RIP Great Music Legend: He Made Music Something ‘Supernatural’ In Our Time- Last Moment Of ‘Paul McCartney’
Paul Is Dead: Where did the Paul McCartney death conspiracy come from?
Even before the age of the internet, outlandish ideas of murky goings-on and subsequent cover-ups have floated around, on varying levels of believability.
More often than not focused on politics – ie the assassination of JFK, or Nasa’s moon landing being faked to get ahead of the USA’s Russian rivals – even pop stars were targets.
The Beatles were the biggest band in the world throughout the sixties – John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney were at the end of media assaults on a daily basis throughout the decade, and beyond.
However, one scenario I doubt they ever thought they’d have to contend with, was the belief that Paul McCartney was in fact dead.
Yes, it’s as strange as it sounds, in what would become one of popular culture’s weirdest phenomenons.
So, what was the ‘Paul Is Dead’ conspiracy about? Who started it? How did it gain traction? What did Paul and The Beatles say about it? Here’s all you need to know about the urban legend:
What was the ‘Paul Is Dead’ conspiracy?
The ‘Paul Is Dead’ conspiracy theory was that ‘the real’ Paul McCartney died in a car accident in 1966, and was replaced by a look-alike imposter.
According to theory, Paul was killed in a car accident, but to spare the public from grieving the world’s biggest pop star, it was covered up
Aided by Britain’s secret service, MI5, The Beatles were given a replacement bandmate who was the spitting image of Paul.
As the conspiracy spiralled into an international phenomenon, it was believed that the band coded their music and album artwork to communicate Paul’s death, with fans searching for “clues” and messages that didn’t actually exist.
Where did the ‘Paul Is Dead’ conspiracy originate?
Rumours of Paul’s death began to circulate in 1966 when it was believed he died in a car accident, even though The Beatles’ press officer Tony Barrow confirmed to journalists he had recently spoken to him.
The band had recently decided to stop performing live after the postponement of their scheduled tours that year, so had disappeared from the public eye.
Any talk of Paul’s death was quickly eclipsed by a different rumour that he was set to leave The Beatles and pursue a solo career.
The band’s producer George Martin then reportedly claimed that their management had hired “a number of people pretending to be Beatles” during a visit to Denver, Colorado to distract the hoards of fans.
Despite McCartney and Harrison denying the claims themselves, stories that imposters were performing as the band began to take off.
This seemed to lead to the idea that Paul was dead, especially when journalist Jay Marks – who was attending Paul’s engagement party in 1967 – was told by a friend that Paul had been replaced.
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