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Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Birth of an urban legend: Paul is dead

By Mike Conley | The McDowell News

Published: September 16, 2009

It was 40 years ago today that an article first appeared in a university student newspaper which gave birth to a weird rumor about the greatest rock band of all time. It left music fans everywhere taking a closer look at their album covers and listening intently to some of their favorite songs as they searched for the hidden clues.
On Sept. 17, 1969, the student newspaper at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, published the first known account of what came to be called the "Paul is dead" phenomenon. The article, written by Tim Harper, detailed the story about Beatles musician Paul McCartney supposedly being dead and how the other Beatles found a lookalike to take his place.
No articles about McCartney's supposed death, published prior to this one, are known to exist. But one of the sources for the Drake newspaper story allegedly recalled hearing about it from some musicians and reading about it in some underground papers.
By October, the strange story became more well known when someone telephoned Russ Gibb, a radio disc jockey at WKNR in Dearborn, Mich. The caller, who named himself "Tom," announced on the air that McCartney was indeed dead. He also asked Gibb to play the track "Revolution 9" from The Beatles' "White Album" backwards. When the track was played in reverse, Gibb thought he could hear the words "Turn me on, dead man" over and over. This seemed to confirm the story. Gibb later produced an hour-long radio show titled "The Beatle Plot." The show aired on WKNR-FM in late 1969 and has been repeated over the years on Detroit radio stations, according to a Web site.
According to the tale, McCartney and the other Beatles supposedly were hard at work one night in 1966 at their London studios on what would become the classic album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." It was just before 5 a.m. on Nov. 9, when McCartney had a heated argument with the other three and stormed out of the Abbey Road studio. He sped off in his Austin-Healey sports car, crashed into a nearby lamp post and was killed in the wreck. John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr for some reason decided to cover up McCartney's death and find a lookalike who would take his place.
But starting with "Sgt. Pepper," the surviving Beatles inserted clues in their songs and album covers that would tip off their fans about McCartney's death.
For example, the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" supposedly ends with Lennon saying "I buried Paul." The song "A Day in the Life," at the end of "Sgt. Pepper," talks about a man who "blew his mind out in a car" because "He didn't notice that the lights had changed."
In one scene of the film "Magical Mystery Tour," all four Beatles are wearing carnations. Three of them are wearing red ones while the alleged McCartney lookalike is wearing a black one. On the "Sgt. Pepper" album, McCartney wears a patch that reads OPD. Fans said that stood for "officially pronounced dead."
Then there was the album cover for "Abbey Road." It shows all four Beatles crossing the road. People who believed in the "Paul is dead" rumor said it depicted a funeral procession for McCartney. Lennon leads the procession dressed in white to represent a minister. Starr is next and he is dressed in black like an undertaker. McCartney follows behind him and he is dressed in a blue suit. He is barefoot since the dead are often buried without shoes. He is also out of step with the other three. Harrison is the last to cross the road and he is dressed in work clothes, symbolizing a gravedigger. In the background, a Volkswagen Beetle, appropriately enough, has the license plate that reads "28 IF." Believers in the urban legend said that meant McCartney would be 28 years old, if he was alive.
Those are just a few of the clues that people were talking about at that time. Pretty soon, the rumor became more widespread. A disc jockey in New York City talked about it on Oct. 21, 1969. National and international media picked up the weird story and many people believed that it was true.
When asked about the "Paul is dead" phenomenon, McCartney said in 1969 he was very much alive and living on his farm in Scotland.
Many years later, he appeared in a classic skit on "Saturday Night Live" when comedian Chris Farley asked him about it.
"That was a hoax right?" Farley asked to much laughter.
"Yeah, I wasn't really dead," said McCartney with a straight face.

Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.