NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD MASSIMO POLIDORO The Walrus Was Paul! id you know that Paul McCartney, the ex-Beatle, Dnever 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 per- haps 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, re- ceived 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 John Lennon and Paul McCartney are shown on their arrival at Palam airport, near Delhi, India, on their way was caused by a hitchhiker named Rita to meet with their guru, The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Photo by UPPA/ZUMA Press. Copyright 1966 by UPPA [Photo via NewsCom] who Paul had picked up along the road. With Paul’s death, however, a big somebody who looked like him and songs as McCartney and just happened problem arose: the Beatles were at the could play music. Some sources claimed to have the same voice. peak of their career and the loss of one that the imposter was an actor named Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of of their members would mean the end William Campbell, the winner of a Paul the paranormal, author, lecturer, and of the show for them and for the indus- McCartney lookalike contest and, con- co-founder and head of CICAP, the Italian try behind them. Thus, somebody had veniently, an orphan from Edinburgh. skeptics group. His Web site is www.massi the idea of never revealing Paul’s death Of course, it didn’t hurt to assume that mopolidoro.com. and hiring an impostor in his place, Campbell could write the same type of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER January / February 2006 21 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 pic- ture, 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 Abbey Road cover art contains many clues to Paul McCartney’s (non)death. held bright, golden, band instruments, The arrival of an impostor in the traditional color of mourning in Paul held a black clarinet: another sup- November 1966, then, could have many Eastern cultures); Ringo, dressed posed symbol of mourning? ex plained why the Beatles stopped tour- in black, represented the undertaker. A doll wore a striped “Welcome the ing that same year (it would have been Paul was out of step with the other Rolling Stones” sweatshirt: on her leg too easy to spot a fake McCartney per- three Beatles, with his eyes closed and there is a small model car, strongly formance on stage) and started to grow barefoot: in a number of societies, it resembling an Aston Martin that seems moustaches (the face was almost identical, appears that corpses are buried without to be heading towards the word “Stones.” but not perfect: it needed some disguise). their shoes; furthermore, Paul held a Perhaps a hint of the accident? However, this terrible secret generated cigarette in his right hand, when every- If you then held a flat mirror per- in the remaining Beatles, John Lennon, body knew that the real McCartney was pendicular to the center of the words George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, a left-handed! George Harrison, last in “Lonely Hearts” appearing on the bass strong sense of guilt and induced them to line, was dressed in work clothes and, to drum this hidden message appeared: insert many hints and clues to the truth many, represented the gravedigger. “I ONE IX HE ‡ DIE”. “I ONE IX” in their songs and album covers. On the street there is also a parked is a direct reference to the supposed Volkswagen Beetle whose license plate fatal crash day (11/9/66), “HE” refers I Buried Paul shows an eerie message: “LMW 28IF,” to Paul, as the diamond that points What had revealed the existence of a interpreted to mean that Paul would directly to McCartney confirms, “DIE”. conspiracy to the mysterious “Tom” have been twenty-eight if he had lived. In the open album jacket, the Beatles was the publication, two weeks before The fact that Paul was actually twen- appear still in the Sgt. Pepper’s uniforms his telephone call, of the Beatles’s latest ty-seven years old when Abbey Road was and McCartney wore an arm patch album, titled Abbey Road. The album released doesn’t seem to make much dif- that read “OPD”: an abbreviation for cover showed the four Beatles walking ference, for in far Eastern societies (the “Officially Pronounced Dead”? in a single file across the now-famous Beatles had quite a fascination with the This was also the first album in his- crosswalk at Abbey Road. This was Far East) an individual’s birth included tory that included the lyrics to the songs thought to symbolize a funeral proces- the time spent in the mother’s womb. In appearing in the record, and they were sion: John Lennon, dressed in white, that case, Paul would indeed have been published on the back cover, along with represented the Church (and white is twenty-eight. a picture of the four Beatles in their 22 Volume 30, Issue 1 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER outfits. Strangely, Paul is the only one and look at its reflection in the mirror: Paul” at the end of “Strawberry Fields” turning his back to the camera, and the title, detailed as stars, became the but, as can be clearly heard now on a also strange is the fact that George’s digits to a phone number. The rumor clearer take of the song in Anthology 3, thumb points to the opening lines of further explained that if the numbers he says “cranberry sauce.” “She’s Leaving Home.” The lyric states: were dialed, the listener would get the However, while it is true that most “Wednesday morning at five o’clock as true details of Paul McCartney’s death. clues can be easily attributed to coinci- the day begins,” another reference to the On the White Album, if you listened dence and wishful thinking, there are day and time of Paul’s fatal accident? to a strange murmuring following the little things that must have been put In another song of the album, “A song “I’m So Tired,” you couldn’t there by the Beatles for some purpose, Day in the Life,” John sings “He blew make out what it said. But, should you like the various “walrus” claims, the his mind out in a car,” and in another, decide to play the record backwards the backward messages, and some other “Good Morning, Good Morning,” he words became something like: “Paul is hints in the album covers. It may just starts by singing: “Nothing to do to dead now, miss him, miss him, miss be, as John Lennon said, that they only save his life” (and was the title a play him.” Nothing compared to the chill- wanted to have a laugh at the expense of on the words “morning” and “mourn- ing revelations of “Revolution No. 9,” those critics reading cryptic messages in ing”?) And what about “Lovely Rita”? where, after reversing the song, you everything they did. Was the song a reference to the girl that could hear a voice saying: “Turn me What is sadly true is the fact that caused Paul’s death? Could be, since in on dead man,” and then the sound of a Charles Manson and his “family” also it McCartney (or the imposter) sings: terrible collision, the sounds of crack- believed that there were hidden mes- “Took her home and nearly made it.” ling flames and a voice screaming “Let sages in Beatles songs hinting at the More clues were also found in sub- me out! Let me out!” A recreation of Armageddon. He thought that the Fab sequent albums. The Magical Mystery Paul’s terrible accident? Four were actually angels sent by God Tour cover showed the Beatles dressed to reveal the secrets of the approaching in animal costumes. In the centre was “My Death? An Exaggeration” apocalypse and that, in order to start a black walrus and, in certain Scan- It seems unimaginable that the the end of the world, they needed dinavian countries, a walrus is con- American public would believe such an Manson’s help.