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"Paul is dead" is anurban legend andconspiracy theory alleging that English musicianPaul McCartney ofthe Beatles died in 1966 and was secretly replaced by alook-alike. The rumour began circulating in 1966, gaining broad popularity in September 1969 following reports on American college campuses.
According to the theory, McCartney died in a car crash, and to spare the public from grief, the surviving Beatles, aided by Britain'sMI5, replaced him with a McCartney look-alike, subsequently communicating this secret through subtle details of their albums. Proponents perceived clues among elements of Beatles songs and cover artwork; clue-hunting proved infectious, and by October 1969 had become an international phenomenon. Rumours declined afterLife published an interview with McCartney in November 1969.
The phenomenon was the subject of analysis in the fields ofsociology,psychology andcommunications during the 1970s. McCartney parodied the hoax with the title and cover art of his 1993 live album,Paul Is Live. The legend was among ten of "the world's most enduring conspiracy theories" according toTime in 2009.
Although rumours that Paul McCartney's health was deteriorating had existed since early 1966,[1] reports that McCartney had died only started circulating in September of that year. The Beatles' press officer,Tony Barrow, recounted this in his book,John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me.Fleet Street reporters started phoning Barrow early in that month, to confirm rumours regarding the Beatle's health and even a possible death, to which he replied that he had recently spoken with McCartney.[2]
For the rest of 1966, the rumour was eclipsed by similar reports that Paul McCartney was working on a solo project and that the Beatles were splitting up,[3] which were backed by their disappearance from the public eye and the postponement of their scheduled tours in late 1966.[4]
In early 1967, the rumour resurfaced in London, this time claiming that Paul McCartney had been killed in a traffic accident while driving along theM1 motorway on 7 January.[5] The rumour was acknowledged and rebutted in the February issue ofThe Beatles Book.[5] McCartney then alluded to the rumour during a press conference held about the release ofSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in May.[6][better source needed]
The Beatles' producerGeorge Martin once claimed that, during the Beatles’ visit toDenver, Colorado, "a number of people pretending to be Beatles" were employed by the promoters of the band's concerts in order to distract the crowds of fans from the real Beatles, while they were exiting a hotel.[7] According to journalist Maureen O'Grady, who wrote about it in the May 1966 issue ofRAVE Magazine,[8] such a tactic was used when the Beatles first played inBaltimore, in 1964. As a result, stories began to circulate that the Beatles had sent four lookalikes to perform on stage on one of their American tours.[9][10] Both Paul McCartney andGeorge Harrison later refuted these claims.
Despite the Beatles dismissing such accusations, they soon began accompanying the notion that McCartney had died. By late 1967, it was further stated that the Beatles had covered up his death by employing a Paul McCartney impersonator to stand in for him.[11] For example, journalistJay Marks was attending McCartney's engagement party in 1967 when a friend of the band told him that McCartney had been replaced.
By the mid-1960s, the Beatles were known for sometimes includingbackmasking in their music.[12] Analysing their lyrics for hidden meaning had also become a popular trend in the US.[13] In November 1968, theirself-titled double LP (also known as the "White Album") was released containing the track "Glass Onion".John Lennon wrote the song in response to "gobbledygook" said aboutSgt. Pepper. In a later interview, he said that he was purposely confusing listeners with lines such as "the Walrus was Paul" – a reference to his song "I Am the Walrus" from the 1967 EP and albumMagical Mystery Tour.[14]
On 17 September 1969, Tim Harper, an editor of theDrake Times-Delphic, the student newspaper ofDrake University inDes Moines, Iowa, published an article titled "Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?" The article addressed a rumour being circulated on campus that cited clues from recent Beatles albums, including a message interpreted as "Turn me on, dead man", heard when the White Album track "Revolution 9" is played backwards. Also referenced was the back cover ofSgt. Pepper, where every Beatle except McCartney is photographed facing the viewer. He is wearing a black badge which appears to read "OPD" (Officially Pronounced Dead). In reality, this badge read "OPP" (Ontario Provincial Police).[15] On the front cover, Starr in a suit looks at the flowered grave, mourning, and McCartney (in a suit) puts his hand on his shoulder. Starr looks sadly down at a tomb shaped like a P, with 4 strings looking like a bass. The front cover ofMagical Mystery Tour depicts one unidentified band member in a differently coloured suit from the other three.[16] According to music journalist Merrell Noden, Harper'sDrake Times-Delphic was the first to publish an article on the "Paul is dead" theory.[17][nb 1] Harper later said that it had become the subject of discussion among students at the start of the new academic year, and he added: "A lot of us, because ofVietnam and the so-calledEstablishment, were ready, willing and able to believe just about any sort of conspiracy."[17]
In late September 1969, the Beatles released the albumAbbey Road while they were in the process of disbanding.[21] On 10 October, the Beatles' press officer,Derek Taylor, responded to the rumour stating:
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.[22][23]
Throughout this period, McCartney felt isolated from his bandmates in his opposition to their choice of business manager,Allen Klein, and distraught at Lennon's private announcement that he was leaving the group.[24][25] With the birth of his daughterMary in late August, McCartney had withdrawn to focus on his family life.[26] On 22 October, the day that the "Paul is dead" rumour became an international news story,[27] McCartney, his wifeLinda and their two daughters travelled to Scotland to spend time at his farm nearCampbeltown.[28]
On 12 October 1969, a caller toDetroit radio stationWKNR-FM told disc jockeyRuss Gibb about the rumour and its clues.[17] Gibb and other callers then discussed the rumour on air for the next hour,[29] during which Gibb offered further potential clues.[30] Two days later,The Michigan Daily published a satirical review ofAbbey Road byUniversity of Michigan studentFred LaBour, who had listened to the exchange on Gibb's show,[17] under the headline "McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light".[31][32] It identified various clues to McCartney's alleged death on Beatles album covers, particularly on theAbbey Road sleeve. LaBour later said he had invented many of the clues and was astonished when the story was picked up by newspapers across the United States.[33] Noden writes that "Very soon, every college campus, every radio station, had a resident expert."[17] WKNR fuelled the rumour further with its two-hour programmeThe Beatle Plot, which first aired on 19 October. The show – which has been called "infamous", a "fraud" and a "mockumentary" – brought enormous worldwide publicity to Gibb and WKNR.[34]
The story was soon taken up by more mainstream radio stations in the New York area,WMCA andWABC.[35] In the early hours of 21 October, WABC disc jockeyRoby Yonge discussed the rumour on-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 US states and, at times, in other countries.[36] Although the Beatles' press office denied the rumour, McCartney's atypical withdrawal from public life contributed to its escalation.[37]Vin Scelsa, a student broadcaster in 1969, later said that the escalation was indicative of thecountercultural influence ofBob Dylan, the Beatles andthe Rolling Stones, since: "Every song from them – starting about late 1966 – became a personal message, worthy of endless scrutiny ... they were guidelines on how to live your life."[17]
WMCA dispatchedAlex Bennett to the Beatles'Apple Corps headquarters in London on 23 October,[38] to further his extended coverage of the "Paul is dead" theory.[35][39] There,Ringo Starr told Bennett: "If people are gonna believe it, they're gonna believe it. I can only say it's not true."[38] In a radio interview with John Small of WKNR, Lennon said that the rumour was "insane" but good publicity forAbbey Road.[40][nb 2] OnHalloween night 1969,WKBW inBuffalo, New York, broadcast a programme titledPaul McCartney Is Alive and Well – Maybe, which analysed Beatles lyrics and other clues. The WKBW DJs concluded that the "Paul is dead" hoax was fabricated by Lennon.[42]
Before the end of October 1969, several record releases had exploited the phenomenon of McCartney's alleged demise.[35] These included "The Ballad of Paul" by the Mystery Tour;[43] "Brother Paul" by Billy Shears and the All Americans; "So Long Paul" by Werbley Finster, a pseudonym forJosé Feliciano;[44] and Zacharias and His Tree People's "We're All Paul Bearers (Parts One and Two)".[45] Another song wasTerry Knight's "Saint Paul",[35] which had been a minor hit in June that year and was subsequently adopted by radio stations as a tribute to "the late Paul McCartney".[46][nb 3] A cover version of "Saint Paul" by New Zealand singerShane reached the top of that nation's singles charts.[48] According to a report inBillboard magazine in early November,Shelby Singleton Productions planned to issue a documentary LP of radio segments discussing the phenomenon.[49] In Canada,Polydor Records exploited the rumour in their artwork forVery Together, a repackaging of the Beatles' pre-fame recordings withTony Sheridan, using a cover that showed four candles, one of which had just been snuffed out.[50]
Many versions of this theory have arisen since its initial exposure to the public, but most proponents of the theory maintain that, on 9 November 1966 (or 11 September), McCartney had an argument with his bandmates during a recording session and drove away in anger. While distracted by a meter maid ("Lovely Rita"), he failed to notice the change in traffic lights ("A Day In The Life"), crashed, and was decapitated ("Don't Pass Me By").[35][51] A funeral service for McCartney was held, featuring eulogies from Harrison ("Blue Jay Way") and Starr ("Don't Pass Me By"), followed by a procession (the front cover ofAbbey Road), with Lennon as the priest officiating his funeral and burying him (the alleged "I buried Paul" statement in "Strawberry Fields Forever"). To spare the public from grief, the surviving Beatles replaced McCartney with the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest.[35] This scenario was facilitated by the Beatles' recent retirement from live performance and by their choosing to present themselves with a new image for their next album,Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which they began recording later that month.[52]
In LaBour's telling, the stand-in was an "orphan from Edinburgh named William Campbell" whom the Beatles then trained to impersonate McCartney.[17] Others contended that the man's name was Bill Shepherd,[53] later altered to Billy Shears,[54] and the replacement was instigated by Britain'sMI5 out of concern for the severe distress McCartney's death would cause the Beatles' audience.[55] In this latter telling, the surviving Beatles were said to be wracked with guilt over their actions, and therefore left messages in their music and album artwork to communicate the truth to their fans.[55][56]
A DJ put all those signs together: Paul with no shoes [on the cover ofAbbey Road] ... and the Volkswagen Beetle. Then there wasMagical Mystery Tour, where we three had red roses and he had a black one. It was just madness ... There was no way we couldprove he was alive.[41]
Dozens of supposed clues to McCartney's death have been identified by fans and followers of the legend. These include messages perceived when listening to songs beingplayed backwards and symbolic interpretations of both lyrics and album cover imagery.[57][58] Two frequently cited examples are the suggestions that the words "I buried Paul" are spoken by Lennon in the final section of the song "Strawberry Fields Forever", which the Beatles recorded in November and December 1966 (Lennon later said that the words were actually "Cranberry sauce"), and that the words "number nine, number nine" in "Revolution 9" (from the "White Album") became "turn me on, dead man, turn me on, dead man" when played backwards. A similar reversal at the end of "I'm So Tired" (another "White Album" track) yielded "Paul is dead man, miss him, miss him, miss him…".[59][60]
Another example is the interpretation of theAbbey Road album cover as depicting afuneral procession: Lennon, dressed in white, is said to symbolise theheavenly figure; Starr, dressed in black, symbolises theundertaker;George Harrison, in denim, represents thegravedigger; and McCartney, barefoot and out of step with the others, symbolises thecorpse.[31] The number plate of the whiteVolkswagen Beetle in the photo – containing the characters LMW 281F (mistakenly read as "28IF") – was identified as further "evidence".[17][61] "28IF" represented McCartney's age "if" he had still been alive (although McCartney was 27 when the album was recorded and released),[37] while "LMW" stood for "Linda McCartney weeps" or "Linda McCartney, widow" (although McCartney and the then-Linda Eastman had not yet met in 1966, the year of his alleged death).[62][63][nb 4] That the left-handed McCartney held a cigarette in his right hand was also said to support the idea that he was an impostor.[35]
On 21 October 1969, the Beatles' press office again issued statements denying the rumour, deeming it "a load of old rubbish"[64] 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".[65] On 24 October,BBC Radio reporter Chris Drake was granted an interview with McCartney at his farm.[28] McCartney said that the speculation was understandable, given that he normally did "an interview a week" to ensure he remained in the news.[66] Part of the interview was first broadcast onRadio 4, on 26 October,[67] and subsequently on WMCA in the US.[66] According to author John Winn, McCartney had agreed to the interview "in hopes that people hearing his voice would see the light", but the ploy failed.[66][nb 5]
McCartney was secretly filmed by aCBS News crew as he worked on his farm. As in his and Linda's segment in the Beatles' promotional clip for "Something", which the couple filmed privately around this time, McCartney was unshaven and unusually scruffy-looking in his appearance.[68] His next visitors were a reporter and photographer fromLife magazine. Irate at the intrusion, he swore at the pair, threw a bucket of water over them and was captured on film attempting to hit the photographer. Fearing that the photos would damage his image, McCartney then approached the pair and agreed to pose for a photo with his family and answer the reporter's questions, in exchange for the roll of film containing the offending pictures.[69] In Winn's description, the family portrait used forLife's cover shows McCartney no longer "shabbily attired", but "clean-shaven and casually but smartly dressed".[68]
Following the publication of the article and the photo, in the issue dated 7 November,[68] the rumour started to decline.[17] In the interview, McCartney said the rumour was "bloody stupid" and went on to say:
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.[70]
In November 1969,Capitol Records sales managers reported a significant increase in sales of Beatles catalogue albums, attributed to the rumour.[71] 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".[35][71] The rumour benefited the commercial performance ofAbbey Road in the US, where it comfortably outsold all of the band's previous albums.[72]Sgt. Pepper andMagical Mystery Tour, both of which had been off the charts since February, re-entered theBillboardTop LPs chart,[35] peaking at number 101 and number 109, respectively.[73]
A television special dedicated to "Paul is dead" was broadcast onWOR in New York on 30 November.[33] TitledPaul McCartney: The Complete Story, Told for the First and Last Time, it was set in a courtroom and hosted by celebrity lawyerF. Lee Bailey,[44] whocross-examined LaBour,[33] Gibb and other proponents of the theory, and heard opposing views from "witnesses" such as McCartney's friendPeter Asher, brotherMike McCartney andAllen Klein.[35] Bailey left it to the viewer to determine a conclusion.[35] Before the recording, LaBour told Bailey that his article had been intended as a joke, to which Bailey sighed and replied, "Well, we have an hour of television to do; you're going to have to go along with this."[33]
It was a bit weird meeting people shortly after that, because they'd be looking at the back of my ears, looking a bit through me. And it was weird doing the "I reallyam him" stuff.[41]
McCartney returned to London in December. Bolstered by Linda's support, he began recording his debut solo album at his home inSt John's Wood.[74] TitledMcCartney, and recorded without his bandmates' knowledge,[75][76] it was "one of the best-kept secrets in rock history" until shortly before its release in April 1970, according to authorNicholas Schaffner, and led to the announcement of theBeatles' break-up.[77] In his 1971 song "How Do You Sleep?", in which he attacked McCartney's character,[78] Lennon described the theorists as "freaks" who “was right when they said you was dead".[79] The rumour was also cited in the hoax surrounding the Canadian bandKlaatu,[80] after a January 1977 review of their debut album,3:47 EST, sparked rumours that the group were in fact the Beatles.[81] In one telling, this theory contended that the album had been recorded in late 1966 but then mislaid until 1975, at which point Lennon, Harrison and Starr elected to issue it in McCartney's memory.[80]
LaBour later became notable as the bassist for thewestern swing groupRiders in the Sky, which he co-founded in 1977. In 2008, he joked that his success as a musician had extended hisfifteen minutes of fame for his part in the rumour to "seventeen minutes".[82] In 2015, he toldThe Detroit News that he is still periodically contacted by conspiracy theorists who have attempted to present him with supposed new developments on the McCartney rumours.[83]
AuthorPeter Doggett writes that, while he thinks the theory behind "Paul is dead" defied logic, its popularity was understandable in a climate where citizens were faced with conspiracy theories insisting that theassassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 was in fact acoup d'état.[84] Schaffner said that, given its origins as an item of gossip and intrigue generated by a select group in the "Beatles cult", "Paul is dead" serves as "a genuine folk tale of themass communications era".[18] He also described it as "the most monumental hoax sinceOrson Welles'War of the Worlds broadcast persuaded thousands of panicky New Jerseyites that Martian invaders were in the vicinity".[18]
In his bookRevolution in the Head,Ian MacDonald says that the Beatles were partly responsible for the phenomenon due to their incorporation of "random lyrics and effects", particularly in the White Album track "Glass Onion" in which Lennon invited clue-hunting by including references to other Beatles songs.[12] MacDonald groups it with the "psychic epidemics" that were encouraged by the rock audience's use of hallucinogenic drugs and which escalated withCharles Manson's homicidal interpretation of the White Album andMark David Chapman'smurder of Lennon in 1980.[85]
During the 1970s, the phenomenon became a subject of academic study in America in the fields ofsociology,psychology andcommunications.[86] Among sociological studies, Barbara Suczek recognised it as, in Schaffner's description, a contemporary reading of the "archetypal myth wherein the beautiful youth dies and is resurrected as a god".[18] PsychologistsRalph Rosnow andGary Fine attributed its popularity partly to the shared, vicarious experience of searching for clues without consequence for the participants. They also said that for a generation distrustful of the media following theWarren Commission's report, it was able to thrive amid a climate informed by "The credibility gap ofLyndon Johnson's presidency, the widely circulated rumors after theMartin Luther King Jr. andRobert F. Kennedy assassinations, as well as attacks on the leading media sources by theyippies andSpiro Agnew".[18]
American social criticCamille Paglia locates the "Paul is dead" phenomenon to theAncient Greek tradition symbolised byAdonis andAntinous, as represented in the cult of rock music's "pretty, long-haired boys who mesmerize both sexes", and she adds: "It's no coincidence that it was Paul McCartney, the 'cutest' and most girlish of the Beatles, who inspired a false rumor that swept the world in 1969 that he was dead."[87]
"Paul is dead" has continued to inspire analysis into the 21st century, with published studies by Andru J. Reeve,Nick Kollerstrom and Brian Moriarty, among others, and exploitative works in the mediums ofmockumentary and documentary film.[55] Writing in 2016, Beatles biographerSteve Turner said, "the theory still has the power to flare back into life."[54] He cited a 2009Wired Italia magazine article that featured an analysis by two forensic research consultants who compared selected photographs of McCartney taken before and after his alleged death by measuring features of the skull.[54] According to the scientists' findings, the man shown in the post-November 1966 images was not the same.[54][88][nb 6]
Similar rumours concerning other celebrities have been circulated, including the unsubstantiated allegation that Canadian singerAvril Lavigne died in 2003 andwas replaced by a person named Melissa Vandella.[89][90] In an article on the latter phenomenon,The Guardian described the 1969 McCartney hoax as "Possibly the best known example" of a celebrity being the focus of "a (completely unverified) cloning conspiracy theory".[89] In 2009,Time magazine included "Paul is dead" in its feature on ten of "the world's most enduring conspiracy theories".[56]
There have been many references to the legend in popular culture, including the following examples.
Clue Number Five: II Tim. 4:6 [...] Clue Number Six: R.I.P. P.Mc.
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