References in song
The Beatles were said to have been referred to the death a number of times in song, including the following:
- The opening words of Got To Get You Into My Life: "I was alone, I took a ride, I didn't know what I would find there".
- The line "He didn't notice that the lights had changed" from A Day in the Life.
- The opening line of She's Leaving Home, which highlighted the moment of the accident: "Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day begins".
- The suppression of the story in the news found its way into Lady Madonna: "Wednesday morning papers didn't come".
- At the end of Strawberry Fields Forever, Lennon can be heard muttering "cranberry sauce". This was misheard as "I buried Paul".
- "Bury my body" and "Oh untimely death" appeared in the radio feed towards the end of I Am The Walrus, taken from a BBC production of King Lear.
- At the end of I'm So Tired, John Lennon mutters "Monsieur, monsieur, monsieur, how about another one?" When played backwards, this was interpreted by some as "Paul is dead, man, miss him, miss him".
- "I'm sorry that I doubted you, I was so unfair/You were in a car crash and you lost your hair" - from Ringo's Don't Pass Me By.
- The line "Find me in my field of grass" in Mother Nature's Son was taken as a reference to a cemetery.
- There is the sound of a car crash, followed by an explosion, in Revolution 9.
- The same song, when played backwards, is said to contain the repeated phrase "Turn me on, dead man".
- "And so I quit the police department", a line from She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, supposedly referred to William Campbell's alleged former career in Ontario, Canada (see the Sgt Pepper visual clues on the next page).
This is just a taster. Particularly in the case of Revolution 9, there have been a huge number of interpretations, hidden meanings and fanciful explanations, many of which deserve to remain in the minds of the beholders. In short, any mention of death or cars in Beatles songs (Eleanor Rigby and Good Morning Good Morning proved particularly fruitful) can be shoehorned into the myth.
A number of visual clues were also said to be found in the group's record releases.
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- The front cover spells the word 'Beatles' in flowers. Some, however, took this to say 'Be at Leso', a reference to the Greek island the group were considering buying (actually called Leslo).
- An arrangement of yellow flowers below this is of a left-handed bass guitar, the instrument most associated with Paul McCartney. Some saw the flowers as spelling out the name 'Paul'.
- A toy Aston Martin car sits atop the rag doll on the right hand side of the cover.
- If a mirror is placed horizontally across the middle of the Sgt Pepper bass drum, so it bisects the words 'Lonely hearts', the phrase "I ONE IX HE DIE" can be seen. This was taken to mean "11 9 HE DIE", a reference to the supposed date of death, 9 November. Another interpretation of this is that "1 ONE 1" represents the three other Beatles, and the X represents the dead McCartney. A diamond symbol between HE and DIE points upwards to McCartney.
- The album cover shows an open hand above McCartney's head, which in some religions is a symbol of death, signifying that someone will die or has recently died.
- At the bottom of the image is a statue of the Hindu god Shiva, the destroyer. His hand is pointing directly at McCartney.
- The gatefold sleeve shows McCartney wearing a badge on his arm appearing to say OPD. This actually said OPP, and stood for Ontario Provincial Police, though some people took it to mean "officially pronounced dead".
- Original pressings of the album had the lyrics of the songs along with a photo of The Beatles. In the photo George Harrison's thumb points to the line "Wednesday morning at five o'clock," the alleged time of Paul's death.
- On the rear cover McCartney has his back to the camera, suggesting that he is hiding his identity. Turning one's back is said to be a symbol of death in certain cultures.
Magical Mystery Tour
The original Magical Mystery Tour double EP (and LP in the US) was released with a booklet. This contained a number of cartoons, song lyrics and photos from the film.
- The front cover spelt the word 'Beatles' in stars. Held up to a mirror, this reveals a telephone number, 2317438, said to have belonged to a London mortuary.
- A number of photos in the booklet show McCartney without shoes, said to signify death: people tend to be buried without them.
- McCartney is shown in military uniform in one picture, behind a desk on which sits a sign saying "I was".
- Ringo's drum head, in a still from the I Am The Walrus sequence, appears to say "Love the 3 Beatles". Next to the kit are McCartney's boots (as on Abbey Road, he is barefoot), covered in what appear to be blood stains.
- A still from the Your Mother Should Know sequence shows all four Beatles in white suits, dancing. McCartney is the only one to have a black carnation in his lapel; the others all have red ones.
- A cartoon of Paul labelled 'The Fool on the Hill' shows him with a crack in his head.
Abbey Road
- The cover of Abbey Road is said to make reference to a funeral procession, with John Lennon dressed all in white as a priest; Ringo Starr in a black suit as an undertaker; McCartney being barefoot, as many corpses would have been buried; and George Harrison following as a gravedigger. McCartney was also out of step with the others, with his eyes closed.
- In the same picture, McCartney is holding a cigarette with his right hand. However, it was well known that he was left-handed, suggesting that an impostor was in his place.
- A Volkswagen Beetle car in the background has the numberplate LMW 28IF. LMW was taken to mean 'Linda McCartney weeps', and 28IF was interpreted as referring to Paul's age if he had lived. However, at the time of Abbey Road's release in 1969 he would have been 27, rather than 28.
You know what I don't understand? Why do so many people say it's absolutely certain that Paul is alive? Why is it impossible for him to be dead? I mean, look at it this way: While Paul was in Africa, he died in a car accident in England. Then, a perfect look-alike was found, and this look-alike just happened to be able to sing and play bass and guitar just as well as Paul could. The Beatles went on to make amazing music with this "Faul," secretly hiding clues about Paul's death in their music and cover art and such. And some of these clues were in their music/cover art/etc. even before Paul's death. Later, the three orginal Beatles and Faul had lots of arguments, and eventually the band broke up. After the Beatles broke up, Faul went on to have an amazing solo career that was probably what Paul would have done had he not died. And Faul is still fooling people today.
What's so impossible about that?
But even though I don't believe it, I still enjoy researching the myth and finding clues. It's a fun mystery.
"While Paul was in Africa, he died in a car accident in England... What’s so impossible about that?"
You'd have to ask Einstein (using your time travel machine), but I think bilocation is quite tricky to pull off.
The idea is that he died in England but the substitute (now Sir Paul) went to Africa -- first France and Spain, where in France he was unrecognized and unaccepted, according to Mal Evans -- for surgery.
John Lennon spoke about blackmail here http://youcanknowsometimes.blogspot.ca/2013/03/off-topic-new-paul-is-dead-clue-from.html
So let me get this straight. Paul dies in a car accident. Then the remaining Beatles, and close associates to the Beatles, cover up his death. Then the remaining three Beatles and the "look alike and sound alike Paul” proceed to send out clues to Paul’s actual death through their music and album covers?
Okay, can someone please explain to me why people would participate in the illegal cover up of Paul’s death and then try their hardest to tell the world the truth through abstract clues?
People really are idiots and will ignore reality if it helps them to hold on to their delusions. The mockumentry “Paul Really Is Dead” is a good example. I have read comments from people quoting “clues” from this film as though it was a real documentary instead of a tongue in cheek comedy.
When I read comments from people who simply refuse to accept reality, it gives me serious cause for concern regarding the future of the human species.
The mockumentary was disinfo in its overall purpose, or it was just generally convenient to anyone helping a cover-up, if there is a cover-up. It included some accurate points (as all good disinfo does) about what people CLAIMED from their reading of a range of so-called clues, but also strung it together without certain pieces of information. And it came out when Iamaphoney's "Rotten Apple" series and soon-to-be late 2010 film was due, "The Winged Beatle". Seems the "Harrison Last Testament" movie was put out to deflect attention from the other. Not that Iamaphoney -- whose name is a play on the idea that Macca is a phoney -- is perfect. He toys with some editing for emotional emphasis, but overall he provides many new or reminders of nearly forgotten pieces of information. For example, in "Rotten Apple 47 2", a clip from an old film on PID "clues" shows a FULL FRONTAL "OPD" patch (made from OPP, of course), in an alternate copy of the gate-fold of the Sgt Pepper album. Whether the image was from an album version lesser known now, or from an advertisement, the image is clear. --- The main item, however, in the series is at the very end of the 2010 film TWB. It seems indeed to be an old typewritten and handwritten page; it is, putatively, a page from Mal Evans' lost book (not diary). And it talks of the "clinic in Kenya" and how it had "done a good job" and how John was impressed and everyone was surprised because "it was really happening" and how depressed and angry they all were about it. If it's a real page, it can only be talking of the introduction of Macca in Nov. 1966. ----------- By the way, though the piece here at Beatlesbible recounts the typical IMPRESSION people have of "the clues" and "dates", the real date, IF Paul died, would have to be not Nov 9 but Sept 11 ... from the numeric date "clue" on the drum-skin of Sgt P front album cover. Many Americans in 1969 chauvinistically assumed that dates are always written M/D/Y but in Britain and Commonwealth countries, etc., they're written D/M/Y. -- As to the future of the human species I cannot comment, but you may find the optics on the real ears useful to make your determination before you despair of the sanity of all PID proponents, any more than they should despair, carte blanche, of the sanity of PIA proponents. Perhaps many in each camp are insane, but maybe not for arguing the issues either way. Have a look at the link I posted. John's drawing is very interesting; the OPD full frontal is there (and the other, few, provably "clue"-theme items, whatever they were created for). And also the ears with a demonstration of optics.
I know many people who think Paul actually died and take the clues very seriously. There is even a website that uses forensic dissertation to support this argument. I think Paul is alive, but I look at the clues for fun.
Well, you might have a look here: http://youcanknowsometimes.blogspot.ca/2013/03/off-topic-new-paul-is-dead-clue-from.html
first of all...if there was any question about his death being real and this hoax did take place, they would of dug up the body and did dna on it.....remember we live in the 21st century and have numerouse technology ways and means...
Mr Scott, you just can't go into cemetaries and start digging bodies up and performing DNA tests... They have a certain protocol for that and if it is true, do you think that the 'powers that be' would just allow that?
wait, you CAN'T just go into cemeteries and start digging bodies up? CRAP! I better go hide that shovel. . .
Who is "they" who would dig up bodies? People who want to protect the fortunes and embarrassment and loyalty? Or police? If you mean the latter: a double requires intel and police complicity (a few persons, as with media censorship: it's partial but effective).
I saw a photo where 'Faul' was clearly wearing a prosthetic ear piece and I got to tell you, that was the smoking gun that started my research and in other photo's you can clearly see that Paul 66 and prior had nice, smooth rounded ears with connected ear lobes and 'Faul' (after 67) does not. I doubt we will ever be told in a straight forward way but it certainly makes you go, 'hmm'.
Enough of this limping dog of a story.
Also: what of this claim by C. Bowin, about totally different earlobes (among other changes) makes you so defensive as to ignore the point? Or did you not bother to check it out? Look it up. I posted a link above, for part of that info, with more links given inside that page, as well.
It is interesting to me that it never occurs to any of you conspirecy nuts that the simple explanation for different ear lobes is the result of modern technology. This technolgy is at the finger tips of all who have a computer. It is called Photoshop.
Actually, no. The images are from different eras and part of the general record. There are falsies on Sir Paul most of the time, but there are some ears the forensic scientists showed in Wired Italia 2009 in the midst of their rather extensive study of the case, and these vary not merely in lobes. Sorry.
We have indeed been told the turth "in a straight forward way". It all started as a joke that got out of hand. The man did not die. His ears did not change between '66 and 67. People who continue to push forward this myth need to seek therapy.
You might wish to have a look at the upper leg of the antihelix, which, without intense foreshortening, is quite different after 1966. But let's say there were massive foreshortening: it would still contradict. It is wider, not narrower than the 1966 leg of the antihelix; foreshortening narrows, it doesn't widen. Also (as if there were more difference one needed as proof, but of course different ears will have many different features), it is further back than Paul's upper leg of antihelix, pre-1966. Go to the link I just posted.
I don't believe in this PID rubbish, but it's interesting to read about it. I doubt Jane Asher would feel comfortable being with a look-alike, and the band wouldn't carry on with the Beatles, even if they were paid to. They nearly broke up after Brian's death, and Paul is more important than money.
Tasha, I hear you. However, when one is familiar with the case (and has seen forever the difference, not in some haphazard way -- though some people really are only seeing it that way), one looks at Asher and the post-Epstein death differently. It would, instead, seem as though Jane did a charade for a while, perhaps even turning for comfort to the new man. Who knows, but one way or another, left. We don't know on that one, but it's not impossible that behind the scenes things were messy. My own guess is that they were going to reveal things and the charade got out of hand -- which also addresses your claim that at the intense height of their initial career, they would not have been wanting to quit but overwhelmed with Paul's death as well. About Epstein: it may well have been pressures about Paul's death also pushing that near break-up. One way or another, there is a 5th Beatle, friend and interloper at the same time.
I wonder why it is so imporatnt for some of you to believe this myth. It confounds me that people feel absolutly no shame in calling Sir Paul a fraud. I wonder how any of you would feel if a group of delusional individuals decided to take it upon themselves to strip any of you of your identiy. Shame on all of you.
In my opinion, acid head people are also called "dead people"; when Paul finally took LSD, John probably said "now, Paul is dead, at last" or something, hã?
Here's a theory: The Paul Is Dead myth, was a hoax, actually thought up by Paul, "Hey Lads, let's make up I'm dead!" and the rest went along not realizing how big the gag would get - all of this fueled Paul's overbearing ego - eventually they were too dug in to get out of it - and I it became a major element in leading to disharmony and the eventual break-up and the other 3 becoming "fed up with being sidemen for Paul" - that's John's quote.
Actually "Doctor" Robert (ha ha): Per the Mal Evans single page shown in "The Winged Beatle", John was distraught that "it was really happening" & how good the surgery was, that Paul had been to "the clinic in Kenya" which "had done a good job". The purported Mal Evans “Living the Beatles Legend” (supposedly lost book) page in TWB is at 1:01:00 (overall page shown but bottom blurred), and then 1:01:07 bottom of page shown only, but unblurred.
As to John's public statements: 1. J claimed on TV he'd heard it first from "the newspapers ... or uh ..." & looks very nervous for a split second (you can see the clip on Youtube or in "The Winged Beatle". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsPCQ932vlU at 40:05. 2. In a radio interview from 1970 about the Beatles breakup, J talks briefly ostensibly about Epstein's death, then says the album they made after the trauma (& lowers his voice and Yoko laughs) was "Sergeant Peppers, oh I'm not sure": joke for no-one but Yoko, or revelation going by so fast it's almost unnoticeable by mixing stories? In same interview J later talks more directly of Epstein's death & completely naturally speaks at length about Magical Mystery Tour (the real album made after Eppie's death) & his reaction to the death. Seems to be mixing griefs about Paul & Eppie for those in the know. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=317yvBXrXjw 3. In 1971 movie "Imagine", perhaps freed by USA breaking story of PID, George corrects J jokingly, a bit nervously, hiding his mouth with his napkin a bit, saying "The Fab 3" when J had been riffing on "The Fab 4". J jumps out of his seat, then realizes it's okay now to say that and calms down. (In "The Winged Beatle" the clip is shown, though for effect (and thus makes a literal untruth in the edit, unfortunately) the maker of the movie edits in J winking, which is from later in scene. See TWB (link above) at 45:00. 5. J drew an extremely macabre drawing in late 1971, when PID story was already out, but gave it to someone who wouldn't be in a position to make a bigger PID ruckus; thus = a privately public PID clue. It does not prove Paul died, but it is a PID-style clue. (Its poignancy also, however, would on its own indicate something serious might be real about PID clues overall.) Yet of course, a PID case is made on facial and earlobe forensics, not clues. For info on the drawing, plus PID forensics info links themselves: link.
The Paul is Dead myth started in America. A listener called into a radio show and put forward his theories based on album covers. A local journalist was listening to the show and then wrote a tounge in cheek article putting forth this "theory". He intended it to be a joke, but sadly many took him seriously. Paul had nothing to do with this myth being started.
Both the writer of this article and the commenters deem themselves experts on the PID subject. Dates, times and brand of car, it is all nailed down to perfection. Yet in this rumor there is huge discrepancy in the "facts." I cannot think of any historical recounting that has so much certainty as to facts and what did or did not happen to Paul. One thing is for certain that I know as a fan, the rumor was going round in London in 1967. It was because of the end of the 45 rpm record played up high with the end of strawberry fields song where John clearly says "I buried Paul." When the rumor got to America the new pressed editions of that song said "cranberry sauce." But rock stars were going down by the bucket if not by drugs then by accident. It would have been perfectly logical that Paul would be replaced by the English in light of all the money they were bringing into the Sterling crisis. EMI would not have allowed him to die either. It is more likely than not that Paul died and was replaced.
Here is the solution. Before 1966 Paul had dark brown eyes. After 66 Faul has green eyes. Game Over
It really happened.You can't just read about the theories,because it is fun.Someone's death it is not funny thing.They covered his death.Can you believe how many girls would kill themselfs if they knew the truth?For this reason the truth was ''hidden'' in songs,albums,photos... They hide the truth and putted it in so many songs,just for the real fans,because the real fans would know that nobody can replace their favourite singer and they would know,that something is not quite right.As i see here,the big part of people can't call themselfs:''Real fans of The Beatles'',unfortunately.