Paul is Dead-Rotten Apple

Rumors and conspiracies have been an active part of rock ‘n’ roll for ages and continue to mystify and confound those looking for clues. This year a filmmaker, imaphoney, decided to start a series that analyzed the data available with his ‘Rotten Apple’ shorts. While the films are not always convincing, they are always entertaining in one way or another.

As for the story behind Paul McCartney being dead goes all the way back to October 12, 1969, when someone called Detroit DJ Russ Gibb urging him to play “Revolution 9″ backwards. It was then that the first ‘clue’ was found as Gibb heard the phrase “Turn me on, dead man.”

Rumor is that McCartney stormed out of the recording studio while the Beatles were working on Sgt. Pepper in 1966 and was killed in a terrible car wreck.

Many have claimed that the clues are in many of the Beatles lyrics, such as “He didn’t notice that the lights had changed” (“A Day in the Life”) because he was busy watching the pretty girl on the pavement (“Lovely Rita”) after narrowly missing her dressed in blue (she’s the blur on the back of Abbey Road) jaywalking (‘Blue Jay Way’). He then crashed into a light pole (a car crash sound is heard in “Revolution 9″). He was pronounced dead on a “Wednesday morning at 5 o’clock as the day begins” (‘She’s Leaving Home’), and nobody found out this because the news was withheld: “Wednesday morning papers didn’t come” (‘Lady Madonna’). A funeral procession was held days later (as implied in the Abbey Road album cover).
Rotten Apple No.37

While there is no documented evidence of the alleged car crash, McCartney’s custom-made Mini Cooper was wrecked by a friend on the M1 Motorway outside London some time in January 1967.

Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that Paul’s boyish face was scarred in the promotional videos for the ‘Paperback Writer’/'Rain.’ This on account of a moped accident that scarred Paul’s lips. Self-consciously, he grew a mustache to cover the scar and the rest of the band joined in as well.
Rotten Apple No.15

As for the ‘look-a-like’ that allegedly replaced Paul, the story is that he is actually William Shears (yes, that Billy Shears), a Canadian born winner of the look-a-like Paul McCartney contest. Shears supposedly appears for the first time as Paul in the video for ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’

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While the search for clues still continues, it’s unclear if the strange pointers in lyrics, backwards masked recording and bizarre album cover art is intentional or if it’s just some joke played on fans. As the rumors of Paul’s death grew, many of the Beatles, John Lennon included, claimed people heard what they wanted to hear.

References to Paul’s death cover-up can be found in numerous media, from film to TV, but the strangest is a 1970 issue of Batman called “Dead…Till Proven Alive” in which it is rumored that “Saul” from the band the Oliver Twists was deceased and replaced with a double.

 

On the cover of the issue, you can see that Robin is holding a ‘clue’ in the case, an album that looks very much like “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

 

What’s really weird is that my fave writer of offbeat Batman stories, Bob Haney, did not write this one. How is that possible?

 

That, to me, is the bigger mystery.