More Weird & Random Facts

Fact #8 | I Buried Paul

To all Beatles fans this is hardly a new fact but I still find it hilarious on its own. 

There is a famous urban legend among Beatles fans where some believe that Paul is actually dead and replaced with a look-alike. According to them, Paul died in 1966 in a car crash and was replaced by a look-alike since there was also a Paul McCartney look-alike contest done, some people think they hired one of the contestants who sounded, looked and sung like Paul. Beatlemaniacs put this theory together by stringing together clues through different Beatles songs especially through their albums Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Rubber Soul, The Whie Album, Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road. 

The rumour was also endorsed when the Beatles retired from live performances. This was due to the fact that they became so popular that at their concerts the audience constantly screamed so loud that the four felt like it was no longer about the music since you can't even hear them play. Honestly, if you listen to any live performance you'd have a hard time hearing. However, people believed this was because of Paul being dead. 

After their live gig retirement, The Beatles constructed the iconic album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band where they took their own liberty to create a sort of concept album of their own. They made characters for themselves and followed the story of Sgt. Pepper and his band. Having this new persona caused some eye raises from fans.

People speculated that the look-alike was actually an orphan from Edinburgh named William Shears Campbell which would later be abbreviated to Billy Shears as per the Sgt. Pepper's album storyline where a member is named Billy Shears although the Billy Shears in the album is actually Ringo Starr, not Paul. 

Apparently, the Beatles were troubled with guilt about Paul's death so that is why they put so many clues into their songs. There are honestly so many clues it's funny and knowing how comedic the fab four were I have no doubt that they loved to indulge their fans with this theory.

According to some the full story is told through a lot of the clues in different songs. People believe one night after a recording session on a "stupid bloody Tuesday" (I am the Walrus) Paul drove away mad and got into a crash and "blew his mind out in a car" (A Day in the Life). The was Officially Pronounced Dead on "Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock" (She's Leaving Home). The Beatles didn't want anyone finding out so they stopped news of it so "Wednesday morning the papers didn't come" (Lady Madonna). 

 The many clues are as follows:

1} In Strawberry Fields Forever in the Sgt. Pepper album if you listen to the very end you can hear a soft voice of someone. Listen closely and you'll hear John, some people say he is saying 'I buried Paul' and it quickly became one of the most famous clues. When asked in an interview John just said that he said cranberry sauce. Obviously, the whole dead Paul thing is stupid but there is no way John said cranberry sauce. It does sound like I buried Paul so personally, I think they just wanted to goof around.

2} On the Sgt. Pepper Album cover you can see Paul wearing a patch that said OPD which people thought stood for officially pronounced dead hinting to Paul's death. The badge did not say OPD but instead OPP because it stood for Ontario Provincial Police which I'm very proud to say because this is where I am from. When the Beatles were in Toronto (my city woo) they were followed around by a policeman named Sgt. Pepper who wasn't too big of a fan of these young rock n roll lads. But they liked him and Paul took inspiration from the uniform he wore as well as named the album and character after him. So you can see the uniform Paul wears has the Ontario Police Department badge as well as a small white flower called the Trillium which is the national flower of Ontario. He like the look at it and thought it was cool to add on to the uniform. (intense Canadian noises)

3} On the Abbey Road album cover people believe it represents a funeral parade. John in white as the preacher, Ringo in black as the undertaker, Paul wearing no shoes as the corpse with a cigarette in his right hand even though Paul was left-handed, and George following up as the gravedigger. The white Volkswagon in the background has the license plate '28 IF' which people thought meant Paul would be 28 if he were alive, Paul was 27 at the time. 

4} The famous song I Am the Walrus on Magical Mystery Tour made fans think that walrus means corpse in Scadenavian and Glass Onion on The White Album further proved their point with the quote "Here's another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul". 

5} Revolution 9 on The White Album is a weird and almost creepy song with John saying 'number nine' over and over again. When played backwards people believed it said "turn me on, dead man."

6} On the back of Sgt. Pepper album Paul is the only Beatle turned away from the camera. 

7} In I'm So Tired on The White Album the fading out end of the song sounds like gibberish but when played backwards it sounds like 'Paul is dead, miss him, miss him, miss him'. 

8} On the Magical Mystery Tour album there is a phone number up at the top which people thought connected to some Paul is dead hotline. In reality, if you're in Toronto and use our area code it'll connect you to some home contractor who has no information about this shit. 

9} On Magical Mystery Tour album there are each of the Beatles in a walrus costume. Three white and one black. Beatles fans thought the black walrus was Paul and represented death but in reality it was actually John in the costume. 

There's some other different clues also but I'll leave them out since they're some of the smaller ones. All the Beatles obviously denied these claims with Paul even saying that they did sort of encourage the hoax with some of their songs. It's been widely disregarded but some people have their own faith in it I suppose. I don't clearly but I think it's hilarious. I could go on for days and days about the Beatles tbd, I could make a book about facts so sorry this chapter is longer than normal.