumor first began, John Lennon made a couple of jokes about it in various songs, including "Glass Onion" ("Here's another clue for you all/the walrus was Paul"). McCartney himself also made fun of the rumor with the title of his 1993 live album and tour, Paul Is Live.
As of 2004, the Beatles known to be dead are John Lennon (murdered outside of the Dakota building in New York City in December 1980), George Harrison (died of brain cancer in November 2001), and Stuart Sutcliffe (died of a brain haemorrhage in April 1962).
Sir Paul remains alive and he has possessions in Tucson, Arizona. The "McCartney drive" there is named after him and Linda.
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