The following will tell the fascinating story of why Paul McCartney felt the need to let the world know that he was still alive and with us on the cover of Time Magazine in 1969, and why one dj's accidental report of a fatal car accident in England caused mass hysteria in Detroit, MI and beyond.
.....My first quarter of college, I took this PR class with this enormous, boisterous, collection of energy for a professor. He was extremely entertaining... We didn't know much about him other than he preferred to be in the audience, he wore a lot of black, and he worked as a preacher on the weekends.
Our grade basically depended on this big final project, where we had to take something... Literally anything... Analyze it, then break it down and present it to the class.
It didn't take me long to decide what my project would be based on, being the Beatles freak that I am/was. In fact, I had just come across this insane conspiracy theory about Paul's untimely death in 1966 and the remaining Beatles' (namely John's) attempt to cover it up. Starting with Sgt Pepper's, but culminating on Abbey Road... Both through their lyrics and album contents. The theory leans entirely on the the crux that instead of admitting to Paul dying in a car crash and possibly slowing down their success, the remaining three held a look-alike contest, and the winner, William Shears, was soon filling in for Paul everywhere... Press junkets, on covers, in photoshoots, etc. He was introduced in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band as "Billy Shears". There is said to be only one discernible difference between the two, and that is a scar that the 'real' Paul had right above the left side of his lip.
My project basically picked apart the clues that had been uncovered by fans obsessed by the theory. There are literally hundreds of lyrical, visual, play-it-backwards, add-it-up-type clues out there... Which I fully encourage you to explore, but for the sake of a focused post and one that won't take forever to write, I'll pick apart the Abbey Road cover... And perhaps explain a bit about why the lyrics scared people into believing our beloved Paul was a goner.
- Abbey Road, 1969 -- To start, if you'll notice, some have taken the four to be resembling a funeral procession. John, being dressed in all white as the priest, Ringo in black as the undertaker, Paul is barefoot (as corpses are not traditionally buried in shoes), his eyes are closed and he is out of step with the other three, and George is dressed casually, suggesting he is the grave digger.
- Paul is also seen to be holding his cigarette (called "coffin nails" in England around this time) in his right hand, while widely known to be left handed, furthering speculation that an impostor was in his place.
- The white VW bug in the background's license plate reads "LMW 28IF"... Some have interpreted this to mean "Linda McCartney Weeps, 28 If"... Because on the release date of this album, Paul would have been '28 if' he had lived.
- Did you notice the hearse on the right?
- There are three men standing on the sidewalk to the left, all dressed in white. These men are said to represent the three remaining, living Beatles.
And perhaps the most spirited of the findings, was on the White Album (where else?). People claim if you listen to "Revolution 9", and the part where a deep voice repeats ...number 9... number 9... number 9... backwards, you can distinctly hear ...turn me on, dead man... turn me on, dead man... turn me on, dead man... Of course, you'll need vinyl to test the theory. And I'd gladly loan you mine, if I wasn't so anal about scratching it up. Let's just take the crazies' word for it, k?
......In the Life magazine interview reassuring fans that he was not dead, McCartney stated, "Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated," and paraphrasing Mark Twain, he continued, "However, if I was dead, I'm sure I'd be the last to know."
