In what would become one of the key ‘clues’ in the ‘Paul is dead’ myth, on this day Paul McCartney suffered a moped accident while visiting his family in Liverpool.
McCartney fell from his moped and chipped a front tooth. He also cut his lip and was left with a scar.
Last mid-December, Paul injured his lip and chipped his tooth in the moped accident. He honestly thought no one would notice the chip, for it is so small. I told him three times he should do something about it. It is in a place where there are no nerve ends, so there is no pain. Paul assured me that he would have the tooth capped, but – unfortunately – he has not done so. Could he be afraid of the dentist? It is my opinion that he will just let it be.
Also on the night time ride was Tara Browne, McCartney’s friend. Browne was the Guinness heir whose death inspired John Lennon to write the opening lines of ‘A Day In The Life’.
I had an accident when I came off a moped in Wirral, near Liverpool. I had a very good friend who lived in London called Tara Browne, a Guinness heir – a nice Irish guy, very sensitive bloke. I’d see him from time to time, and enjoyed being around him. He came up to visit me in Liverpool once when I was there seeing my dad and brother. I had a couple of mopeds on hire, so we hit upon the bright idea of going to my cousin Bett’s house.
We were riding along on the mopeds. I was showing Tara the scenery. He was behind me, and it was an incredible full moon; it really was huge. I said something about the moon and he said ‘yeah’, and I suddenly had a freeze-frame image of myself at that angle to the ground when it’s too late to pull back up again: I was still looking at the moon and then I looked at the ground, and it seemed to take a few minutes to think, ‘Ah, too bad – I’m going to smack that pavement with my face!’ Bang!
There I was, chipped tooth and all. it came through my lip and split it. But I got up and we went along to my cousin’s house. When I said, ‘Don’t worry, Bett, but I’ve had a bit of an accident,’ she thought I was joking. She creased up laughing at first, but then she went ‘Holy…!’ I’d really given my face a good old smack; it looked like I’d been in the ring with Tyson for a few rounds. So she rang a friend of hers who was a doctor.
He came round on the spot, took a needle out and, after great difficulty threading it, put it in the first half of the wound. He was shaking a bit, but got it all the way through, and then he said, ‘Oh, the thread’s just come out – I’ll have to do it again!’ No anaesthetic. I was standing there while he rethreaded it and pulled it through again.
In fact that was why I started to grow a moustache. It was pretty embarrassing, because around that time you knew your pictures would get winged off to teeny-boppery magazines like 16, and it was pretty difficult to have a new picture taken with a big fat lip. So I started to grow a moustache – a sort of Sancho Panza – mainly to cover where my lip had been sewn.
It caught on with the guys in the group: if one of us did something like growing his hair long and we liked the idea, we’d all tend to do it. And then it became seen as a kind of revolutionary idea, that young men of our age definitely ought to grow a moustache! And it all fell in with the Sgt Pepper thing, because he had a droopy moustache.
Anthology
McCartney’s chipped tooth and scar can be seen in the promotional videos for ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’, which were filmed in London in May 1966.
The encounter with the drunken doctor helped inspire the 1968 song ‘Rocky Raccoon’.
Also on this day...
- 1967: Magical Mystery Tour is premièred on BBC 1
- 1965: George Harrison pays a surprise visit to his family
- 1964: Live: Another Beatles Christmas Show
- 1963: Live: The Beatles’ Christmas Show
- 1963: US single release: I Want To Hold Your Hand
- 1962: Live: Star-Club, Hamburg
- 1961: Live: Tower Ballroom, New Brighton, Wallasey
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
OH!! so that’s why he grew that mustache. I have always wondered about that, and thought he REALLY looked better without it, but now I understand. I still love him, he’s the BEST!!!
Why would he have made the Mike Tyson comment when Tyson wasn’t even born then. The comment would have been made years later and only by fake Paul. It could not possibly have been said by the real Paul when he assumed the name of John Halliday. The story was obviously embellished by fake Paul, or passed on to fake Paul by John Halliday (real Paul) or someone else.
Why would (did?) He take on the identity of someone else and give up his own ID and life?? He was a Beatle!
No mustache in May for the Paperback Writer video and no hint of selfconsciousness. His original comment did not mention the phase of the moon. Macca making shit up again.
Gary Fletcher – apols that I’m replying a year and a half later. And you probably won’t read this. The Tyson reference is because the quote from Macca is from Anthology. Come on, man. A little critical thinking doesn’t go astray
Not really. Paul was confuse about the date in which he grew his mustache. The accident was in December 65, and he grew his mustache in November 66 (11 months later!)
My grandad claims to have hit Paul in a traffic altercation, chipping his tooth in the process. But, you know what Liverpudlians are like, he might have been winding me up. Still, if I ever met Paul, I would have to ask him about this.
Saw the rain n paperback videos. Very noticeable chip tooth. Still a cool dude. Rock on beatles. Coolest band ever.
This is genuinely strange. The full moon in December 1965 was on 8th. Either Paul is mis-remembering or the date of the crash is wrong.
Check your information. It was a full moon on Dec 26, 1965
No, the New Moon was on 22nd December 1965. If you have found a website that says anything different, please give us the URL
Full moon ~ 8 December 1965
New moon ~ 22 December 1965
No specific moon phase given for 26 December 1965
I checked https://www.moonposition.com/full-moon-calendar/1965 It was 12/08/1965. 5:22.58PM.
and why a year passed between the crash and the mustache if what he says is true.
We lived in the next village Neston to where Paul’s father was living in Heswall. My father ran a moped and motorcycle shop, Cameron’s, and one day received a call from a Mr McCartney living in Baskervylle Road to supply 2 new Raleigh mopeds. When the mopeds were ready my father asked me to get back from school early so I could help with the delivery that afternoon. Neither my father or I connected who the McCartney was that was the buyer. When we got to the house Paul came straight out with Jane Asher and was very keen to try out his new purchase without giving my father a chance to instruct him in the correct driving procedure. The gardener was just finishing manicuring the lawns for the day and watched in disbelief as Jane and Paul drove around the lawns like a speedway track.
When it came to signing the forms and completing the license we went inside to a room where the grand piano was and my father an accomplished pianist and Cathedral organist, could not resist playing the instrument to the accompaniment of Paul for an instant jam session. By the time my father had enjoyed a large brandy and I had tasted my first ever coca cola it was well into the evening before we left. I still have my signed photograph from Paul “Best wishes Stewart from Paul McCartney”.
No Paul you bought the mopeds from Camerons not hired them.
Thank you for sharing this. What a great story!
This is ridiculous. No special driver’s license, no instruction, Paul just hopped on the thing and took off? I’m sure he wasn’t wearing a helmet either. IMO Paul was VERY lucky that his only injuries were a split lip and broken tooth.
The chipped tooth can also be seen in the footage from the Budokan, 1966
He could fooled people with some Cheap Trick while he was waiting to get it fixed.
Boooooooo! 😉
Paul’s memory is notoriously bad :), No full moon, he grew the moustache a year later, he bought the mopeds…. He had is chipped tooth for a full 6 months without doing anything about it, things were very different then in terms of image and fame 😉
Yeah, I dig Paul, but, like most of us, his memories can be inaccurate.
Anyone know what kind of moped it was?
The kind with pedals.
‘it looked like I’d been in the ring with Tyson for a few rounds.’ !!!! What Tyson, In 1965 !?
Exactly, that is what i was saying. Tyson wasn’t even born then. Conspiracy.
Use your brain! There is NO Conspiracy! Paul just say this is the Anthology project in the 1990. Comparing his face, like had been a fight with Mike Tyson.
The quote is from an interview from the Anthology project in the mid 90s. By then we all knew who Mike Tyson was.
Thank you. I didn’t think I could be the only one who caught that.
he probably meant Muhammed Ali
If you saw the end of the quote, he made that comment in the Anthology in 1994 not in the 1960’s when it happened.
That would explain the memory loss….a lot of hallucinatory and other types of drugs had passed through his system in the intervening years
He made that comment in the Anthology not the aftermath of the accident itself! Look at the end of the quote
It’s hard to take any date he says seriously, if, when asked “when did he write “Yesterday”? his answer was, “well it was in the sixties”
Such a poor analogy…..
“Yesterday” was written over a period of time. His accident was on a specific day – in fact, the day after Christmas. Both occasions would be quite easy to remember.
Date must be wrong as the moon was only just past new on December 26 1965.
Or, his recollection of relatively minor details is wrong.
Interestingly, the original edition of MacDonald’s “Revolution In the Head” gives the date of this accident as 9th November, 1966. I’ve no idea whether the later editions were amended, but it’s curious how a date can be so wrong.
How dare one of the most famous people in history not remember every exact detail of every event that he ever experienced PERFECTLY. Inexcusable. Clearly, Paul is dead. How can you believe anything else when he CLEARLY remembered the night of a full moon 25+ years later?
The fat lip photo would’ve made a great record cover for The Smiths.
Paul McCartney has most likely on more than just one occasion injured his face. These severe collective injuries are definitely the basis for the “Paul is dead” myth, as they both changed his appearence a lot and was in the 1965 or 1966 accident so very extensive, that witnesses thought he must have died. It is strange that Paul only admits the chipped tooth and the scarred left side of his upper lip.
I believe that Paul was injured around his mouth already before The Beatles got famous, maybe from aggravated assault in Hamburg. Then correcting plastic surgery in 1963 after The Beatles got famous and started to earn a lot of money. Thereafter the moped accident, if that was really what happened. Something is, to say the least, fishy regarding when, in what vehicle/vehicles and how many times Paul was in motor accidents. Anyway, his whole face was in 1965/66 severely damaged, including bones, muscles and ligaments in the jaw, cheeks, around the eyes, the nose, the forehead and even on the right side of the throat. As a result he lost much volume in his face and followingly a lot of his extraordinarily good looks.
Reportedly John Lennon got hysterical when he saw Paul´s lacerated face, with the skin hanging from his to a great deal exposed and cut up muscle, ligament and broken bone structures. In for instance 1967 interviews one can see that Paul has som kind of plate.
Sooner or later it will all come out.