Somnambulent Adventures or Bringing The Boys Down

As I talked about in my June 4 and April 30, 2010 posts, The Beatles in 1966 worked the subject of sleeping into songs and interviews with a regularity that suggested that it was a strong element in one of The Beatles' lives. 

It was a theme that photographer Bob Whitaker picked up on in his series of four photographs of the Beatles that he labeled Somnambulent Adventure.  He gave varying explanations for the series that also included the Butcher cover photo.

I was reading The Kinks The Official Biography by Jon Savage (Faber and Faber, Ltd, 1984) and I found an interesting account of The Kink's Ray Davies' 1977 interview in New Musical Express where he described his "nervous breakdown" [my quotation marks]:
     "' I was a zombie.  I'd been on the go from when we first made it till then, and I was completely out
        of my mind.  I went to sleep and I woke up a week later with a moustache.  I don't know what
        happened to me.  I'd run into the West End with my money stuffed in my socks, I'd tried to punch
        my press agent, I was chased down Denmark Street by the police, hustled into a taxi by a
        psychiatrist, and driven off somewhere.
        I remember Robert [Wace, one of The Kinks' managers] came and picked me up with a doctor.
        I supposed it was all a bit near the mark. . . .  And all I remember is that Dave [Davies, his brother
        and fellow band member] brought a tape in, some people who were auditioning, and I fell asleep.
        I woke up, I swear, five days later, and they'd gone on tour.'"

A similar scenario is what I think also happened to Paul. 

A BREAKTHROUGH: Harold Pinter's A Birthday Party -- Life Deliberately Imitating Art

I was looking into photograper Robert Whitaker's March 25, 1966 photo session with The Beatles that produced the infamous "butcher" photo (see photo below.)  I will comment on this in my next post.

The "butcher" photo appeared in color for the first time on the front page of

Disc and Music Echo (an English music newspaper on June 11, 1966.

Significantly, The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein co-owned that newspaper.  The headline under the photo read:  "Beatles:  What a Carve-up!" (see image left)

I went looking for the definition of carve-up and found:

     -  In The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1984) the definition was:  to cheat, swindle (swindle accomplice out of his share.)

     -  In  A Dictionary of the Underworld by Eric Partridge (London, 1949, 1961 [reprinted, 1964], it gave the definition above and also:  to betray, to "double cross."

 The Oxford English Dictionary gave as an excerpt from English writer Harold Pinter's 1957 play, The Birthday Party, so I read the play and there are so many parallels with Paul's life that I feel that:

     1.) From 1965-on details of the play were used to harass and threaten Paul;

     2.) That Paul fought back using details of the play;

     3.) That John wrote a song reflecting part of the play;

     4.) That the outcome of the play might have been Paul's;

     5.) That the reconstituted Beatles of late 1966-on (real George and Ringo, fake John and Paul) taunted

           Paul (or the memory of Paul) in the same ways that the two characters in the play taunted the main

           (doomed) character.

The first thing to explain is why a play and its contents would be chosen as a running commentary about Paul's life and as a looming threat against Paul.  I think it was because Paul was an intelligent, literate man who could understand and be affected by such a play.

          Details Of The Play And How It Parallels Paul's Life

The Birthday Party's plot involves a man who was hiding away in a boarding house for some unexplained reason, and who was tracked down by two assassins who corner him in the house and after a night of harassment and ruthless interrogation, lead him away to be killed.

The analyses I read about the play reason that Pinter was writing a symbolic play of one man's struggle to resist conforming to the conventions of the establishment and how the forces of conformity embodied in the two assassins succeed in crushing him.

• The central character's name is Stanley WEBBer.  Paul used the name Bernard WEBB as a pseudonym when he wrote the song Woman, released in early 1966.
• Stanley Webber was a musician.

The man is rebelling against an organization.  One of the killers says,  "Why did you leave the organization?" and "You betrayed the organization."

• Paul was making solo efforts in 1965 and 1966 with Michelle (1965), Yesterday (1965), and Eleanor Rigby (1966).
• He rebelled against The Beatles' recording company EMI's pressure to record songs The Beatles didn't like.  An example of this is Paul's trashing of the song, That Means Alot (see my June 25, 2010 post. The Youtube link is no longer available, but I will try to find another link for the song.)
• One reason Brian Epstein was part of the harassment of Paul was because Paul was apparently resisting advances by him.  Paul put his protest is a version of 1965's I'm Down that was finally released on the Past Masters, Volume One cd.  Listen to it on Youtube at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=alPGrT-283o    (Note:  Paul--to use boxing slang--hit below the belt by using Epstein's religion in the song.  Paul knew Epstein was sensitive about this, but I have found no evidence that Paul was anti-semitic.)
• As I outlined in my May 29, 2010 post, Paul was behind putting the "butcher" photo on the U.S. Yesterday and Today album and told the president of Capitol Records that the photo was a protest against "the war".  I believe it was a Paul's (and John's) was against the British power structure.

Paul was saying publicly as early as 1965 that he could see himself as a composer for a long time but could not see himself touring indefinitely.  For example, in the March 21, 1966 edition of Newsweek magazine, Paul said,  "We think in terms of 40 more years of writing."  "I wouldn't mind being a white-haired old man writing songs," adds McCartney, "but I'd hate to be a white-haired Beatle playing at Empress Stadium."

Like the main character in Pinter's play who was blocked by the assassins from leaving the boarding house, I think Paul was blocked from leaving the group in 1964 and 1965.  But in 1966, Paul apparently reached a deal with the "organization" to leave.  John's song, And Your Bird Can Sing (see my January 11, 2011 post) lays out John's exasperation at this.
I think Paul was double-crossed.  Paul wasn't "playing the game" and I think the establishment threatened his freedom or his life.

          Beatles Songs That Paralled Dialog In The Play

     - Nowhere Man (John, 1965)

       He's a real nowhere man,

       Sitting in his nowhere land,

       Making all his nowhere plans

       For nobody.

In The Birthday Party, Stanley has a conversation with Lulu, a neighbor:

    Stanley (abruptly).  How would you like to go away with me?

    Lulu.                      Where.

    Stanley.                  Nowhere.  Still we could go.

              .         .        .

    Lulu.                      We might as well stay here.

    Stanley.                 No, it's no good here.

    Lulu.                      Well, where else is there?

    Stanley.                  Nowhere.

       -  I Am The Walrus (John replacement, 1967)

          Sitting on a cornflake

          Waiting for the van to come.

In the beginning of the play Stanley and another character ate cornflakes for breakfast.  After Stanley learns two men are coming to the boarding house, he talks with Meg, the boarding house owner:

    Stanley.                They're coming in a van.

    Meg.                     Who?

    Stanley.                They've got a wheel barrow in that van.

                 .            .               .

    Stanley. (advancing upon her).   A big wheel barrow and when the van stops they wheel it out, and they

                                 wheel it up the garden path, and then they knock at the front door.

                 .            .               .

    Stanley.                They are looking for someone.  A certain person.

    Meg. (hoarsely).   No, they're not!

    Stanley.                Shall I tell you who they're looking for?

       -  Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da  (Paul? 1966?)

The word "barrow" appears in what some people believe is real Paul's song.  It's in a positive context of Paul leading a quiet life, something Paul was planning.  The barrow reference is a counterpoint to the barrow mentioned in the play.  The barrow in the play would be used like the French tumbrel - a cart that carried political prisoners to their death by beheading  (see photo at right.)   [Note:  There were rumors

that Paul was beheaded in an accident in September or November, 1966 when his car swerved to miss a van.  This theory was reinforced by several images that showed up in later Beatles albums and movies.  In the Magical Mystery Tour movie, for example, there is an image of a headless man shown when George sings Blue Jay Way.

Toward the end of the play, after hours of verbal harassment, both men taunt Stanley by telling him he's dead.  A series of backmasking songs from 1967 until the group split up in 1970 talk about Paul being dead, some in taunting ways like Revolution #9's:  "Turn me on, dead man" and I Am The Walrus's:  "Ha, ha, Paul is dead."  [Note:  for a thorough review of the Paul-is-dead clues check out the website, "Officially Pronounced Dead?" at:  http://homepages.tesco.net/harbfamily/opd/index.html ]

I suggest you read Pinter's play.  As the truth about what happened to Paul starts coming out, the play's details and message will become more and more relevant.

   

Before Paul Was "Suzanne" He Was "Bernard"

In the years after Paul disappeared, there were English and American songs that alluded to Paul under the code name "Suzanne" or "Susannah".  (For a discussion of these songs, check out the Paul-was-replaced discussion board:  http://www.invanddis.proboards.com/ in the "Clues" section under PID/PWR Songs.)

Paul was making it clear in his songs of 1966 that he was heading to France.  There was a woman there he was interested in.  So I started looking into French references to Paul and I believe I've found one.

The French singer/songwriter Jean Jacques Debout (who I mentioned in my post of March 5th. about the Gold Rose song competition in France) wrote a song recorded by the French ye-ye singer Chantal Goya in 1964 called C'est Bien Bernard  (It's Bernard.)  Debout and Goya latered married and they had an explanation for the title of the song (something about a little boy calling Debout "Bernard".  But the lyrics of the song belie the explanation because it talks about Bernard being in a band and my research shows that Debout was a solo singer.)

The most important lyrics in the song are:
     That is the most lucky Bernard of the band.
     But I know that at the start in September
     He will find me well and understand
     That we both can love without the band.
     That we both can love without the band.

In an early book about The Beatles (written in 1964):  Love Me Do, The Beatles' Progress, the author Michael Braun said that Paul wanted to quit The Beatles.

And remember the lyric in Paul's song, Michelle (recorded in November, 1965):
     I'll get to you somehow.

Beatles fans will remember that Paul wrote a song in 1966 under the pseudonym of Bernard Webb for Peter and Gordon called Woman.  It was released in January, 1966 in the U.S. and the most important lyrics of it are:
     And should you take your time and tell me
     When we're alone, love will come home
     I would give up my world
     If you'll say that my girl is my woman.

So it looks as though Paul found his French woman singer in 1964 and carried on a clandestine romance with her.  When people are looking to find out what happened to Paul, this could be another way to approach the answer.

The Yellow Cubmarine

I am reading a book called Palm Beach  The Place, The People, Its Pleasures and Palaces by John Ney (Little, Brown and Company, 1966), and on page 90 he was talking about a Palm Beach resident who helped develop and produce a 2-person personal submarine called a Cubmarine.  (See photo on right.)

Look familiar?  Check out the image of the yellow submarine in the Beatles' cartoon feature  (image on the right.)

The Cubmarine was first marketed in 1962.  In John's song  And Your Bird Can Sing, he talks about when Paul's prized possessions start to bring (or wear) him down.  I think one of Paul's prized possessions might have been a Cubmarine.  But would he have wanted one for amusement or for some other reason?

   Note:  I'm researching Palm Beach, Florida because I believe real John moved to America and settled there.

999

I was looking in the 1968 British Telecom telephone directory and I found something interesting.  On page 5 of this directory (and on page 7 of the 1965 directory), it has the following:
     Call the operator for the emergency services
                Fire
                Police
                Ambulance
                by dialling 999
                      (if available)
 (or by dialling 100 or 0 - see your dial label or dialling instructions - if the 999 service is not available from your telephone)
Tell the operator the service you want.  Give your Exchange and Number.
Wait until the Emergency Authority answers.  Then give them the address where help is needed and other necessary information.

Remember the song Revolution #9?  Reversed, it described a car crash.  And the voice kept repeating number 9, number 9, number 9 . . . .

Also, on the 1967 Beatles Christmas record  (listen at  www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPaMEHAs7nQ  ) at 3:59-4:12 it has someone speaking to the operator with the following dialog:
     Hello.  I'm speaking from a call . . . Hello, hello, operator.  Hello, operator.  I've been cut off!  I've been cut . . .   It's an emergency!!

One explanation of 999 might be that Paul and someone else tried in vain to make an emergency call on the road and was stopped by  ?

Note:  To see 999 being used, check part 5 of The Beatles' movie Help on youtube at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucNbtCtfgfo at 8:03-8:12.  The Beatles are at Scotland Yard looking for help from the "chief superintendent".  The "superintendent" asks for the phone and says:  "Lifeline of the service.  Dial 999."  When Ringo says he and the other Beatles need protection, the "superintendent" says:  "And you shall have it.  Get me protection."

Rose D'or D'Antibes Festival--Another Explanation of the Yellow Rose

From 1962-1979, the festival Rose D'or D'Antibes was an annual competition for French song writers.  The festival stopped in 1980, but resumed in 1994.  See picture on right and explanation (in French) at the website: http://www.rose-dor.fr/ .

Rose D'or in English means gold rose.  In my post of September 3, 2010, I showed an image of the  Time magazine charicature of the Beatles with real Paul leaning back and appearing dead, holding a yellow rose.  There may be a connection between the Rose D'or festival and Paul.  More coming up.   ---paulumbo.

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.