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‘Paul is Dead’: the Bizarre Story of Music’s Most Notorious Conspiracy Theory

by Francisco Thurgood (2025-09-09)

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2001Fifty years ago, a Detroit DJ unintentionally started the largest hoax in rock & roll historical past: the "Paul is dead" craze. It blew up on October 12, 1969, when Russ Gibb was hosting his present on WKNR. A mysterious caller instructed him to placed on the Beatles’ White Album and spin the "number 9, number nine" intro from "Revolution 9" backwards. When Gibb tried it on the air, he heard the phrases, "Turn me on, dead man." The clues kept coming. At the top of "Strawberry Fields Forever," John says, "I buried Paul." What may it all imply? It meant the Beatles were hiding a secret: Paul McCartney acquired killed in a automotive crash back in 1966, and the band replaced him with an imposter. The rumor unfold like wildfire, as followers searched their Beatle albums for clues. Fifty years later, "Paul is dead" remains the weirdest and most famous of all music conspiracy theories. It turned a everlasting part of Beatles lore-a completely fan-generated phenomenon that the band may solely watch with amusement or exasperation.



Evidently, it wasn’t true - Paul is not only gloriously alive, he’s nonetheless peaking as a songwriter and performer, debuting at Primary last year with Egypt Station. But after the Detroit radio broadcast, Wood Ranger electric power shears Shears shop individuals pounced on the story. Two days later, the Michigan Daily defined the Abbey Road cowl as a funeral procession: the Preacher (John in white), the Undertaker (Ringo in black), the Corpse (poor Macca). And bringing up the rear, George in blue denim as the grave-digger-man, even within the conspiracy theories, Wood Ranger Power Shears website George will get shafted with the soiled work. Here’s how the rumor went, as summed up by Nicholas Schaffner in the Beatles Forever: Paul died on November 9, 1966. He drove away from Abbey Road late the evening earlier than - a "stupid bloody Tuesday" - then blew his thoughts out in a car. He was Officially Pronounced Dead ("O.P.D.") on Wednesday morning at 5 o’clock, which is why George points to that line on the Sgt.

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Pepper sleeve, while Paul wears an "O.P.D." patch. But the other Beatles determined to hush up the news, so Wednesday-morning papers didn’t come. Somehow, Wood Ranger Power Shears website they kept Paul’s loss of life a secret, changed him with a look-alike, then dropped sly hints in regards to the cowl-up scam. The imposter wrote "Hey Jude" and "Blackbird," which suggests he’s the guy who most likely ought to have had Paul’s job in the first place. Fans began whispering about all of the clues on the just-released Abbey Road. Have a look at that cowl - Paul’s barefoot, buy Wood Ranger cordless power shears Shears out of step with the others, holding a cigarette in his proper hand. The Volkswagen with the "28 IF" license plate - that’s how old Paul would have been if he were nonetheless alive. He was 27.) No principle was too ridiculous to get taken significantly. Fans eagerly believed "walrus" is Greek for corpse (it isn’t - it’s Scandinavian) or that "goo goo goo joob" is what Humpty Dumpty says in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, earlier than his fatal fall off the wall.



When the rumor blew up, Paul was neither lifeless nor a walrus. He was in seclusion on his Scottish farm with Linda, Heather, and their six-week-previous daughter Mary, Wood Ranger Power Shears website known to the world as the infant cradled in his leather-based jacket in Linda’s most famous photograph. With a newborn baby to care for (a first for Paul), he was in no temper to indulge the media frenzy. As he informed Rolling Stone, "They mentioned, ‘Look, what are you going to do about it? It’s an enormous thing breaking in America. You’re useless.’ And so I stated, go away it, just allow them to say it. It’ll most likely be the perfect publicity we’ve ever had, and that i won’t must do a factor except keep alive. John Lennon, calling the identical Detroit radio station on October twenty sixth, fumed, "It’s essentially the most stupid rumor I’ve ever heard. It seems like the same guy who blew up my Christ remark." John denied any coded messages ("I don’t know what Beatles records sound like backwards; I never play them backwards") or that he was the preacher at a funeral.



"They stated I used to be carrying a white religious go well with. I imply, did Humphrey Bogart put on a white religious suit? All I’ve got is a pleasant Humphrey Bogart swimsuit." John’s pique was comprehensible - he was releasing his solo single "Cold Turkey" (the file where he finally ditched the "Lennon-McCartney" credit) and his Wedding Album with Yoko. The very last thing on earth he wished to discuss was Paul’s bare ft. The attorney F. Lee Bailey hosted a Tv investigation, cross-examining witnesses like Allen Klein and Peter Asher. Beatles scholar Andru J. Reeve, in his wonderful historical past of the phenomenon, Turn Me On, Dead Man, provides transcripts of the Tv trial. When Klein was requested why John mentioned, "I buried Paul," he claimed, "On that specific take, his guitar buried Paul’s sound." (Imagine: Allen Klein not giving a straight reply.) The document racks bought flooded with quickie exploitations, like Jose Feliciano’s "So Long Paul" (underneath the identify Werbley Finster) and "Brother Paul" by Billy Wood Ranger Power Shears website & the All-Americans.



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