Somewhere, there are photos of our Paul as a young man. I'll keep looking.
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Speaking Of Photos . . . Here's A Photo I Just Found Of Young Faul
If you've ever wondered how Faul---the Paul from late 1966-to present looked when he was a boy, I've found an early photo. You have to figure Faul got this photo out there because he must be tired of seeing photos of the young real Paul and none of him. There are no points of reference as to when or where this was photographed but you will notice that he is playing a guitar and--unless the photo was flopped--he is left handed.
Somewhere, there are photos of our Paul as a young man. I'll keep looking.
Somewhere, there are photos of our Paul as a young man. I'll keep looking.
Paul In Los Angeles In June, 1966 -- Is This A Photo Of Him There?
In my post of September 30, 2012, I talked about Los Angeles radio station's KRLABeat magazine mentioning that Paul was in L.A. in June, 1966. The article had him in L.A. alone.
I have been trying to get any photo or any other article or mention about Paul being there at that time.
I was digging around a deep website's images and found a photo in Photobucket with the label "Paul 1966." As you see, he is in casual clothing (unusual for him) and he has a camera in his hand.
I've seen a photo somewhere of the 1966's touring Beatles with the Paul in the tour wearing a striped top. The photo below, though, does look like our Paul. Is it a photo of our Paul taken on his visit to L.A. in June, 1966?
I have been trying to get any photo or any other article or mention about Paul being there at that time.
I was digging around a deep website's images and found a photo in Photobucket with the label "Paul 1966." As you see, he is in casual clothing (unusual for him) and he has a camera in his hand.
I've seen a photo somewhere of the 1966's touring Beatles with the Paul in the tour wearing a striped top. The photo below, though, does look like our Paul. Is it a photo of our Paul taken on his visit to L.A. in June, 1966?
Friday, November 27, 2015
Other Voices, Part 20 (continued)
The Kinks' Dave Davies, brother of Ray, recorded with the other Kinks a song he wrote called "Susannah's Still Alive." The song was recorded in August, 1967 and released as a single in November, 1967, two months after The Kinks album mentioned in my last post.
As I said in the previous post (and others), the name Susannah, and variations, are considered by many Paul-Is-Dead/Replaced researchers as a codeword for Paul.
The lyrics in "Susannah's Still Alive": "She's got a picture on the table of a man who is young and able" was probably supposed to be Paul, before he was replaced.
Reversed, there are no direct references to Paul. However, the reversed song has: "The sergeant's slow" spoken nine times from 0:15-0:16 through 1:54-1:55. Again, there's speculation that Paul had the outline for the Sgt. Pepper concept before he was replaced. Remember, "Yellow Submarine"'s brass band interlude introduced with: "And the band begins to play"?
And, I have a still of the emcee announcing the song taken from a Youtube video of Dave Davies singing a live version of "Susannah's Still Alive." (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUJ5A2932B4 )
Look at the photo behind and to the right of the emcee. Hint?
Whether Paul was actually still alive as late as the end of 1967 remains to be seen, but Dave Davies wanted to weigh in with his comments.
As I said in the previous post (and others), the name Susannah, and variations, are considered by many Paul-Is-Dead/Replaced researchers as a codeword for Paul.
The lyrics in "Susannah's Still Alive": "She's got a picture on the table of a man who is young and able" was probably supposed to be Paul, before he was replaced.
Reversed, there are no direct references to Paul. However, the reversed song has: "The sergeant's slow" spoken nine times from 0:15-0:16 through 1:54-1:55. Again, there's speculation that Paul had the outline for the Sgt. Pepper concept before he was replaced. Remember, "Yellow Submarine"'s brass band interlude introduced with: "And the band begins to play"?
And, I have a still of the emcee announcing the song taken from a Youtube video of Dave Davies singing a live version of "Susannah's Still Alive." (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUJ5A2932B4 )
Look at the photo behind and to the right of the emcee. Hint?
Whether Paul was actually still alive as late as the end of 1967 remains to be seen, but Dave Davies wanted to weigh in with his comments.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Other Voices, Part 20: 1967--The Kinks Couldn't Help But Comment Again
The point I've made in past posts is that rock and pop groups were observing the tragedies of The Beatles and commenting on them in their music.
The Beatles as American fans knew them (1964-1966) kicked off backmasking in songs and the new, new Beatles (1966-1970) used that medium to comment on events that happened to our Paul. Other bands followed suit as I've pointed out in the series of "Other Voices" posts. The fact that our Paul was the topic of most of the backmasking showed how strongly his still yet to be publicly detailed travails affected these musicians.
Enter Ray Davies of The Kinks who prided himself on being the Greek chorus of British life. He observed the British rock band scene with both imitation and distance. Their The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society album was their hopping on the new, new Beatles Sgt. Pepper bandwagon and the distance dated back to 1965 when Davies wrote the snide little song, "Where Have All The Good Times Gone". The song lampooned The Rolling Stones and The Beatles with lyrics like:
1.) "Time was on our side . . ." --alluding to The Rolling Stones' song, "Time Is On My Side".
2.) "Let it be like yesterday" and "Yesterday was such an easy game for you to play" --taken from
The Beatles' "Yesterday".
3.) " . . . get your feet back on the ground" --referencing The Beatles' song, "Help".
Little wonder that Davies would pick up where he left off in 1965 and comment--forward and backwards--about our Paul.
The album Davies used was Something Else By The Kinks, recorded between the autumn of 1966 and the summer of 1967 and released in September, 1967.
The Kinks' song with direct backmasking references to Paul was "Situation Vacant".
It is supposed to be a Davies' character study of a young couple. The woman's mother is overbearing and to keep peace with the mother-in-law, the man quits his job and looks for another in the help wanted (situations vacant) ads. The man doesn't find a job, ends up penniless and separated from his wife, who goes home to her mother.
I am clueless to speculate how much of the song is autobiographical of Paul. Paul was forced out of The Beatles and according to the Beatles' 1967 Christmas fan record there was a "situation vacant" for the position of Paul McCartney that was filled after some auditions. The only suggestive forward clues in the lyrics are:
1.) "Then he had to leave the apartment and sought a less plush residence" --which hints that the man had had money to afford a plush residence.
2.) "Johnny's in a great big hole" -- a grave?
There has been a lot of speculation--mine included--that Suzanne, Susannah and other variations of the name are codewords for Paul in songs at the time, so we can puzzle over whether the wife in the song--named Suzy--is Paul. Or is Johnny, Paul? Or both Suzy and Johnny are Paul and the little mama mentioned in the song (the mother-in-law) is a codeword for someone or something else. (Remember The Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon" where "big fat mama" was the tax-gobbling British government?)
But what is clear in the song is what you hear backwards.
At 1:21-1:23, 2:05-2:07 and 2:42-2:43 in the reversed song you hear: "fancy for Paul".
At 2:32 and 2:42 you hear: "Paulie"
And at 3:04-3:05 you hear: "He bad".
I also heard stray words like:
At 1:05-1:06: "marmalade";
At 2:17-2:18 and 2:21-2:22: "share with this*; (*pronounced "dis")
And at 3:02: "Monday night".
So "Situation Vacant" was about Paul.
The Beatles as American fans knew them (1964-1966) kicked off backmasking in songs and the new, new Beatles (1966-1970) used that medium to comment on events that happened to our Paul. Other bands followed suit as I've pointed out in the series of "Other Voices" posts. The fact that our Paul was the topic of most of the backmasking showed how strongly his still yet to be publicly detailed travails affected these musicians.
Enter Ray Davies of The Kinks who prided himself on being the Greek chorus of British life. He observed the British rock band scene with both imitation and distance. Their The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society album was their hopping on the new, new Beatles Sgt. Pepper bandwagon and the distance dated back to 1965 when Davies wrote the snide little song, "Where Have All The Good Times Gone". The song lampooned The Rolling Stones and The Beatles with lyrics like:
1.) "Time was on our side . . ." --alluding to The Rolling Stones' song, "Time Is On My Side".
2.) "Let it be like yesterday" and "Yesterday was such an easy game for you to play" --taken from
The Beatles' "Yesterday".
3.) " . . . get your feet back on the ground" --referencing The Beatles' song, "Help".
Little wonder that Davies would pick up where he left off in 1965 and comment--forward and backwards--about our Paul.
The album Davies used was Something Else By The Kinks, recorded between the autumn of 1966 and the summer of 1967 and released in September, 1967.
The Kinks' song with direct backmasking references to Paul was "Situation Vacant".
It is supposed to be a Davies' character study of a young couple. The woman's mother is overbearing and to keep peace with the mother-in-law, the man quits his job and looks for another in the help wanted (situations vacant) ads. The man doesn't find a job, ends up penniless and separated from his wife, who goes home to her mother.
I am clueless to speculate how much of the song is autobiographical of Paul. Paul was forced out of The Beatles and according to the Beatles' 1967 Christmas fan record there was a "situation vacant" for the position of Paul McCartney that was filled after some auditions. The only suggestive forward clues in the lyrics are:
1.) "Then he had to leave the apartment and sought a less plush residence" --which hints that the man had had money to afford a plush residence.
2.) "Johnny's in a great big hole" -- a grave?
There has been a lot of speculation--mine included--that Suzanne, Susannah and other variations of the name are codewords for Paul in songs at the time, so we can puzzle over whether the wife in the song--named Suzy--is Paul. Or is Johnny, Paul? Or both Suzy and Johnny are Paul and the little mama mentioned in the song (the mother-in-law) is a codeword for someone or something else. (Remember The Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon" where "big fat mama" was the tax-gobbling British government?)
But what is clear in the song is what you hear backwards.
At 1:21-1:23, 2:05-2:07 and 2:42-2:43 in the reversed song you hear: "fancy for Paul".
At 2:32 and 2:42 you hear: "Paulie"
And at 3:04-3:05 you hear: "He bad".
I also heard stray words like:
At 1:05-1:06: "marmalade";
At 2:17-2:18 and 2:21-2:22: "share with this*; (*pronounced "dis")
And at 3:02: "Monday night".
So "Situation Vacant" was about Paul.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Other Voices, Part 19: "Black Is Black", 1966
Los Bravos was a Spanish pop group with a German lead singer who was signed by the Spanish division of Decca Records and traveled to England to record. Brits Tony Hayes, Steve Wadey and Michelle Grainger wrote a song Los Bravos recorded called "Black Is Black". The song entered the pop charts in England at the end of June, 1966.
My research strongly leads me to believe that our Paul's real last name was BLACK. So I went looking for--and found--some amazing backmasking in "Black Is Black".
First, the song's lyrics are about a boy who loves and loses a girl. The upshot is that the love might be "bad" but he wants her back.
Second, for those who haven't followed the discussion about the name of the man who replaced our Paul--the consensus is that the man's first name is William, and he was commonly called Billy or Willie.
So, beginning at 0:11 in the reversed song and repeated a total of five times throughout the song is the following:
"Willie thought, 'Ha, ha, ha, ha.'" [!]
The date of the backmasked message implies that Paul was on his way out of the group by June, 1966.
My research strongly leads me to believe that our Paul's real last name was BLACK. So I went looking for--and found--some amazing backmasking in "Black Is Black".
First, the song's lyrics are about a boy who loves and loses a girl. The upshot is that the love might be "bad" but he wants her back.
Second, for those who haven't followed the discussion about the name of the man who replaced our Paul--the consensus is that the man's first name is William, and he was commonly called Billy or Willie.
So, beginning at 0:11 in the reversed song and repeated a total of five times throughout the song is the following:
"Willie thought, 'Ha, ha, ha, ha.'" [!]
The date of the backmasked message implies that Paul was on his way out of the group by June, 1966.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Francoise Hardy and Paul, Part One
I've found some important information about the 1960's French pop singer Francoise Hardy that strongly suggests she was connected with either the real Paul McCartney or our Paul.
Francoise Hardy was a major star in France and the rest of Europe throughout the 1960's and into the 1970's --- and was virtually unknown in America.
She started her career in France in 1961. In 1964 she decided to record in England--at Pye Records--ostensibly because French recording studios were primitive in comparison. That put her in the middle of the British Invasion--when they were home.
Hardy was considered a sex symbol to many a European young man, and--according to a 2005 quote from British singer David Bowie--some young women.
The only American singer who knew of and strongly touted Hardy was Bob Dylan. He apparently learned of her when he was in Paris in the early 1960's and made note of it:
1.) With a poem to her called, "Some Other Kinds of Songs" that was in the liner notes of Dylan's 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan.
2.) And in a song called, "She Belongs To Me", recorded in January, 1965 and released in March, 1965.
So let's start with "She Belongs To Me". The lyrics say:
She's an artist, she don't look back.
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black.
Remember the 1966 Rolling Stones' song, "Paint It Black"? I found the backmasked message in that song: "He was from us . . . but he's out." (See my post of June 18, 2013.)
My speculation is that our Paul's real last name was Black. So stay with me on this . . . Dylan caught wind that our Paul was making overtures to Francoise Hardy and slipped a reference to our Paul's real last name in his 1965 song. Fast forward to Dylan's 1966 European tour where he used "She Belongs To Me" as his opening song throughout the tour. He had some other kind of emotion for her, so when he appeared in Paris on May 24, 1966, he stopped his show after a few songs, walked off stage and refused to go back on until Hardy talked with him in his dressing room. She did. (See photo right of the two backstage.)
Dylan had met with Paul on May 2nd. when he was in London and he met with Paul again on May 27, 28, and 29th. when Dylan returned to London. Also see my post of February 2, 2015 where I tracked down some of Dylan's ramblings that suggest a "Madeleine" was involved with real--or our--Paul. Francoise Hardy's middle name is Madeleine.
It gets confusing because if Hardy is the Madeleine of the 1966 French movie, Masculin Feminin. (see my post of October 18, 2012) then it suggests a relationship between her and the real Paul. If Masculin Feminin is biographical, the real Paul committed suicide in 1966.
The other line of reasoning is that real Paul wanted a "rendezvous" with Hardy but our Paul is the man who actually had one. Several things suggest this:
1.) The song, "Michelle" that was attributed to our Paul. My interpretation of "Michelle" is that it was a wistful longing of a boy for a girl and was not talking about--as they like to call it now-- an "ongoing relationship". So, think about what our John said to our Paul after Paul sang "Michelle" on the Ed Sullivan Show of August 14, 1965: "Ahh . . . thank you, Paul, that was just like him." (Listen to this on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com?watch?v=6XMi8uSQooc at 37:47-37:49.)
2.) Hardy knew George and our Paul. In a November 26, 2011 London Daily Mail interview of her, the interviewer says: "When invited to dinner by Paul McCartney and George Harrison . . .". Hardy attended at least one of The Beatles' concerts: on June 20, 1965 when they were in Paris. (See photo of her there at right.) Also, according to the website, Beatles Bible, Hardy met with The Beatles when they were there in Paris. BUT, I have not found any photos of her with any of The Beatles. So any meetings she had with Paul were of a personal nature and not for publicity, in contrast to, for example, of the Hardy+Mick Jagger and Hardy+Brian Jones photos I've found.
Then there's the London newspaper The Independent February 5, 2005 interview where Hardy says she had two brief love affairs in the mid-1960's with two young British actors--one was David Hemmings, but Hardy refuses to name the other one and talks about a song on her 2005 album called "Sur Quel Volcan?" ["On Which Volcano?"] that alludes to "a hidden love affair that would be destructive if people were to find out about it." It could be any British actor, and Paul was a musician, right? But Paul was an actor in A Hard Day's Night and Help!
But what really suggests Hardy had an affair with our Paul is her album Soleil released in 1970. Take a good look at the album cover (right). Hardy is in the foreground, shedding a bloody tear and on her right in the background is a man walking away with a guitar in his hand.
Then there are the two songs on the album that are suggestive of Paul.
First, remember the Beatles' songs that had backmasked pleas from someone for help to get him out from some sort of confinement:
BLUE JAY WAY: "He said, 'Get me out.'"
GET BACK: "I need some wheels. Help me! Help me! Help me!"
REVOLUTION #9: "Get me out!" said repeatedly.
Well, track 5 on Soleil is "Un Petit Sourire, Un Petit Mot" ["A Little Smile, A Little Word"]. Hardy is lecturing someone she says was cold and indifferent and wouldn't help others and now no one will help him.
AND the song most telling on the album is "Je Fais Des Puzzles" ["I Play Puzzles"]. The musical arrangement is upbeat but the song is a lament with these very interesting lyrics:
He had eyes in December,
A smile from July
He told me tender words.
------- ------- ------- -------
When I had dark thoughts . . . [literally, BLACK thoughts]
------- ------- ------- -------
He went cruising [on a cruise] [party cruise]
Without telling me where he was going.
In a few light years
He said he would.
From my research, I can't find any credible photos of Paul past the end of June or the beginning of July. Paul was flatly NOT on the 1966 American tour in August, 1966. Could the month of July, 1966 been the beginning of a brief affair between our Paul and Francoise Hardy?
The "eyes in December" line could be Paul's forward-looking idea of moving to Paris. If you've been reading my blog, I've talked about 1960's Los Angeles radio station KRLA that published a fanzine called KRLA Beat. In an article called "Paul Exposed", it talked about our Paul's fictional songwriter, Bernard Webb, who "wrote" the Peter and Gordon song, "Woman". I believe the autobiographical details Paul gave for Bernard Webb are about Paul's life. One detail was that Webb had a current address in Paris. Was Paul planning a romance with Francoise Hardy that was stopped abruptly with either a fatal accident or an English government-initiated roadway ambush and imprisonment?
By the way, "Je Fais Des Puzzles" has backmasking. I don't speak French, but I recognize the word "Marseille" repeated throughout the reversed song, beginning at 0:29-0:31.
And I found much more on this that I'll outline in future posts. As usual, it goes off in several directions, but there is truth in there that, combined with other information, will get us to what happened to Paul.
---paulumbo
Francoise Hardy was a major star in France and the rest of Europe throughout the 1960's and into the 1970's --- and was virtually unknown in America.
She started her career in France in 1961. In 1964 she decided to record in England--at Pye Records--ostensibly because French recording studios were primitive in comparison. That put her in the middle of the British Invasion--when they were home.
Hardy was considered a sex symbol to many a European young man, and--according to a 2005 quote from British singer David Bowie--some young women.
The only American singer who knew of and strongly touted Hardy was Bob Dylan. He apparently learned of her when he was in Paris in the early 1960's and made note of it:
1.) With a poem to her called, "Some Other Kinds of Songs" that was in the liner notes of Dylan's 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan.
2.) And in a song called, "She Belongs To Me", recorded in January, 1965 and released in March, 1965.
So let's start with "She Belongs To Me". The lyrics say:
She's an artist, she don't look back.
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black.
Remember the 1966 Rolling Stones' song, "Paint It Black"? I found the backmasked message in that song: "He was from us . . . but he's out." (See my post of June 18, 2013.)
My speculation is that our Paul's real last name was Black. So stay with me on this . . . Dylan caught wind that our Paul was making overtures to Francoise Hardy and slipped a reference to our Paul's real last name in his 1965 song. Fast forward to Dylan's 1966 European tour where he used "She Belongs To Me" as his opening song throughout the tour. He had some other kind of emotion for her, so when he appeared in Paris on May 24, 1966, he stopped his show after a few songs, walked off stage and refused to go back on until Hardy talked with him in his dressing room. She did. (See photo right of the two backstage.)
Dylan had met with Paul on May 2nd. when he was in London and he met with Paul again on May 27, 28, and 29th. when Dylan returned to London. Also see my post of February 2, 2015 where I tracked down some of Dylan's ramblings that suggest a "Madeleine" was involved with real--or our--Paul. Francoise Hardy's middle name is Madeleine.
It gets confusing because if Hardy is the Madeleine of the 1966 French movie, Masculin Feminin. (see my post of October 18, 2012) then it suggests a relationship between her and the real Paul. If Masculin Feminin is biographical, the real Paul committed suicide in 1966.
The other line of reasoning is that real Paul wanted a "rendezvous" with Hardy but our Paul is the man who actually had one. Several things suggest this:
1.) The song, "Michelle" that was attributed to our Paul. My interpretation of "Michelle" is that it was a wistful longing of a boy for a girl and was not talking about--as they like to call it now-- an "ongoing relationship". So, think about what our John said to our Paul after Paul sang "Michelle" on the Ed Sullivan Show of August 14, 1965: "Ahh . . . thank you, Paul, that was just like him." (Listen to this on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com?watch?v=6XMi8uSQooc at 37:47-37:49.)
2.) Hardy knew George and our Paul. In a November 26, 2011 London Daily Mail interview of her, the interviewer says: "When invited to dinner by Paul McCartney and George Harrison . . .". Hardy attended at least one of The Beatles' concerts: on June 20, 1965 when they were in Paris. (See photo of her there at right.) Also, according to the website, Beatles Bible, Hardy met with The Beatles when they were there in Paris. BUT, I have not found any photos of her with any of The Beatles. So any meetings she had with Paul were of a personal nature and not for publicity, in contrast to, for example, of the Hardy+Mick Jagger and Hardy+Brian Jones photos I've found.Then there's the London newspaper The Independent February 5, 2005 interview where Hardy says she had two brief love affairs in the mid-1960's with two young British actors--one was David Hemmings, but Hardy refuses to name the other one and talks about a song on her 2005 album called "Sur Quel Volcan?" ["On Which Volcano?"] that alludes to "a hidden love affair that would be destructive if people were to find out about it." It could be any British actor, and Paul was a musician, right? But Paul was an actor in A Hard Day's Night and Help!
But what really suggests Hardy had an affair with our Paul is her album Soleil released in 1970. Take a good look at the album cover (right). Hardy is in the foreground, shedding a bloody tear and on her right in the background is a man walking away with a guitar in his hand. Then there are the two songs on the album that are suggestive of Paul.
First, remember the Beatles' songs that had backmasked pleas from someone for help to get him out from some sort of confinement:
BLUE JAY WAY: "He said, 'Get me out.'"
GET BACK: "I need some wheels. Help me! Help me! Help me!"
REVOLUTION #9: "Get me out!" said repeatedly.
Well, track 5 on Soleil is "Un Petit Sourire, Un Petit Mot" ["A Little Smile, A Little Word"]. Hardy is lecturing someone she says was cold and indifferent and wouldn't help others and now no one will help him.
AND the song most telling on the album is "Je Fais Des Puzzles" ["I Play Puzzles"]. The musical arrangement is upbeat but the song is a lament with these very interesting lyrics:
He had eyes in December,
A smile from July
He told me tender words.
------- ------- ------- -------
When I had dark thoughts . . . [literally, BLACK thoughts]
------- ------- ------- -------
He went cruising [on a cruise] [party cruise]
Without telling me where he was going.
In a few light years
He said he would.
From my research, I can't find any credible photos of Paul past the end of June or the beginning of July. Paul was flatly NOT on the 1966 American tour in August, 1966. Could the month of July, 1966 been the beginning of a brief affair between our Paul and Francoise Hardy?
The "eyes in December" line could be Paul's forward-looking idea of moving to Paris. If you've been reading my blog, I've talked about 1960's Los Angeles radio station KRLA that published a fanzine called KRLA Beat. In an article called "Paul Exposed", it talked about our Paul's fictional songwriter, Bernard Webb, who "wrote" the Peter and Gordon song, "Woman". I believe the autobiographical details Paul gave for Bernard Webb are about Paul's life. One detail was that Webb had a current address in Paris. Was Paul planning a romance with Francoise Hardy that was stopped abruptly with either a fatal accident or an English government-initiated roadway ambush and imprisonment?
By the way, "Je Fais Des Puzzles" has backmasking. I don't speak French, but I recognize the word "Marseille" repeated throughout the reversed song, beginning at 0:29-0:31.
And I found much more on this that I'll outline in future posts. As usual, it goes off in several directions, but there is truth in there that, combined with other information, will get us to what happened to Paul.
---paulumbo
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Did Our Paul Die In 1968?
In my April 22, 2013 post I speculated on the true identity of our Paul by using three clues I found in doing research: 1.) The Tokyo interview of June 30, 1966 where Paul said he was twelve when he went to a 1957 Bill Haley concert in England; 2.) a KRLA Beat (the fan magazine produced from October 7, 1964 to May 4, 1968 by Los Angeles radio station KRLA) article called "Paul Exposed" that described Paul's fictional songwriter Bernard Webb. Paul used the name Bernard Webb as the writer of his 1966 song, "Woman" and he also gave a background for Bernard Webb that, I believe, was really autobiographical of our Paul's life; 3.) The song "Substitute" by The Who that hinted that Paul's real last name was BLACK.
I used the Haley concert, Leeds as hometown and last name Black clues to search in the British birth, marriage, death database, FreeBMD and found a birth of a David M. Black that matched those three details.
In the past 2+ years, I've done more digging and found a death listing in FreeBMD that is chilling and closer to newer information I have found.
1.) I still think our Paul's real last name is Black. You can add The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" with its repeated references to black and its backmasking [see my post of June 18, 2013] to The Who's song. Also, read my last post. The new, new Beatles played with the idea of our Paul as Superman. Now take a look at the Superman cartoon found in the Magical Mystery Tour booklet and notice the "B" on his chest. It could stand for Beatles, but I'm guessing it stands for BLACK.
2.) I think the Leeds-as-Paul's-hometown clue is valid. The KRLA Beat article said Webb [Paul] is (or had been) a college student. Our Paul replaced the real Paul in November, 1963 at ~the age of 19 or 20. If he had been a college student for a year or two prior to joining The Beatles, where did he go to school? In a May 2, 1966 interview Paul gave to BBC Radio's Saturday Club, Paul was talking about attending theatre productions:
"When I was in Liverpool, I used to once or twice just go to Liverpool Playhouse, which is a repertory there." (3:34-3:41 in interview) Note that he didn't phrase the answer in a say that implied he grew up in Liverpool. He then said:
"But I went, when I came out to London, I went to something which wasn't like those plays that they did in repertory. So, I don't know, you just come down and see some great actors . . . ." (3:53-4:04.) You have to read between the lines of what he was saying. He didn't say, "After I became a famous Beatle, we were often in London and I started going to plays with Jane Asher." He was hinting that, pre-Beatles, he had come down to London. If he became a Beatle when he was ~20 years old and had been a college student before that, he likely attended a college in London.
3.) I've talked on another discussion board about my recollection as an original (1964-1966) Beatles fan that Paul's real first name was JOHN and that he used the name PAUL to not confuse fans with two Johns. There also is the curious statement in Hunter Davies' 1968 authorized biography of The Beatles that Paul "was born John Paul McCartney . . . ." The real Paul's real first name was JAMES.
4.) Our Paul's mother might have died when he was ~3 years old according to a 1980 Playboy interview question from David Sheff to our John:
LENNON: Whereas Paul had lost his mother but never lost his father.
PLAYBOY: Yes, he lost his mother very young. At about three.
LENNON: Yeah . . . . . ..
Add to this another Playboy interview published in February, 1965 when Paul was asked about his family:
PAUL: I've got one brother, and a father who used to be a cotton salesman down in New Orleans, you know. That's probably why I look a bit tanned . . . But seriously folks . . .. He occasionally had trouble paying the bills, but it was never, you know, never 'Go out and pick blackberries, son; we're a bit short this week.'"
Notice that Paul as early as 1964 hinted that the cotton salesman father James was not his father. And he did not mention his mother as being alive when he was a child. Also remember the real Paul McCartney's mother died in 1956 when the real Paul was fourteen.
SO . . . with new information in hand, I searched the FreeBMD files again with these parameters:
1.) Our Paul's last name was BLACK.
2.) His first name was JOHN.
3.) His hometown was LEEDS.
4,) His mother died when he was ~3 YEARS' OLD.
I came up with a series of listings--marriage, birth, death, death--that, with two exceptions, come as close to the true identity of our Paul as I've been able to find.
First, the two exceptions. 1.) The June 30, 1966 interview that would have put his birth year at 1944 (or 1945.) 2.) The listing I found that might be Paul's mother has her giving birth when she is ~47 years' old (although that is not out of the range of possibilities.)
Here are the listings:
1.) PHILIP BLACK and MAY HARRIS Marriage in LEEDS, listed June,
1940.
2.) JOHN BLACK (with the mother's Birth in Bradford (17 Miles SW of
maiden name, HARRIS) Leeds), listed March. 1942.
3.) MAY BLACK, 52 Death in Howden[shire], a town in
the East Riding of Yorkshire (42
Miles E of Leeds), listed
December, 1946.
4.) JOHN J. BLACK, 25 Death in St. Marylebone district
of London. (Paul's 7 Cavendish
Av. house is in this district),
listed March, 1968.
DID OUR PAUL DIE IN 1968?
NOTE: I made an attempt to find a probate record for John J. Black in 1968 and I found a website by the UK government that is new (in Beta):
probatesearchservice.gov.uk
I looked for Beatle-related probate records and found listings for real Paul's mother and father, Brian Epstein, George Harrison . . . but nothing for John J. Black.
I used the Haley concert, Leeds as hometown and last name Black clues to search in the British birth, marriage, death database, FreeBMD and found a birth of a David M. Black that matched those three details.
In the past 2+ years, I've done more digging and found a death listing in FreeBMD that is chilling and closer to newer information I have found.
2.) I think the Leeds-as-Paul's-hometown clue is valid. The KRLA Beat article said Webb [Paul] is (or had been) a college student. Our Paul replaced the real Paul in November, 1963 at ~the age of 19 or 20. If he had been a college student for a year or two prior to joining The Beatles, where did he go to school? In a May 2, 1966 interview Paul gave to BBC Radio's Saturday Club, Paul was talking about attending theatre productions:
"When I was in Liverpool, I used to once or twice just go to Liverpool Playhouse, which is a repertory there." (3:34-3:41 in interview) Note that he didn't phrase the answer in a say that implied he grew up in Liverpool. He then said:
"But I went, when I came out to London, I went to something which wasn't like those plays that they did in repertory. So, I don't know, you just come down and see some great actors . . . ." (3:53-4:04.) You have to read between the lines of what he was saying. He didn't say, "After I became a famous Beatle, we were often in London and I started going to plays with Jane Asher." He was hinting that, pre-Beatles, he had come down to London. If he became a Beatle when he was ~20 years old and had been a college student before that, he likely attended a college in London.
3.) I've talked on another discussion board about my recollection as an original (1964-1966) Beatles fan that Paul's real first name was JOHN and that he used the name PAUL to not confuse fans with two Johns. There also is the curious statement in Hunter Davies' 1968 authorized biography of The Beatles that Paul "was born John Paul McCartney . . . ." The real Paul's real first name was JAMES.
4.) Our Paul's mother might have died when he was ~3 years old according to a 1980 Playboy interview question from David Sheff to our John:
LENNON: Whereas Paul had lost his mother but never lost his father.
PLAYBOY: Yes, he lost his mother very young. At about three.
LENNON: Yeah . . . . . ..
Add to this another Playboy interview published in February, 1965 when Paul was asked about his family:
PAUL: I've got one brother, and a father who used to be a cotton salesman down in New Orleans, you know. That's probably why I look a bit tanned . . . But seriously folks . . .. He occasionally had trouble paying the bills, but it was never, you know, never 'Go out and pick blackberries, son; we're a bit short this week.'"
Notice that Paul as early as 1964 hinted that the cotton salesman father James was not his father. And he did not mention his mother as being alive when he was a child. Also remember the real Paul McCartney's mother died in 1956 when the real Paul was fourteen.
SO . . . with new information in hand, I searched the FreeBMD files again with these parameters:
1.) Our Paul's last name was BLACK.
2.) His first name was JOHN.
3.) His hometown was LEEDS.
4,) His mother died when he was ~3 YEARS' OLD.
I came up with a series of listings--marriage, birth, death, death--that, with two exceptions, come as close to the true identity of our Paul as I've been able to find.
First, the two exceptions. 1.) The June 30, 1966 interview that would have put his birth year at 1944 (or 1945.) 2.) The listing I found that might be Paul's mother has her giving birth when she is ~47 years' old (although that is not out of the range of possibilities.)
Here are the listings:
1.) PHILIP BLACK and MAY HARRIS Marriage in LEEDS, listed June,
1940.
2.) JOHN BLACK (with the mother's Birth in Bradford (17 Miles SW of
maiden name, HARRIS) Leeds), listed March. 1942.
3.) MAY BLACK, 52 Death in Howden[shire], a town in
the East Riding of Yorkshire (42
Miles E of Leeds), listed
December, 1946.
4.) JOHN J. BLACK, 25 Death in St. Marylebone district
of London. (Paul's 7 Cavendish
Av. house is in this district),
listed March, 1968.
DID OUR PAUL DIE IN 1968?
NOTE: I made an attempt to find a probate record for John J. Black in 1968 and I found a website by the UK government that is new (in Beta):
probatesearchservice.gov.uk
I looked for Beatle-related probate records and found listings for real Paul's mother and father, Brian Epstein, George Harrison . . . but nothing for John J. Black.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Other Voices, Part 18: The R&B Song Intended For The Beatles
Johnny Keyes was a staff songwriter for the Memphis-based Stax Records--a famous soul and R&B label in the 1960's.
In an interview Keyes gave the Memphis Flyer (a metro Memphis area newsweekly started in 1989), he describes the visit Brian Epstein made to Stax records in early April, 1966 to look into having The Beatles record there. Epstein decided to keep The Beatles in England (see my last post) and The Beatles recorded the Revolver album at EMI studios in London.
Keyes thought The Beatles might like to record a Stax-style track so he and Ronnie Gorden, a Stax keyboardist wrote a Smokey Robinson-like song (think, "The Way You Do The Things You Do") called "Out Of Control."
The Beatles didn't use the song. Finally, in 1968, it was recorded by L.H. and the Memphis Sounds and released on the Madison, TN label, Hollywood records. It had backmasking.
To put the backmasking into context, you might remember that in the new, new Beatles 1967 Sgt. Pepper album song, "A Day In The Life", the run-out groove in the album released in England had the backmasked message: "Will Paul come back as Superman." Also, a Superman image is included in the 1967 Magical Mystery Tour booklet. (See third panel right and more on that image in a future post.)
So . . . . "Out Of Control" has the following backmasking:
1.) Beginning at 0:02 in the backmasked song, you hear: "Oh . . . Superman" repeated six times.
"Oh . . . Superman" is also repeated four times beginning at 1:02 and twice beginning at 1:52.
2.) From 2:18-2:20: "I survived the worst."
3.) From 2:25-2:28: "They would not pay."
Did the songwriters or the band hear gossip about Paul and retool the song as an ironic comment on "A Day In The Life" and Paul?
One more note on this: In the song, Superman is pronounced Supermahn, in a Caribbean or African way. ???
In an interview Keyes gave the Memphis Flyer (a metro Memphis area newsweekly started in 1989), he describes the visit Brian Epstein made to Stax records in early April, 1966 to look into having The Beatles record there. Epstein decided to keep The Beatles in England (see my last post) and The Beatles recorded the Revolver album at EMI studios in London.
Keyes thought The Beatles might like to record a Stax-style track so he and Ronnie Gorden, a Stax keyboardist wrote a Smokey Robinson-like song (think, "The Way You Do The Things You Do") called "Out Of Control."
The Beatles didn't use the song. Finally, in 1968, it was recorded by L.H. and the Memphis Sounds and released on the Madison, TN label, Hollywood records. It had backmasking.
To put the backmasking into context, you might remember that in the new, new Beatles 1967 Sgt. Pepper album song, "A Day In The Life", the run-out groove in the album released in England had the backmasked message: "Will Paul come back as Superman." Also, a Superman image is included in the 1967 Magical Mystery Tour booklet. (See third panel right and more on that image in a future post.)So . . . . "Out Of Control" has the following backmasking:
1.) Beginning at 0:02 in the backmasked song, you hear: "Oh . . . Superman" repeated six times.
"Oh . . . Superman" is also repeated four times beginning at 1:02 and twice beginning at 1:52.
2.) From 2:18-2:20: "I survived the worst."
3.) From 2:25-2:28: "They would not pay."
Did the songwriters or the band hear gossip about Paul and retool the song as an ironic comment on "A Day In The Life" and Paul?
One more note on this: In the song, Superman is pronounced Supermahn, in a Caribbean or African way. ???
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Was I Right, Or Was I Right?
In my post of February 7, 2013 I was talking about an L.A. radio station fanzine's story that The Beatles were contemplating recording--what became--the Revolver album at Stax record studio in Memphis.
The line was that Brian Epstein was worried about security if The Beatles stayed in Memphis. That was bull, of course, because the 1966 touring Beatles played in Memphis after our John created a storm of anger in America with his comments that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" and his opinion that Christianity would fade. There were boycotts and threats but the 1966 touring Beatles still played there. So much for security concerns.
In a May 30, 2015 article at www.beatlesarchive.net they reproduce and talk about a May 6, 1966 letter George wrote to Paul Drew, an Atlanta DJ at radio station WQXI.
Harrison describes recording Revolver and says in a postscript:
"Did you hear that we nearly recorded in Memphis with Jim Stuart. We would all like it a lot, but too many people get insane with money ideas at the mention of the word Beatles', so it fell through!"
So there's the real reason. But . . . . In an interview with John and Ringo published in Melody Maker magazine July 9, 1966, Ringo talked about taking about 10 weeks to complete Revolver:
"But we've spent so long on it because we insisted on having the time to do what we wanted to. As we're quite big with EMI at the moment, they don't argue." (my emphasis.)
Because The Beatles were at the top of their game, and when, for instance, The Rolling Stones recorded several albums in the U.S., you wonder if the real reason was money.
But it wasn't because of security.
The line was that Brian Epstein was worried about security if The Beatles stayed in Memphis. That was bull, of course, because the 1966 touring Beatles played in Memphis after our John created a storm of anger in America with his comments that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" and his opinion that Christianity would fade. There were boycotts and threats but the 1966 touring Beatles still played there. So much for security concerns.
In a May 30, 2015 article at www.beatlesarchive.net they reproduce and talk about a May 6, 1966 letter George wrote to Paul Drew, an Atlanta DJ at radio station WQXI.
Harrison describes recording Revolver and says in a postscript:
"Did you hear that we nearly recorded in Memphis with Jim Stuart. We would all like it a lot, but too many people get insane with money ideas at the mention of the word Beatles', so it fell through!"
So there's the real reason. But . . . . In an interview with John and Ringo published in Melody Maker magazine July 9, 1966, Ringo talked about taking about 10 weeks to complete Revolver:
"But we've spent so long on it because we insisted on having the time to do what we wanted to. As we're quite big with EMI at the moment, they don't argue." (my emphasis.)
Because The Beatles were at the top of their game, and when, for instance, The Rolling Stones recorded several albums in the U.S., you wonder if the real reason was money.
But it wasn't because of security.
Monday, May 11, 2015
More To Come
Sorry for the delay in new posts. I'm doing research that will take time to pan out . . . BUT there is much more to come.
Monday, February 2, 2015
What Bob Dylan Knew
In May, 1966, Bob Dylan shared a ride with our John to a hotel where Dylan was staying. Their ride was filmed and showed up with other 1966 footage of Dylan in England in the documentary, Eat The Document. The part of the documentary that concerns this post I found on Youtube at: https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5YLdHG83UD .
From 0:51-1:18 in the Youtube video, Dylan, with a little help from our John, says this:
Dylan: Tom? [the driver] I think I'm going to turn you into Tyrone Power! As a matter of fact---
John: Say that again, will you, Bob?
Dylan: Tom?
Driver: Yeah?
Dylan: I think I'm going to turn you into Ronald Coleman.
John: That's better---
Dylan: Reginald Young---
John: Much better, much better---
Dylan: Sleepy P. Weedsrom or Sleepy John Estes. Oh, that's right. Robert Johnson. Would go
to medical school like J. Carrol Naish!
J. Carrol Naish was a Hollywood actor. I read some internet biographies of him, with no mention of his ever going to medical school. What was Dylan talking about?
I Googled "J. Carrol Naish"+"medical school" and the result was the mention of a 1942 movie called Dr. Renault's Secret. The tale begins as a young doctor arrives in a French village to marry the niece of Dr. Renault, a prominent local physician. The name of the niece-fiancee is MADELON.
In past posts I've talked about the French film, Masculin Feminin with the main character named MADELEINE and the 1966 Denny Laine song, Rue de la MADELEINE.
I definitely think there is a connection between the real Paul and a French girl named Madeleine.
There is a theory described in the website: diglander.libero.it/p_truth that a Paul traveled to France for some reason and died there. Although I don't subscribe to the entire theory, if the real Paul did go to France, it could have been because he was romantically involved with a girl named Madeleine.
From 0:51-1:18 in the Youtube video, Dylan, with a little help from our John, says this:
Dylan: Tom? [the driver] I think I'm going to turn you into Tyrone Power! As a matter of fact---
John: Say that again, will you, Bob?
Dylan: Tom?
Driver: Yeah?
Dylan: I think I'm going to turn you into Ronald Coleman.
John: That's better---
Dylan: Reginald Young---
John: Much better, much better---
Dylan: Sleepy P. Weedsrom or Sleepy John Estes. Oh, that's right. Robert Johnson. Would go
to medical school like J. Carrol Naish!
J. Carrol Naish was a Hollywood actor. I read some internet biographies of him, with no mention of his ever going to medical school. What was Dylan talking about?
I Googled "J. Carrol Naish"+"medical school" and the result was the mention of a 1942 movie called Dr. Renault's Secret. The tale begins as a young doctor arrives in a French village to marry the niece of Dr. Renault, a prominent local physician. The name of the niece-fiancee is MADELON.
In past posts I've talked about the French film, Masculin Feminin with the main character named MADELEINE and the 1966 Denny Laine song, Rue de la MADELEINE.
I definitely think there is a connection between the real Paul and a French girl named Madeleine.
There is a theory described in the website: diglander.libero.it/p_truth that a Paul traveled to France for some reason and died there. Although I don't subscribe to the entire theory, if the real Paul did go to France, it could have been because he was romantically involved with a girl named Madeleine.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Finding More Information In 1960's Songs and Why I Look There
The whole Paul-Is-Dead controversy began in October, 1969 in Detroit. As I say in the introduction to my blog, I was a kid Beatles' fan among thousands of kid Beatles' fans in Detroit. We heard "Penny Lane" in 1967 (although I swear I heard that song in the fall of 1966. But that can't be, right?) We Beatles' fans knew something was wrong with that song. Paul's voice was not the same.
When Sgt. Pepper came out, alot of us did not like the music and the vibe that The Beatles were projecting, It was off, it was not right. So most of us kissed off Beatle fandom and became Monkees' fans.
So when the Paul-Is-Dead backmasked clues started surfacing, many of us thought it was a publicity stunt that The Beatles were using to--as they say in Detroit--"goose up" their sagging popularity.
As I started researching the changes in the members of the group, it occurred to me that--if there were heavy duty machinations with The Beatles--whoever surfaced among them would want some way to talk about it. Blurting it out publicly would have gotten band members replaced--and whatever consequences followed from that. So they hid their information in their songs.
The music industry is a fluid situation: musicians quit bands and join new ones; musicians hang out together; they listen to each others' music and the gossip they hear in recording studios. So I reasoned that other groups would want to share their information and gossip.
The results from testing songs backwards were 'way more than I expected: pop and rock musicians had bits of information about behind the scenes problems with The Beatles, and they shared their knowledge and gossip in backmasked songs.
When Sgt. Pepper came out, alot of us did not like the music and the vibe that The Beatles were projecting, It was off, it was not right. So most of us kissed off Beatle fandom and became Monkees' fans.
So when the Paul-Is-Dead backmasked clues started surfacing, many of us thought it was a publicity stunt that The Beatles were using to--as they say in Detroit--"goose up" their sagging popularity.
As I started researching the changes in the members of the group, it occurred to me that--if there were heavy duty machinations with The Beatles--whoever surfaced among them would want some way to talk about it. Blurting it out publicly would have gotten band members replaced--and whatever consequences followed from that. So they hid their information in their songs.
The music industry is a fluid situation: musicians quit bands and join new ones; musicians hang out together; they listen to each others' music and the gossip they hear in recording studios. So I reasoned that other groups would want to share their information and gossip.
The results from testing songs backwards were 'way more than I expected: pop and rock musicians had bits of information about behind the scenes problems with The Beatles, and they shared their knowledge and gossip in backmasked songs.
Other Voices, Part 17: The 1967 Yardbirds' Song, "Dazed and Confused"
The Yardbirds were a British invasion group who, in 1967, consisted of Keith Relf, Jimmy Page, Chris Dreja, and Jim McCarty.
Keith Relf took a song called "I'm Confused (Dazed and Confused)" by Jake Holmes and reworked some of the lyrics. The Yardbirds did live versions of the song, two of which showed up in two releases: Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page, released in 1971 and Cumular Limit, released in 2000.
The lyrics suggest a man who is abused, tense, and not knowing if--for instance--he is going to be dumped from his band.
Think of Paul in April, 1966 with a publicly visible chipped tooth.
Listen to the song at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDhx_DgDxE .
Here are the lyrics:
I'm dazed and confused,
Is it stay, is it go?
Give me a clue,
'Cos I just want to know.
Give me a clue as to where I am at.
Feel like a mouse, and you act like a cat.
Yeah I'm
Yeah I'm
Yeah I'm
Yeah I'm,
I'm dazed and confused,
Hangin' on by a thread.
I've been abused,
I'd be better off dead.
Can't stand the heat,
And I'm starting to crack,
If you're out to get me,
You're on the right track.
Hey, hey!
Hey, hey!
Hey, hey!
I'm dazed and confused.
Is it stay, is it go?
I still love you,
But I still want to know.
Secrets are fun to a certain degree,
This one's now fun 'cause the secret's on me.
Yeah, yeah,
Hey, hey!
I'm dazed and confused,
Is it stay, is it go?
I've been abused,
And I sure wanna know.
Give me a clue as to where I am at,
Feel like a mouse, and you act like a cat.
Yeah!
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Reversed, you can hear them say PAUL--I count--TEN times, beginning at 1:19 in the reversed track.
Keith Relf took a song called "I'm Confused (Dazed and Confused)" by Jake Holmes and reworked some of the lyrics. The Yardbirds did live versions of the song, two of which showed up in two releases: Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page, released in 1971 and Cumular Limit, released in 2000.
The lyrics suggest a man who is abused, tense, and not knowing if--for instance--he is going to be dumped from his band.
Think of Paul in April, 1966 with a publicly visible chipped tooth.
Listen to the song at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDhx_DgDxE .
Here are the lyrics:
I'm dazed and confused,
Is it stay, is it go?
Give me a clue,
'Cos I just want to know.
Give me a clue as to where I am at.
Feel like a mouse, and you act like a cat.
Yeah I'm
Yeah I'm
Yeah I'm
Yeah I'm,
I'm dazed and confused,
Hangin' on by a thread.
I've been abused,
I'd be better off dead.
Can't stand the heat,
And I'm starting to crack,
If you're out to get me,
You're on the right track.
Hey, hey!
Hey, hey!
Hey, hey!
I'm dazed and confused.
Is it stay, is it go?
I still love you,
But I still want to know.
Secrets are fun to a certain degree,
This one's now fun 'cause the secret's on me.
Yeah, yeah,
Hey, hey!
I'm dazed and confused,
Is it stay, is it go?
I've been abused,
And I sure wanna know.
Give me a clue as to where I am at,
Feel like a mouse, and you act like a cat.
Yeah!
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Reversed, you can hear them say PAUL--I count--TEN times, beginning at 1:19 in the reversed track.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Other Voices, Part 16: "Good Vibrations"
I was reading a 2001 book, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds: The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century by Kingsley Abbot. It chronicles The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson's gargantuan effort to, basically, out-Beatle The Beatles.
The Beach Boys recorded for Capitol records. Capitol was owned by EMI, the record company The Beatles recorded for. Capitol--after a few fumbles--released The Beatles' recordings. The Beatles made massive inroads on the American pop scene from 1964-on, so you can imagine that Brian Wilson would have been curious as to what The Beatles would be planning for future music, and--with a little poking around Capitol's Los Angeles headquarters--would have gotten some advance knowledge.
It's also more than possible that Brian Wilson was "tuning into" the gossip about The Beatles that was floating around Capitol records. The Beach Boys also hired Derek Taylor, fresh from being The Beatles publicist, as their publicist, so Brian Wilson had more insider knowledge about The Beatles.
While the other Beach Boys were off touring, Brian with an English advertising man turned lyricist, Tony Asher [!], and a heavy contingent of studio musicians, put together the album, Pet Sounds.
They had three hits from the album: "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B", and "God Only Knows". Brian worked on the album from the fall of 1965 through the spring of 1966.
On May 16, 1966, Pet Sounds was released in the U.S. The album and the single "Sloop John B" sold better in Europe than it did in the U.S.
Given all the efforts Brian Wilson made to outdo The Beatles, I thought he might have slipped in a few comments on the state of The Beatles, late 1965 and 1966.
He did.
I'll talk about the Pet Sounds hints in a coming post. (I still have to do a little more research on them.)
But, a track that Brian considered for Pet Sounds and held off the album for "more work" was the song, "Good Vibrations." Brian, according to the Pet Sounds book, "proceeded to experiment with different feels and arrangements for some 90 hours of tape, in four different studios, before finally constructing a finished master from many separate, quite disparate fragments." This sounded, to me, like it had backmasking written all over it. I thought the backmasked song would directly mention our Paul. Instead--and, remember, the song was released in November, 1966, a month before the new, new Beatles were beginning to record what would become the Sgt. Pepper album--the main backmasked words throughout the song are: "she's . . . shear", as in "the one and only Billy Shears" mentioned in the first track on Sgt. Pepper.
People have interpreted the Billy Shears passage as, "Billy's here": a new Beatle OR "Billy Shears" as in the real name of the new Beatle Paul. It follows that "she's shear" would mean "she's here" by the first interpretation.
But "Good Vibrations" preceded Sgt. Pepper. How did Brian Wilson know?
The Beach Boys recorded for Capitol records. Capitol was owned by EMI, the record company The Beatles recorded for. Capitol--after a few fumbles--released The Beatles' recordings. The Beatles made massive inroads on the American pop scene from 1964-on, so you can imagine that Brian Wilson would have been curious as to what The Beatles would be planning for future music, and--with a little poking around Capitol's Los Angeles headquarters--would have gotten some advance knowledge.
It's also more than possible that Brian Wilson was "tuning into" the gossip about The Beatles that was floating around Capitol records. The Beach Boys also hired Derek Taylor, fresh from being The Beatles publicist, as their publicist, so Brian Wilson had more insider knowledge about The Beatles.
While the other Beach Boys were off touring, Brian with an English advertising man turned lyricist, Tony Asher [!], and a heavy contingent of studio musicians, put together the album, Pet Sounds.
They had three hits from the album: "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B", and "God Only Knows". Brian worked on the album from the fall of 1965 through the spring of 1966.
On May 16, 1966, Pet Sounds was released in the U.S. The album and the single "Sloop John B" sold better in Europe than it did in the U.S.
Given all the efforts Brian Wilson made to outdo The Beatles, I thought he might have slipped in a few comments on the state of The Beatles, late 1965 and 1966.
He did.
I'll talk about the Pet Sounds hints in a coming post. (I still have to do a little more research on them.)
But, a track that Brian considered for Pet Sounds and held off the album for "more work" was the song, "Good Vibrations." Brian, according to the Pet Sounds book, "proceeded to experiment with different feels and arrangements for some 90 hours of tape, in four different studios, before finally constructing a finished master from many separate, quite disparate fragments." This sounded, to me, like it had backmasking written all over it. I thought the backmasked song would directly mention our Paul. Instead--and, remember, the song was released in November, 1966, a month before the new, new Beatles were beginning to record what would become the Sgt. Pepper album--the main backmasked words throughout the song are: "she's . . . shear", as in "the one and only Billy Shears" mentioned in the first track on Sgt. Pepper.
People have interpreted the Billy Shears passage as, "Billy's here": a new Beatle OR "Billy Shears" as in the real name of the new Beatle Paul. It follows that "she's shear" would mean "she's here" by the first interpretation.
But "Good Vibrations" preceded Sgt. Pepper. How did Brian Wilson know?
