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Paul is dead

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The cover of a 1969 magazine titled 'Paul McCartney Dead; The Great Hoax'
A magazine discussing the rumour.

"Paul is dead" is an urban legend and conspiracy theory suggesting that Paul McCartney of the English rock band the Beatles died in 1966 and was secretly replaced by a look-alike.

In September 1969, American college students published articles claiming that clues to McCartney's supposed death could be found among the lyrics and artwork of the Beatles' recordings. Clue-hunting proved infectious and within a few weeks had become an international phenomenon. Rumours declined after a contemporary interview with McCartney was published in Life magazine in November 1969.

Popular culture continues to make occasional references to the legend, and McCartney himself poked fun at it with a 1993 live album titling it Paul Is Live, with the cover parodying clues allegedly on the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album.

Beginnings

"Revolution 9" (section)
The claimed backmasked section of Revolution 9.
"Revolution 9" (section) (reversed)
The same section, reversed, which was claimed to sound like "turn me on, dead man."
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A rumour that Paul McCartney had been killed in a car crash circulated in London after a January 1967 traffic accident involving his car.[1] The rumour was acknowledged and rebutted in the February issue of The Beatles Book fanzine,[2] but it is not known whether the rumour of 1969 is related to it.[3] In the autumn of 1969, the Beatles, having just released their Abbey Road album, were in the process of disbanding; McCartney's public engagements were few and he was spending time at his Scottish retreat with his new wife Linda to contemplate his forthcoming solo career.[4][5]

On 17 September 1969 the Drake Times-Delphic, the student newspaper of Drake University in Iowa, published an article titled "Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?" The article described a rumour that had been circulating on campus that Paul was dead. At that point the rumour included numerous clues from recent Beatles albums, including the "turn me on, dead man" message some people hear when "Revolution 9" from the White Album is played backwards.[6] In wire reports published as early as 11 October, Beatles press officer Derek Taylor responded to the rumour saying "Recently we've been getting a flood of inquiries asking about reports that Paul is dead. We've been getting questions like that for years, of course, but in the past few weeks we've been getting them at the office and home night and day. I'm even getting telephone calls from disc jockeys and others in the United States."[7]

Growth

On 12 October 1969, a caller to Detroit radio station WKNR-FM told disc jockey Russ Gibb about the rumour and its clues. Gibb and other callers then discussed the rumour on the air for the next hour. Two days after the WKNR broadcast, The Michigan Daily published a satirical review of Abbey Road by University of Michigan student Fred LaBour under the headline "McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light".[8] It identified various clues to McCartney's death on Beatles album covers, including new clues from the just-released Abbey Road LP. As LaBour had invented many of the clues, he was astonished when the story was picked up by newspapers across the United States.[9] WKNR-FM further fuelled the rumour with a special two-hour program on the subject, "The Beatle Plot", which aired 19 October 1969 (and in the years since on Detroit radio).

In the early morning hours of 21 October 1969, Roby Yonge, a disc jockey at New York radio station WABC, discussed the rumour on the air for over an hour before being pulled off the air for breaking format. At that time of night, WABC's signal covered a wide listening area and could be heard in 38 states and at times, other countries.[10] Later that day, the Beatles' press office issued statements denying the rumour which were widely reported by national and international media.

The Abbey Road album cover
The "funeral procession" on the cover of Abbey Road

Various clues were used to suggest the following story: three years previously (on 9 November 1966), McCartney, after an argument during a Beatles' recording session, had angrily driven off in his car. He had crashed it and died as a result. To spare the public from grief, the Beatles replaced him with "William Campbell", the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest.[11]

Clues

Hundreds of supposed clues to McCartney's death have been reported by fans and followers of the legend. These include messages perceived when listening to a song being played backwards, and symbolic interpretations of both lyrics and album cover imagery.[11] One oft-cited example is the suggestion that the words spoken by McCartney's band-mate John Lennon in the final section of the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" are "I buried Paul". Lennon later explained the words were actually "cranberry sauce".[12] Another is the interpretation of the Abbey Road album cover as symbolising a funeral procession, where Lennon, dressed in white, symbolises the clergyman or heavenly figure. Ringo Starr, dressed in black, symbolises the undertaker or mourner. George Harrison, in denim jeans and shirt, symbolises the gravedigger and McCartney, barefoot and out of step with other members of the band, symbolises the corpse.[8]

Rebuttal

The cover of an edition of Life magazine showing Paul McCartney and family in Scotland'
The magazine report that rebutted the rumour

On 21 October 1969, the Beatles' press office issued statements denying the rumour, deeming it "a load of old rubbish"[13] and saying that "the story has been circulating for about two years—we get letters from all sorts of nuts but Paul is still very much with us."[14] Rumours started to decline when,[15] on 7 November 1969, Life magazine published a contemporary interview with McCartney in which he said,

Perhaps the rumour started because I haven't been much in the press lately. I have done enough press for a lifetime, and I don't have anything to say these days. I am happy to be with my family and I will work when I work. I was switched on for ten years and I never switched off. Now I am switching off whenever I can. I would rather be a little less famous these days.[5]

Aftermath

In November 1969, Capitol Records sales managers reported a significant increase, attributed to the rumour, in sales of Beatles catalogue albums. Rocco Catena, Capitol's vice president of national merchandising, estimated that "this is going to be the biggest month in history in terms of Beatles sales."[16] The albums Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, which had been off the charts since February, both re-entered the Billboard Top LP's chart.[17]

The cover of a 1970 Batman comic book parodying the legend
The cover of a 1970 Batman comic book parodying the legend

Before the end of October 1969, several records were released on the subject—including "The Ballad of Paul" by the Mystery Tour, "Brother Paul" by Billy Shears and the All Americans and "So Long Paul" by Werbley Finster, a pseudonym for José Feliciano.[18]

Terry Knight, a singer on Capitol Records, had witnessed the Beatles' White Album session during which drummer Ringo Starr had walked out and, in May 1969, released a song called "Saint Paul" about the impending break-up of the Beatles. The tune nosed onto the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart at No. 114 in late June that year and was quickly forgotten until a few months later, when it was picked up by radio stations as a tribute to "the late" Paul McCartney.[19]

A television programme hosted by celebrity lawyer F. Lee Bailey was broadcast on WOR in New York on 30 November 1969, in which Bailey cross-examined LaBour and other "witnesses" about the rumour, but he left it to the viewer to determine conclusions. When, before the recording, LaBour told Bailey that his article had been intended as a joke, Bailey sighed and replied: "Well, we have an hour of television to do; you're going to have to go along with this."[9]

Both Lennon and McCartney subsequently referred to the legend in their music: Lennon in his 1971 song "How Do You Sleep?" (describing those who had spread the rumour as "freaks"),[20] and McCartney with his 1993 live album titled Paul Is Live (parodying the Abbey Road cover and its clues).[21]

As well as being the subject of several books, films, and analyses, there have been many references to the legend in popular culture.[17] Examples include:

  • The plot of 1970's Batman issue #222.[22]
  • The 1978 mockumentary film The Rutles parodies the rumour with reference to backmasked lyrics of "Stig has been dead for ages, honestly".
  • The story was discussed in a 2006 episode of the Catalan soap opera El Cor de la Ciutat.[23]
  • A 2009 Wired Italia magazine article compared selected photographs of McCartney taken before and after his alleged demise.[24]
  • In 2010, American author Alan Goldsher published a mashup novel, Paul Is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion, which depicts all of the Beatles except Ringo Starr as zombies.[25]
  • A mockumentary entitled Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison?, featuring fabricated audio tapes of a voice claiming to be Harrison explaining that the rumour was true, was released on video in 2010.[26]
  • The song "December is for Cynics" from the Matches references the hoax, complete with backmasked vocals stating "I buried Paul."[27]

References

  1. ^ Yoakum, Jim. "The Man Who Killed Paul McCartney" Gadfly May/June 2000
  2. ^ "Beatle News" The Beatles Book February 1967
  3. ^ Moriarty, Brian (1999) Who Buried Paul?, lecture
  4. ^ Miles, Barry (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years — Chapter 11 (1969). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-8308-9.
  5. ^ a b Neary, John (7 November 1969). "The Magical McCartney Mystery". Life: 103–106.
  6. ^ Schmidt, Bart (18 September 2009). "It was 40 Years Ago, Yesterday…". Drake University: Cowles Library blog. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  7. ^ "Beatle Paul McCartney Is Really Alive". Lodi News-Sentinel. UPI. 11 October 1969. p. 5.
  8. ^ a b LaBour, Fred. "McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light" The Michigan Daily 14 October 1969: 2
  9. ^ a b Glenn, Allen (11 November 2009). "Paul is dead (said Fred)". Michigan Today. University of Michigan.
  10. ^ "Why Did WABC Have Such a Great Signal?". Musicradio 77 WABC. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
  11. ^ a b Officially Pronounced Dead?, Michael Harbidge Website. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
  12. ^ Yorke, Ritchie. "A Private Talk With John" Rolling Stone 7 February 1970: 22
  13. ^ "Beatle Spokesman Calls Rumor of McCartney's Death 'Rubbish'" New York Times 22 October 1969: 8
  14. ^ Phillips, B.J. "McCartney 'Death' Rumors" Washington Post 22 October 1969: B1
  15. ^ "Paul Is Dead Myth", The Beatles Bible website, Retrieved: 16 October 2008
  16. ^ Burks, John. "A Pile of Money On Paul's 'Death'" Rolling Stone 29 November 1969:10
  17. ^ a b Schaffner, Nicholas (1977). The Beatles Forever. Cameron House. p. 127–129.
  18. ^ Neely, Tim. Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records 1950–1975 (2006): p. 404, 863, 1078
  19. ^ Terry Knight Speaks Blogcritics, 2 March 2004
  20. ^ Coleman, Ray. Lennon. McGraw-Hill; 1985. ISBN 978-0-07-011786-0. p. 462.
  21. ^ "Paul Is Live", Photos of unique Beatles rarities: Website, Retrieved 19 Sep 2010
  22. ^ "Batman #222" Dead Till Proven Alive Posted on James Paul McCartney Tribute Page, Retrieved: 19 July 2011
  23. ^ "El Cor de la Ciutat", TV3
  24. ^ Carlesi, Gabriella et al. (2009) "Chiedi chi era quel «Beatle»", Wired Italia
  25. ^ Flood, Alison (31 July 2009). "The Beatles flesh out zombie mash-up craze". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  26. ^ Hall, Phil (11 July 2010). "Paul Mccartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament Of George Harrison". Film Threat. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
  27. ^ "THE MATCHES LYRICS - December is for Cynics", Plyrics
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