The Paul is Dead Hoax Was Born 41 Years Ago Today
09/17/2010
.
It was 41 years ago today that Paul died... or so the story goes. Gibson has the story: On October 21, 1969, disc jockey Roby Yonge of the New York City radio station WABC announced to mortified listeners as far away as North Africa that reports were circulating that Paul McCartney, beloved bassist-songwriter-singer for The Beatles, was dead. The report was the culmination of a month's speculation that began in the school newspaper of tiny Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The article, "Is Paul McCartney Dead?" (published on this date in 1969 and written by staff writer Tim Harper), pointed out that the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album marked the "death" of the old mop-top, "yeah yeah yeah" Beatles and represented something completely new. His theory was that Sgt. Pepper sounded so different because one of its principal players was different. Citing a liturgy of signs on Beatles album covers and recordings, Harper theorized that the evidence was indisputable: Paul is dead. Harper claimed the evidence was everywhere. On the cover of Sgt. Pepper, a mysterious hand is raised over his head, the death symbol in many cultures. The "grave" at the band's feet is covered by a left-handed guitar, clearly in reference to the dead Macca. On the back of the album, as the rest of the band smiles for the camera, Paul turns his back
on the living. In that same shot, George points to the lyric from "She's Leaving Home" that says, "Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day begins" an obvious clue to the time of death (Harper, incidentally, confuses this lyric with "A Day in the Life" and conveniently rolls that line together with the "Day in the Life" line, "He blew his mind out in a car." This lyrical puzzle was meant to indicate that Paul had died in a car accident during the recording of the album, with 5 a.m. being the time of death. The last sign on that album is Paul's black armband in the center spread, the sign of mourning. But Sgt. Pepper wasn't the end of it. - more on this story
Gibson.com is an official news provider for the Day in Rock.
Share this article on Twitter
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Click here to read today's full report
Preview and Purchase Paul McCartney CDs
Paul McCartney Tour Dates/Tickets
Paul McCartney MP3 Downloads
Was it Good for you? Please Fark it!, Stumble It, Digg it or more! |
![](/dayinrock/links/fark.gif) |
![](/dayinrock/links/stumbleupon.gif) |
![](/dayinrock/links/digg.gif) |
![](/dayinrock/links/facebook.gif) |
Fark | Stumble Upon | Digg | Facebook |
|
tell a friend about this article know of a news item we should cover? antiMUSIC News featured on RockNews.info and Yahoo News
.
...end |