The “Paul Is Dead” conspiracy theory is growing

I’m not dead, Beatle Paul tells his father

BEATLE Paul McCartney last night warned his father who lives in Gayton, Wirral: “Don’t be surprised if you hear rumours that I am dead.” For rumours of Paul’s death have been sweeping across America. And they’ve been taken so seriously there that the Beatle are topping the pop charts on the strength of them.

No-one seems to know where the reports started, but they have become the No. 1 topic of conversation on college campuses, pop radio stations and wherever teenagers gather. The only source for the rumours is interpretation of The Beatles’ latest songs and the jacket designs of their latest albums.

Georgetown University radio station, in Washington played all The Beatles records since 1966, and concluded the lyrics unmistakeably pointed to the death of the twenty-eight-year-old guitarist. The university radio station said that when the Beatles’ recording of Strawberry Fields Forever was played at high speed the last line of the song became “I buried Paul.”

Yesterday, a disc jockey for the major New York radio station WABC was replaced in the middle of his programme after he discussed the McCartney death rumour. The announcer said that on the album for Abbey Road the other Beatles — John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — are dressed as a pall bearer, gravedigger and clergyman. But Paul is dressed in a suit and is bare-footed, and this — the announcer added — is the way corpses are buried in Italy.

At Dupont Circle, in Washington, a gathering place for young people, 75 students yesterday held a meeting to debate rumours that Paul had been dead since 1966 and since then had been replaced by a double. The majority doubted this theory, but exponents argued that recent photographs showing Paul with short hair and his few public performances tied in with suggestions that he was dead.

Disc jockeys in New Orleans, Detroit, St. Louis and Wichita have been making continual references to McCartney’s death, and radio station switchboards throughout the country have been jammed by teenagers’ telephone calls asking for confirmation.

From Liverpool Daily Post – October 22, 1969

“It’s High Time Our BILLY Received The Credit He Deserves” — DAD

London — October 26. Paul McCartney is dead. All the Beatles, of course, know it but they aren’t talking. All the insiders at Apple Corporation have known it for a long time without ever leaking a word. It’s been the world’s best-kept secret. But, in the last few days I have discovered absolute proof of Paul’s death, and I think it’s time that the world knew the truth. The hoax has gone on long enough.

I have gotten to know a lot of people at Apple Corps pretty well during the six months that I’ve hung around jamming and doing various studio gigs.

I had seen the Beatles, including ‘Paul,’ many times around the studio and offices. Rumors about them are a dime a dozen. I had heard the one about Paul’s death, but it was just one of scores that went around. Even when the death rumor received international press coverage, I didn’t take the whole thing very seriously.

But my opinion changed radically as a result of a party I attended last Wednesday. The party, at the house of a London rock musician, included the usual assortment of hip writers, rockers and hangers-on. Several Apple friends also showed up. The latest Beatles rumor was, of course, the main topic of conversation. Everyone there considered himself to be very in with the Beatles, and they all joked about the obvious foolishness of the latest outcropping of Beatlemania.

After a while, several of my Apple friends and I decided to split to one of their apartments to smoke a little dope and check out some new tapes that had just come in. People eventually drifted off to crash or ball, leaving only myself and my friend. I had noticed earlier that the light talk about Paul’s rumored death had put him very up tight, and the idea to leave had been his in the first place. In the past few months we had grown pretty close — and we were pretty stoned — so I began to question him about the whole affair.

The story I drew out of him over the next few hours went like this:

Remember the first cut on the Sgt. Pepper album? The one with the line “And now we introduce to you the one and only Billy Shears”? Did you ever wonder just who ‘Billy Shears’ actually was? Or if he even existed?

Billy Shears was a young London rock musician who did short gigs in London nightclubs and occasional tours, waiting for the chance to make it big. As the fifties rock-and-roll craze spread across to Europe, he got a chance to play various clubs on the Continent. In 1962 Shears played on the same nightclub bill as Paul McCartney. In fact, he was virtually a dead ringer for Paul. Of course, you could tell the difference if they stood side by side. Billy had a somewhat over-sized, beak-shaped nose. But in photographs or at a distance, they were absolutely indistinguishable.

Their friendship remained intermittent over the next year or so as their respective tour paths occasionally crossed. When fame came to the Beatles in 1964, however, they lost touch with obscure Billy who drifted from small bandsman to studio musician.

In November, 1966, Paul McCartney was involved in an auto accident — a fatal accident. John, George and Ringo first wanted to stage a gigantic funeral in memory of Paul. But super-sharp manager, Brian Epstein, feared that Paul’s death would destroy the Beatles mystique and managed almost entirely to suppress the news. Epstein’s calculating mind had already devised a scheme for keeping the Beatles intact — at least for the public. With a minor nose job, Billy Shears would make a perfect replacement for Paul. Though hesitant at first, Shears soon accepted Epstein’s offer. What musician could resist the opportunity to step into the shoes of one of the superstars of the rock world.

In the first album after Paul’s death, Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles cryptically introduced the new “Paul” in the first cut. The album closes with “A Day in the Life”, the story of Paul’s death. “… He blew his mind out in a car/He didn’t notice that the light had changed/A crowd of people stood and stared/They’d seen his face before …”

Knowing perhaps that the ruse couldn’t last, the Beatles have hinted at the truth in every successive album. On the Sgt. Pepper album centerfold, only ‘Paul’ faces away from the camera; Egyptian-like, a large close-up of ‘Paul’ to be shown until people became accustomed to the slight difference from the deceased Beatle. On the Magical Mystery Tour insert, only ‘Paul’ wears a black rose. “Revolution Number Nine”, on the double album, contains the phrase “I buried Paul” when played backwards. The cover picture of the most recent Abbey Road shows the Beatles walking single file. The first two, Ringo and John, wear mourning clothes; ‘Paul’ is barefoot and dressed as for burial; George follows in the work clothes of an English gravedigger.

Even though I knew that my friend, who asked to remain un-named, had known and worked with the Beatles from the early days in the fifties, his story seemed almost too fantastic to believe. And certainly people who did not know him would have no reason to believe that Billy took Paul’s place three years ago. So, for the next few days, I searched for evidence to absolutely confirm the story.

My search ended in the quiet Chelsea section of London where I talked with Philip Shears, father of the new Paul McCartney. At first, Mr. Shears hesitated to discuss the matter. He had kept his lips sealed for three long years in the pleasant, middle-class home his son had bought for him. But after I repeated the story my Apple friend had told me, the elderly Mr. Shears relented and confirmed the facts. “Mums and me always knew that it couldn’t stay secret forever. The Beatles are a bunch of wonderful lads and have made a whole new world for us.” But, he added, “It’s high time that our Billy received the credit he deserves.”

And now he has.

From RAT Subterranean news – October 29, 1969

McCartney Death Rumor Spurs Singles

NEW YORK — Paul McCartney is not dead, yet very much alive is label interest in the aftermath of the rumors that the Beatles member was gone.

MGM Records has purchased a master, “The Ballad of Paul” by the Mystery Tour, for which Lenny Sheer, director of sales and distribution, is directing an “all-out” campaign to include the packaging of the disk in a special sleeve, full page ads in the trades, saturation distribution of 5000 disks to radio stations and a direct mailing campaign of sample disks and title strips to one-stops and juke box operators. Also, reviewers on national mags, newspapers and wire services are being covered.

In another release, Silver Fox Records, thru Shelby Singleton’s organization, is offering “Brother Paul” by Billy Shears & All Americans. The name “Billy Shears” appears in the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s “Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Furthermore, Capitol Records has marketed a re-release, “St. Paul” an eight-month old tribute to McCartney written, produced and performed by Terry Knight. The lyrics take on added meaning in light of recent talk, but Knight has refused to comment on the disk.

Capitol has officially re-released the deck, following activity in Philadelphia where the disk has refused to participate in promotional plans. Says Knight, “I wrote the song on my way back from London in March, following a very moving personal experience. I would not explain its meaning to anyone when it was originally released, and I don’t intend to explain it now.”

Scholars of the erudite and apocryphal have compounded a compendium of proof that would point conclusively to the “fact” that Paul McCartney was dead — in fact, that he has been dead for several years. Specks on album designs, the appearance of dozens of trivial points in lyrics, customs of dress and the like topped by the Beatles’ no appearance policy of recent years exploded last week in a rash of television, radio and newspaper commentary that served only to spread the speculation and add untouched brains to the think tank of student concern.

However, one point seems to disown all the evidence to the contrary, that being McCartney’s existence. At least his being alive as of press time.

“I was first informed of Paul’s death,” Lenny Hodes said, “when I returned from meeting with him in London last week.” The general manager of Maclen Music in New York noted that he was asked about the rumor as he made the usual customs on his return, and wonder if something had happened during the six hours he was enplaned. Before he had any chance to check, his children and several hundred callers tied up phone lines at the office and the “facts” of the case made themselves a bit clearer.

The rumor is just that — a rumor. McCartney is currently at work on sessions for upcoming product, which includes the third Mary Hopkin single.

So how come the next Plastic Ono Band release, from Maclen, is written by John Lennon, alone?

From CashBox Magazine – November 8, 1969

‘Ghoulish’ discs follow McCartney rumours

RUMOURS of the death of Beatle Paul McCartney have sparked a rash of singles releases on the subject in the United States. And the Apple organisation here in Britain finds the phenomenon most distressing. A spokesman for Apple described the releases as “Ghoulish. In the worst of taste. It’s exploitation at its most extreme.

“It’s very bad news, but we can’t do anything about them,” he continued.

Lenny Sheer, director of sales and distribution for MGM Records in the U.S., has bought a master by the Mystery Tour called ‘The Ballad of Paul’ and the company is launching a massive promotion campaign which includes mailing to every radio station and jukebox operator.

Shelby Singleton Productions has two works in progress. One is a documentary album featuring excerpts from radio programmes dealing with the alleged demise; the other is a single, ‘Brother Paul’ by Billie Shears and the All Americans on Silver Fox Records.

Capitol Records, American distributor of Beatle albums, is re-releasing Terry Knight’s single ‘Saint Paul’, which had been deleted from the company’s catalogue last June because of poor sales. Even major acts are not immune from the exploitation. RCA is launching a Jose Feliciano single titled ‘Dear Paul’. But perhaps the most gruesome of the releases is the Viking Records disc ‘Paulbearer’, by an unknown group.

It’s very unlikely MGM will release ‘The Ballad of Paul’ in this country, but Capitol people in Britain are discussing the Terry Knight single this week. According to Capitol’s Ian McClintock, ‘St Paul’ has no bearing on the death rumours (initial U.S. release was last Spring), and is merely a string of Beatles tunes.

From Record Retailer – November 8, 1969