Media on both sides of the Atlantic ran stories that Paul McCartney had died in a car accident in Scotland on November 9th, 1966, and that a double had been taking his place for public appearances. In fact, Paul and his girlfriend Jane Asher were on vacation in Kenya.
The Northern Star Illinois University newspaper ran a story claiming that Paul McCartney died on November 9, with a look-alike replacing him in 1966. Russell Gibb of WKNR-FM in Detroit picked up on the claim, and the story blew up on October 12, 1969.
A mysterious caller told him to put on the Beatles’ White Album and spin the “number nine, number nine” intro from “Revolution 9” backward. When Gibb tried it on the air, he heard the words, “Turn me on, dead man.” Theorists say that at the end of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” John says, “I buried Paul.” In fact, he actually says “Cranberry Sauce”, not once, but twice.
On the ending of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (the version on the Anthology 2 album), you can clearly hear John saying “Cranberry Sauce” twice, and then “Calm Down, Ringo” to cause the track to come to a grinding halt. In this interview sound clip, John corrects the interviewer to emphatically say that he said “Cranberry Sauce” and not “I Buried Paul”.
By October 1969, McCartney came out of seclusion at his Scottish farm to deny the story. McCartney commented to a reporter visiting Macca’s farm, “Do I look dead? I’m as fit as a fiddle.”
The story grew into one of the greatest urban legends ever. The myth had more legs in America than it did in the UK because people had seen Paul leaving his house in St John’s Wood or arriving at Abbey Road. They also saw Paul out on the town, attending gigs and the theatre.
American university media claimed that clues to McCartney’s death were among the lyrics and artwork of The Beatles’ recordings.
Clue hunting was infectious and the hoax quickly became an international phenomenon.
Legend says that the Beatles replaced Paul with a William Campbell, winner of a McCartney look-alike contest, yet no one has reported where or when they held that contest.
The Michigan Daily published a satirical review of Abbey Road by the University of Michigan student Fred LaBour under the headline “McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light.”
The cover of Abbey Road has the four Beatles crossing the road, that some say were in a manner that symbolized a funeral parade.
John is wearing white, which is a color of mourning in Eastern religions. Ringo is wearing funeral black. Paul McCartney is out of step with the others. He is holding a cigarette in his right hand when he is left-handed.
On the sleeve you see a girl in a blue dress walk past, who some thought this was the “lovely Rita”, a hitchhiker Paul was with at the time of the ‘accident’.
Paul is shoeless on the Abbey Road sleeve, which is a custom to bury people without their shoes in some cultures.
The Volkswagen Beetle license plate LMW 281F seen in the Abbey Road background says that Paul would be 28 if still alive at the time of the album. Paul was 27 then, yet if you count year 1 when you are born, Paul would be 28 in their customs.
The year 28 showed up in “You Never Give Me Your Money”. People theorized that the words “1,2,3,4,5,6,7, all good children go to Heaven” are a reference to Paul being dead. The numbers here add up to 28.
I say, long live Sir Paul 🙂
