What if Paul Really is Dead?
By Conor
Paul McCartney is one of the most beloved and successful artists in the history of popular music. But what if the McCartney that everybody has come to know and love is really an impostor? I'm not sure how many people are familiar with the "Paul is dead" phenomenon of 1969, but for those who aren't, you can read up on it here. The rumor started in 1969 after a person named "Tom" called into a Detroit radio show and announced that Paul McCartney was dead. He also gave clues and told the DJ to play the Beatles song "Revolution 9" backwards. The DJ thought he heard clues and the Paul is Dead legend took off.
The story alleges that on November 9, 1966 at 5 AM, a Wednesday, Paul McCartney crashed his car into a lamp post and died after leaving a Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band recording session in a rage. The Beatles, who were just entering their prime and afraid of losing everything, replaced Paul with a lookalike...possibly the winner of a McCartney lookalike contest named William Shears Campbell (after Billy Shears, McCartney's Sgt. Pepper's character). The story is said to have been told subliminally by various Beatles lyrics in the years following the alleged death. My friends and I are captivated, even carried away at times when discussing this urban legend. It makes you wonder though, what if Paul really is dead?
"McCartney or Shears?"I don't remember why but the subject came up when I was talking to Rick earlier today. It was nothing more than harmless speculation as always but then I asked him, "Imagine if it finally came out that the rumor was true?" I said that it would be the biggest scandal ever. Rick agreed and added that he wouldn't know what to think about anything anymore. I agreed. Can you imagine the outcry and hysteria that would follow if possibly the most popular member of the most popular group in music history turned out to be a fake all these years? I can't even fathom the effect it would have on our society.
Let me just state for the record that I don't really think Paul is dead. It just seems ridiculous, inconceivable and would be wayyyyy too hard for the Beatles to pull off something of that magnitude. I really think that it was either a hoax pulled by John Lennon and the Beatles themselves or something that they ran with to fuck with people after the initial reports surfaced. With that being said, the supposed "clues" to Paul's death in the Beatles music are very, VERY intriguing. So why don't we run down all the clues and I'll let you be the judge.
First, let me show you what I think is the most blatant evidence in the Paul is Dead rumor, John Lennon's 1968 recording "Revolution 9" off the Beatles' White Album. This song is easily the Beatles' strangest and most bizarre record. First I want to post the normal version and then the song played backwards, the version Lennon intended for the song, with the hidden messages. I just want to warn people before they listen that both versions are very disturbing. I also want to go on record and say that in no way am I considering that John Lennon was satanic despite much speculation by his peers over the years. It's not my place to say it.
Revolution 9 by the Beatles
Revolution 9 (Backwards) by the Beatles, this is the way the song was intended to be listened to and has potential Paul is Dead clues and satanic messages by John Lennon.
Scary stuff, especially when you think of the influence this song had on Charles Manson when he conspired the Tate/LaBianca murders.
Now here are the rest of the clues from Beatles' lyrics in text:
1. "...And though the news was rather sad, Well I just had to laugh, I saw the photograph, he blew his mind out in a car, he didn't notice that the lights had changed" from "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles
2. At the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever" by the Beatles, it sounds like John Lennon says, "I buried Paul" in a deep, faint voice. Lennon later alleged that he said "cranberry sauce" but it doesn't sound like it. Listen for yourself at 3:57.
3. The cover of the Abbey Road album is supposed to signify a funeral precession. Paul McCartney is the only one not wearing shoes with his suit which is the common way a corpse is buried and he is walking out of step with the other Beatles. John Lennon is dressed all in white, like a clergyman. Ringo Starr is wearing a black suit as an undertaker would. George Harrison's denim outfit resembles that of a gravedigger.
4. The Sgt. Pepper's Loney Hearts Club Band album cover shows the Beatles standing on what looks like freshly dug earth like at a gravesite, which is surrounded by flowers in the shape of a lefty guitar...which is what McCartney played because he was lefty. Also on the backcover, every member of the Beatles is facing forward except for Paul, who is turned around with his back facing forward.
5. The lyric "Wednesday morning papers didn't come" from "Lady Madonna" by the Beatles is supposed to indicate that nobody knew about the news because it was withheld.
6. He was pronounced dead on a "Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day begins", a lyric from "She's Leaving Home" by the Beatles
7. Car crash sounds can be heard in both "Revolution 9" and "A Day in the Life".
Again, I don't believe that Paul McCartney is dead. If anything it seems like this may have been the Beatles own doing to fuck with people. It is very interesting though when you consider all of the facts. If anybody could pull something like this, it would be Lennon and the Beatles. For now...all we can do is speculate and wonder what if. But just in case, remember that I brought this to your attention.
"Sgt. Pepper's is eerily similar to a funeral scene"
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