The Paul is Dead Clues
The Paul is Dead Clues
What is the Truth?
J. Michael John
Introduction
In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in a story that made headlines in 1969. That story was the death of Beatle, Paul McCartney and his replacement by an imposter in 1966. The speculation about his death was fueled by clues, left by the Beatles on recordings and album art. In fact, Beatle John Lennon refers to clues in the Beatle song entitled, Glass Onion. He sings, “And here’s another clue for you all, the Walrus was Paul.” When the clues were discovered fans stampeded stores to purchase Beatle records both old and new in search of answers, to the mystery. Beatles record sales that had been waning were bolstered by the story. Soon after the initial hysteria, the story would lose its appeal and disappear from the headlines with most fans and observers, concluding that the entire project was a Beatle marketing ploy. The original Paul McCartney was found alive and the Beatles and many of their intimates and supporters, would deny they placed the messages. But, two well researched and documented books, Turn Me On, Dead Man: The Beatles and the “Paul Is Dead” Hoax by Andru J. Reeve and The Walrus Was Paul: The Great Beatle Death Clues by R. Gary Patterson would conclude, that the clues do exist. Now, a whole slew of conspiracy theorists have emerged claiming that the messages indicate that Paul did die either by accident or by murder.
We will argue that the placing of death clues was a well calculated project, designed by the Beatles and may be based on a theological treatise, flirtation with the occult or Freemasonic imagery or personal experiences with death, and do not suggest that McCartney is really dead. First, we will briefly examine the origins of the death rumors in 1969 and the hysteria over the clues. Second, we will examine the claims of the present-day theorists who say McCartney died in an accident, or was murdered in 1966. Third, we will investigate who the Beatles were, and try to understand their influences and their motivation at various times in their careers. We hope this will provide us with the answer to why the most successful rock and roll act in history would try to convince the world via clues that one of their members was dead.
The Paul is dead story, circa 1969
The most common scenario circulating in 1969 was that on November 9, 1966, Paul was killed accidentally in an automobile accident after leaving a recording session agitated over an argument he had with the other Beatles. In the crash, he was supposed to have been decapitated. In order to preserve the group and prevent mass suicides by millions of young women who worshiped the pop idol, the rest of the group, quickly or even immediately replaced the dead Beatle with an orphan who had won a Paul McCartney lookalike contest in Edinburgh. But rather than enforce a code of silence and a cover up over the death and replacement, the remaining Beatles decided to inform the world via clues on LP covers and in their songs, that Paul was dead and someone had taken his place.
Probably the first time the clues became public was in print. An article by Tim Harper entitled, "Is Paul Dead?" appeared in a college newspaper in Des Moines, Iowa on September 17, 1969. But it was not until October 12 of that year that the storm of hysteria exploded. On that date, a disk jockey for Detroit's underground station WKNR-FM, named Russ Gibb, took a phone call from a listener named Tom Zarski. Tom asked the disk jockey to listen carefully to the fade-outs on songs like Strawberry Fields. Gibb began to hear and see what Tom had described. Listening that night was a Michigan college student named Fred LaBour. LaBour, a writer for The Michigan Daily had been assigned to review the Beatles’ latest album Abbey Road.1
The next day LaBour sorted through his Beatles records, and wrote an article published in the Oct. 14 issue of the Daily entitled, “McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light.” LaBour invented much of the narrative including, the automobile accident in November 1966, the argument at the EMI recording studio, the decapitation and McCartney’s replacement by a Scottish orphan named William Campbell. In spite of the fact that LaBour has admitted he made up most of the Paul is dead scenario and his original article is posted online, there are those who think the story is true.
Soon the national press was involved and the story spread from Detroit to both coasts. LaBour’s musings were being discussed on all the major TV networks, and in influential American magazines such as Life and Time.
The madness would spread to large radio markets like New York. On October 21 the same day that Tim Harper’s article would be reprinted in the Chicago Sun-Times, disk jockey Roby Yonge would increase the hysteria by covering the story on New York radio. As we mentioned earlier, this mayhem led to young fans mobbing record stores in search of any and all Beatle products. The clues are all plainly visible on LPs and in the music. For anyone who is still not familiar with them, there are numerous websites and YouTube videos that provide a thorough education in Paul Is Dead iconography.
What actually happened is that Paul’s Mini Cooper crashed on January 7, 1967 while being driven by Mohammed Hadjij who was allegedly using the car to transport drugs. As a result, a few newspapers did report that Paul had died. But, McCartney wasn’t in the car when it crashed. Hadjij, the man driving the car didn’t die either. Following this accident a few scattered rumors of Paul’s death and replacement by a double were reportedly overheard at London parties.2 This is basically the extent of any connection to reality regarding the Paul is dead rumor. Yet, in 2022 we have individuals trying to convince us that McCartney is dead.
The Paul is dead story, circa 2022
Known as Paul Is Dead or PID theorists, these individuals vary in their beliefs. Ignoring the fact that LaBour admitted he made it up, some support the original car accident death scenario but in most cases they add more to it. In one instance it is proposed that McCartney’s second wife Heather Mills’ real name is Rita, and she was in the car with McCartney while he was driving the night he died in 1966. This is impossible since Heather Mills was not born until 1968. Other PIDers imply that the original Paul McCartney was killed and replaced by the son of Aleister Crowley who is also the anti-Christ. Another PIDer says that the Beatles suspected that the Rolling Stones were involved in murdering McCartney.3
Some of the most prominent theorists claim that Paul refused to endorse the 60s counterculture of sex, drugs and rock and roll and thus, ran afoul of the “Illuminati,” a mysterious omnipresent, omnipotent secret society that they claim was behind the 1960s counterculture. In many cases, the new advocates of PID, lean to the political right and for this reason, they are nostalgic for the pre-psychedelic era Beatles. They see the early Beatles as wholesome and highly moral. For one such PIDer, the Beatles are messengers from some divine spirit. But the group including Paul were far from monuments to morality and they never refused to endorse the counterculture. In fact, as we will see, McCartney was a leader of said movement and the only credible evidence that Paul died, if they can be called that, are the clues. So, what explanation are we left with for the PID messages, deposited on their LPs, and their recordings? In order to answer this, we must first answer the question, who were the Beatles before they began to leave clues of their band mate’s death? Were they the lovable mop tops of legend?
Who were the Beatles before the clues?
The Beatles were four working class youth from Liverpool. Each came to admire American rock and roll music independent of each other and was drawn to each other by this common interest. In the early days the group played the usual venues for bands of this nature. Much of them were run down places in the seediest drug and prostitution infested parts of England and West Germany where they performed renditions of the latest and most popular tunes by artists like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and other performers, while engaging in all manner of depraved behavior to entertain drunken, rowdy crowds.
Beatle biographer Philip Norman writes that, “Their only regular engagement was a strip club. The club owner paid them ten shillings each to strum their guitars while a stripper named Janice grimly shed her clothes before an audience of sailors, guilty businessmen and habitués with raincoat-covered laps.” In August 1960, the group got their first break when they were booked at a club in the notorious Reeperbahn district of Hamburg, Germany.4
In the Hamburg days, pills and alcohol were the norm for the group. Cynthia Lennon once commented that she only saw John sober three days in her whole life. High on the drug Preludin, Norman writes that, “John (Lennon), would be foaming at the mouth, he’d have so many pills inside him... John, began to go berserk on stage, prancing and groveling... The fact that the audience could not understand a word he said, provoked John into cries of `Sieg Heil!’ and `F____ing Nazis’ to which the audience invariably responded by laughing and clapping.”5 Norman continues, “while in Hamburg, John, each Sunday would stand on the balcony, taunting the churchgoers as they walked to St. Joseph’s. He attached a water-filled contraceptive to an effigy of Jesus and hung it out for the churchgoers to see. Once he urinated on the heads of three nuns.”6
In 1962 the Beatles would acquire a new manager, Brian Epstein. Epstein began the process of changing the appearance of the group. He wanted the band to have a polished and professional appearance. As John Lennon would remember him saying, "Look, if you really want to get in these bigger places, you're going to have to change – stop eating on stage, stop swearing, stop smoking ..."7 John said: "We used to dress how we liked, on and off stage. He'd tell us that jeans were not particularly smart and could we possibly manage to wear proper trousers, but he didn't want us suddenly looking square. He'd let us have our own sense of individuality."8
From that time on, the group would appear with their distinctive Beatle haircuts and matching dark suits. That same year, EMI, Europe’s largest recording company would sign them to a contract. George Martin director of EMI’s subsidiary, Parlophone would turn Lennon and McCartney’s simple compositions into hits; and while their official press officer, Derek Taylor would call the four musicians rude, profane and vulgar, their manager Brian Epstein would present his new clients as respectable and even wholesome to the general public. Despite the image, Lennon would describe Beatle tours as sex, dope and payoff driven carnivals.9
There is little doubt that the Beatles and the “British Invasion” had the approval of the British hierarchy and the Beatles were shepherded to superstardom by financial forces and the news media. On November 4, 1963 they performed for the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance and two years later, all four Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). But, by the end of 1963 the real prize was still to be won. That prize was, the United States.
America would be mesmerized, as the British and American news media would create one of the largest audiences for any group of performers in history. For two Sunday nights in a row, on the Ed Sullivan Show, over 75 million Americans witnessed the Beatles shake and sway their bodies in a ritual that was soon to be duplicated by a generation of fans. When the group first landed in New York in 1964, they were mobbed at the airport by thousands of hysterical teenage girls. Immediately the nation’s press announced that Beatlemania had besieged the country.
The Beatles became a distraction in the face of the assassination of President John Kennedy. Dave Marsh wrote this about the Beatles JFK nexus in Rolling Stone magazine on Feb. 24, 1977, “The Beatles have always had an intimate connection to the JFK assassination. He was shot the week before Thanksgiving 1963. By February 1964, the Beatles were number one in the national charts and the climactic appearance on Ed Sullivan’s TV show occurred. Even Brian Epstein (the manager of the Beatles) believed the Kennedy assassination helped their rise -- the Beatles appeared to bind our wounds with their messages of joy and handholding... And the way was paved, replacing Camelot with Oz.”
In 1964 the Beatles would meet Bob Dylan who would turn them on to Marijuana and by 1965 Lennon and Harrison would experience LSD.10
Ringo Starr would soon follow their lead. Paul McCartney would reluctantly use the drug, only after peer pressure. Yet, far from being the square of the group, Paul was an important part of the emerging counterculture. McCartney was a financial backer of avant-garde institutions in the mid 1960s. One was the groundbreaking newspaper, the International Times and the other was the equally influential Indica Books and Gallery. McCartney has an alter ego as an avant-garde musician and composer. This is more proof that McCartney is far from conventional or conservative in his tastes or creativity. In fact, it was Paul, who introduced the idea of running tapes backwards, (backward masking) a technique he used almost immediately on Beatles songs and the method used to leave messages about his demise.11
Beginning in 1965 and continuing through 1966, the Acid Tests were conducted throughout California. These events involved the mass distribution of large quantities of LSD to unsuspecting youth while groups like the Warlocks (latter renamed the Grateful Dead) performed psychedelic music.12 The Beatles would embrace this movement. In 1966, Lennon and McCartney would even pen LSD inspired compositions like “She Said She Said” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” and in 1967, McCartney would help produce the Monterey Pop Festival in California, a concert featuring many of the psychedelic groups of the era. Thus, the Beatles drew young people into the counter-culture of sex, drugs and rock and roll.13
Unlike other acts of the time, mostly folk performers, the Beatles were not overtly political, but they were not completely silent either. At an August 23, 1964 Los Angeles press conference, McCartney made it clear that he did not appreciate right wing Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. John Lennon would famously become politically active but this did not transpire until the last days of the group and thereafter. But Lennon was outspoken on another subject in those days.
Lennon would shake the earth in a March 1966 article for the London newspaper the Evening Standard when he declared that the Beatles generated more excitement for kids than Jesus, and that rock music might outlast the Christian faith. In the U.K. his comments led to little reaction but once they were republished in the U.S., anger grew in the Christian community. We quote, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." This created an avalanche of reaction from the population in the U.S. Bible Belt. Threats, boycotts and protests spread throughout the southern states, in some cases enflamed by extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
At the end of their career as a band, Lennon would say that, “To succeed in the music business, you have to be a bastard. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards of all.” What he was conveying was that the Beatles and in particular Lennon himself, was ruthless in his desire to achieve the things of this world, namely wealth, fame and privilege.14
So, we can see that the Beatles including Paul were far from wholesome, conservative warriors as claimed by some PIDers. Thus, we can dismiss their claim that this would have been a motive for assassinating and replacing McCartney. All of this, activity transpired in the years prior to the Sergeant Pepper album of 1967, where the first clues would appear, and although we have learned about the Beatles prior to the clue escapades, we still have no explanation as to why they began to leave said clues about the demise of Paul. Were the clues, created as symbolic representations of the continuing saga of this pop group that so impacted the planet? To continue our quest for the answer, we must examine the world that welcomed the Beatles at the beginning of their careers.
Motivation and Influence
Freemasonry was founded in Great Britain with the opening of the Grand Lodge in London in 1717 and has a long history in the United Kingdom.15 Since the Beatles were spirited out of Liverpool to the realm of Freemasonic celebrities and elitists, it is possible that the death and resurrection symbolism in the Beatles’ music and album art is part of a public acknowledgement of some sort of Freemasonic or occult society ritual. One could speculate that the Beatles were recreating a public ritual with Paul McCartney acting as a symbolic murder victim, as part of an initiation and or resurrection ritual, or they were sending out the message that such a ritual took place in private. We will examine some masonic practices to see how they may figure into our analysis.
In the Freemasonic Third Degree ritual of initiation, the candidate plays the role of Hiram Abiff the architect of King Solomon’s Temple. It is said that three ruffians named Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum had murdered Abiff for not disclosing the Master Mason’s word. The Third Degree candidate playing the role of Abiff is murdered then resurrected, thus becoming a Mason of the Third Degree. May it have been John, George and Ringo playing the roles of the three unworthy craftsmen or ruffians in Paul’s initiation into a higher degree of a masonic like lodge where the other three were already members?
We might also consider the ninth degree of Freemasonry or the “Knights of the Elect of Nine.” The number nine does appear frequently, either purposely or coincidentally in the Beatles’ lives. There is the experimental sound piece “Revolution Number 9” from the White Album that is virtually overrun with PID clues. Throughout the cut, an engineer recites the words “number nine” over and over. Played backwards, he is saying “Turn me on dead man.” Paul’s last name has nine letters and John’s birthday is October 9th. Lennon would latter record a song for his 1974 album Walls and Bridges entitled “# 9 Dream.” The Ninth degree describes the hunting down and killing of the murderer of Hiram Abiff by master masons. After killing the assassin, a master mason severs his head holding it in one hand and his dagger in the other. Clues on numerous recordings, album art and photos indicate Paul as having been killed by decapitation.
Severed or wounded heads are featured prominently throughout Beatle recordings and album graphics. The dinner scene in the Magical Mystery Tour LP booklet viewed at a certain angle forms a skull (a Freemasonic symbol of rebirth) across the page. 16 In the same booklet a cartoon illustration of Paul has a crack in his head. A torso missing a head is flashed on a screen at the end of the “Blue Jay Way” performance in the Magical Mystery Tour film. On the Abbey Road LP cover a ghost like skull can be seen beside the album title. On the song “Don’t Pass Me By” on the White Album, Ringo sings, “You were in a car crash and you lost your hair.” On the reverse side of a feature on how Paul is still alive for the November 7, 1969 issue of Life magazine, a car runs through his neck. In the “Strawberry Fields” video a car on a road in the distance, runs through Paul’s head. On the poster included in the White Album, Paul lies in a suds filled tub, creating the illusion that he is decapitated. An album issued in the mid-sixties entitled A Collection of Beatles Oldies, features an illustration of a figure that appears to be Paul with a car approaching his head.
The worship of severed heads was supposedly practiced in the Middle Ages by the Knights of Templar. The Templars were accused of worshipping the god Baphomet. This deity has an androgynous human torso. A goat’s head replaces its human one, while it bears wings and cloven hoofs. For the Templars, this goat headed god might have represented the worship of John the Baptist as the true messiah, a belief held by Gnostics who are known in the modern world as the Mandaeans or St John Christians or Johannites. The Mandaean sect can primarily be found in the Middle East.17
But head chopping and head worship predates even, the Middle Ages. The Celts believed that a human head could continue to live after the death of the body and keep evil away from a home or a fortress while ensuring good luck and success to its owner. Celts would display the heads of their defeated enemies like trophies. This head cult appeared in Roquepertuse and Entremont, both in the south of France, where human skulls were dramatically exhibited in stone niches.18
Anne Ross who concludes an extensive study of the Cult of the Head in her book Pagan Celtic Britain states that, “The Cult of the Human Head .... constitutes a persistent theme throughout all aspects of Celtic life spiritual and temporal and the symbol of the severed head may be regarded as the most typical and universal of their religious attitudes.” Skulls or representations of them, are a persistent theme and appear everywhere in Celtic art. In the Celtic faith the head was imbued with supernatural powers. Given the fact that this is part of the history of the British Isles and other parts of Western Europe, it is possible the Beatles were aware of this record. Thus, we find that actual decapitation or symbols of it are a feature of the ancient British Isles.
Some anti-Masonic theorists have speculated that the Ninth-degree ritual is anti-Christian whereby it celebrates the murder by beheading of St John the Baptist and the honoring of the whore Salome who demanded his head as depicted in the Holy Scriptures (Mark 6:21-29, KJV). A close associate of the Beatles, their press officer Derek Taylor described the group as anti-Christian, “They’re completely anti-Christ. I mean, I am anti-Christ as well, but they’re so anti-Christ they shock me which isn’t an easy thing.” If all of this was a secret society initiation ritual, we should turn to another key player whose activities may shed some light on this issue, Robert Fraser.
Robert Fraser
Robert Fraser came from a well to do family. Educated at Eton he would go on to serve her majesty’s government as an officer in The King’s African Rifles in Africa in the 1950s. Being a scion of a wealthy family, Fraser would have been a welcome candidate for membership in a secret elite order. “Groovy Bob” as he was nicknamed by London’s “Swinging Sixties” crowd, was very influential and a trendsetter with friends like film director Kenneth Anger. Anger was a member of the important occult society, the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). 19 It is possible that Fraser along with his friends the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, were initiated into this occult society. As we have mentioned before, Aleister Crowley a saint in the OTO church, appears twice on the cover of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album, in one case abscured. So the Beatles were familiar with this occult milieu. 20
Part of OTO practice is the performance of a Gnostic Mass where Christian tenets are replaced with the principles of Crowley’s Thelema. Just such a ritual might have appealed to the Beatles whom we have seen described as “anti-Christ” and associating with individuals who dabbled in the black arts.
Another source for that might contribute to the group’s antics was a book written at the height of Beatlemania.
The Passover Plot
In the mid 1960s John Lennon was profoundly affected by a book he purchased at Indica Books. That book was Hugh Schonfield’s The Passover Plot. In fact, he was reading it when he made his famous aforementioned “We're more popular than Jesus, now” statement.21 In this work of fiction, Schonfield weaves a tale about how a deeply religious Jesus, attempted to fake his own death so that he can undergo a sham resurrection and therefore be considered the messiah. But when Jesus dies on the cross, his plans are foiled. Undeterred, the disciples go about telling the people that Jesus rose from the dead. With this scenario, we have a gathering of exclusive individuals with a secret. That being, Jesus did not rise from the dead.
Another unorthodox interpretation of the resurrection of Christ is told in the nonfiction book Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. Here Jesus is crucified but not killed. He does not rise on the third day but instead weds Mary Magdalene and impregnates her, creating a royal bloodline. Author Dan Brown would be accused of plagiarizing this story in his book The Da Vinci Code. But this, all or in part is an old story theorized by esoteric writers in the 19th Century Rosicrucian philosopher H. Spencer Lewis who also claimed that Jesus survived his crucifixion.
The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail claim that this bloodline was guarded over by heretics like the Cathars and the Templars. When these groups were suppressed, a secret society named the Priory of Sion was formed to protect the truth about Jesus. The writers of this book also believe that the Knights Templars had come in contact with the aforementioned Mandaeans who’s worship of the severed head of John the Baptist, they may have adopted. 22 The Beatles like the apostles in Schonfield’s fiction or the Catari and Templars in Holy Blood, Holy Grail are a group of men with a secret. But what is this secret? We know there is no credible evidence that McCartney is dead, yet there are all these clues left by the Beatles that Paul died and was replaced. Or was he resurrected?
Paul as Savior
Throughout his article Fred LaBour alludes to a new religion growing out of the death of Paul McCartney. He goes on to interpret the famous walk across the street on the Abby Road album cover, as the symbolic resurrection of the original Paul in the form of the imposter. John in white, representing an anthropomorphic God, Ringo as an undertaker, Paul the resurrected and George the gravedigger. So, the symbols were there for the uninitiated (everyone but the Beatles) to interpret. There are many incidents where Paul is portrayed in a Christ like pose. In the Strawberry Fieldsvideo Paul is seen on a tree and thus above the other band members, as if he has ascended. At least three times on the Magical Mystery Tour album booklet, Paul appears with his arms spread, like Christ on the cross. On the cover as the walrus, on page 10 with the other Beatles and in the crowd photo on the last page. In the two latter instances, Paul has a hand over or behind his head as if to mimic a halo, a blessing or a salute. On the Yellow Submarine album cover, an illustrated John holds his hand in the form of horns over the illustrated Paul’s head and the most famous of these blessings is on the Sergeant Pepper cover, where a British comedian bestows it on Paul. Thus, it is Paul who is different from the others. Remember that we have found, that it was Paul who was the last to ingest the “sacred host” of that era's rock and roll elite, LSD. So was McCartney the least enlightened of the four or maybe as we proceed, we will find he was the most enlightened Beatle.
Did Paul see himself as Schonfield’s Jesus? Or was it John Lennon who was inspired to create a religious narrative for the teaming throngs of hysterical fans? Since, according to Lennon, Jesus was losing popularity, and Christianity was nearly extinct, the Beatles were here to save the world of the 1960s, a time griped with despair and rife with violence and chaos. Similarly, the world in which Jesus was born into had shared those features. Schonfield writes, “an extraordinary fervor and religiosity in which almost every event, political, social, and economic, was seized upon, scrutinized, and analyzed, to discover how and in what way it represented a Sign of the Times and threw light on the approach of the End of The Days. The whole condition of the Jewish people was psychologically abnormal. . . . People were on edge, neurotic. There were hot disputes, rivalries and recriminations.”23 Thus, Lennon may have believed that the population was ripe for a new faith with a new resurrected savior.
All the Beatles are dead
On a flight from Kenya to England in late 1966 McCartney would come up with the idea of symbolically replacing the group with the Sergeant Pepper band. On the cover of the LP, the four Beatles stand over a grave, alongside the Pepper band. This new group would reveal who the real Fab Four were and their likes, interests and influences. Appearing on the cover in a collage of life-sized cardboard models, are famous people who influenced members of the group. Relatively unambiguous characters like Marilyn Monroe, Diana Dors, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel and Mae West take their place alongside more controversial individuals. Chief amongst them is an individual we mentioned before and labeled “the wickedest man in the world” occultist Aleister Crowley. Also included are the gnostic and psychiatrist Carl Jung, founder of communism Karl Marx and the incredibly influential duo of Aldous Huxley and H. G. Wells. John Lennon had Adolf Hitler included in the original collage but the Nazi dictator was soon removed.24
It appears that as the Beatles became older, richer and more independent, they felt they could shed their safe or harmless facade. Without anyone but their inner circle aware of it, the musicians would symbolically kill off the “lovable mop tops” and replace them with their true selves, or as Derek Taylor might say, with their, “anti-Christ” selves. And with the death of Brian Epstein in the Summer of 1967, there was no one to control any impulses they might have. One impulse as we have stated earlier, appeared to have been a fascination with death images and in particular with decapitations.
Even before Brian’s Death, the Beatles would appear on the famously grotesque “butcher cover” for the 1965 Yesterday and Today album. On it the group is posed with slabs of meat and pieces of baby dolls in particularly infant’s heads smeared with what appears to be animal blood. Some speculate that this cover was a statement by the Beatles in protest of the Vietnam War. But the cover was not their idea, but that of the photographer Robert Whitaker who developed the butcher concept and the photo. It was not intended for use as an album cover, but to be used in promotions. So, statements claiming that the photo was universally suppressed are blatantly false. Whitaker’s idea was to present the Beatles in poses much out of character with their public images as the lovable “mop tops.” Whitaker had traveled with the group and observed their private lives and felt the public never saw the real Beatles. Thus, Whitaker witnessed these four individuals and realized they were far from angels. But, we shall see, that shedding the lovable “mop top” image was a long and arduous process for the four musicians, and is the possible answer to the PID clues riddle. 25 In that vein, we will now examine a common occurrence in the lives of two leaders and primary members of the group, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Death in the lives of John and Paul
Being “lovable mop-tops” leaves little room for feelings like morning a loved one. But, death images may resonate on a personal level with the Beatles, in particular John Lennon and Paul McCartney. At seventeen John’s mother was killed by a police officer driving drunk. Coincidentally Paul McCartney’s mother would succumb to breast cancer when Paul was only fourteen. Many children blame themselves when someone close to them, like a parent, dies. Youngsters tend to believe they can make things happen by thinking it. This is known as magical thinking.
An angry child may think that because they might wish a mother or father dead, that such a thought might kill their parent. They may also believe any misbehavior caused their parent’s death. They will feel it is their entire fault, and that they are bad and worthless. Kids might feel guilty when they begin to re-experience joy or happiness, because they feel being happy in some way betrays their relationship with the loved one who died. Albert Goldman in his book The Lives of John Lennon describes how Lennon’s anger over his mother’s death swelled into acts of violence while Paul drowned his sorrows in music. 26
Thus, we can speculate that the youthful John and Paul might have carried many of these feelings with them into their successful careers. Those feelings may have been exhibited in songs and cover art and although many of the tunes projected upbeat messages, the uninhibited Beatles appear to have begun to express their negative karma as well. Both John and Paul referenced their deceased mothers in songs. John in “Julia” and Paul in “Let It Be.” Feelings of depression over these deaths, plus the frustration generated by the control exerted over them by their manager and the confines caused by their public persona, may have led to feelings of desperation and anger. Thus, the killing of the lovable mop tops persona was at the top of the agenda. But who would lead the struggle to shed this image?
“You’re getting closer”
According to P.I.D. lore, if one called a phone number hidden on the Magical Mystery Tour LP, a voice would answer and say, “You’re getting closer.” And it appears we are getting closer to an answer. As we have said before, the Beatles began to drift away from their manager Brian Epstein. They were older, richer and exploring other interests and relationships. They were now ready to shed the facade of the safe group. It should be remembered that the Beatles were purposely promoted as the acceptable band as opposed to the unacceptable Rolling Stones. In fact, the whole operation was marketed in just that manner. Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Oldham was elated at the universal revulsion expressed over the Stones. He told the group, “We’re going to make you exactly opposite to those nice, clean, tidy Beatles. And the more the parents hate you, the more the kids will love you. Just wait and see.” The same manner of operators were handling both groups and developing their personas and the public was not aware that both bands cooperated closely. In fact, the Beatles, mainly McCartney, would write a hit for the Stones entitled, “I Wanna Be Your Man.” 27
Thus, Sgt. Pepper was a sort of “coming out.” A grave is covered with the name “Beatles” as wax figures of the lovable “mop tops” gaze down at their resting place. They would be resurrected only by providing a symbolic sacrificial lamb. That lamb would be Paul. Why Paul? It might be because the public persona that was created for McCartney as the “cute one.” Paul’s image was that of the least caustic or toxic member of the group and as we have pointed out, the last to experiment with LSD.
Yet, in spite of the late experimentation with acid, far from being left behind, Paul may have been in the forefront of the thrust out of the lovable mop top era into the late 1960s psychedelic funhouse. Paul would become involved in the London drug laced avant-garde art scene long before John’s association with Yoko Ono. As we have mentioned, McCartney would assist in launching the Indica Gallery and even designed wrapping paper for the Indica bookstore in 1965. 28
It is a fact that Paul has been a clandestine avant-garde musician for most of his life, recording avant-garde music under pseudonyms such as Percy Thrillington and The Fireman. Since the days of Revolver (1966) McCartney has been deeply involved in creating music that would not even resemble most of his work with the Beatles and Wings. Among the examples of his experimental sound work was the Beatles’ “Carnival of Light,” for The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, an event held at the Roundhouse Theatre on January 28 and February 4, 1967. He was also responsible for the tape loops on the Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows.” 29
Paul symbolically died, leaving behind a Beatle or beetle (bland and dark), to be resurrected as a pepper (spicy and colorful), and with him he would take his disciples John, George and Ringo. Like the disciples in Hugh Schonfield’s book The Passover Plot the four Beatles would promote clues of a death and a phony resurrection. A better Paul would replace the now dead original. So, the savior has come and with him he brings the Sixties mantra of, “Do your own thing.” Or as Aleister Crowley an individual whom Paul seems to admire might say, “Do what thou wilt.” McCartney’s double life as an avant-garde musician made him the perfect leader in the new era of psychedelic experimental sounds.
In some photos the Beatles certainly do not look themselves. Having grown up in the nineteen seventies I observed many individuals on hallucinogenic substances like LSD, psilocybin and other psychedelics. In many cases, they appear to look different under the influence. Since the focus is on Paul, we can speculate that looking different at photo shoots, would give the impression that this was not the original McCartney but his improved, initiated, resurrected self. As we have seen McCartney always toyed with alias. John also used a pseudonym. On Harry Nilsson records Lennon was credited as Dr. Winston O’Boogie and McCartney once referred to himself as Paul Ramon in the Silver Beatles days. 30 That last name would be modified then adopted by musician Douglas Colvin, thus giving a name to the punk era group the Ramones. 31 All of this might be true yet there may be a quite simple answer to our original question, why the clues?
Eternal fame and fortune
“And in the end,” as the song says, were all the PID clues a big hoax designed to sell records and to stay eternally current? John is quoted as saying that his song “I am the Walrus,” was one of his favorite tracks because, “it's one of those that has enough little bitties going to keep you interested even a hundred years later.” 32
We have no definitive answer as to why clues implying that Paul McCartney died in some way were deposited on album art and on songs. But, we think that the quote above is very telling. As John Lennon has admitted, the Beatles were four individuals with giant egos. Lennon thought that he, and McCartney, rather than creating the Beatles hits were channeling them via some divine force while Paul compared their compositions to those of the classical masters. Though their egos may have been big they knew it was inevitable that they would be replaced by the next generation of pop musicians. Anticipating that they would not be number one forever, it appears that the Beatles created an ego driven marketing scheme to keep the “Beatlemania” going for decades.
And, if this is true, all of the antics of this guerilla marketing campaign conducted decades ago and now revised in the end of the last decade was unnecessary. Popular music has progressively gotten more primitive and backward since the Beatles. Many people of all ages would agree, the Beatles are preferable to much of what is currently on the radio. Thus, all of this would have been done, for naught.
Death, taxes and the Beatles
In conclusion, the general consensus in 1969 was that the many clues alluding to Paul McCartney’s death placed on Beatle record album covers and music, were the work of the four musicians and their small inner circle of collaborators. It was concocted in the event that the sale of Beatle products slumped. The clues would act as a guerrilla-marketing project to be exposed to the public to cause a frenzy of record buying. Whether or not 1969 was the year designated by the Beatles for the revelation of the clues, their discovery in late 1969 led to an explosion in record sales. Yet our research has found that the antics of the Beatles appeared to be more than a simple marketing scheme.
We have considered the British Isles history of decapitation cults as an influence. Also, we have speculated that the clues may have represented a public initiation into an occult society. It may have been generated by feelings of depression over the deaths of Paul’s and John’s mothers, the frustration the group experienced under the control of their manager Brian Epstein, or by the confines caused by their public personas. And, it was their public personas that were most significant.
As the Beatles became more powerful, they felt they could shed their safe or harmless facade and Sergeant Pepper (the first LP with death clues), would be their opportunity. McCartney devised the idea of symbolically killing the Beatles off, and replacing them, with the Sergeant Pepper band, a group free to reveal the true likes, interests and influences of these four individuals. Paul would act as a symbolic sacrificial lamb as the beetles (bland and dark) were to be resurrected as peppers (spicy and colorful). Paul might have been the best choice of symbolic avatar because of his public persona as the “cute one.” Paul’s image was less caustic or toxic than John’s, and he was more personable and more attractive than the others. Paul was the last to experiment with LSD and it is possible that he experimented with the drug on November 9, 1966, the day in which he dies in the PID scenario.
Also we considered the fact that Paul was the most counter-culturally enlightened of the Fab Four. McCartney was an avant-garde composer long before John would experiment musically in that direction with Yoko Ono. Thus the anointed Paul with the 60s mantra of, “do your own thing,” would take his disciples John, George and Ringo with him into the late sixties. Unfortunately for the Fab Four and in particular Paul McCartney, the news media has a long memory. McCartney has been dogged since 1969 by this controversy. Rather than concern themselves with Paul’s latest tour or album, members of the news media will at times probe the aging musician about the clues. In the past, he has either explained them away as being the machinations of American disc jockeys. At other times he has appeared to be mildly annoyed or embarrassed by the entire episode.
We can conclude that Paul McCartney is alive, well and an extremely rich international rock star. We can also conclude, that like death and taxes, Sir Paul has been trying to guarantee that the music of the Beatles will live on for eternity. Yet, this is not for monetary gain alone, but to somehow make the music of this group as important and enduring as the compositions of classical composers have been, through the centuries. Today, Beatle music including tunes from 1964 through 1966 which some PID theorists claim is tuned into “God’s frequency” and so dangerous to some omni powerful establishment,” streams endlessly through the zeitgeist. “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” and other harmless songs are constantly flooding the airwaves and are part of the soundtrack of our daily lives.
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