“Paul is Dead” is quite possibly the most famous conspiracy theory in music history. The “Paul” in question being Paul McCartney, bass guitar and singer of the Beatles.
The rumor began on October 12, 1969, when Detroit DJ Russ Gibb received a call telling him to play the Beatlers’ White Album’s “Revolution 9” and spin the intro (“number nine, number nine”) backwards. When played backwards, the introductory phrase sounded like “turn me on, dead man”. And from there, the rumor spiraled into one of the most intricate conspiracy theories of modern history.
The story goes like this: on Tuesday November 9, 1966, Paul was in a bloody car crash. He was Officially Pronounced Dead (OPD) on Wednesday. But, the other Beatles members decided to cover the news. They kept Paul’s death a secret, replacing him with a doppleganger called William Sheppard or Billy Shears (names vary depending on the specific rumor). Eventually, the guilt became too much and the Beatles began hiding hints about Paul’s death in their music. Paul’s impersonator is still living as Paul to this day.
Clues include:
- In “Taxman”, George Harrison gave “advice for those who die”, the “who” in question referring to Paul
- The Sgt. Lonely Hearts Club Band album
- The Beatles form a “new” band featuring a supposedly fictional Billy Shears
- John Lennon’s “A Day in the Life”
- Included the lyrics “He blew his mind out in a car”
- The phrase “Paul is dead, miss him, miss him,” can be heard when played backwards
- In “Strawberry Fields Forever”, John Lennon can be heard mumbling “I buried Paul” (Lennon states in later interviews that he actually said “cranberry sauce”, but the validity of this statement is debatable)
- In the Yesterday and Today 1996 album’s original cover, the Beatles posed with raw meat and doll parts, symbolizing Paul’s accident
- If a mirror is placed in front of the Sgt. Pepper album cover, the “Lonely Hearts” on the drum logo can be read as “ONE X HE DIE ONE”
- In the Abbey Road cover, John is dressed like a clergyman, Ringo as the mourner, George the gravedigger, and Paul with no shoes and walking out of step with the others because he was dead
Paul has stated he doesn’t mind the conspiracy rumors, even finding them amusing. In 1993, he even released a live album called Paul is Live, a reference to the rumor. Once in a while, this conspiracy theory will resurface, reminding everyone of the chaos it once brought to the world of pop culture.
