Paul McCartney is dead. What are peoples views?

Squirrel

According to a college radio station in America Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966. On the cover to Abbey Road the Beatles are walking along in a procession, like a funeral procession.
From right to left: Priest, under-taker, dead person, mourner

McCartney is wearing no shoes, and some religions bury the dead bare foot

The VW Beetle in the background has 28IF as the bottom line of the reg, which reads 28 if... McCartney would have been 27 if he was alive of at the time, but, according to his beliefs, everyone is born 1.

On the cover to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band there is a wreath of flowers shaped like a bass with the word Paul inside it.

The Beatles didn't play live after 1966.

In 1966 there was a Paul McCartney look-a-like contest organised by The Beatles but the winner was never announced, it was supposedly a Scottish born man.

I have all this information in a book called the Greatest Rock and Roll Scandals, although I can't find it at the moment.

What do people think?

Roar

magic article about it here

http://www.turnmeondeadman.net/IBP/Intro.html

good reading, if a bit far fetched, although some of the co-incidences are a bit, well, spooky TBH

trishw78

WHAT I say What

mike65

It would explain Mull of Kintyre.

Mike.

magpie

It would explain Mull of Kintyre.

Altogether now:

"Mull of Kintyre, Oh mist rolling in from the sea, my desire, is aaaalways to be here, on Mull of Kintyre...."

Bagpipes!

foxybrowne

Interesting, but if they were trying to keep it secret, why leave clues, however cryptic?

Zapho

foxybrowne wrote:

Interesting, but if they were trying to keep it secret, why leave clues, however cryptic?

Yeah thats what I thought.
I think I read an article about it on snopes.com

Goodshape

..the Abbey Road cover, as stated above and also the fact that Paul is holding his ciggy in his right hand, when he was famously left handed. And George is the grave-digger, not a mourner (a mourner would be dressed a bit better, don't you think?). One of the best album covers of all time anyway.

Some good info here -- http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/3674/

And also an interesting read here -- http://www.onceaman.com/articles/april10.htm -- which links the whole thing to Stuart Sutcliffe, the fifth Beatle and original bass player. Stuart died in 1962 and aparently himself and John were vary close. This site supposes (among other things) that many of the references to Paul being dead were in fact indirect references to Sutcliffe (Paul is dead == the original bassist, Sutcliffe, is dead)


In any case the whole 'Paul is Dead' thing is great craic.. you could spend months looking through all the various clues etc. and why not? Worse things to do with your time than listening to and reading about the Beatles

Squirrel

Goodshape wrote:

..the Abbey Road cover, as stated above and also the fact that Paul is holding his ciggy in his right hand, when he was famously left handed. And George is the grave-digger, not a mourner (a mourner would be dressed a bit better, don't you think?). One of the best album covers of all time anyway.

My apologies, it's been a good while since I read about it and generally thught about it, but then I saw this forum

I never even thought about Sutcliffe

Goodshape

Squirrel wrote:

I never even thought about Sutcliffe

Niether had I, just found the site after reading this thread.

It's news to me -- although the guy at the end of the link I posted has a book written about it. Looks like it could be just the rambalings of a mad man, but mad rambalings can still make an interesting read

zAbbo

I remember reading loadsa of werid things based on that album alone, some already mentioned.

* the car in the background is headed for Paul
* Ambulance parked on the right
* Paul out of step with the rest
* Eyes are closed and he's barefoot - representing a corpse
* Come Together
- "Come together, right now, over me" - over pauls grave
- "one and one and one make three" - 3 remaining beatles
- "he got monkey fingers" - fingers of deal ppl curl up like monkey fingers

heh, thats just the tip of the iceberg

Genghis

Emm, is the car in the background not heading away from Paul (being on the LHS of the road?).

Anyway, this is a delicious CT, lots of fun. My own perspective is that with an obsessive fan base and such creative material, along with such a sensational rumour, there is tons of potential to find all sorts of seemingly meaningful "signs". I think that, with the rumours and the activity already in train, that the beatles on later albums construed to perpetuate the myth "for fun" in a very subtle and clever way.

Some of the evidence I look at when it comes to this is as follows:

1. Some of the supposed signs came BEFORE the alleged death of Paul - the Help Album supposedly contains signals (Paul is the only one with no hat = decapitation?), Paul is featured in a box on Yesterday and Todays cover(which if you turn the album sideways looks like a coffin), in Rubber Soul all the beatles look downward except Paul (as if to a grave) and Paul is the only one in side profile, etc, etc. Its plain ridiculous to look for and then find evidence the the CT before the accident was supposed to have happened.

2. Some of the supposed signs on the Abbey Road cover are even suspect - LMW 28IF is supposed to be code for "Linda McCarthy Weeps, 28 if" - but Paul was 27 at the time he supposedly died, and he hadn't met let alone married Linda Eastman at the time. (He was actually dating Jane Asher at this time). Again you need to stretch credibility to believe it.

3. Suppose there was a cover up and Paul McCarthy was replaced by an equally talented, similar aged lookalike, with an uncanny ability to impersonate the real Pauls voice who then underwent plastic surgery to correct any remaining differences, don't you think there are too many people to keep schtum for it to work? After 40 years, wouldn't you expect someone to blurb. There was the police / other emergency services, the girl Paul was with at the time, his girlfriend, his family, the other band members, the bands management, execs at the record company, witnesses, the plastic surgeon / hsi staff, William Campbell, his family, friends, associates, etc. Not to mention Linda Eastman, Heather Mills, their subsequent children, etc, etc.

4. Finally, the question is why? The main reason given were the record company's fears that the death would kill off the hugely commercial success of the Beatles, but surely John, Ringo and George wouldn't agree to be complicit for those reasons. Furthermore, the Beatles were successful at the time, but even more so after their careers ended - while it is easy to say now in retrospect that the break-up of the beatles in 1966 (before most of their most influential work was ever completed) would've curtailed their ultimate commercial success, this would not have been so apparent at the time without amazing foresight.

Still, its a great theory and reading about it is absolutely fascinating!

Fallschirmjager

mike65 wrote:

It would explain Mull of Kintyre.

Mike.

now there is proof right there.......certainly i feel dead when i hear it....

you get my vote for reply of the week....

sceptre

mike65 wrote:

It would explain Mull of Kintyre.

Mike.

Screw that, it'd explain a-sided should-have-been-rejected-for-b-side rejects like C'Moon and Let 'Em In.

At least the Mull Of Kintyre video is unintentionally hilarious.