Paul Is Dead

Is Paul Dead?

The Fact or Fiction

Liz Miller

11/9/2011

Paul Is Dead

In 1969, on the 12th of October a radio station listener called in to report the rumor and the clues that supported it, that Paul McCartney was no longer among the living. This caller described the clues that had been observed at the time and how McCartney had died in a car accident in 1966. It was supposedly said that the musical and lyrical genius was replaced by a winner of a look-alike contest named William Campbell. The rumor spiked when a journalist named Fred LaBour published an article about the clues left to track McCartney’s death. Many of the clues he published were made up and therefore he was shocked when the story went national. In the meantime, the Beatles press office continued to deny any truth to the mystery.

The Clues

The clues to McCartney’s supposed death are found all over Beatle work: in the lyrics, on album covers, and even in the way they change their appearance. The first clue came from the song Revolution 9. When played backwards the words revolution nine turn into, “Turn me on dead man.” While the audio is eerie, I question its credibility as an actual clue to the death of McCartney. In my own experiment I ask my roommates who know nothing of the Beatles to listen to the Revolution 9 track backward and they could not distinguish the words turn me on dead man. They could tell that it said something, but not what it said.

The song Strawberry Fields Forever has a sentence that is faded out in the music at the end of the song. It appears to say, “I buried Paul.” I did the same experiment with my roommates and both of them said they heard Lennon say, “I