Thursday, February 10, 2011

Narrowing Down Where Paul Was Headed And With Whom

Paul was apparently interested in a French singer and, as I pointed out in several posts, put clues in his songs in 1966 showing that he was headed to France to be with her.

In 1966's Good Day Sunshine, Paul talks about being in love with a girl and spending time in a hot, sunny place:   "We take a walk, the sun is shining down.  Burns my feet as they touch the ground."

In my research I found at least 30 French girl singers of the 1960's---called ye-ye girls.  It's difficult to narrow down if one of them was Paul's love interest, but you can find some direction in the 1978 mockumentary, The Rutles in All You Need is Cash.  In the Youtube video part 6 of the film, they talk about Dirk McQuickly (the Paul character) marrying Martini, a French actress.  They say in the film:  "[She] spoke no English and precious little French.  When they married in London, the service was conducted in Spanish, Italian, and Chinese, to be on the safe side." -- www.youtube.com/watch?v=QECizI13ZOM at 5:54-6:07.  Curiously, from 6:43-7:37 in that segment, they show the Paul character stumbling and bumbling with Martini which suggests that Paul was disabled.

 The song, Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da was sung by the Paul replacement, but on at least one Paul-was-replaced board it has been suggested that that song was written by Paul and in fact sung by Paul but was not released as his song, and that, instead, his recording was mimed by the group, Marmalade. (Hear the song in the Youtube video at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kev9hhI7V8 .)  It's sung in a Caribbean calypso style, and talks about a placid life where Paul and Molly--a singer--marry, have children and live happily ever after. 

The song talks about Desmond (Paul) taking a trolley to a jewelry store and buying Molly a 20-carat golden ring.  I've found several sub-tropical places that use trolleys for transportation:  Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and Florida.  Since the gold standard in the song is 20-carat, rather than the American 18-carat, it suggests a Caribbean country.

So it looks as though Paul was contemplating a peaceful life in a Caribbean country with a French-based singer and the suggestion persists that something got in the way of his peaceful future.