Backing Up A Little To Prove Paul Was Replaced

Alot of people for some reason have a hard time believing that Paul was replaced.  But fans around the world were and still are deceived and I've found two sources (one conclusive) to prove it.

In the bonus material on The Unseen Beatles DVD (BBC video, 2006), there is an interview with Maureen Cleave  whose "more popular than Jesus" interview with John Lennon set off the storm of controversy in America in the summer of 1966.  She was talking about the two things that made The Beatles special:
      "They had the fascination of repetitive siblings.  You think how interesting twins are.  And triplets even more interesting.  And as for quads.  'Cause they all looked quite similar.  And they were completely different.  And so you stared at them waiting for the differences to come out.  I think that was part of their fascination."  (at 1:46-2:01 in the interview.) 
If you looked at the four Beatles at the time, they did not look quite similar and part of the fun of being a Beatles fan was finding which Beatle you liked best.  So I believe Ms. Cleave was talking about the differences in the replacements (for Paul and John.)  Physically, there were differences and the differences in personalities were sometimes even more pronounced.

But the--as they say--gold standard to prove there were replacements of The Beatles is found in the interview with George Harrison by Dick Cavett in 1970 that you can view at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee8gRroI6fo .  Cavett was telling Harrison that of the other Beatles, he had only met John Lennon:
     George:  "You didn't meet the other eight?"  (1:08-1:09)
     Cavett:   "No.  Were there that many?"        (1:10-1:12)
     George:  "Yeah, there were hundreds."        (1:12-1:14)
     Cavett:   "I only--ahh--I know John . . ."      (1:14-1:16)
     George:  "Yeah, you know, the eighteenth Beatle."  (1:17-1:18)
     Cavett:   "There were rumors that The Beatles weren't always the same person.  In fact, there was one
                     rumor it wasn't even the real four of you who came over here in one trip.  They just sent . . ."
                    (1:18-1:27)
     George:   "We just sent four dummies out there."  (1:27-1:28).

So there you have it, folks.  Whoever was driving The Beatles onward kept a surreal and cynical arm's length distance from the fact that the band was made up of human beings and that the fans deserved to know the truth.  For Paul, the result might have been fatal.

One More Please Comment Update

I tried several times to find out why the comment section of the blog wasn't working and, finally, with a little help from Google blog help I have it fixed.

If you want to comment, click on the comment line below the blog (if you are the first one to comment it will say 0 comments) and type in your message.  I have the verification section on (where the squiggly characters appear) to stop spam.

All civil comments are welcome!

                                                                   ---paulumbo

Why Didn't The Beatles Record in America in 1966?

I was reading a book called, Recording The Beatles:  The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used To Create Their Classic Albums by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew (Curvebender Pub., 2006).  The authors had access to the EMI Archives.  They talked about how The Beatles were planning to fly to the United States and record in Nashville what ended up to be the Revolver album.  The authors said that didn't work out and The Beatles stayed in England.  Why didn't they come to America?

In The Beatles L.A. press conference of August 28, 1966, they discussed not being able to record in America, without mentioning when or what album they would have been working on.  You can find the discussion in the Youtube video at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irw1OCWp1Gs .  Here is what George and (possibly) real Paul said:

Question:  (1:19-1:22):   Are you ever going to record in the United States and why haven't you yet?
Paul:         (1:22-1:31):   We tried, actually, but it was a financial matter.  A little trouble over that one.
                                      No, we tried, but ahh---
George:    (1:31):           ---Detail and politics---
Paul:         (1:31-1:34):   Hush, hush  [and Paul sucks in his breath to indicate it was a big problem.]
George:    (1:34):           ---and [or no] dice---
George:    (1:35):           No comment.

What financially would have kept the extremely rich and influential Beatles from recording in the U.S.?  It would seem that from the cross-talk between Paul and George they were stopped from coming to America and that politics--read the English government--was involved.  Again, in this extremely important time period of early-to-mid 1966, it needs to be explored why The Beatles were being prevented from travelling where they wanted, when they wanted.

Please Comment Update

I hate to bring myself personally into this blog because, although it's MY research, I am not the point of this blog:  finding out what happened to Paul McCartney IS.  It is a little weird for anyone to speculate that I might be a shill or part of a government-funded disinformation operation.

I  am waiting for people to comment on this blog.  If you have tried and haven't been successful, try sending a message to my gmail account listed at the top of the blog:  dee.paulumbo@gmail.com.

I won't get into a shouting match with anyone on any discussion board.  I am interested in finding serious researchers to comment on these posts and also join as subscribers, if you want.  But, again, it's not about me, it's about Paul.

Was There More Said But Unheard in the Dylan Documentary Segment With John Lennon?

In my November 19th. post, I described a segment in Bob Dylan's documentary, Eat The Document where John Lennon makes a very pointed comment on English upper-class exploitation of musicians (and of The Beatles in particular, I believe.)  On the Youtube video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=695_AAQUmLk , the poster of the video says that the Lennon/Dylan segment "came in at just over 21 minutes."  If it is assumed that the film crew filmed the entire limousine ride than about 23 minutes have never been seen by the public because the total travel time between John's Weybridge home the Mayfair Hotel would take 44 minutes according to mapquest.com. 
John's attempt to subtly clue people in to what was happening with The Beatles may be lost forever.

Please Comment!

I began this blog on April 30th. of this year with the sincere hope that I can help solve the mystery of Paul's replacement and what happened to the man.  If you read the entries and have something to say about them, Please Comment!  I would love to hear your additions, corrections, or critiques on what I've written.  The idea is to keep the momentum going until we have the answers.  There are only solutions as John Lennon said and we can help find them.  Add to the discussion and let's find the answers.

Here, There and Everywhere Update

In my November 19th. post, I discussed the song Here, There and Everywhere and how I thought John sang lead while on the album they listed Paul as lead.  How could they "tweak" John's voice to sound more like Paul's?  I found the answer in George Martin's book, With A Little Help From My Friends  The Making of Sgt. Pepper (1994, with William Pearson).

Martin describes how he changed the recording tape speed of When I'm Sixty Four, Lovely Rita, and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.  It's my speculation that this was done to make the voice of the man who replaced Paul sound more like Paul's.  For Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Martin says:
     "The vocals on 'Lucy" weren't recorded at normal speed.  The first was recorded at a frequency forty-five cycles, our normal recording frequency being fifty cycles.  In other words, we slowed the tape down, so that when we played it back the voice sounded ten per cent higher:  back in the correct key, but thinner-sounding . . . ."

And how about Here, There and Everywhere?  I found an entry in Mark Lewisohn's book, The Complete Beatles Chronicles, (1988, 1992) where Lewisohn talks about further work that was done on the recording on Thursday June 16, 1966:
     "A 14th take was created by reduction onto which Paul superimposed his lead vocal, slowed down on the tape to sound speeded up on playback."  Paul wouldn't have needed his own voice speeded up to sound like himself, but a speed-up of JOHN's voice would sound more like Paul's.

The mystery is why John was substituted for Paul on the track and why they listed the lead as Paul.  Part of the continuing mystery.

Other Pauls in America, 1966: The Bob Bonis Collection

At the Not Fade Away Gallery website, http://www.nfagallery.com/ , take a look at the Paul photos taken by Bob Bonis who was the US tour manager for The Beatles on all three US tours.  The photos were part of an exhibition, The British Are Coming!, which was shown at the gallery from March 3-May 17, 2009.

Under catalog search at the left of the website, click photographs, then click Paul McCartney in the drop-down menu.  There are 13 photos.  As a point of comparison, photos 3 and 12 are of Paul--the REAL Paul--in 1964.  When you look at photos 2, 6, 7, 8, and 10 from 1966, there are subtle and not-so-subtle differences in how Paul looks.  The #9 photo (a coincidence?) is a doctored photo of Paul with a massive chin and a comment on how walrus-like Paul looks.  Take a look.

There has been speculation in the Paul replaced/Paul dead groups as to whether Paul even made it to America in 1966.  If you go just by these selected photos by Bonis, the answer would be no.

Paul's Illness on the American Tour, 1966

In my previous post of November 26th., I talked about John's sarcastic comment about (obviously) The Beatles being pushed to perform when they were ill.  I found a reference that confirms this.  In the introduction for Read The Beatles:  Classic and New Writings on The Beatles, Their Legacy and Why They Still Matter (Penguin Books, 2006), author June Skinner Sawyers is discussing The Beatles' 1966 American tour:
     "The climate at the concerts had changed, too.  Bomb threats, clashes between fans and police, and even death threats signaled an ominous turn.  It got so bad that Paul McCartney began vomiting before going on stage when the fear became overwhelming."

I haven't seen a reference before this that talked about health problems Paul had in 1966.  He claimed to be "dead fit" in a New Musical Express interview in June, 1966.  But  it's very possible that it was more than nerves that contributed to Paul vomiting and may have been one of the reasons he was stepping out--or was shoved out--of the group in 1966.

The English Class System

In 1966, filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker filmed a documentary of Bob Dylan that was later called Eat The Document.  On May 27, 1966, Pennebaker covered a limosine ride that Dylan and John Lennon  took.  Dylan was sick--he complained about a pain in his side and was on the verge of throwing up.  John Lennon,  who had been making droll, casual comments before he heard Dylan's health complaints, leaned forward and delivered this very direct and deliberate lecture, using an upper-class accent:
     "Come, come, boy, it's only a film, come, come.  Pull yourself together.  Another few dollars, eh?  That'll
      get your head up.  Come on, come on.  Money, money."   (at 4:15-4:22 in the video.  See the whole video at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=695_AAQUmLk.

This sequence was not in the official cut according to the Youtube poster.

Brian Epstein carefully managed The Beatles' image, but every once in a while a photo surfaces of one of The Beatles looking tired and sick as this photo I found of Paul at http://www.acephotos.org/ shows:


In Andrew Loog Oldham's memoir, Stoned  A Memoir of London in the 1960's, Oldham talks about an English group who made it big in France:  Vince Taylor and the Playboys.  Oldham compared the social class attitudes of France and England (p. 118):
     "The refreshing thing about rockin' on the Cote d'Azur was that, in France rock and pop were celebrated, whereas in
England they were merely tolerated.  In England the warnings
were muted but persistent:  do not get above your station.  In  France an entertainer's success was welcomed and applauded, not scorned.  France had a completely different notion of class society to England."

Lennon thought the Dylan/Pennebaker documentary would be seen across America and Europe and he wanted, no doubt, to make a public statement to show the relentless exploitation that The Beatles were suffering under.  As they became popular, The Beatles started to fight back.  And I think the "butcher" cover and John's Jesus statement were part of the fight.  It remains to be shown if Paul and John successfully separated themselves from the disdainful exploitation.  But as I've been exploring in my blog, there are all kinds of red flags that Paul got tripped up somewhere in his attempt to exit this unprecedented situation.

The Beatles, I Think, Were In Dylan's Tree

The March 9, 1968 issue of Rolling Stone magazine had an article about the cover photograph of Bob Dylan's album, John Wesley Harding.  They said the photograph contained hidden images including the faces of The Beatles.  The tree directly behind Dylan when turned upside down has The Beatles faces in it.  John Berg, the man who took the photo for the cover, "acknowledged their presence" and "also spoke about the 'hand of God,' which he said was nestling along the right-hand side of the tree."
The album was released December 27, 1967.  The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album was released June 1, 1967 and their Magical Mystery Tour album was released November 27, 1967.  For all of the big-time denials of hidden images on the Beatles' albums, it's clear that Dylan was aware that the Beatles were hiding secrets on their albums and he followed suit.
As I said in my post of November 12th., Dylan met with Paul (and the other Beatles) extensively in May, 1966 and was obviously clued in to things happening to them.  He must have been told about problems in the group and he took this to heart as a poet and reflected it in at least one song, I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine.
So for all the nay-sayers who doubt hidden images and song allusions, check out the tree in Dylan's 1967 album.

Here, There, and Everywhere

For everyone who was an original Beatles fan, you know what a thrill it was to get and play and discuss their albums.  I remember getting Revolver and poring over the tracks and, as usual, getting what the Brits call "value for money": 9 or 10 of the 11 American album tracks were excellent.

I remember originally hearing Here, There, and Everywhere and puzzling over it because it was supposed to be Paul singing lead, and it did NOT sound like Paul.

Listening to it now, I agree with my confusion as a kid:  I don't think it was Paul singing lead.  I believe it was either JOHN or George.

Listen to the track on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8THouU576WY  and compare it with the track of For No One that was clearly Paul on the lead:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6iAykoKLog .  The voices are definitely different.

Shattered Glass Revisited by The Rolling Stones' Manager

In Stoned  A Memoir of London in the 1960's by The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham (St. Martin's Press, 2000), Oldham describes a conversation between Paul and John in 1964 when he rode with them back to London after The Beatles played a one night stand in Liverpool:
     "The humour took a macabre turn as John and Paul started to trip on what would happen if the windows
      of the Phantom V [note: John's new Rolls-Royce] zooming south suddenly shattered and splintered in
      their faces, turning them into unacceptably scarred and disfigured moptops, unable to carry on as part of
      the Fab Four now recognised the world over.
      'We'd have to be a fucking vaudeville act,' whooped John.
      'We'd have to have bear suits or masks . . . nobody could see us,' Paul harmonised."
Oldham's interpretation of the conversation was:
     "I watched and listened to this thrust and parry between the two writers and found it a little bit chilling to
      realise just how much they relished the idea of anonymity.  To the point of almost welcoming a shattering
      shower of glass that would splinter The Beatles and force them from the spotlight.  It was apparent that,
      for all the triumphs of the breathtaking past year . . . part of the dream was already over in early 64.  The
      eventual end of The Beatles was even then on the agenda of their informal bored meetings."

Oldham is suggesting, I think, that either:  1.) If Paul was in a car crash, it might have been a deliberate act
to take himself out of The Beatles; or 2.) That The Beatles staged an elaborate hoax to convince people that
Paul was dead in order for Paul to establish a lasting anonymity.

Neither theory makes sense because:  1.) Paul had many times expressed a desire to keep writing after The
Beatles stopped touring.  He wouldn't have needed a car crash or a hoax to get his wish; 2.) Oldham was
hinting that there might very well have been an incident involving shattering glass that disfigured Paul (and John?)  But there is too much anecdotal evidence in more recent books and contemporary (at
the time) lyrics by people who knew The Beatles that injuries that happened to Paul were not his doing.

But given Oldham's "telling" tale, I'm surprised the model car on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album wasn't
a Rolls-Royce.
    

Dylan's "St. Augustine"

There has been alot of discussion about the Paul-is-Dead allusions in the song Saint Paul by Terry Knight.  The song was released May, 1969, before the extended PID discussions in the fall of that year.

Bob Dylan recorded a song called I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine for his John Wesley Harding album in 1967 that, I believe, is very much a PID (or Paul was injured) song.

Some background.  The Beatles and Dylan were admirers of each others' music before they first met in New York in September, 1964.  Later, they met up in London in May, 1965 when Dylan was playing there.  In 1966, they--and particularly Paul and Dylan--were together in London in May:
     May 2, 1966-- Paul, Dylan, and Neil Aspinall visited Dolly's Nightclub.
     May 3, 1966-- Paul and Dylan went to Blaise Nightclub to see John Lee Hooker's performance
     May 26, 1966-- Paul was at the Dylan concert at the Royal Albert Hall
     May 27, 1966-- Paul was at this Dylan concert also at the Royal Albert Hall and after the performance,
                               Paul, Neil Aspinall, Keith Richards and Brian Jones met Dylan at Dolly's Nightclub
     May 28, 1966-- Paul met Dylan at the Mayfair Hotel to hear pressing of Dylan's most recent studio
                               sessions.
     May 29, 1966-- He spent another day with Dylan.

Dylan had a motorcycle accident in the summer of 1966, and--according to one of the books I've read--wrote I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine while he was recuperating from the accident.

The relevant lyrics are:

     I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
     Alive as you or me.
     Tearing through these quarters
     In the utmost misery.
     With a blanket underneath his arm
     And a coat of solid gold:
     Searching for the very souls
     Whom already have been sold.
           .       .       .
     I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
     Alive with fiery breath.
     And I dreamed I was among the ones
     That put him out to death.
     Oh, I awoke in anger
     So alone and terrified:
     I put my fingers against the glass
     And bowed my head and cried.
    
  "St. Augustine" was carrying a blanket as he moved through the "quarters" which suggests a hospital setting.  His "coat of solid gold" could be suggesting that the man was rich or that he was covered in flames.  And that idea is reinforced by the line about his being "alive with fiery breath."  The second to last line about Dylan putting his "fingers against the glass" could be his visualizing the scene where "St. Augustine" died or was injured:  an automobile windshield or the "glass onion" top of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber? (See my post of May 7th. for a photo of the chamber.)

I read the Wikipedia interpretation of the song in their article about the John Wesley Harding album (at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki./John_Wesley_Harding_(album)  .  The writer said the opening couplet of the song paraphrases the song, I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night which was a folk song about a union organizer who was framed and executed for a murder.  The writer said the last line of St. Augustine was taken from Woody Guthrie's folk song, Ludlow Massacre, a song about violence at a strike by unionists in a Colorado mining town.  The important lyrics in this song are:

     That very night, you soldier waited
     Until us miners were asleep.
     You snuck around our little tent town
     Soaked our tents with your kerosene.
     You struck a match and the blaze it started . . .

Dylan is strongly suggesting in the song that St. Augustine was attacked deliberately.  If the song is about Paul, Dylan is saying he was killed--or severely injured in 1966.

[------Also suggesting a fiery "accident" was the Beatles' song, Revolution no. 9 played backward.  Hear the song at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG0wksBzKSc .  At 2:35-2:40, you hear the sound of fire crackling.  At 2:13-2:15 and 5:36-5:42, someone is screaming, "Get (or Let) me out!"  Also, at 5:19-5:20, the video poster interprets the talking as:  "I would say once the bed problems last long."  There are also car horns played intermittedly throughout the backmasked song.  The Vickers hyperbaric oxygen bed was nicknamed the Lotus bed (as I pointed out in my post of May 7th.) because it resembled that automobile.]

Paul's Broken Tooth

The official line on the broken tooth that showed so prominently in the Rain and Paperback Writer videos of May 19 and 20, 1966 was that Paul had been riding a moped on December 26, 1966, fell off, and broke his tooth and gashed his lip.
In a  New Musical Express magazine interview of June 16, 1966 (published 6/24/66), Paul discussed the accident and said it had happened "not long ago."  Paul elaborated on the explanation:
     "What about all this 'Didn't Paul McCartney look ill on TV,' then?" he went on, referring to Mama Cass'
     remarks in NME's 'America Calling' last week [would be the week of June 5-11th].  "I haven't been ill.
     Apart from the accident, I'm dead fit.  I know what it was though.  When we filmed those TV clips for
     'Paperback Writer' I'd only just bashed my tooth . . . "

If you take a look at the infamous "Butcher" cover photo [above] which was taken on March 25, 1966, Paul very obviously did NOT have a broken tooth.  So he would have broken his tooth sometime between the end of March and the middle of May, 1966.  Why is this significant?  Because Paul was making a nervously lame public attempt to explain something that was so glaringly out of place and character with Paul.  And, again, I think he wanted to alert the world public that something was VERY wrong in The Beatles' lives and his in particular. 

The "Past Masters" Love Me Do

Listen to two versions of Love Me Do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed_2W_KO_zI

                      AND:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KARfxYcF7W0

Notice that they are  both Paul but are significantly different.  In the first version, the chorus "Someone to love, Somebody new" is smooth with Paul's voice sounding appropriately young and in sync with the backing vocals.  Paul's voice in the chorus of the second version sounds old, his voice is shaky and the backing vocals (which include Paul himself) sound younger.  What is going on?

The first version is from the British Please Please Me album.  The second version is from The Beatles Past Masters Volume 1, released in 1988.  I've read discussions of Paul's "nervous" voice, and where the second version came from.  On Doug Sulpy's 910 board, one poster said that EMI realized or was informed in 1982 that another version of Love Me Do existed and a new master was made of it.

Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You were the only two songs that John and Paul could buy back ownership of because those two songs were published by EMI's own publishing house, Ardmore and Beechwood, while all their other songs were published by Northern Songs.

It's very likely that Paul recorded this song at a much later date--certainly later than 1962.  By the sound of his voice, he could not sing in tune or even articulate the words well.  If Paul had an accident that left him severely disabled, this mysterious version of Love Me Do could signal that he lived past the time he disappeared in mid-September, 1966 and that that version was a record of his disability.  That's what I think.

Red Rocks Revisited: I Don't Think I'm Reaching

I was reading the F.B.I. files on The Beatles, which are informative, enlightening, and funny, sometimes.  Check them out at:  http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS97576 . 

The relevant one to Paul research is part 9 which describes the FBI's investigation of a threatening letter sent apparently to the promoter of their August, 1964 concert at Red Rocks (spelled right here and wrong in the interview I quoted from in my immediately preceding post) Amphitheater.  Take a good look at the file.

There are all kinds of things going on in the incident.  The FBI said the promoter Vern Byers had an office at May D&F Company.  That company is a department store, and I could not find any mention that Byers ever had an office at the store.  The man had been in big band orchestras, owned night clubs and was a promoter.

The threatening letter itself was a classic crime fiction thing of cut out magazine letters pasted on plain white paper.  It began:  "I[f] you know what's . . ."  Interestingly, the first word read more like:  "I", so it read:  "I you . . .", and this interpretation of the letter was repeated several times in the FBI's investigation of it.

Remember, Magical Mystery Tour?  One of the Paul-is-dead clues was where the Paul replacement was sitting at a desk in a military uniform with a name plate in front that read:  "I you WAS."  (See photo on right.)

I'm speculating that there might have been a Denver connection to the Paul replaced/Paul dead mystery.

Two More Hints About The Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber

In several earlier posts I theorized that Paul was experimented on in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber nicknamed the Lotus bed and manufactured by the English company, Vickers.  I found two more hints that suggest just that. 

In the Los Angeles radio station fanzine, KRLA Beat, they had an interview of Paul that they published April 21, 1965.  Dave Hull of KRLA did the interview.  The relevant part is:
     DAVE:  When you returned, Derek told me you were impressed with the performance in Hollywood and
                   also that you were impressed with one other place, and that was the Red Rock Stadium in
                   Denver.  Is that correct?
     PAUL:   Yes, actually we were impressed with alot more places than that.  But we enjoyed Red Rock.
                   It was funny playing there because it's the mile-high city and the air is different a mile high.  It's
                   much harder to breathe.  We felt sort of drunk or something on stage.  We were sort of falling
                   about.
     DAVE:   Because of the oxygen, I suppose.
     PAUL:   Somebody said it was that.  Sounds feasible.  Might not be true.  Might be we were just
                   imagining it.  Very hard to sing.  None of us could get any breath.

This exchange is interesting because  Derek Taylor, The Beatles' former press secretary specifically mentions Red Rock and Hull gets to quiz Paul on the physical effects of oxygen on all The Beatles.  It's possible that Hull heard rumors about Paul being experimented on in an oxygen chamber and wanted, in a round-about way, to get him to comment on it.
 

The second clue about the Lotus bed comes from a travel book about London that Hunter Davies edited  called The New London Spy:  A Discreet Guide to the City's Pleasures copyrighted in 1966 and published in 1967.  Hunter Davies was the author of the official Beatles biography first published in 1968.
In the Specialty Services section of the book, Davies writes the following:
     XZIT
     Should you want Xzit, you must ring HYD 1875.  Wait a minute.  What is Xzit?  Xzit is the trade name of
     a firm with American connections who make refractories.  Coatings for tanks.  Well, it might come in
     handy.

The coatings for tanks that Davies mentions is fireproofing.  Davies might have been trying to be hip and just pull something out of the air to talk about.  But there are suggestions that Paul might have been burned in an hyperbaric oxygen bed accident and oxygen is very flammable.

A Paul Look-Alike

I was reading Ray Davies' autobiography, X-Ray:  The Unauthorized Autobiography (1995), and he was talking about the bass guitarist The Kinks hired to temporarily replace Pete Quaife.  His name is John "Nobby" Dalton, and Davies called him a Paul McCartney look-alike.  (Dalton replaced Quaife permanently in 1969 and stayed with the group until 1976.)
Dalton was bass guitarist for several groups before joining The Kinks: 
     1959-1961  Danny King and The Bluejacks
     1961-1962  Jimmy Virgo and The Bluejacks

     1962-1965  The Mark Four

I found a Kinks-era photo on Dalton's website:  http://john-dalton.kastoffkinks.co.uk/ under the link "My Musical History."  Check out the 4th. photo. In that photo, he really does not look like Paul.  The telling photo is the 5th. photo. (I'm sorry, I can't upload those photos because they are embedded in the document.)

To get a quick idea of Dalton when he really looks like Paul take a look at these 3 photos:

REALLY, a Paul look-alike! 

Marmalade Skies--Something To Ponder

I was listening to an audiobook called Ticket To Ride.  It had four recordings that jounalist Jean Shepherd made for broadcast on radio station WOR while he was touring with The Beatles on their Scottish/English tour in the fall of 1964.  He lived with The Beatles on tour and interviewed them for an article--a Playboy magazine interview--that was published February, 1965.
He had an interesting broadcast describing the eastern Scottish city of Dundee--which he said is world famous for MARMALADE.  He described a train trip to Dundee:  ". . . all those long marmalade-strewn miles to Dundee."
For a description of Dundee marmalade see:  http://eatscotland.visitscotland.com/food-drink/traditional-dishes/dundee-marmalade.html
Dundee hasn't figured into the Paul Replaced/Dead research before, but it may be something to explore.

Paul in New Delhi, July, 1966

I found a photo taken of real Paul (with George) when The Beatles were in New Delhi, India from July 5-July 8, 1966.

This is the first photo I have seen of The Beatles in India.  The article is in the TribuneIndia issue of September 14, 2002 and can be found at http://www.tribuneindia.com/ .  The article describes The Beatles visiting an Indian musical instrument shop and says Paul bought an Indian instrument, a tanpura.

Note that Paul looked extremely grim and I think people investigating what happened to Paul should also start taking note of people around and in the background on Beatle photos.  For instance, the man in the shadows behind Paul.

An Interesting Side Issue OR We Are All Beatle Fans Here

This blog is dedicated to finding out what happened to Paul McCartney.  But, if you read this blog you are undoubtedly a Beatles' fan.  There have been theories that Paul wasn't the only Beatle to be replaced and I agree.  I think John definitely and Ringo possibly were also replaced. 

The website TMZ has a feature about an application that John or replacement John made to become a permanent citizen of the U.S.  It was up for auction and the sale was blocked by the F.B.I.  The application can be seen at right.  (For document detail, check:  http://www.tmz.com/ under subject search "john lennon.")

The Lennon address listed is the Dakota apartment building.  But note farther down in the document is what very well could be Lennon (or Fennon's) social security number:  127-52-1582.  The first group of numbers--"127"--are within the numbers issued for New York state.  Also note that the "8" in the last group of numbers looks like it has been changed.  I searched the Social Security Death Index and couldn't find a listing for the listed number and variations for the last group.  (Okay, I think Yoko Ono would be cheap enough to apply for the death payment.)

If you, dear reader, are a Lennon fan and researcher, you might want to try to track down documents on Lennon (or Fennon) by that social security number and the last group number variants.  Happy searching.

Paul? "Paul"?

At Getty Images' blogsite, I found an article about photographer Duffy who did a photo shoot of Paul or "Paul" for the Sunday London Times when the musical track for the film The Family Way was being scored.  Take a look at the November 1, 1966 photos at:  http://blog.gettyimages.com/2009/12/28/duffy-captures-paul-mccartney .  I took a close look at the two photos. (There are additional photos at the getty images website with the subject search "paul mccartney 1966".)  I don't think it's Paul.

Tony Bramwell's Fabulous Story

In Magical Mystery Tours  My Life With The Beatles (2006), Tony Bramwell--who was The Beatles' road manager and the ex-CEO of Apple Records--gives a colorful and inaccurate account of the Paul-is-Dead controversy.

Bramwell said Michigan disc jockey who broke the story was John Small on Detroit radio station, WKNR.  The DJ was Russ Gibb.

More importantly, Bramwell said that he discussed with Derek Taylor and a couple of others an idea to call a Canadian radio station and pretend to be Paul.  He said he "telephoned Richie Yorke, an English deejay we knew on CING-FM, at Burlington Ontario, and said, 'This is Paul McCartney.  As you can hear, I'm alive and kicking.'"  According to http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/  CING-FM did not start broadcasting until September 24, 1976, which would have been nearly seven years after the Paul-is-Dead controversy began.

Bramwell, in discussing the PID clues mentioned the famous Abbey Road cover where Beatles and Featles (replacement Beatles) crossed the street and "Paul" was barefooted, said that Paul liked to walk around bare-footed.  Real Paul was a meticulous dresser and the only times you could see him barefooted were in beach photos.

The kicker is Bramwell saying that, according to the clues, Paul died on November 9, 1966 and HE WAS BURIED SEPTEMBER 27, 1968.  In all of my research, I have never run across that date given as Paul's burial date.

At his official website http://www.tonybramwell.com/  Bramwell calls himself a childhood friend with three of The Beatles.  He quotes Sir "Paul":  "If you want to know anything about the Beatles, ask Tony Bramwell, he remembers more than I do."  Bramwell obviously has a short memory when it comes to the events around the Paul-is-Dead research.   BUT,  he WOULD have known information on Real Paul's death and burial, if it occurred.

Personal Similarities Between Paul and Edward Lear

In Paul's Paperback Writer, he compares himself to the children's nonsense verse author, Edward Lear.  What was Paul trying to clue people in on?

After the last American Beatles concerts, Mal Evans was going to be more of a personal attendant to The Beatles.  I think this is the plan hinted to by Paul in the April, 1966 song.  This, apparently, never happened because something happened to Paul in that time, and, instead, Mal Evans accompanied Paul's replacement  on trips.  Edward Lear had an Albanian Christian man who was basically his manservant and accompanied him on his European travels.

Edward Lear was a lifelong bachelor, not by choice.  In several of his poems, including The Dong with the Luminous Nose and The-Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo, Lear writes about his loneliness and his desire to marry a certain girl.  For instance, The Dong with the Luminous Nose has the lines:

          But when the sun was low in the West,
          The Dong arose and said;-
          'What little sense I once possessed
           Has quite gone out of my head!' -
           And since that day he wanders still
           By lake and forest, marsh and hill,
           Singing -- 'O somewhere, in valley or plain
           Might I find my Jumbly Girl again!
           For ever I'll seek by lake and shore
           Till I find my Jumbly Girl once more!'

We know that Paul was infatuated with Jane Asher and that their relationship was not working out.  Again, the parallel with Lear.  (BTW, as I pointed out in earlier posts, John and George sang the children's song, Frere Jacques in background vocals on Paperback Writer and the line, "Ding Dong bell" might be a pun on the Dong poem.)

The other two health parallels are speculations but . . .
The first is that Lear had epileptic seizures.  If Paul was being experimented on in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber as I think he was, he very well could have had seizures from the poisonous effects of oxygen at high pressure:  it causes convulsions.
The second health problem Lear suffered from was asthma and bronchitis.  Again the Paul-is-dead song, I Am The Walrus, has the line:  "Expert, texpert, choking smokers."

A Picture of a Fake Paul (and possibly a fake John) as Early as 1961

In George Harrison's 1980 book, I, Me, Mine, he published 15 photos.  Plate IX shows a picture of, supposedly, George, Paul, and John in 1961.  The caption to the photograph reads:

     "The roof of the Top Ten Club, George, Paul and John, the Reeperbahn, Hamburg 1961.  Family collection."

Take a look at this photo on the YouTube video:  Beatles at the Top Ten Club Hamburg 1961 (pictures):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8pFDm4ReW4 at 1:17-1:20.  In contrast,  look at the photo at 1:25-1:27.

The first photo is clearly NOT Paul.  Note the very long, sharp chin.  The photo in the video may have been tweaked:  the book photo looks even more  NOT like Paul.  The second photo in the video IS Paul, which suggests that either there was photo doctoring going on as far back as 1980, or that there was a Paul look-a-like that The Beatles were aware of as early as 1961.

Also, take a look at the Revolver album cover on

the right.  Below and to the right of the drawing

of Paul (it's the photo below George wearing a hat) is

a photo of the 1961 "Paul."

Where Paul WASN'T ~ November 12, 1966

I found a video on YouTube that shows home videos of "Paul" and Mal Evans in Spain about November 12, 1966:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0MyYOF3FVg.  Paul in the video is Paul's replacement.

You can see him briefly from the side and back at 0:23-0:29.
Mal Evans is shown from the back and side at 1:01-1:04 and in close-up at 1:05.
Paul's replacement is shown in close-up at 1:18-1:22.

Again, it WASN'T Paul.

Where Was Jane Asher in November, 1966?

In the book, The Beatles Day by Day  A Chronology 1962-1989 by Mark Lewisohn (Harmony Books 1987, 1990), he has Jane Asher with Paul in Kenya via France and Spain from November 6-November 19, 1966.  I found a photograph of Jane Asher that puts her in England on November 16, 1966.
At www.gettyimages.com/detail/3137594/Hulton-Archive there is a photo of her and actor Laurence Harvey during the filming of  "The Winter's Tale", released in 1967.  The caption says:
          "Lithuanian born British actor, Laurence Harvey (1928-1973), filming his co-star Jane
           Asher during the making of 'A Winter's Tale' (sic):  (Photo by Larry Ellis/Express/Getty Images)."

People doing Paul-is-dead research point out that it was Paul's replacement in Kenya in 1966 and that he was accompanied by Mal Evans.  Obviously, Jane Asher was in England.

 

Paul's Future Plans in an August, 1966 Radio Interview

There was a radio interview by Keith Fordyce of Paul and John called The Lennon McCartney Songbook that was recorded at Paul's home--7 Cavendish Ave.--on August 6, 1966. The full interview can be heard at:  www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/2270583. 

The relevant part of the interview came at 22:48-23:04 in the recording when John and Paul are discussing their songwriting:

     John (with humor in his voice):  I'm just finding I don't know enough chords to write them [their songs] in
                                                    guitar, so I'm going to have to get some old fella in to play to me.
    
     Paul:                                        It's got to be an old fellow, though.

     John:                                        Yeah.

     Paul:                                        Couldn't be one of these young, whiz-bang kids, you know.

     John:                                        HE WOULDN'T HAVE TIME.

The replacement for Paul was seven years older than Paul as was dramatized in the 1967 Beatles' Christmas record.  And John's comment shows that, one way or another, Paul was leaving the group.

Mal Evans' Diary

In my June 24th. post, I talked about Mal Evans' diary that was never published.  I found a Sunday London Times article of March 20, 2005 that summarizes the diary and has excerpts.  According to the journalist, Mark Edmonds, a cleaner found a trunk with Evans' diaries among other things in the basement of a New York city publisher in 1986.  The cleaner contacted Yoko Ono who arranged to have the memorabilia shipped back to his family in London.  Evans' widow kept the diaries in her attic for years and finally let The Times see and comment on them.

Edmonds' summary is short on details for the crucial period of 1966 and it still would be great if an uncensored complete copy of Evans' diaries would be published.  That is assuming Evans didn't censor himself.

Slipping, Sliding Down Highway 31

The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band--a 1960's parody band--recorded a song called Death Cab for Cutie for their debut album, Gorilla, released October, 1967.  It is considered a Paul-is-Dead song.  They performed the song in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film, first shown December, 1967.

One line talks about "Cutie" (read "Paul") "slipping, sliding down on Highway 31."  People exploring the Paul mystery focused on Hwy. 31 in England.  But, there is also a Highway 31 in Northern France, north of Paris, that runs from Gournay through Beauvais, Compiegne, Soissons, and ends in Reims.  You can read a description of N31 in wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_nationale_31.  That might be THE Highway 31.

Also interesting is that the man who replaced Paul--called Faul (fake Paul) by Paul-is-Dead researchers-- travelled to Nice, France to film a video of the song, Fool on the Hill that was used in the Magical Mystery Tour film.  THAT song is also considered a Paul-is-Dead song.

More on Clues of Paul's Future Plans

In my April 30th. post, I talked about Paul's song, Paperback Writer and how I thought that Paul was clueing people in on his future plans. 
John and George sang harmony on the song and it was Paul's idea for them to sing the opening line of Frere Jacques, a popular French-language children's song.  He also mentioned Edward Lear in the song.  Lear was most famously known as a writer of children's nonsense verse.
I believe Paul was telling people that after he left The Beatles later in 1966, he planned on living in France.  I am not convinced about a future intent to pattern his professional life after Lear, even though Paul later wrote Yellow Submarine, because that might have been a cover and the song was letting people know, instead, that something was going seriously wrong in his life.
However, Paul might have been telling people that Lear's personal life was similar to Paul's. 

        More on that next week.                  ---paulumbo

Paul in France

I was reading the Chronology section of Bill Harry's book, The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia, (Virgin, 2002), and I found it curious that he mentioned Paul visiting France three times in the fall of 1966:
               September 16 - with John and Brian Epstein for a weekend in Paris.
               October 13     - with John for a weekend in Paris.
               November 6   - visiting various chateaux in the Loire Valley.
If this was the real Paul, what was he doing there?
It's possible that Paul had negotiated an "out" from The Beatles and was thinking about settling in France.  My speculation is that he never made it.

Pressurize

In my research, the word "pressurize" has shown up twice.  In Cynthia Lennon's book, A Twist of Lennon (1978), on page 142, she was talking about John's fear of physically disabled people and how The Beatles were seen by some people  as "shining lights for those who were afflicted with any kind of illness or incapacity":
     "It really was too much for four young men to cope with. They were being pressurized into what people wanted them to be, not what they were.  Every single thing they did or said was repeated, reported and analysed.  Individual freedom had become a luxury of the past."  She talks about their turning to drugs for escape.

The second example was in a song by the English group, The MOVE, called Flowers in the Rain, released in September, 1967:
      So I lay upon my side
      With the windows open wide
      Couldn't pressurize my head to keep from speaking.

The Oxford Universal Dictionary, 3rd. edition (1964),[an abridged edition of the Oxford English Dictionary] gives a definition of pressure as:  "The condition of being painfully oppressed in body or mind; affliction, oppression" (definition II, 1).  That definition would seem to apply to Cynthia Lennon's example.

The MOVE's example seems to be more in line with a literal interpretation of "pressure":  "The force exerted by one body on another by its weight, or by the continued application of power, viewed as a measurable quantity, the amount being expressed by the weight upon a unit area" (definition I,2).  Without getting too technical, I again think this was a reference to the hyperbaric oxygen bed that I have been talking about in other posts.  The bed applied pure oxygen under pressure to persons enclosed in it, with the claim that it had therapeutic effects.  The pressure was to a level of 2 atmospheres, equal to the weight of air and water 33 ft. below sea level.

My point is that something was being done to Paul, and possibly the other Beatles, and the idea is to find out what REALLY happened to them, because the truth definitely has not yet been told.

Mark I

On April 6, 7, and 22, 1966, The Beatles recorded a song for the Revolver album called Tomorrow Never Knows.  The working title was Mark I.  I was trying to find the significance of the working title and I believe I've found it. 

The British Royal Navy carried out operations near the end and after World War II "to clear the ports and harbours of the Mediterranean and Northern Europe of unexploded ordnance and booby traps laid by the Germans" according to the website:  http://www.mcdoa.org.uk/ (Minewarefare & Clearance Diving Officer's Association.)  The divers were called Port Clearance Parties or "P" Parties and wore Mark I and Mark II self-contained diving suits developed by the British company Siebe, Gorman and Co. (Check image on left:  the bottom suit on right.)

Again, I think the song reference is connected to Paul and the Lotus hyperbaric bed.

Photographer Richard Avedon took a photo of Paul in 1965 in a "spacesuit."

Very similar to the Mark I diving suit!!

Glass Onion

The lyrics of The Beatles'  Glass Onion contain PID/Paul was Replaced clues and have been interpreted several ways.  Instead of seeing esoteric, opaque, and obscure meanings to the clues, if you look at them in  more literal and punning ways---like working-class people would write them--- I think you will get closer to the truth of the meanings.

Three lines are instructive to this:
1.)  The line, "We're as close as can be"  can be read, "We ARE as close as can be" OR "We  WERE as close as can be."

2.)  "Looking through the bent-backed tulips" line could easily be a pun for "bent-backed TWO LIPS":   lips being pressed onto a clear surface.

3.)  And "The walrus was Paul" line could mean "Paul" was dressed in a walrus costume for the Magical Mystery Tour album OR that Paul died.

More on the All You Need Is Cash Clues

In my July 16, 2010 post, I discussed the PID clues in the satirical film about The Beatles, All You Need Is Cash.  To clarify two points:  1.)  When they said that Stig was rumored to have died in a flash fire at a water bed shop, I contend they were referring to a hyperbaric oxygen chamber (see my post of May 7, 2010.)     The flash fire part of the clue would be the fire risk in oxygen chambers caused by the volatility of pure oxygen.  In a Times of London article of June 21, 1968, they discuss a study made by the Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine where "scientists ignited more than 100 full-scale dummies or dead pigs in various oxygen pressures to determine the characteristics of a clothing fire."  The scientists found:
    "Men usually take between five and 20 seconds to respond to an emergency, and conventional
     extinguisher systems take about two seconds to come into operation.  Within this time, the experiments
     suggest, a man working in a typical oxygen-rich environment and clothed in a denim overall would
     suffer third degree burns over at least half his body."
A man trapped in a hyperbaric oxygen bed could die.

2.)  I found an interesting amplification on the Limpet mine reference in the film.  According to the book, Underwater Swimming by George F. Brookes and Robert B. Matkin (1962), "wartime 'frogmen' had a self-contained diving apparatus . . . but this apparatus was complicated to use, required skilled maintenance and employed pure oxygen."  Like the Lotus hyperbaric oxygen bed.

1, 2, 3, 4 . . . 5

There has been some question about the number of fake Pauls that were photographed and filmed from 1964-on.  Paul must have been aware of attempts to introduce face-doubles and I have found a clue that suggests he did.

In a Youtube video:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OyoEcnuG5g  Paul, in an afternoon rehearsal for The Beatles' next appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show introduces the song All My Loving by counting off  "1, 2, 3, 4, 5!" [at 5:06-5:07 in the video].  What was he signalling?  It could be he was talking about a replacement Paul that showed up in beach photos during The Beatles stay in Miami in February, 1964.  Check out one of the photos at:  www.jeddy.org/paul/towelboy.jpg     I say that wasn't Paul.

Rehearsals for Replacement Paul

The man who replaced Paul appeared on stage for the first time--from what I can see-- in Hamburg, Germany on June 26, 1966.  You can see him in a Youtube video at the Hamburg press conference at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGzezaSkYQs .
There has been speculation among the Paul-replaced, Paul-dead investigators that replacement Paul had been in Hamburg as a musician in the early 1960's, so when there are reports about "Paul's Hamburg 'homecoming'", it very well could have been about fake Paul, too.

I believe both real Paul and fake Paul were in Japan in late June-early July, 1966.  I think real Paul played the first concert on 6/30/66, and fake Paul took over from there.

Fake Paul was at the first interview with The Beatles at the Tokyo hotel.  You can see that Youtube video at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou__mIGfimU.  He also took part in the famous four-part Beatles Tokyo painting.  You can see him in the Youtube video at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQkJLCrLr6o .  There are two images of Faul--fake or replacement Paul-- from 0:23-0:31.

The Rutles' All You Need Is Cash Clues

In 1978, Eric Idle (of Monte Python's Flying Circus comedy group) and Neil Innes (of Monte Python and Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band satirical groups) wrote and starred in a satire about The Beatles called All You Need Is Cash.  They covered the Paul Is Dead story with a  mixture of George, Paul and replacement Paul references.

In the video on YouTube:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6PgzRizr6o  they cover the rumor that Stig--the George character--might have died.  At 0:06-0:16 in the video, the commentator (Eric Idle) says,
       "Stig had hidden in the background so much that a rumor went around in 1969 that he was dead.  He was supposed to have been killed in a flash fire at a water bed shop and replaced by a plastic and wax replica from Madame Tussauds."  My interpretation of this is that they were alluding to:  the Lotus hyperbaric chamber bed I've mentioned in previous posts; and to the man who replaced Paul who needed plastic surgery to resemble Paul enough to convince a world audience.

The movie talked about the Paul Is Dead clues.  Beginning at 0:27-0:30, they say :
      ". . . he'd not said a word since 1966."
At 1:30-1:38 (in a reference to, apparently, Linda Eastman, who married the man who replaced Paul):
      "He'd fallen in bed with Gertrude Strange . . . whose father had invented the Limpet mine." 
 Limpet mines were naval mines developed in England during World War II that were attached by frogmen (underwater divers) to enemy ships.  Again, I think this was an inside joke about Paul and the hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

What Was Paul Signalling?

The Beatles appeared before a huge audience in Liverpool for the premiere of A Hard Day's Night on July 10, 1964.  They went out on a balcony to wave to the crowd.  Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI6LAQB5b58.  At 3:20 and 4:06, Paul gives a thumbs up signal to the crowd.  At 3:09 and 3:53, Paul crosses his arms with his thumbs up and at 4:13 he crosses his wrists with his thumbs up.  I was reading a book, Underwater Swimming by George F. Brookes and Robert B. Matkin, in collaboration with the British Sub-aqua Club (1962) and the symbol for "wash out"--cease diving and return on the surface--made by the surface party lookout to underwater divers is that signal.  Again, it could be a clue that Paul was aware, or was learning, deep-sea diving.

Paul on Ed Sullivan Show, 1965

In the previous post, I posted the MBE interview of June 12, 1965 with "Paul" as Paul.  In the first video,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7YIaCaikAs they are discussing appearing on the Ed Sullivan program.  The Beatles recorded six songs before a live audience at Sullivan's studio on August 14, 1965 and their appearance was broadcast September 12, 1965.  Paul sang Yesterday.  (See the video at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms65JQTBCcQ .)  "Paul" at the MBE interview is talking to the camera and saying hi to Ed and at 3:10, he says, "Oh, hi, dead."  This could have been a slip of the tongue meant for Paul.

When Did The Replacement Do His First Public Interview?

I was looking at YouTube videos of The Beatles reaction to receiving their MBE's (Members of the British Empire) awards.  The interviews were taped June 12, 1965, and that may have been the first public appearance of Paul's replacement.
Take a look at two videos:   www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7YIaCaikAs  and www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJCTB3g9Xdw

On the first video (at 1:20), "Paul" looks as though his face is bruised and that it's been covered with makeup.  From the front, he looks like Paul.  But from the left side, it is clearly another man.

On the second video, there is the following exchange:
0:33-0:36 - Interviewer:  "Have any of you have any ambitions left at all?"
0:37-0:38 - George:         "Yeah, I want to be an astronaut."
   (Laughter)
0:40-0:43 - "Paul":          "Yeah, and I want to be a deep-sea fisherman."

Could this have been references back to the high-pressure oxygen Lotus bed that I have mentioned in earlier posts?  High-pressure oxygen is used in aeronautics and deep-sea diving.

Before Things Got Serious (revised)

My supposition that Paul was waging a war against EMI, the British government and ?? has its beginning in an audio I found on YouTube.  The Beatles had a song called, That Means Alot that they did not want to record.  They played with the song, and then Paul decided to wreck it.  Listen to the hilarious results at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j-UEPB_JA  .  And this was in early 1965 (March) before things got serious.
(Revised):  The takes of these songs took place during the time The Beatles were filming Help.  If you look at enough pictures of Paul during that period,  you realize that Paul was having a very hard time.  So I think that was when things were beginning to get serious and it culminated in his being ousted from the group in July, 1966.  My sense of it is that they were threatening to remove Paul before 1966, and that his replacement showed up in interviews as early as June, 1965.  (See the next post.)

Are There Book Bootlegs?

Mal Evans, The Beatles' road manager, was killed by L.A. police on January 4th. (or 5th., depending on the source), 1976.  He was due to deliver an autobiography, Living With The Beatles Legend to publisher Grosset & Dunlap on January 10th. (or 12th., depending on the source), 1976.  He wrote the book with John Hoernle who was an art director at Capitol Records.  There is an article about Hoernle in a Billboard magazine issue of October 27, 1973. 
Curiously, the book has never been published.   But if there are record bootlegs, could there be book bootlegs? 

Granny as Paul; Paul as warrior

On the Bonzo (Doo Dah) Band's second album, The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (1968), they have a song called "Rhinocratic Oaths" that has these spoken word lyrics:
     After his second wife passed away, Percy Rawlinson seemed to spend more and more time with his
     Alsatian, Mal.  His friend told him, "You should get out more, Percy, you'll wind up looking like a dog,
     hah, hah."  He was later arrested near a lamppost.  At his trial some months later he surprised everyone
     by mistaking a policeman for a postman and tearing his trousers off with his bare teeth.  In his defense
     he told the court, "It's hard to tell the difference when they take their hats off."

The "Beatles" 1967 Christmas record has a skit where they are "dedicating" a song to a "Mrs. G. Evans of Solihull, who was gradually injured in the recent heavy fighting near Blackpool."  Mal Evans was, of course, The Beatles' road manager and confidante.  (The printed lyrics for the '67 Christmas record are available at:    www.dmbeatles.com/song.php?song=401   and the audio is available at:   www.beatleslane.com/music/beatles-christmas-records.htm )

My speculation is that Paul's little war extended to fighting the British government over tax payments.  I think the "working for the Daily Mail" line from Paperback Writer was a play on words meaning Royal Male:  the royalty and its government arm.  In The Beatles' song, Taxman, there are the lines (when you listen carefully):
          If you get too cold, Paul
          I'll tax the heat.
          If you take a walk, Paul
          I'll tax your feet.

Couple that with the 1967 Christmas record's reenactment of auditions for Paul's replacement on "Wednesday, the FIRST", which could have been December 1, 1965 or June 1, 1966 ( June 1st. being three (or five, depending on the source) days before the EMI recording contract with The Beatles expired-- see my earlier post of May 29th.:  "Of Contracts and Kings"), and you get the idea that Paul was at war with the "powers that be."

The post rambles a little, but I'm finding alot and it is fitting together.  More Monday.

                                                                                     ---paulumbo
     ---Continued---
Another theme in '66-'67 Beatles songs shows up on the 1967 Christmas record:  sleeping.  After "Sir Gerald" answers "Michael's" comment with the statement, "There was a job to be done," and the Christmastime is Here Again song starts up again, you can hear laughing and snoring.  It obviously was connected with what was happening to Paul.

I also found a YouTube audio of John's home demos for the song, She Said She Said, and, as I suspected, it wasn't about a woman, it was about a man:  John original lyrics were He Said, He Said.  At 2:42-3:18 in the audio, John sings the following lyrics:
          She said,
          I know what it's like to be dead;
          I know what it is to be sad:
          And it's making me feel like I've never been born.

          I said,
          Who put all that crap in your head;
          I know what it is to be mad:
          And it's making me feel like my trousers are torn.
Listen to the YouTube audio at:   www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQS3pgNqyII
John recorded this ~March/April of 1966.  The  Rhinocratic Oaths lyrics talk about an altercation with a policeman.  It's possible that Paul's broken tooth that shows in the Paperback Writer/Rain  videos of April, 1966 was a result of that altercation.
               

Granny Smith

George Harrison wrote and recorded with The Beatles a song called Love You To.  The working title for the song was Granny Smith.  The song was recorded beginning April 11, 1966 and The Beatles continued recording takes of the song on the same day that Paperback Writer was recorded:  April 13, 1966.
I ran down the possibilities for the title:  genealogy of George's or his wife, Pattie and the Magritte painting that the Paul replacement owned (the big green apple painting called "Le Jeu de mourre" ["The Guessing Game"]).  I couldn't trace a Smith to George or Pattie Boyd and the painting dates from the summer of 1967.  The married name of John's Aunt Mimi was Smith, but there is nothing to suggest that George called her Granny.

But Granny Smith is the name given to isolated old women by UK postmen for whom the Royal Mail service is a lifeline (per Dear Granny Smith:  A Letter from your Postman by Roy Mayall, by way of the website, http://www.culturewars.org.uk/.)

It is possible that there is a connection between George's song title and the line in Paperback Writer:  "His son is working for the Daily Mail . . . ."  Another possible clue for us all.

Sleeping

In my April 30th. post I mentioned that The Beatles were fitting sleep and sleeping references into their songs and interviews.  Obviously, they were trying to clue the world public into something that was happening in their lives.  Most Beatles fans were too young to catch the significance and the press of the world dropped the ball when it came to reporting all the things that were happening to The Beatles.

I found three instances in 1966 of sleep being mentioned by The Beatles:
   1.)  In Paperback Writer, recorded April 13th., John and George's background vocals included singing "Frere Jacques", which is a French song translated, "Are you sleeping, Brother John (or James.)
   2.)  They recorded I'm Only Sleeping on April 27th.
   3.)  In a New Musical Express interview with Paul published on June 16th., Paul said,
                    "Anyway, I've stopped regarding things a 'way-out' anymore.  I've
                     stopped thinking that anything is weird or different.  There'll always
                     be people about, like that Andy Warhol in the States - the bloke
                     who makes great long films of people just sleeping.  Nothin' weird
                     anymore."

Their mentioning sleep continued in 1967 with George's Blue Jay Way, recorded beginning September 6, 1967.

The significance of their talking about sleep will be explored.  It will help explain what happened to Paul.

A Good Resource to Explore

I found a website that Beatle and '60's music fans might like to take a look at.  It has full issues of Los Angeles radio station KRLA's fan magazine from February 25, 1965 to May 4, 1968.  They call it "L.A.'s first rock-and-roll newspaper" and it has a wealth of photos, info, and interviews of, by and about The Beatles (and other '60's groups.)  They hired Derek Taylor, The Beatles former press secretary, to comment on the British music scene, and L.A. had the headquarters of Capitol Records, the American distributor of Beatle records, so it's definitely worth exploring.
The website is:  http://krlabeat.sakionline.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi
Take a look!

Of Contracts and Kings or Paul's Little War

The Beatles had a recording contract with EMI that expired on June 4, 1966.  On June 3, 1966, the New Musical Express, an English music magazine, published an advertisement promoting the upcoming Beatles' single, Paperback Writer and Rain.  On June 4, 1966, the Disc and Music Echo another English music magazine published the same ad.  The photo in the ads was the famous "butcher cover":  The Beatles dressed in butcher coats, draped with meat and doll parts.  Paul was sending a message to the world.
Capitol Records was owned by EMI and that company distributed The Beatles' recordings in the US.  In a 2002 interview in Mojo magazine, Alan W. Livingston, the former president of Capitol Records, commenting on the "butcher cover" Yesterday and Today album said:

          "The reaction came back that the dealers refused to handle them.  I called London and we went
           back and forth.  My contact was mainly with Paul McCartney.  He was adamant and felt very
           strongly that we should go forward.  He said, 'It's our comment on the war.'  I don't know why
           it was a comment on the war or if it would be interpreted that way."

I don't think it was Paul's comment on the Vietnam War, but, instead, a comment on what was happening to Paul during that time.   Paul's little war.

There's a YouTube video that shows Paul looking at negatives from the "butcher" photo session:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS-SKwutP_g    
At 0:45-0:46 in the video, the camera is pulled back, and you can see Paul hurriedly reaching for the photo negatives.  At 0:52-0:53, you see Paul holding the negative up to his face.