Jose Feliciano's 1969 Song

There were several songs released during the Paul-Is-Dead controversy that began in October, 1969.  One of them was Jose Feliciano's song, So Long Paul that Feliciano recorded under the pseudonym, Werbley Finster.  The lyrics coincide with the lyrics of The Bonzo Dog Band's We Are Normal and Procul Harum's Lime Street Blues that I talked about in my June 19, 2012 post and with the "dream" Paul described in the New Musical Express interview of June, 1966 that I outlined in my August 17, 2012 post.  Listen to the song at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whAZ8aYztgU .

Here are some of the lyrics:

     I heard the radio the other day;
     I heard something that blew my mind.
     It was something that I didn't even believe atall:
     The news concerned itself with a young man everybody knows,
     And they said that he went, running, taking off his clothes.
     And I said, now, so long Paul, we hate to see you go,
     So long Paul after making all that dough.


Feliciano said in the song that he went to England and he knew and believed that Paul was still alive and that Paul had had himself  "a hard day's night."

Feliciano is hinting that Paul was removed from The Beatles.  The 1967 Beatles Christmas fan record with the famous refrain, "O-U-T spells OUT" suggests the same thing.

I think it's pretty conclusive that Paul was snatched up by the British government and held against his will.  The devil will be in getting the details---but they WILL be found.


                                                                                        ---paulumbo


 

Other Voices, Part 9: Bee Gees, 1968

I had a feeling The Bee Gees would comment on Paul's situation and I found backmasked references to him in The Bee Gees song, I Started A Joke, recorded on June 25, 1968 for their  Idea album.

The forward lyrics suggest that the Paul-Is-Dead rumor was a joke but that Paul did die sometime between the beginning of the "joke" and the recording of the song--a variation on some of the theories.  The lyrics say Paul "fell out of bed, hurting his head."  I'm staying with the theory that Paul suffered some sort of accident, but survived it.

The backmasked lyrics say:

0:07-0:26    Paul, he moptop
0:44-0:47    Given up [his?] quest
1:15-1:17    He moptop
1:36-1:38    Given up [his?] quest
2:06-2:08    He moptop
2:32-2:33    He moptop

Somebody Else Had Other Ideas

I read an interview of (our) John and Ringo that appeared in the British pop/rock magazine Melody Maker on July 9, 1966.  Journalist Alan Walsh asked them ten questions.  The most interesting question was number 7:

    7. Could The Beatles cut out personal appearances and just make records, with the occasional big TV appearance?
    John:  Not the way the fans keep moaning about not seeing us all the time.
    Ringo:  No.

What's interesting, of course, is that after our Paul and John were replaced in 1966, that is exactly the plan the new, new Beatles followed--they never toured again, they made studio albums, and in the history of the group from 1967 to the break up, they had two big TV appearances:  the first was the live appearance on the international television "spectacular" Our World that was broadcast on June 25, 1967 and featured a live performance by The B/Featles doing All You Need Is Love with a boffo back-up chorus of The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon and Graham Nash--truly a big TV appearance.  The second was their Magical Mystery Tour film first broadcast by the BBC on December 26, 1967.  After 1967, the friction between the artificially assembled members started wearing on them and--except for an occasional promo film for a new song--the only other big appearance they could put together was the rooftop concert of January 30, 1969.

Also interesting was that the Melody Maker journalist was aware that somebody had ulterior plans for The Beatles and it looks as though John and Ringo were not aware of the plans, given their answers.  So it looks as though John and Ringo were interested in keeping The Beatles together as they were and sometime between about June and August, 1966 they were informed that their plans were being changed.  Ringo and George went along with the Brits that be and John and Paul did not.

Was It A Dream?

(Note:  I'll comment on my last post in a future one.)

The New Musical Express is a British pop/rock magazine.  In the summer of 1966, they ran a series of interviews with each of The Beatles where they each talked about his "night dreams."  Paul's interview by writer Alan Smith--a Liverpudlian who later became editor of NME--was published July 29, 1966, within the time frame of our Paul's life and public presence, assuming it took several weeks for an interview to be published.  It is difficult to verify the validity of the interview because it's a print interview as opposed to a  filmed interview, but I'm assuming it was mainly our Paul's words.

In my post of June 19th. (2012), I wrote about three songs that I think were written about events in Paul's life.  Two of the songs have a lyric line that talks about someone running around in his underpants in public.  In the NME interview Paul says:
          "'I also have normal ones [dreams] everybody has, about being caught in the street in my underwear.'"

The question is:  was this a dream Paul had or was it something that he had done in real life?  My guess is that he was, in fact, caught in public in his underwear.  In one of the songs, Procul Harum's Lime Street Blues, he would have been in disguise with blonde hair.

The interesting aspect of this is that there have been accounts of "doings" by Paul that were effectively hidden from the public-- that he fathered at least one child, that an underage girl was found in The Beatles' hotel room on one of the American tours .

If the "Brits that be" were hell-bent on getting Paul out of the group, something as simple as being seen in public in his underpants--in whatever context it happened--might have been their excuse for getting their hands on Paul--and not letting go.

Had The Wrong "Rose D'or": Here's The Right One

I had a post on March 5, 2011 talking about the Rose D'or song competition in France and how I thought it might be connected to a Time magazine cover that showed a papier mache Paul holding a yellow (gold) rose.  I didn't know until I was reading the KRLA Beat magazine (a fan magazine published in the mid-1960's by Los Angeles station KRLA) that there was another European competition called Rose D'or. 

This one has been held in Montreux, Switzerland since the early 1960's.   The KRLA Beat of March 12, 1966 (v.1, #52, p. 1) said the following:  "'The Music of Lennon and McCartney' will represent the U.K. in this year's [1966] Golden Rose of Montreux contest.  The festival takes place in Montreux, Switzerland throughout the final week of April."  See photo below.

There are several interesting aspects to this information.  The Lennon/McCartney entry did not win an award.  BUT, the winning entry was of an interview with a French director by the name of Paul Seban.  I did a little research on this man and found that in 1963 he was an assistant director for American director Orson Welles' film, The Trial.  In my second to last post I was talking about Paul's day in York, England on November 27, 1963 as reported by two authors, Michael Braun and Martin Creasy.  Creasy in his book, Beatlemania! also says about Paul on that day:

     "Paul was holding court about a film called The Trial which he had recently seen." [!]

I swear, you can't make these things up.  The plot of The Trial is about a man in a nightmare situation of being charged with some crime, but not knowing what the crime is and who his accusers are.  Was Paul commenting on one of the former Beatles in a situation like that or was he fearful that something like that would happen to him?

                                      More on this in the next post   ---paulumbo

Hints To Us--And The Ball, Dropped (1966)

As I have tried to show, The Beatles were making anything but subtle hints in 1966 that they had trouble.  The American and English press were making strong hints that one or more of The Beatles had been, or were being, replaced.  The Beatles young fans were not aware there was that kind of trouble until Penny Lane came out and the new Paul was unveiled. 

I've found instances that the press was aware or suspicious that changes had happened within The Beatles.  The really crucial thing in my mind is that the press could have investigated what was happening to The Beatles and, at minimum, let the world public know what they found.  They did not--they dropped the ball--and it looks as though several of those Beatles suffered.

Here are three examples of what I found:

1.)  In the fan magazine put out by Los Angeles station KRLA, the March 12, 1966 issue has a cover drawing of Paul captioned "The Three Faces of Paul McCartney".  (See photo below.)

            The article in the magazine talks about Beatle marriages, but the cover drawing isn't followed

up with a story, so it is, essentially, a visual quote without comment.

2.)  English reporter Maureen Cleeve did an article for The New York Times published July 3, 1966 called "Old Beatles -- A Study In Paradox."  One of photos in the article (see below)

had the caption:  "Ye Olden Tempos -- There was a time when The Beatles weren't even famous.  Certainly they have come a long way since the days they were known as, from left:  John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Peter Best (later replaced by Ringo)."

Again, it was a a visual quote without comment because the article dealt with the current Beatles and made no reference that any of them had been replaced.

3.)  At The Beatles August 28, 1966 press conference in Los Angeles (see the video at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGbBAGzB7dw ), there was a question from a girl (possibly a young fan "reporter".)  She read the question as if it had been written for her:

5:33-5:36   Girl:  Have you ever trained or used Beatle double as decoys?

5:37-5:40   Paul: No.  John:  No.  Paul:  No, no.  We tried to get Brian Epstein

to do it.  He wouldn't do it.

Some people on discussion boards believe that Paul and John of the 1966 tour were our Paul and John but I think they were replacements.  (See my post of December 7, 2010:  from the photos I looked at in the Bob Bonis collection, our Paul (and John) never made it to America in 1966.)

Care to speculate why the world press left The Beatles hanging?

    

Our Paul Had An Ulcer

This could be included in odds and ends about Paul, but it could point to more serious health problems that Paul had . . .

Several years ago, I was reading Love Me Do:  The Beatles' Progress, a 1964 book by American author Michael Braun.  He spent at least three days traveling with The Beatles on their late November, 1963 UK tour.  In the 2010 book, Beatlemania!  The Real Story of The Beatles UK Tours 1963-1965, by author Martin Creasy, Creasy mentions Braun traveling with them on November 26, 27, and 28, 1963.   According to Braun, after the November 27th. concert, Paul ran off the stage shouting, "'Oh my God, my ulcer.'"  Our Paul replaced the real Paul McCartney in early November, 1963, so this was definitely our Paul who had the ulcer.  Paul was approximately 21 at the time (because he obviously didn't have real Paul's birth date and--as far as I'm aware--no one has yet  tracked his birth date down.)  A young age to have an ulcer!  A Paul-is-dead discussion board speculated that Paul had another intestinal disease--a possibility.  As the pressure of Beatlemania built, Paul could have had other health problems and this might lead to another approach at finding out what happened to him.  But I do not think it was health problems that led to his being replaced.