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Paul McCartney: JFK Conspiracy Theorist
24 November 2013
4.45pm
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parlance
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Posting this being the completist that I am. From a site called The Pessimist:

Paul McCartney . So much has been written about the man who casts one of the largest shadows over 20th-century pop culture that it might seem there’s nothing left to discover or say about the man. He was/is The Cute Beatle. The Most Successful Musician of All Time. The Tireless Animal Rights Activist. The Walrus, too.

And now, according to former New York state legislator, civil rights activist, and early Warren Commission critic Mark Lane, you can add yet another title to the already overloaded Sir Paul: JFK Conspiracy Theorist.

I happened upon the surprising account of the young McCartney’s interest in JFK’s murder quite unexpectedly, while doing research for a satirical Choose Your Own Adventureparody our company was creating. (Free ebook for Gawker readers here.)

[*snip*]

MEET THE BEATLE

Lane recounts his first encounter with the then 24-year-old McCartney at a small, private party in London in 1966.

While living in London during that time I attended a small party of about a dozen people. One of the was Paul McCartney . He walked up to me, offered his hand, and told me his name. The introduction was hardly necessary as he was one of the most famous people in the world…

He said, “I understand you have written a book about Kennedy’s assassination. I would like to read it.”

When Lane explained to McCartney that his was still in manuscript form, and that he had only two mimeographed copies, McCartney replied, “If I could just borrow your copy I would keep it safe and get it back to you in a few days.”

Lane obliged his request. A few days later, McCartney returned the manuscript without comment, much to Lane’s disappointment. But that night, as he was editing it, his phone rang, and a voice began, “Well he could’na done it, could he?”

Lane, not recognizing the voice and annoyed at the interruption, brusquely replied, “Who is this? And who couldn’t have done what?”

“Sorry. Paul, Paul McCartney , we met the other night. And I meant that Oswald could not have killed President Kennedy.”

Lane soon learned that his as-yet-unpublished book had profoundly moved McCartney, who wished to discuss it further over dinner. When their dinner at an obscure Polish restaurant was interrupted by a nonagenarian fan seeking an autograph for her granddaughter, McCartney signed her menu, “Happy dinner, Paul McCartney , friend of Mark Lane.” Their conversation about Kennedy’s murder, and Oswald’s possible innocence, continued past closing hours. Yet inevitably, word of McCartney’s presence in the restaurant spread quickly, and soon, a crowd of 200 people waited out front for their chance to mob him.

The two escaped by the back door, rushed to McCartney’s car, and parted ways at Lane’s London apartment. Yet Paul McCartney was not yet done with Mark Lane.

[*snip*]

It was while editing the film version of Rush to Judgment in London that Lane once again crossed paths with Paul McCartney . McCartney had learned of the upcoming documentary, and, as Lane recounts:

 

(McCartney) asked if there was going to be any music, and I said that the director and I had not even thought about that yet.

“Well,” he said, “I would like to write a musical score for the film, as a present for you.”

I was astonished by that generous offer and speechless for a moment, but then I cautioned him that the subject matter was very controversial in the United States and that he might be jeopardizing his future.

He added, “One day my children are going to ask me what I did with my life, and I can’t just answer that I was a Beatle.”

The generosity of McCartney’s offer can hardly be overstated. Here was perhaps the world’s most popular entertainer, at the very peak of his creative powers, offering to lend his talent and star power (and risk his own standing with many fans) to help infuse Lane’s deeply troubling documentary with his trademark emotional songcraft.

LET IT NOT BE.

Unfortunately, despite McCartney’s insistence, it was not to be. Lane’s director, Emile de Antonio, ultimately vetoed the Cute Beatle‘s involvement. De Antonio believed a score by Paul McCartney wouldn’t likely boost its popularity, and would prevent it from being “stark and didactic.”

In June of 1967, the documentary version of Rush to Judgment opened in select theaters to only modest box office success. That same month, McCartney fared slightly better with his band’s release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Nearly 50 years later, we can only wonder what might have ultimately been created had the skeptical McCartney been allowed to lend his talents to a film about the possible conspiracy behind the Kennedy assassination.

parlance

Beware of sadness. It can hit you. It can hurt you. Make you sore and what is more, that is not what you are here for. - George

Check out my fan video for Paul's song "Appreciate" at Vimeo or YouTube.

24 November 2013
8.50pm
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Funny Paper
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Given that apparent evidence of a rather intense interest by Paul in the subject, I can’t imagine it all ended in 1967.  As some may not know, interest in the JFK assassination resurfaced in a big way I believe in 1979 when the House branch of U.S. Congress launched a formal investigation of the assassination re-examining old evidence and taking a look at supposed new evidence.  And a year before that, the British documentary film-maker and journalist Anthony Summers produced a documentary for the BBC on the subject (the writer of the documentary also is a famous British journalist, but I can’t remember his name now).  Why wasn’t Paul active during that time too on this subject?  Or was he and we don’t know?

And what about the 80s, 90s and Naughts…?

Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...

24 November 2013
9.52pm
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Ahhh Girl
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It’s interesting to walk around in Dealey Plaza. When we were there, a lot of people were out with poster boards and little recreated scenes to show the way they thought things went that day. We didn’t go up to the Sixth Floor book depository museum when we were there. I guess we have a reason to go back.

Back in August we did go to the Dallas Museum of Art and saw this exhibit. The museum’s description: “Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy, a Reunion of Masterworks Exhibited in the Hotel Suite of the Presidential Couple

Opening in May 2013, Exhibition Features Works by Thomas Eakins, Franz Kline, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh, Among Others

I wonder when Paul last spoke about the assassination in a public setting.

24 November 2013
9.56pm
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meanmistermustard
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Maybe Paul got fed up with conspiracies after the one surrounding his own death in ’69.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

24 November 2013
10.38pm
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Ahhh Girl
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meanmistermustard said
Maybe Paul got fed up with conspiracies after the one surrounding his own death in ’69.

True. Could very well be the case.

25 November 2013
5.58am
Bungalow Bob
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Ahhh Girl said
It’s interesting to walk around in Dealey Plaza…

Someday I will visit Dealey Plaza. I’ve read so much about it that I feel like I’ve already been there. This is interesting to read about Pauls’ fascination with the Kennedy assassination, his skeptisicm on the single gunman verdict, and his offer to write music for the documentary. Instead of “The Fool On The Hill ,” he might have come up with “The Fool On The Grassy Knoll.”

 

25 November 2013
1.19pm
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vonbontee
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Maybe Paul WAS the second gunman! “Hey, If I can get over to America and kill the president, then Capitol will have to start playing our records to give Americans something to distract them from their grief! And it’ll give cultural theorists and rock writers something to theorize about for the next fifty years. (Hey, I can help invent rock criticism)!”

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

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25 November 2013
2.09pm
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meanmistermustard
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a-hard-days-night-ringo-8The Beatles were on stage performing on the 22nd November 1963. 

However maybe this is where the PiD conspiracy kicks in. Paul is hired to be the second gunman so obviously they need another Paul to take his place otherwise Beatles show cancelled, all hell kicks loose in the UK, mass panic, and we cant have that on the same day as a major assassination in the US, plus Paul has no alibi. They then have to remove the other Paul as two Paul’s kicking about about would just be confusing so they bump him off in a supposed car accident. However the remaining Paul is not happy at all this as it wasn’t part of the script but cant speak out as he was obviously on stage and would look like a nutter so starts leaving clues behind in Beatles album covers – which is how they got there in the first place. 

There you go both conspiracies and mysteries solved and nicely tied up in one thread in just under 24 hours. And all those books and websites have been going for decades.a-hard-days-night-paul-11

 

Well done BBers. heartheartapple01

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vonbontee

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

25 November 2013
3.01pm
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vonbontee
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The great American rock writer Richard Meltzer (great writer in general, not just of music) wrote of how he first heard the Beatles while he was in college in late ’63, just days after the president was shot. He was driving in upstate New York and the American stations weren’t playing any rock ‘n roll out of respect (and almost none of them had leapt aboard the Beatle bandwagon yet) so he was listening to a Canadian station instead. So in a way, JFK’s killing basically introduced him to the Beatles ahead of 99% of his countrymates. Project “Kill President” has immediate results!

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

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25 November 2013
4.05pm
Bungalow Bob
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vonbontee said
Maybe Paul WAS the second gunman! 

Hmm, there could be something to this; Paul did leave a clue when he sang the line “…meeting the man from the motorcade“… Oops, sorry, I just realized he actually said “motor trade.” Darn it, these conspiracy theories are complicated.

25 November 2013
4.17pm
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vonbontee
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How about “A Day In The Life “? John sings “He blew his mind out in a car” OMG!

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

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https://rateyourmusic.com/~Myo.....Von_Bontee

25 November 2013
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Bungalow Bob
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“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” That’s practically a confession!

25 November 2013
6.05pm
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vonbontee
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Good lord, you’re right! “No-one will be watching us”, yeah right – never counted on all those spectators and home movie cameras, did you, Paulie?

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

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https://rateyourmusic.com/~Myo.....Von_Bontee

28 November 2013
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jenny wren
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i once saw a youtube-vid, which seriously wanted to make us believe yoko ono and paul maccartney planned 9/11 together. so i’m not surprised about any theory anymore.

28 November 2013
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meanmistermustard
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jenny wren said
i once saw a youtube-vid, which seriously wanted to make us believe yoko ono and paul maccartney planned 9/11 together. so i’m not surprised about any theory anymore.

O-k. Things like that make you wonder where some people’s heads are at.a-hard-days-night-ringo-13

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

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