The Beatles Death Curse
http://newsblaze.com/story/20100207063528adea.nb/topstory.html
By Alessandro De Arcangelis
February 07, 2010
Stars never actually fall. Especially rock stars. They stay alive not
only in the fans' memories, however, when they do die, as prescribed
by nature; the rumour that they are certainly still alive is
undoubtedly and strangely raised. The 'star' made it intentionally:
he or she, just wanted to retire to private life or hide from
something. Look at Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, John Lennon and
Michael Jackson. It is all fake: they are still alive.
On the contrary, for what concerns Paul McCartney, we notice the
opposite phenomenon. He is thought to be dead. Even if he seems to be alive.
November 6, 1966. Paul steps out of the EMI building in London,
seemingly disappointed, he enters his car and he quickly leaves the
place. Something must have happened with the other Beatles, a hard
confrontation or an argument. Paul is tired but, while driving back
home, he meets Rita on the way, a young girl looking for a lift. Rita
is definitely a bit too nervous and in an alcoholic state, she
distracts Paul from driving and prevents him from realizing that the
traffic light is still sadly and unavoidably red. Paul loses control
of his car while trying to avoid another vehicle and hits a tree.
Something sparkles in the car: Rita dies all of a sudden and Paul
literally loses his head, decapitated by a sharp piece of glass that
exploded in the impact, as described in the song that completes the
album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, A Day in the Life.
The news reaches Paul's friends that, after a first astonishing and
desperate moment, they realize how serious and delicate the issue is.
They have reached the top in their careers and cannot afford such a
revolutionary and thrilling outcome. Therefore, supported by their
manager Brian Epstein, they decide not to spread the news and replace
Paul with a double.
This is just one of the uncountable stories related of McCartney's
death: a metropolitan legend also known as PID: Paul Is Dead, a story
that is everyday fuelled by new and sometimes creepy details.
The information was provided by a radio in Detroit on the 12th of
October 1969, 3 years after Paul's 'eventual' death. The DJ Russell
Gibb received a call from a guy named Tom who tells about the car
crash and suggests to the listeners to carefully check all the
Beatles' works because, according to Tom, they are full of hidden
messages concerning Paul's death. One of the listeners of the program
was Fred La Bour, a young student who wrote an article for his
university's magazine titled: Paul McCartney is dead. This shocking
revelation soon passed the boundaries of the university campus and
invaded the headlines of newspapers like New York Times, London
Times, Variety and Washington Post.
In that period, the true-or-fake Paul McCartney was holidaying in
Scotland with the family and let the news go by, without paying much
attention. Since no denial had arrived, the news was spread
worldwide, the fans were simply driven crazy and the hunt for some
evidences concerning his death started. According to several rumours,
the Beatles chose an ex policeman called William Campbell, whose
traits were oddly similar to Paul's, to replace the dead singer. This
was an important turning point for the Beatles, so they decided not
to perform live any more, but some bad mouths claimed they just
wanted avoid public confrontation.
The believers noticed how the "new" Paul was taller than the "old"
one, he had a different haircut and they spotted some nearly visible
scars on McCartney's lips and cheeks, which would definitely confirm
the 'exchange'. Also the vocal and physiochemical differences between
the pre-1966 and the post-1966 Paul were multiplied exponentially.
After hiding Paul's death the other regretful Beatles would have
hidden some weirdly occult signals in their albums, in order to
reveal the actual truth: more than 400 alleged pieces of evidence
were traced. Uncountable details in hundreds of pictures included in
the albums were noticed.
In one of these pictures McCartney was sitting opposite the words 'I
was' and was possible to spot two flags behind him, a clear mourning
sign. Another photo pictures Paul laying in a trunk that seen from
another angle might resemble a coffin. On the cover of Abbey Road and
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Paul is represented in a
different way from the other musicians: he is depicted in profile or
from behind.
In SPLHCB, he holds a black oboe in his hands, while the other
Beatles' instruments are golden; he has a black flower popping out of
his pocket, while George, Ringo and John's flowers are red. He also
shows three letters on his arm, OPD: Officially Pronounced Dead. The
cover of Abbey Road shows a white Volkswagen plated LMW 28 IF, that
was often interpreted as Linda McCartney Widowed, 28 if, which means
Paul would have been 28 years old at the time of the release of the LP.
Finally, there is another element to consider, probably the most
amusing and weird one: listening some Beatles' songs in reverse can
reveal some disturbing sentences like Paul is dead, man, miss him,
miss him and I buried Paul. The discovery of these evidences is very
complex, almost a puzzle game.
To read a certain phrase on the cover of SPLHCB it is necessary to
put a mirror in the very middle of the image, cutting it into two
halves. This operation will reveal a bad English sentence: he dies.
Or it is necessary to turn the cover of Magical Mystery Tour upside
down, in order to read a phone number that might hold some further
information about McCartney's death. The only effect of this was that
some users had to change their land line number, bombarded by fans'
request for news.
Paul McCartney tried to limit the over-spill of the legend: on the
7th of November 1969, a very detailed article, called Paul is still
with us, appeared on the magazine Life, where the singer blames the
people who raised the rumours concerning his death. It was definitely
too late: the PID fanatics would even use that denial as the trigger
for a treasure hunt and noticed that one of the photos of the essay
pictured Paul with an open hand behind his head (as appears on the
cover of SPLHCB), a death symbol, according to some obscure oriental
tradition. In 1993 the album Paul is Live was released and its cover
recalls Abbey Road's cover. There is the very same white Volkswagen
on the left, but this time its plate says 51 IS, he is 51.
It is undoubtedly impossible to struggle against PID though recent
Italian physiognomic research revealed there are many cases of
anthropometrical and craniometrical incongruence between Paul's
picture taken before 1966 and those that were taken after his alleged
car crash. Therefore, they are supposed to be two different people.
The story goes on anyway. It will be curious to discover how it will
develop when -hopefully in a hundred years time- a natural death will
unavoidably come to McCartney. Things will probably rebalance then
and someone will start saying he's still alive...
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