" Did you know that Paul McCartney, the ex-Beatle, never actually left the band

because . . . he died in 1966 and was then replaced by a lookalike? It sounds bizarre,

and it is. The "Paul is dead" myth is one of the most popular myths set in the world

of rock music and perhaps the most fun to follow up.

It all began on October 12, 1969, when Russ Gibb, a DJ for Detroit's underground

station WKNR-FM, received a phone call by a man named "Tom," who claimed that

some Beatles records contained hidden clues suggesting that Paul McCartney had

actually died.

The evidence for a conspiracy revolved around the theory that Paul had been

decapitated in an automobile wreck after he left Abbey Road studios in London,

where the Beatles recorded their music. Paul had apparently left upset over an

argument with the other Beatles, took his Aston Martin sportscar, and perished in

a horrible accident that killed him.

This accident supposedly took place at 5 a.m. on November 9, 1966, and was caused

by a hitchhiker named Rita who Paul had picked up along the road.

With Paul's death, however, a big problem arose: the Beatles were at the peak of

their career and the loss of one of their members would mean the end of the show

for them and for the industry behind them. Thus, somebody had the idea of never

revealing Paul's death and hiring an impostor in his place, somebody who looked

like him and could play music. Some sources claimed that the imposter was an

actor named William Campbell, the winner of a Paul McCartney lookalike contest

and, conveniently, an orphan from Edinburgh. Of course, it didn't hurt to assume

that Campbell could write the same type of songs as McCartney and just happened

to have the same voice.

The arrival of an impostor in November 1966, then, could have explained why the

Beatles stopped touring that same year (it would have been too easy to spot a fake

McCartney performance on stage) and started to grow moustaches (the face was

almost identical, but not perfect: it needed some disguise).

However, this terrible secret generated in the remaining Beatles, John Lennon,

George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, a strong sense of guilt and induced them to

insert many hints and clues to the truth in their songs and album covers.

I buried Paul

What had revealed the existence of a conspiracy to the mysterious "Tom" was the

publication, two weeks before his telephone call, of the Beatles's latest album,

titled Abbey Road. The album cover showed the four Beatles walking in a single file

across the now-famous crosswalk at Abbey Road. This was thought to symbolize a

funeral procession: John Lennon, dressed in white, represented the Church (and

white is the traditional color of mourning in many Eastern cultures); Ringo,

dressed in black, represented the undertaker. Paul was out of step with the other

three Beatles, with his eyes closed and barefoot: in a number of societies, it

appears that corpses are buried without their shoes; furthermore, Paul held a

cigarette in his right hand, when everybody knew that the real McCartney was left

-handed! George Harrison, last in line, was dressed in work clothes and, to many,

represented the gravedigger.

On the street there is also a parked Volkswagen Beetle whose license plate shows

an eerie message: "LMW 28IF," interpreted to mean that Paul would have been 28 if

he had lived. The fact that Paul was actually 27 years old when Abbey Road was

released doesn't seem to make much difference, for in far Eastern societies (the

Beatles had quite a fascination with the Far East) an individual's birth included the

time spent in the mother's womb. In that case, Paul would indeed have been 28.

These "revelations" quickly launched an unprecedented outbreak of hysteria in the

pop world and in the media, as more and more "clues" were found in previous

Beatles records.

First of all, the clue-diggers looked at Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the

first album that the Beatles recorded after Paul's supposed demise. Released on

June 1, 1967, the record was among the most influential in music history. The

cover, another famous picture, showed the four Beatles dressed in band uniforms,

gathered around a bass drum bearing the album title and with a crowd of cut-out

people around them. It proved to be a goldmine for clue-diggers. Again, the

spectators resembled the mourners at a funeral and the flowers in front of them

not only spelled the word "Beatles," but also a set of yellow hyacinths formed the

shape of a left-handed bass guitar, McCartney's instrument.

Paul had a right hand raised above his head: again, supposedly, in certain Far

Eastern societies, this was a symbol of death. Also, while the other Beatles held

bright, golden, band instruments, Paul held a black clarinet: another supposed

symbol of mourning?

A doll wore a striped "Welcome the Rolling Stones" sweatshirt: on her leg there is a

small model car, strongly resembling an Aston Martin that seems to be heading

towards the word "Stones." Perhaps a hint of the accident?

If you then held a flat mirror perpendicular to the center of the words "Lonely

Hearts" appearing on the bass drum this hidden message appeared: "I ONE IX HE ‡

DIE". "I ONE IX" is a direct reference to the supposed fatal crash day (11/9/66),

"HE" refers to Paul, as the diamond that points directly to McCartney confirms,

"DIE".

In the open album jacket, the Beatles appear still in the Sgt. Pepper's uniforms and

McCartney wore an arm patch that read "OPD": an abbreviation for "Officially

Pronounced Dead"?

This was also the first album in history that included the lyrics to the songs

appearing in the record, and they were published on the back cover, along with a

picture of the four Beatles in their outfits. Strangely, Paul is the only one turning

his back to the camera, and also strange is the fact that George's thumb points to

the opening lines of "She's Leaving Home." The lyric states: "Wednesday morning at

five o'clock as the day begins," another reference to the day and time of Paul's

fatal accident?

In another song of the album, "A Day in the Life," John sings "He blew his mind

out in a car," and in another, "Good Morning, Good Morning," he starts by singing:

"Nothing to do to save his life" (and was the title a play on the words "morning" and

"mourning"?) And what about "Lovely Rita"? Was the song a reference to the girl

that caused Paul's death? Could be, since in it McCartney (or the imposter) sings:

"Took her home and nearly made it."

More clues were also found in subsequent albums. The Magical Mystery Tour

cover showed the Beatles dressed in animal costumes. In the center was a black

walrus and, in certain Scandinavian countries, a walrus is considered a harbinger

of death. Was the imposter dressed in the walrus skin? Apparently not, for John

Lennon sings in the album the song titled "I am the Walrus." But on the album

cover, as if scribbled later, the complete title appears to be: "I am the Walrus (‘No

You're Not!' Said Little Nicola)." So who was the walrus?

In a later Beatles release (titled simply The Beatles, the record became better

known as the White Album because the cover was plain white), in a song titled

"Glass Onion," Lennon sings: "Well here's another clue for you all, the walrus was

Paul"!

On the booklet included in Magical Mystery Tour, the clues abounded: Paul is

shoeless in some pictures, is the only one to wear a black flower on his lapel while

the others are red, has a hand above his head in various pictures, and he even sits

behind a sign stating "I Was."

Near the end of the song "Strawberry Fields Forever," upon careful listening, a

faint voice stated something like "I buried Paul."

You could also turn the Magical Mystery Tour album jacket upside-down and look

at its reflection in the mirror: the title, detailed as stars, became the digits to a

phone number. The rumor further explained that if the numbers were dialed, the

listener would get the true details of Paul McCartney's death.

On the White Album, if you listened to a strange murmuring following the song

"I'm So Tired," you couldn't make out what it said. But, should you decide to play

the record backwards the words became something like: "Paul is dead now, miss

him, miss him, miss him." Nothing compared to the chilling revelations of

"Revolution No. 9," where, after reversing the song, you could hear a voice saying:

"Turn me on dead man," and then the sound of a terrible collision, the sounds of

crackling flames and a voice screaming "Let me out! Let me out!" A recreation of

Paul's terrible accident?

"My death? An exaggeration"

It seems unimaginable that the American public would believe such an unfounded

rumor. However, this same generation had been raised on the idea that there may

have been a conspiracy to kill President John F. Kennedy and that the Warren

Commission had actually worked to hide this fact from the public. Would it be so

impossible, then, to believe that Paul McCartney's death may have been hidden

from the public?

The rumors became so noisy that Paul McCartney himself had to reassure his fans

that he was still alive. In an exclusive interview with Life magazine (November 7,

1969) he stated, paraphrasing Mark Twain, that "Rumors of my death have been

greatly exaggerated. However, if I was dead, I'm sure I'd be the last to know." He

also offered a number of explanations for the mysterious clues.

The OPD patch he wore on Sgt. Pepper's actually meant "Ontario Police

Department"; he wore a black flower in Magical Mystery Tour because they had

run out of red ones; it was John wearing the walrus outfit and, on Abbey Road, he

was barefoot only because it was a hot day.

Other "clues" had similar simpler explanations: John did not say "I buried Paul" at

the end of "Strawberry Fields" but, as can be clearly heard now on a clearer take of

the song in Anthology 3, he says "cranberry sauce."

However, while it is true that most clues can be easily attributed to coincidence

and wishful thinking, there are little things that must have been put there by the

Beatles for some purpose, like the various "walrus" claims, the backward messages,

and some other hints in the album covers. It may just be, as John Lennon said,

that they only wanted to have a laugh at the expense of those critics reading

cryptic messages in everything they did.

What is sadly true is the fact that Charles Manson and his "family" also believed

that there were hidden messages in Beatles songs hinting at the Armageddon. He

thought that the Fab Four were actually angels sent by God to reveal the secrets of

the approaching apocalypse and that, in order to start the end of the world, they

needed Manson's help. This is the tragically absurd reasoning he gave for the

murder of Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of film director Roman Polanski, and

the guests she was hosting at their house in Hollywood.

According to R. Gary Patterson, author of the well-researched "The Walrus Was

Paul" (New York: Fireside, 1996), "Perhaps the Beatles became concerned that if

they admitted to planting clues they could very well be charged in some sort of

conspiracy that would indirectly link them to the Manson murders. Perhaps it

would be much safer to give up the hoax and deny it ever happened. This way, the

Beatles would be safe from any lawsuit implicating the band members."

Perhaps. In a lighter vein, however, the rumor also helped to further boost the sale

of the Beatles catalog and inspired a lot of cartoons and comedy skits, like one

that was presented on The Ed Sullivan Show on Februrary 23, 1970, involving two

angels in heaven:

Angel One: Is there any truth to the rumor that Paul McCartney is still alive?

Angel Two: I doubt it. Where do you think we get those groovy harp arrangements? "