Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for ours still alive, super producer mister Max Williams, Google cha, I'm still alive.
And guess what for the second day in a row, I am drinking actual.
We are all the walrus and also guys.
And that is none other than mister Noel Brown. They called me Ben in this part of the world. Noel, did you know that Paul McCartney died in nineteen sixty six?
I heard tell it's been withered about for low these many years. I don't know, man. This is very much a good crossover point between the other show. We do stuff that I want you to know in Ridiculous History and that this episode is all about conspiracies and much being made about the rumors of the death of Paul McCartney aka the Paul is Dead saga and quite a saga.
It is quick question. Did he die in an octopus's garden?
No?
Oh no, but he may have been in the shade. He entirely possible.
Was he was an active member of a Yellow Submarine Crew that much we have perfirmed. Yes, yes, yes, So. Look, Paul McCartney is kind of famous. He's a real up and coming musician. Yeah, you may have heard of him as being one fourth of one of the best pun based musical groups in modern history, The Beatles.
Then I'm glad you brought that up. I think a lot of people completely space on that, or it just never occurs to them. The name the Beatles is in fact a pun. It is the E A T L E s. And they were part of a scene called Mercy Beat and the beat Nick and all of that kind of stuff. So it's a it's a very clever, little little n joke there. I think a lot of people miss, hey, I'm the I definitely did until now.
No worries, Max uh if it, if it may assuash some people's concerns. I am the dumbest person I have ever met. I just recently figured out that mattress firm is a play on words.
We've talked about this, and I think, you know, yeah, you've been living with that realization for a minute. But the moment you find out, it's like it's like the Galaxy brain emoji. But yeah, no, it's to your point, Ben, if you wanted to be coy about it, did you know that Paul McCarty actually died in nineteen sixty six?
Actually seriously, yeah, crib yeah to crib. From our dear friend and Beatles maniac way beyond enthusiast, Jordan Runtagg, who's our research associate on this pre determined two parter, preemptive two parter. The guy who's been out there touring and releasing albums as Paul McCartney for the last you know, sixty ish years or so, is apparently, according to some anyhow, some sort of doppelganger slash impostor slash body double body double exactly.
And Matt, if we could get a little bit of dramatic cinematic music, little stuff they'll want you to do, Fellow ridiculous historians. It is a little known fact that the surviving Beatles partnered with the British government on a top secret scheme to replace their fallen basis in the aftermath of a fatal car crash.
It's right and just to be clever about it. Because those Beetles are known for their wit. They decided it'd be a lot of fun if they just sprinkled in little drips and drabs pointing to the truth of the conspiracy for their eagle eyed or eared fans to decode.
Because what better way to really pull off a body double replacement? What better way to keep the secret secret than to do some back masks they get a goof.
What if I made it a little goof and fun fun game funnel madlib for the for the fans, that'll be fun for them.
You don't knowl This reminds me of that time you Max Casey Pegram and I got together and did the whole JFK thing, and we were like, let's put some little little gags in there.
God, Ben, I don't remember this. You'll have to remind me. This is what we've been doing this show for a long time. I don't remember the JFK gags.
Oh JFK the president that we conspired to have assassinated.
Oh that was us, that's right, Sorry, whoops. It's all coming out soon though, y'all. Trump released all that paperwork, and soon we will be taken to task for our our treason activities.
Yeah, if you're wondering, we just have an amazing skin routine.
It's also true.
That's that is also true.
I didn't well well, I mean, I mean, yeah, that's how we did this in the sixties and we're still young and vibrant here in twenty twenty five.
Yes, of course, Sarahvey. It's a hell of a drug vibrant at least. That's so much wrong here.
So look, uh, we're pointing out already some of the fun and fascinating rabbit holes of this particular possible culture beetle holes of this particular pop culture conspiracy. Now our new researcher, good friend of ours, good friend of the show, Jordan, as he said, Noel, he's super into this. We want to start at the beginning, so we tease the idea that the actual Paul McCartney, let's call him Paul Prime.
Sure I like that, Yeah, all right, So Paul Prime, take us there, Noel, it's just before midnight, November eighth, nineteen sixty six.
That's right, a little place called Abbey Road, really famous crosswalk you might have seen, and some imagery with some folks crossing the street there. Beatles are hard at work at this studio when Paul McCartney gets into quite the row as the Brits call it with fellow Beatle Ringo star. He's the drumming, the drummy one.
He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles.
They do say that, and not to on Ringo too too much, but there is a lot of chatter and scuttle but from various session musicians who have played in and around the Beatles over the years who basically say that he didn't play any of the drums. And I'm just saying, like, there are definitely Ringo defenders, and we've certainly seen him play live at like the let it Be Live on the Roof thing, and various clips from
the Assault shows is a fine drummer. And sure you know, he definitely has a style, and I'm I'm I'm a fan of that style. But it is it's another conspiracy entirely. This idea of the Ringo didn't.
Really play the Beatles might have been an optic higher.
But he was a good looking lad. It's not real. He was the funny one. They were all pretty funny. But in the movies he's the real goofy one.
I would agree that he is a very specific looking person. That's very true, But I also agree I also agree, knowld that Paul McCartney and John Lennon were often seen as the sort of dynamic duo of the Beatles when it came to songwriting. George Harrison got short changed often.
And Lennon McCartney is the is the famed you know, writing credit on all that Beatles stuff, right exactly.
And they and those two guys didn't always get along, but when they did, they made some amazing timeless music. As you were saying, Paul McCartney, according to the theory, has a real oh what do you say, raw, I love it, I love achtuff yeah, yeah, yeah, an aggressive hullaballoo with a ringo star. And the funny thing is, no one knows the specifics of whatever this discord may
have been. The story goes that McCartney is very upset, he's very in his feelings, as we would say in modern parlance, and he just ghosts out of the recording session. He slamming doors, he speeds off. It is super sick, asked in Martin. Because they're already rich by this point, and it's a rainy night in England, not a rainy night in Georgia, a night in England, basically, yea, yeah, it's a regular night in England, which is a rainy night in Georgia. And at some point during that ride
he loses control of his car. He swerves off the road. But he's been driving so far and so fast that now he's in rural England, and there are a ton of things to add to this. The story goes that whatever whatever transpires, this Aston Martin hits a stone fence like a wall at top speed, and the accident is so bad that Paul McCartney, legendary member of the Baitles, loses his head, is decapitated, is pronounced dead on Wednesday morning, on November ninth, nineteen sixty six.
Yeah, you know, there's a little Tongian cheek action going on here from our buddy Jordan. He wrote a lot of this as this or the Queen's honest truth, and we're gonna approach it, you know, as if as the thought experiment, as if this were indeed possible, let's play, I think we should. So let's take all this as read.
Paul McCartney has been flung from his Aston Martin and you know, severely mangled, decapitated even and he is discovered by the police, who pretty quickly realize who they've got on their hands, and they quickly phone up the British Secrets m I five, who allegedly hold an emergency meeting with the surviving Beatles and their management team, all of these folks together in some sort of skiff. One would imagine a guy that we must protect the public, right because no one can know.
M I five is like Law and Order SVU. They have nothing going on except this one case.
It'll cause pandemonium and whatever. The opposite of Beatlemania is beetle phobia. Well, it would just be a real real show and then people are gonna tear themselves apart each other. We have to protect the peace, Yes, we have to protect the beats.
Uh.
They decide that.
Well, the idea is they conspire and they say, okay, what is the most straightforward way to preserve the Beatles and to preserve the public and national security and peace of mind for music fans around the world. And they say, obviously, the least complicated thing is to totally lie about the fact that Paul McCartney is dead and to replace him with a body double and swear multiple people to secrecy for the entirety of their lives.
Who we already have on hand. By the way, who we already have on hand. Now that's not too much of a stretch. The Beatles were certainly famous enough and recognizable enough that it's possible they had body doubles already. But that's the thing that we've talked about on stuff. They don't want you to know where there are cases. I think one that comes to mind specifically is with some Middle Eastern royal families, and if I'm not mistaken, like the Husseins, they had a stable of body doubles.
And if I'm not mistaken, there's a film called like the Devil's something or other, The Devil uh yeah Double or something like that, and it's about Cussey. Hussein was I believe one of the most brutal of the two brothers, Ude and Cusse and his body double and doppelganger, and it's just someone that would stand in uh that would kind of you know, throw people off the scent. It's the Devil's Double, thank you. That's right. So we know
this is a thing that is done. Maybe it makes a little more sense in politics, but I mean man Ford John Lennon was assassinated. The Beatles were influential on a political level.
Paul was on a lot of lists, you know, absolutely, And speaking of being on a lot of lists, I'll say it. I know people don't love to hear it. Catcher the Right is a good book. Not to it's a good book. It's ruined by the fans, just like Rick and Morty, but it's it's a good book.
Uh.
And it doesn't it doesn't turn you into an assassin, which probably do a series on that as well. Anyway, it's just, dude, it is laughable to me. The idea that m I five, an organization that is multitasking of nothing else, would cook up this mousetrap level like Rube Goldberg conspiracy. Instead of going public, will just replace the physical person with another person and will trust everyone to
not reveal the secret. So we have to ask we bono, who benefits the idea here is that the band, the Beatles, and hence the British government. They want this unparalleled run of highly lucrative music to continue. Because at this point, to your notion of the Beatles becoming a piece of state power, I think that bigger than Jesus. They were historically probably taller.
Absolutely true. We can't confirm the figures there. But to what we were talking about earlier, I mean, the Beatles were so incredibly beloved, especially in their homeland of the United Kingdom, perhaps there was some concern that there could be a rash of unalivings, to use the parlance of our time, with you know, young distraught Beatles super fans taking the most brutal and worst action in the face of losing their beloved Paul.
Yeah, because we have to understand, folks, at this point, people have defined their persona like they have made the They've defined their persona as the Beatles. It becomes the north star in their moral their moral orientations. So to lose a single Beetle may prompt a wave of very damaging acts. So the story goes, the powers that be find a guy from Canada that they may have already had in their roster. His name William Shears Campbell, Billy to his friends.
Has entered the chat. He'd apparently won a Paul McCartney lookalike contest. That's a great way to find a good double there. He'll suspect the thing, probably not, and then well, you know, the Beatles certainly were famous enough that there were likely many look alike contests, so little preparing the whole time unclear, but it did apparently require a little bit of plastic surgery to push him truly into full on spitting image Paul territory so that he could could be unnoticed in group photos.
Yeah, the story goes, he's a few inches taller than Paul Prime, and this is maybe why the band stopped touring around this time. They thought the beatlemaniacs would notice the difference live. And I want to know if it's okay, I'd like to take a moment and shout out Matt Frederick from stuff they don't want you to know. Matt and I got super duper into this many years ago, and we filmed some weird videos that you can still see on YouTube, and I'm not.
Sure how well they aged.
But I really appreciate Jordan's research here because it calls into we're speaking to a conspiracy theory that still holds true for some people today. Do at the time, like nineteen sixty six, nineteen sixty seven, the theory is the surviving Beatles George John and uh oh Ringo. You like how it's always oh and ringo. They felt super guilty about this massive conspiracy. And word on happy road. Word on the street is that John Lennon in particular is little bit, uh, a little bit het up about this.
For sure, he's distraught, he's beside himself. Sure, he and his buddy Paul had some dust ups themselves over the years, you know. I mean they're both creative and musical geniuses, vying for kind of being the best in the best band in the world. Of course they were going to be some differences of opinions and some sparring of egos and all of that stuff. So yeah, I mean they
were again. Lennon McCartney is iconic. They the songs that they wrote together were absolutely greater than the sum of their parts, the songs they wrote more on their own. If you wanted to get into more white album territory, you start to really see their individual personalities emerge. But John's feelings are needless to say, very complicated, you know,
and he's dealing with the stages of grief. Not only was he missing his dear friend and songwriting partner, but also was deeply traumatized after apparently being asked to bury McCartney's decapitated body in an unmarked grave at Strawberry Field Salvation Army Park there in Liverpool, where they had played together. They weren't, after all, childhood friends, boyhood friends, Strawberry Fields forever indeed.
So to help clear the conscience of the three surviving Beatles again the story goes who apparently had nothing else to do. They said, guys, go with this plan, and the Beatles conspired themselves. So there's a conspiracy within a conspiracy. The three remaining Beatles say, we are going to let the truth out, but like Emily Dickinson, we're going to tell the truth slant. We're going to put clues to McCartney's death in this car accident through our songs and albums.
Were never going to come out and absolutely explicitly say we participated in killing twenty five percent of our own band. Instead, we're going to release Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club.
Band banger of a record. Fantastic, really good. I quite like it, actually quite good. A lot of people do. The Beatles are one of those bands that for the longest time, when I was younger, I sort of dismissed because they were too popular, you know, I think we've all been there as music nerds. But then I had my own kind of come to Beatles moments where I organically heard the right Beatles at the right time and had my personal relationship with the Beatles from that point on.
And it was not Sergeant Peppers. It was the previous album, Magical Mystery Tour. I was just very it was very Sergeant. It's like Sergeant Pepper's Light. It's a little bit less successful, I think as a whole album experience. But yeah, man, Fool on the Hill and its proto Peppers. I am the Walrus, of course very proto Peppers.
And I also I appreciate you bringing up this point because there is something I've never quite understood. I think it's a manufactured ripe Reamit fandom.
Uh.
There are people who will attempt to hold what they see as an interesting conversation by asking you to choose between the Rolling Stones or the Beatles, Right, I think it's fine to like both. I don't understand this weird highlander philosophy.
I don't there and I don't think that is relevant at all today. At the time, though there was certainly a maybe a divide, but also they were just vying for the same audience, and they were both like at a certain level of fame. And I saw a great clip where some I think it's relevant though, well, oh okay,
we can get back into that. But I saw a real cool clip with a vintage clip of Mick Jagger being asked, you know, if they were if the Rolling Stones were better than the Beatles, and he quite diplomatically, you know, the sort of shrugged the question off and really said that what they were doing is completely different than what the Beatles were doing. And I think that's
the truth of all. Thought of the Stones is more of a hard rocking, hard living kind of live band, and they certainly have their sixties psychedelia kind of Her Majesty's Satanic Requests and all of that. But to me, the Beatles make better records and the Rolling Stones have always been a real ripping live band.
But was she what I'm seen? What I'm saying, it's a false dich hod.
It's a false equivalency, for sure, But what I mean is to, yeah, well, of course you can like both, but I think what it might reveal about the answerer is whether they're more into studio tricks and like psychedelic kind of records, or if they really like a hard rocking kind of band, you know.
I mean Pepsi Coke. Yeah, you know, do what you want.
It's still do you like better Elvis or Conway Twitty?
I mean.
It's silly question.
Yeah yeah. Do you like m I five or do you like this FBI Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band? This releases in nineteen teen sixty seven. Let's walk through some of the the purported hints at Paul's death. So just to recap right now, we're in a situation in the story where wherein I five has sworn the Beatles and all associated entities two secrecy. Paul McCartney is dead. We've substituted a Canadian for Paul McCartney. We're no longer touring.
The Beatles are against mi I five and they're moving subtley to let the world know that their best friend is dead. This brings us to the floral guitar.
Yeah for sure. We also to say this presupposes that the Beatles were kind of arm twisted into doing this, you know, that they were or they had like Buyer's remorse after the fact, they're like, wait a minute, we really shouldn't have done that. We should honor our friend. We can't come right out and say it. But let's
hide some clues. And where we're first going to dissect some of the purported clues that you mentioned is in the cover art, very famous, iconic cover art of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, And admittedly there's a lot
going on on there. It's this cool collage kind of situation, the Beatles all in their brightly colored marching band outfits posing in front of a kind of a marching band style drum that bears the name of the album, Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and then Beatles spelled out, which is funny too. By the way, there was a period where I mean think they've always just been Beatles.
There's no the in most of the depictions of their name, but a lot of people just call them the Beatles, but they are Beatles, kind of like Battles are Idols or Radiohead. Anyway, on this album cover is supposedly hidden quite a few clues, and we start with, as you mentioned, Ben, the floral guitar. If you're looking at it right now it is you almost wouldn't clock it for what it is. But underneath beetles spelled out in flowers is what appears to be a guitar shaped plot of yellow flowers kind
of with a little long neck, let's call it. And then a circle of yellow flowers within that are some purple and it looks like just more like leafy kind of fauna.
And then it's got these kind of three like string looking things stretched out across them. And it is often referred to as a pee because you could look at it and immediately be like, okay, that's a letter P on its side.
To me, it looks more like a guitar that you might see like made into a flower arrangement or like a pinata or something like that. Yeah, people believe this pee is, or folks of your mind right from your perspective, believe this pee does look like a left handed guitar.
And folks will say that's fitting because Paul McCartney was the only Southpaw in the in the fab four And if you read these tea leaves from that perspective, you will start to count the number of stems if you count the stems and think of them as strings, perhaps on a bass guitar, you will see that rather than four strings like on your conventional bass, there are only three stems slash strings. Perhaps a reference to the three living members of the Beatles.
Sure, we know, I know, I know, it's it's too far. I'm being very Charlie Dave with a red string, as is my remit. But as we know, as history is proven, this album cover, and this aspect of this cover was meant to be a guitar to symbolize a stringed instrument. Apparently, though if you if you get into it, this was designed by a delivery guy who got a last minute call to bring just whatever flowers were available at his shop.
You know, he was a floral arranger and improviser, so you know, like everybody else in the area, this guy knew about the Beatles and he didn't have every flower in the world to work with, so he took what he had and he fashioned them into a guitar. So is that a conspiracy? Was the was the floral arrangement guy also part of M I five doubt it?
Maybe it might have been their flower guy. Well, we already mentioned the drum in the center, where the actual name of the album is printed in kind of cool circusy letters, Sergeant Pepper's across the top and making you know, kind of following the curve the top of the drum, Lonely Hearts in the middle and club Band on the bottom, also you know, making up the second half of that circle. And another interesting theory pertaining to some clues being deliberately
hidden here. If you hold a mirror up to the words Lonely Heart written across the center of the bass drum, you will supposedly get a secret message.
Man, it sounds okay, yeah, let me hold up a mirror here, Okay, walk me through this.
Well, what do you see?
Well, I don't want to spoil it. Okay, if I'm not looking at a mirror reflection, I'm seeing io in E I X he And then what do you call those?
Those equal or greater than less than?
Yeah?
Then C I E yeah?
Is that?
And is iony x Is that some sort of Latin? Is that even a thing? Let's see.
It is not.
It is just referencing Paul's dead Paul's dead clues. So when arranged as I won x he die Okay, we go. The mag suggests a date eleven nine or November ninth, nineteen sixty six, which is supposedly when Paul died. There are diamonds between the words he and die, which points directly at the image of Paul on the cover. And it's a weird one for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've actually run into this problem myself when I was in Berlin and it was during COVID and I had a one of those dog yeared vaccine cards and I was rejected from an event because of the discrepancy between the way American dates are printed and European dates are here we yeah, we do a month, day, year, and there they do the year.
First, right, so it would be the difference between say April tenth, twenty twenty five and ten April twenty twenty five.
That's right, I mean I spoke incorrectly. It is exactly right, day, month and then year rather than month day, so in English style the day would actually read September eleventh. Yeah, also a little weird. Let's move on to the car. There is a toy car depicted on this image that may be intended to reference the Aston Martin that crashed and supposedly, you know, killed young Paul McCartney.
Correct On the far right of the album cover, you'll see what could be a white Aston Martin, you know, the same vehicle Paul McCartney was driving when he had his fatal crash. If you look closely, you can see what appear to be small all flames shooting from the windows. You will also run into any number of theorists who say that the the art of the car shows a bloody interior to the.
I can't even see it. Where is it?
It's they're reading to leaves man.
Well, I don't see the car. I'm trying to look. I've got a pretty big blown up image of where are you seeing.
On the far far right of the album cover, there's a doll, and the doll is hold has a small car in its lap. Oh yeah, really yeah, you gotta zoom in, hold on, zoom in.
All right, we'll carry on. Then, Well, I try to find this.
To the right of the doll, there's a driving glove. Is it covered in blood? We get to bust this myth real quick. Paul McCartney did have an Aston Martin.
It's a dB six.
It's an amazing car. I love. You know, I still got my car stuff DNA here. Aston Martin's are pretty cool, and the Aston Martin dB six is pretty cool. The issue is Paul McCartney's Aston Martin dB six was not white. It was green, and as our pal Jordan points out, the things that people are calling flames or blood are are probably just red fabric from the doll's dress. But let's explore this album cover in more depth. Actually, let's get past the cover. Let's go to the gatefold sleep that's right.
In the gatefold sleeve, there's an image of Paul wearing a patch on his left arm that looks like it bears the initials OPD, which supposedly, according to this theory, stands for officially pronounced dead, which I believe is the British equivalent of DOA, which we would say here in the States. However, in reality, what actually says is OPP which stands for Ontario Provincial Police, which is also interesting
considering that the supposed Paul doppelgangers from Canada. That's not mentioned here, but I just thought I bring that up. McCartney actually talked about this in a nineteen sixty nine article for Life Magazine written by John Neary referring to all of this hullabaloo, by the way, which we're going to start to hear the Beatles themselves weighing in on saying it is all bloody stupid. I picked up the OPD badge in Canada. It was a police badge.
And the conspiracy continues. If you check out the back cover of the album, you will see that Paul or as our research associate Jordan likes to call him, full is the only Beatle with his back to the camera. This apparently symbolizes how Paul has turned his back on life. Uhtretch ye, i'd be. But also, if you're covering up a death, are you really gonna are you really gonna slide these things in? Is it really a case of like the Beatle, the remaining Beatles silently protesting m I five.
Yeah, let's see. That is the That is the theory again. If we flip the album over looking at the back cover, there are lyrics printed on the back cover as well, which was a first in rock and roll history. Apparently, right above Paul's head are the words without You from the title of George Harrison's song within You Without You,
which was on I believe Rubber Soul. Harrison can be seen pointing at the words from She's Leaving Home, which was I think on Revolver now within you value and She's living Homer and Revolver Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins. Those are from that song. This was supposedly at the time of Paul's fatal accident. Five o'clock Wednesday morning.
Ah, all right, yes, yes, November ninth or nine November nineteen sixty six was a Wednesday. The thing is, our buddy Paul Prime lived around the corner from Abbey Road. It's an eight minute walk, two minute drive if you've got a cool accid Martin. So if this guy storms out of this recording session just a hair before midnight on the previous Tuesday, then what was he doing for five frickid hours? Why did he end up so far from home? Did he did he go to a club?
Did he you know?
Was he doing some like three card Monty on the streets? Did he meet a woman try to take her back to her place somewhere outside of the London area.
Well, that was a theory that we didn't mention at the top. That supposedly he may or he may have picked up a hitchhiker who could well have caused the accident by freaking the f out when she realized who was giving her.
A left, right, right the shades of chap equittic. So the point is the timeline doesn't quite add up. And I want to give a quick shout out to a lot of people who are not from the UK who have gone viral with their disappointment.
Over visiting Abbey Road.
I don't know if he saw the news, Nol, but there are there are a ton of people, honestly Americans, sorry folks, who had these big dreams about visiting Abbey Road and they love the Beatles, and they get really disappointed when they realize Abby Road is literally just it's a road.
Well, no, it's a studio.
Well they go to Abbey Road the road, and they're disappointed to find that it's a road.
Well, then they're not doing their homework because the people that would actually be Beatles fans would visit the studio and the famous crosswalk in front of the studio. Abbey Road as a road, I'm sure is long like Peachtree Road here in Atlanta.
And yeah, I'm just I'm exercising empathy for the people who saw the crosswalk and it's just a crosswalk.
Well yeah, well, I'm sure the Beatles aren't there anymore. This looks like a crosswalk in the photography. I'm not sure what these people are expecting, but fair enough, and I appreciate you exercising empathy for these folks. And I hope they didn't know book their whole trip just to be disappointed by a crosswalk. So oh, by the way, I made it as stupid speaking of not being a
proper Beatles fan, whatever that means. Magical Mystery Tour totally comes after Sergeant Pepper, so it is not proto Sergeant Pepper at all. It is Sergeant Pepper's proto Magical Mystery in many ways, I actually like Magical Mystery better. But we're going to get to that record momentarily. But first, let's talk about getting a little help from our friends. I sang the line at the very top of the show and we mentioned our pal from Canada, Billy Shears.
That is the character that Ringo Starr is basically playing in the narrative, that is Sergeant Pepper's lonely the loose narrative of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts club band. He is meant to be this singer named Billy Shears, and they introduced him the track prior to with a little help from my friends kind of ends with this big fan faiish introduction of Billy Shears and then he sings, well, what did you thinker? You know the one. So the idea of being that this was very much a reference
to William Billy Shears Campbell. But you know, your mileage may vary, as.
Our research associate Jordan says, you can also look into okay. So the juicy thing with these kind of theories is always going to be the lyrics. If you go to a day in the life, there is, according to proponents of the Poll is Dead theory, an entire verse that recounts the moments of poll Primes crash when he quote blew his mind out in a car after he quote didn't notice that the lights had changed and that the crowd had gathered at the scene and quote had seen
his face before. This is obviously followed by the line quote nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords. And for people who are hearing what they want to hear a little bit of audio Paradelia, They will say it sounds as though John Lennon is saying not House of Lords but House of Pole.
Again Pole, I, I can hear that.
Yeah, you know when you say it with a British accident like that again as Jordan. As Jordan notes, your interpretive mileage may vary. In fact, dare I say it we all love an historical rabbit hole, a conspiratorial rabbit hole. Dare I say this kind of reasoning can be its own sort of magical Mystery Tour?
Sure? Yeah, And that's where we are now in nineteen sixty seven, with the release of Magical Mystery Tour, which also has a pretty cool psychedelic album cover. Let's pull out up. I can't I can't even remember what it looks like. Let's see Magical Mystery Tour. Oh yeah, of course it's. It's got the Beatles dressed as Walruses, kind of posing with their arms outs. We've got well, I'm sorry,
they're not all Walruses. The wall was Paul. One of them is the walrus in the front of his arms out, and then in the back we've got ourselves a chicken, a rabbit, and it looks to be a hippopotamus, and I don't remember. We've got George's the Chicken, it seems because that's the only one where you can actually see the face, and I see a little mustache in the style of what George would have worn in those days.
But I'm sure we can confirm who was who because there's also a pretty incredible film of Magical Mystery Tour, and it's like a music video for every song, and that's what got me into the Beatles was seeing that film, which is really neat and a lot of people don't know about it, but it's pretty cool, so I would highly recommend checking it out. But Magical Mystery Tour is Rainbow Letters the top, we've got the names of all
of the songs, and continue at the bottom. I think we've got side one on the top, Magical Mystery Tour with Fool on the Hill, Flying Blue Jayway your mother should Know, I Am the Walrus, and then side two Hello, Goodbye, Strawberry Feels Forever. Penny Lane has some big ones on here too. Baby You're a rich man and all you need is love. But somewhere hidden in there the cover of Magical Mystery Tour, which features the Beatles' names spelled
out in stars in the rainbow kind of font. You can apparently read it upside down or possibly in a mirror, and it reveals a telephone number, and supposedly, when dialed or when a person dials this number on Wednesday morning at five o'clock, the time of Paul's alleged crash, they are able to receive further secret information about Paul's death. Oh like what, Well, the voice on the line would apparently say you're getting closer before hanging up, So that's not really much information at all.
Right, right, Yeah, it reminds me of oh that film A Christmas Story where that poor kid puts so much time into getting the decoder ring that just tells you spoiler to drink more. Ovaltine Jordan points out that there's a major flaw in this purported clue to the Paul is Dead theory. There's an issue of Rolling Stone that publishes on twenty nine November nineteen sixty nine, and they point out it's not clear what this purported phone number is supposed to be. There's no telling what city this
phone number originates from. There's no area code, so there's no way of knowing. We want to give flowers, not yellow flowers, to the journalist Philip Norman. Philip Norman is the author of an early Beatles biography, Shout, and Norman finds that one of these phone numbers actually belonged to a journalist for none other than The Guardian, as this poor journalist got hammered with phone calls from Beatles fans who were convinced that Paul McCartney was dead. Folks, you
are in media rests with us. We are down the rabbit hole or the walrus hole officially, which sounds a little bit dirty, but I'm gonna keep it waterus hole amazing, it's pretty gross, so I would say, I would say gross and amazing. We tease something that is a like a common mimetic concept for any fan of the Pola is dead conspiracy. It is the lie. I am the Walrus, uh noel. Before we wrap part one, could you break this down for.
Us, Well, I'm Googokucheo, I am the warous say I am the eggman as well, I am the walrus. Uh goo goo goochuo goo goo goo goochew. I thought it was cuckoo Kachew for the longest time. I think I'm probably not alone in that, but it is indeed Goo Goo goojube. The song I Am the Walrus alone could practically be an episode on two itself because I mean so, and their references to this in a later Beatles album as well in the song glass Onion on the White album.
The Walrus Was Paul, But I Am the Walrus was a John Lennon composition. It is meant to be psychedelic impressionistic.
You know.
Again, according to the conspiracy theorist depiction of McCartney's death, all the way down to a repeating two note pattern in the intro itself, much similar to a two tone siren sound that you would hear from emergency vehicles in
Britain at the time. And according to our Gary Patterson in his book The Walrus Was Paul, the Great Beatle Death Clues, Paul suffered his fatal car crash after this, you know, fallout, squabble with Ringo or potentially with some other bandmates who might have been in the mix, and left the studio in a rage on a stupid bloody Tuesday, which is a line, and I Am the Walrus. The refrain I am crying, is John apparently grieving Paul's passing.
And then they are pretty little policemen waiting for the van to come, supposedly referring to the police who arrived at the scene of Paul's fatal crash but were paid to keep silence by m I five. And you know with the Beatles being composed of the remaining beatles.
Yeah, and there are further notes or purporty clues you can find in these lyrics, especially with some back masking, which we love on this show and on stuff they don't want you to know. The song ends with a live BBC broadcast of a scene from King Lear, with characters saying bury me, bury my body, and oh untimely death. Here's the quick skinny, here's the hot cheese and straight seahorse teeth. John Lennon taped that clip off the radio one night and he just dug the vibe of it,
how it fit with the song. And so as we understand, it's John's intention to put a bunch of nonsensical imagery into the lyrics to confuse fans who have traveled a.
Bit too far.
John Lennon had a school friend named Pete Shotton, who was around as a first hand witness when John Lennon was writing some of these lyrics. Pete Shotton goes on to craft a memoir and according to his writing, when the song is finished, his buddy, his school chum, John Lennon turns to him and says, let the fuckers work that one out. Thank you for beefing me, Max. Oh, we have so much more to get to. I believe this is going to be a series, Nol. We've got to go further.
We sure, do you know? The Clues hidden in the entire Beatles cattle of albums alone is going to be two parts, and then we're going to get into more about the kind of Beatles as celebrities, as public figures. Acknowledging all of this stuff. Jordan is nothing if not thorough, to quote the Big Lebowski, and we really appreciate your work on these, Jordan, and we're looking forward to getting
into all of them. Looks like it might be a three parter possibly for we'll see, But for now we're going to take a break and come back with part two of the Paul Is Dead Clues Hidden in the Beatles Albums later this week big.
Big thanks to our super producer, mister Max Williams. Big thanks to our research associate Jordan Jordan. You know we're fans of your work. Jordan is a kick ass journalist and we really appreciate his time and expertise. Big thanks as well too, of course. AJ Bahamas Jacobs aka the Puzzler just wrote back to Bahamas and he's super down if we can get him in for one last job.
One hundred percent huge thanks to Jonathan Strickland, the quizter, AJ Bahamas, the Puzzler, Chris Frasciotis and he's Jeff Coates here in spirit.
And of course, where would we be without our own in house composer, the legendary Alex Williams, who made this.
Slap and bop indeed very Beatles esque. Actually, if you think about it, we'll see you next time, folks, for part two of The Beatles Paul is Dead conspiracy theories as hidden supposedly or not in the Beatles albums. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.