Shakur 1

Seattle Shakur
Professor Silver
Intermediate Writing
21 March 2017
Paul is Dead . . . or Maybe Not?
In September of 1969, The Beatles album Abbey Road was released in the United States.

Not only was there hype surrounding the album, but new excitement came about from a rumor of

Paul McCartneys apparent death. A U.S. radio disk jockey, Roby Yonge, is credited with

spreading this conspiracy across America (Variety). One fateful night in October, when Yonge

was live on air, he discussed a college campus rumor of how Paul had gotten into a fatal car

accident in 1966. He then went on to explain that Paul was replaced by a double named Billy

Shears who supposedly won a look-a-like contest to substitute the dead Beatle (Benjamin). When

The Beatles did not address these rumors right away, the conspiracy theory escalated. Things

became increasingly suspicious when Paul was not seen in public after the conspiracy began to

spread. This provoked people to believe he was trying to lay low until the rumor faded (Variety).
There are two sides when it comes to this conspiracy: the people who believe that the

Paul is dead rumor is real and those who believe it is highly unlikely and fake. Although there

is ample evidence supporting the theory, the majority can be debunked though simple research

and logic. Most of this evidence can be seen as one grasping at thin air. A large quantity of

evidence one finds is in Beatles songs and album art released during or after 1967. This is

because Pauls car accident where he died supposedly occurred in 1966 (Variety). Analyzing

anything before would be pointless because one would not be able to attribute it to the

conspiracy.
The first commonality that most agree upon is how the presence of clues about Pauls

death in The Beatles studio album art. The article, Paul is Dead Clues on Abbey Road,

reviews each section of the Abbey Road cover and analyzes the visuals shown (Dead Man). On

the cover of Abbey Road, the four members are seen walking across a crossing in what looks to
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be a funeral procession. John Lennon wears all white and mirrors the appearance of a preacher.

Ringo Starr looks to be an undertaker because his suit is all black. George Harrison, being at the

back of the line and wearing all denim, resembles a gravedigger, because his appearance suggests

that he is a worker (Dead Man).

Starting off with Johns appearance, his outfit hardly resembles that of a preachers. A

simple priest from the Roman Catholic clergy would dress in a black cassock, which is a one-

piece button-up robe (Shetler). Comparing with John, he is wearing a suit, not a cassock.

Furthermore, a priest would be wearing the common black variety of the cassock at a funeral and

not an all-white one. Ringos appearance, on the other hand, does look like what an undertaker

would typically wear. Usually, for a funeral, they put on a black suit or dress depending on if the

undertaker is male or female. However, black suits are common outside of funerals too. By

saying Ringo is an undertaker because of the color of his suit, one is trying to relate to things that

have no correlation. The same goes for Georges working man outfit. There are many

professions where one would wear denim, not just gravedigging. Conspiracy theorists are

grasping at straws when trying to connect this image to a funeral procession.

The author of The Beatles album cover that started a decades-long conspiracy theory

adds to the discussion on the Abbey Road cover. Out of the four, Pauls appearance is analyzed

the most and contributes the greatest amount of evidence to the conspiracy. He is holding a

cigarette in his right hand, although it is a well-known fact that he is left-handed. Additionally, in

some places, a slang term for cigarette is coffin nail, which some say is a clear allusion to his

death. However, in photos taken after 1966, one can see Paul still playing a left-handed guitar.

This means that, if it truly was Billy Shears, he is left-handed just like Paul. So, no matter who it

would be, holding a cigarette in his left hand is a tad bit strange, but nothing notable enough to

attribute it is evidence towards Pauls death.

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In addition to the cigarette, Paul is depicted barefoot, which led to a spiral of rumors on

its own (Mail). In a 2009 interview with David Letterman, when asked about the conspiracy and

the Abbey Road cover, Paul stated, . . . it was so hot that I kicked [my sandals] off and walked

across barefooted. So, this started some rumor that because he was barefooted: hes dead. I

couldnt see the connection (McCartney). Besides the famous crossing picture, there are other

photos that were taken on the day of the Abbey Road shoot. In these, one can clearly see Paul

wearing the pair of sandals that he said he was wearing during his interview with Letterman. This

confirms that Pauls story is true and that the other Beatles did not plan to have this subliminal

messaging in the Abbey Road cover.

Another much-discussed image from the Abbey Road cover is a Volkswagen Beetle

parked on the side of the road behind George. The license plate on the back reads 28IF. People

believe this to mean that Paul would have been 28-years-old IF he had not died in the 1966 car

accident (Dead Man). The problem with this observation is that Paul would not have been 28 in

September of 1969. Being born on June 18, 1942, Paul would only have been 27-years-old

during the Abbey Road shoot.

Besides the Abbey Road cover, clues supporting the conspiracy can be found on the

covers of Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Author of Paul is

Dead Clues on Abbey Road also stated that, in Magical Mystery Tour, there is an image of all

four group members wearing white suits with red carnations. The only thing off about this image

is that, unlike the rest, Paul is wearing a black carnation (Dead Man). Black carnations, and black

objects in general, are known to be common symbols of death. So, when looking at the image,

conspiracists believe it to be another sign that Paul is indeed dead. This reasoning is none other

than a non-sequitur fallacy. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, non-sequitur means, an

inference that does not follow from the premises; specifically: a fallacy resulting from a simple
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conversion of a universal affirmative proposition or from the transposition of a condition and its

consequent (Merriam-Webster). In simple terms, if one says their argument is true, but, cannot

connect the dots of this argument in a logical fashion, then they are committing a non-sequitur

fallacy. There is no way to prove a connection between Paul wearing a black carnation and his

supposed death. The flower may have just been a stylistic choice chosen by the Beatles and not

meant to mean anything subliminal.

According to the book, Turn Me On, Dead Man: The Beatles and the Paul is Dead

Hoax, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band also shows this kind of imagery on the cover. In

the front of the photo, one can see a guitar made out of yellow hyacinths that appear to spell out

Pauls name with a question mark after it. Not to mention, there are only three flower stems lying

on top of the guitar, signifying that the group is missing Paul (Reeve 5). However, this is another

non-sequitur fallacy, because there is no way to make a logical connection between flower

arrangements and a message about Pauls death.

On the inside cover of Sgt. Pepper, Paul is wearing a patch with the acronym O.P.D. on

his sleeve. Some people believe that this stands for Officially Pronounced Dead (Dead Man).

Although this is the obvious conclusion for conspiracy theorists to make, the patch does not read

that at all. In fact, it states O.P.P. and stands for the Ontario Provincial Police. The way Pauls

arm is positioned in the photo covers the stem part of the P and makes it look like a D. Beatles

historian, Piers Hemmingsen, goes into more detail on how Paul came to own the Ontario police

patch (The Glass Onion Beatles Journal). While being interviewed, he tells how the O.P.P. arm

patches were given to all four Beatles in 1964, after landing at an airport, as an appreciation gift

for coming to Canada:

George was not feeling well that day and chose to board

the plane early as the other 3 Beatles stood in the sunshine on the

tarmac waving to fans (who had skipped school that day)

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surrounded by their OPP security detail. It is likely that the four

badges were received by one Beatle, and simply stuffed in a

bag . . . The badge must have been lying around on Paul's bureau

for over two years before it beckoned him for use in early 1967.

(qtd. in The Glass Onion Beatles Journal)

This shows that the Beatles did not acquire these badges with the intent to share messages

with their fans about Pauls death. Additionally, the patches were received in 1964, which was

two years before Pauls supposed car accident. The Beatles could not have foreseen Pauls death;

therefore, these patches are not evidence for the conspiracy.

The second part of proof that theorists agree upon is how one can find perceived evidence

supporting Pauls death in Beatles songs post-1966. As told by Variety Inc. in 1969, the

following songs: Strawberry Fields Forever, I am the Walrus, Glass Onion, and A Day in

the Life all reference Pauls death in their lyrics (Variety). Theorists speculate that the group

members were feeling guilt from hiding this secret and began to place hints in their music to ease

the pain. For example, at the end of Strawberry Fields Forever, John can be heard saying

words that sound like, I buried Paul. (Reeve 5). However, the words are extremely faint and

one can ultimately hear whatever it is they want to. John could have easily said Im very bored

instead of I buried Paul, but, because conspiracy theorists are trying to find messages about

Pauls death, they will more likely hear the former instead of the latter. If one is trying hard to

find something, they will eventually stumble across it.

In the lyrics of Glass Onion, John Lennon wrote, I told you about the walrus and me-

man. You know that were as close as can be-man. Well heres another clue for you all: the

walrus was Paul (The Beatles). As stated in an article by D.A. Bird, the word walrus was

rumored to be Greek for corpse (Bird et al. 110). Essentially, saying the walrus was Paul is the
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same thing as saying Paul was a corpse. Problem is, no such word as walrus exists in the Greek

language. The Greek word for corpse is actually (ptma).

The two songs above have more abstract meaning, however, there is one song that is said

to directly reference the car accident that may have killed Paul. A Day in the Life is the song

that many conspiracists look to when trying to prove their point. In it, John sings, He blew his

mind out in a car. He didnt notice that the lights had changed. A crowd of people stood and

stared. Theyd seen his face before. Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords

(The Beatles). Author of Paul is Dead Clues on Abbey Road Album states that this was the

groups official announcement about Pauls death and supports the 1966 car accident theory

(Dead Man). Despite this, John shares his real inspiration behind the song to an interviewer, and

it has nothing to do with Paul. He was inspired by a news story about a London socialite named

Tara Browne, who was a friend of the Beatles. Tara ran a red light in 1966 at a high speed,

causing him to get into a fatal accident. The official cause of death was suicide (Beatles Bible).

John describes this in his interview with David Sheff:

Just as it sounds: I was reading the paper one day and

noticed two stories. One was about the Guinness heir who killed

himself in a car. That was the main headline story. He died in

London in a car crash. On the next page was a story about four

thousand potholes in the streets of Blackburn, Lancashire, that

needed to be filled. Paul's contribution was the beautiful little lick

in the song, 'I'd love to turn you on,' that he'd had floating around

in his head and couldn't use. I thought it was a damn good piece of

work. (qtd. in Beatles Bible)

From this, one can conclude that A Day in the Life is not a song about Pauls death, but

rather, a song inspired by the news of the day.

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The following songs also may support the theory that Paul was replaced by a look-a-like

named Billy Shears. The first two songs on the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album,

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and With a Little Help from My Friends, explicitly

state the name Billy Shears during the end and beginning of both songs. The line, So let me

introduce to you the one and only Billy Shears . . . plays towards the end of Sgt. Peppers

Lonely Hearts Club Band. At the beginning of With a Little Help from My Friends, Billy

Shears introduces himself by saying his name (The Beatles). This may be the origin of the name

Billy Shears and why people attribute it to Pauls double. Other than that, there is no previous

record of Billy Shears, making it monumentally difficult for people to prove that he exists.

Furthermore, if Billy Shears were Pauls replacement, it would not make sense for The Beatles to

use that name when introducing Ringo.

A third discussion amongst theorists is of back masking and how it may contribute to the

conspiracy theory. Back masking is the term used for playing a recording in reverse. Instead of a

song playing from front-to-back, it plays from back-to-front. On a record player, one must

disengage the motor drive, then use their hands to manually push the record in the opposite

direction that it would normally go (Shermer 292). This flips all the words. For example, the

statement, Pigs can fly would change into Ylf nac sgip when undergoing back masking. As

far as Beatles songs go, if played backwards, one will hear a lot of strange messages that were

not purposefully put there. Many of these messages discuss Pauls death and are seen as even

more evidence to put onto the already mountainous stack of conspiracy proof. The most well-

known case of back masking involved in this conspiracy is in the song Revolution 9. There is a

part during the song where a recording of a man repeating the phrase Number nine, Number

nine is heard. When this specific part is played backwards, the man now says, Turn me on,

Dead Man (The Beatles).

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For lesser known back masks, the song Let it Be says Hes been dead when the let it

be part of the song is played backwards. In Birthday, there is a part of the back masked song

that one can hear them saying Paul is dead. And lastly, in Glass Onion the lyrics The walrus

was Paul is played backwards to say, Paul took the wrong road (The Beatles).
This phenomenon did not only occur in songs by The Beatles, but also in a song that

George Harrison wrote during his solo career. On the 1971 album, All Things Must Pass, there is

a short, forty-nine second song titled Its Johnnys Birthday. This was meant to be a tribute to

John Lennon for his 30th birthday (Beatles Bible). However, when this song is played

backwards, there is a very specific message relating to Paul. So specific, in fact, that it is hard to

believe it was not purposefully done. Forward, the song says, . . . birthday, and we would like to

wish him all the very best. Backwards it says, He never wore his shoes we all know he was

dead (Harrison). This directly relates to the Abbey Road cover and how Paul was not wearing

his shoes in that picture.

Unlike the other sources, the author of Undeniable Proof that Paul McCartney was

Replaced with a Look-a Like tries to prove that the conspiracy is real by doing facial

comparison of pre-1966 Paul and post-1966 Paul. First, the author goes through photos of John

and compares two photos taken ten years apart. He concludes that the faces have almost no

notable differences and that it is the face of the same person. Then, moving on to Paul, he shows

that the chin and ears of the more recent photo of Paul do not match up with the older photo.

Besides that, the faces line up perfectly. The author believes that it is too perfect of a match and,

therefore looks suspicious. He explains how the double must have gotten plastic surgery in order

to look exactly like Paul (Digilander). (No analysis yet!)

To conclude, whether one believes that Paul is dead or not, most sources agree that fans

can find evidence supporting this conspiracy theory in songs and album artwork. After 58

years, people are still talking about this conspiracy theory and are currently debating whether
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Paul actually died and was replaced, or if he never died and it was all a hoax. According to Loren

Collins, author of Paul McCartney Really is not Dead, states that, in a 2013 survey, only 5

percent of respondents genuinely believed that Paul is dead. This is almost equivalent to the 4

percent of people who believe lizard people run the world (Collins). Undeniably, there is a

mountain of evidence that people use to support the theory, but it is far from practical. To believe

that a person exists and not only looks exactly like Paul McCartney, but also has the same voice,

musical talent, and personality is borderline insane . . . or maybe its not.

Works Cited
Beatles Bible. Its Johnnys Birthday. The Beatles Bible, 9 October 2014. Web. 5 March 2017.
Beatle Bits: Weekly news roundup. The Glass Onion Beatles Journal, 22 January 2016. Web.
12 April 2017.
Benjamin, Scott. Roby on Roby. Music Radio 77, 2017. Web. 5 March 2017.

Bird, D. A., Holder, S. C. and Sears, D. "Walrus is Greek for Corpse: Rumor and the Death of
Paul McCartney." The Journal of Popular Culture, p.110121. June 1976.
Collins, Loren. "Paul McCartney Really is Not Dead." Skeptical Inquirer, 2014.
Dead Man. Paul is Dead Clues on Abbey Road Album. Turn Me on Dead Man, 19 June 2013.
Web. 7 March 2017.
Digilander. Undeniable Proof that Paul McCartney was replaced by a Look-a-Like. Libero,

2014.
Web. 6 March 2017.
Harrison, George. "It's Johnny's Birthday." All Things Must Pass, Apple Records, 1970.
Jones, Josh. "How the 'Paul McCartney is Dead' Hoax Started at an American College
Newspaper and Went Viral." Open Culture, 26 December 2014. Web. 15 February 2017.
"Kid's New Macabre Game: Is Paul McCartney Dead?" Variety, Inc. [New York City, New
York], 22 October 1969.
Letterman, David. "Paul McCartney on David Letterman." Late Show with David Letterman,
2009.
Mail. Pictured: The Beatles album cover that started a decades-long conspiracy theory. Daily
Mail, 8 August 2009. 6 March 2017.
Non-Sequitur. Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster. Web. 12 April 2017.
Reeve, Andru J. Turn Me On, Dead Man: The Beatles and the Paul is Dead Hoax. Author
House, 12 October 2004. P. 5-7. Web. 5 March 2017.
Shermer, Michael. Turn Me On, Dead Man. Scientific America, p. 292. May 2005.
Shetler, Joseph L. Dress of Roman Catholic Clergy. Shetler Sites, 2014.
The Beatles. "A Day in the Life." Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, EMI studios, 1967.
The Beatles. "Birthday." The Beatles, EMI studios, 1968.
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The Beatles. "I am the Walrus." Magical Mystery Tour, EMI studios, 1967.
The Beatles. "Let it Be." Let it Be, Apple Records, 1970.
The Beatles. "Glass Onion." The Beatles, EMI studios, 1968.
The Beatles. "Revolution 9." The Beatles, EMI studios, 1968.
The Beatles. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band,
EMI studios, 1967.
The Beatles. "Strawberry Fields Forever." Magical Mystery Tour, EMI studios, 1967.

The Beatles. With a Little Help from My Friends. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band,

EMI
studios, 1967.