Was The Octopus Paul?

In my April 27, 2012 post I talked about the English group Manfred Mann's 1968 song, Fox On The Run's references to Paul.  I found an October, 1966 Manfred Mann song that might have previewed Ringo Starr's 1969 song, Octopus's Garden.

At the beginning of the reversed song Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James, you can hear the lead vocalist sing "you're an octopus" six times.  The song talks about a woman planning to marry a man and settle down to a routine English suburban life.

Ringo Starr's song was recorded in April and July, 1969 and released in September, 1969.  In it, he talks about an "octopus" living under the sea with lyrics very reminiscent of Paul's 1966 song, Yellow Submarine.

So in addition to the walrus being Paul, was the octopus Paul?

This Paul Might Be Irish

As I've researched the Paul mystery I've come to the conclusion that in the history of The Beatles there have been THREE active Pauls:  the real Paul McCartney, the Paul that American fans came to know from 1964-1966, and the final Paul from 1966 to the present.  It is difficult to wrap your mind around the idea that anyone would have the gall to try to deceive the world public, but, believe me, I'm not the only one to research this and come to that conclusion.

Occasionally, I'll come across some evidence to prove my theory and I've found another clue (for you all.)

In 1972, "Paul" wrote a song called Give Ireland Back To The Irish.  In a 1972 uncut ABC News interview I found of "Paul" and Linda "McCartney", [find it at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3uD1hZaTXo ] "Paul" had the following exchange with the American reporter [at 10:49-11:00 in the interview]:

     Reporter:  And you say you're British, and, but, ah . . .
     "Paul":     Well, I'm British, yeah, of course I am.
     Reporter:  But with some Irish antecedents . . .
     "Paul":      I probably got some Irish background, yes, but, uh I feel British.

This is the answer of Paul McCartney who had an Irish mother with the maiden name of Mohin.

I don't know how much "airplay" this interview got, or even if it was ever broadcast in its entirety, but it didn't make an impression on Beatles' fans at the time, and, of course it should have.

Has Anyone Seen These Videos?

If you've read any of my past posts, I have commented on many articles and interviews written for KRLA Beat, a fan magazine put out in the mid-1960's by Los Angeles radio station KRLA.  There are two more articles I found with noteworthy information.

The first was from a column written by Tony Barrow who was The Beatles press secretary.  In the June 4, 1966 column, Barrow talks about all four Beatles often meeting at John's Weybridge home during the recording of the Revolver album.  Barrow said:  "Quite frequently they give themselves a break from more serious work and shoot off some zany home movies in John's vast garden."

The second was a report on the Beatles mishap in the Phillipines.  The article said:  "The Beatles were victims of similar mob action in India where Paul suffered a black eye.  Paul said he was struck by the baton of a policeman who was attempting to protect the boys during the Indian riot." The black eye would have happened on July 6th. or 7th., 1966.  Oddly, of course, there are two interviews with the group when they arrived back in England on July 8th., 1966 and in both interviews you can see "Paul" WITHOUT a black eye.  (For example, check out the video on Youtube:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAOWaUSkqj4  at 0:04-0:18 for close-ups of "Paul" without a black eye.

 So . . . has anyone seen 1966 videos of The Beatles at Weybridge and Paul WITH a black eye?

More On My 12/15/12 Post--Paul's Yellow Submarine?

I talked in my 12/15/12 post about L.A. radio station KRLA's fan magazine article of 1966 that hinted that our Paul was from Leeds, Yorkshire.  Close to where Paul would have grown up, they built midget submarines for use by the British Navy in World War 2 and I speculated that Paul was drawing from his childhood memories when he wrote Yellow Submarine.

I found two more images to post on the subject.
The first on the right is from the cover of the sheet music of Yellow Submarine, printed in 1966.

The top image on the right is a drawing of a British X-craft midget submarine used during World War 2.

 I speculated in several posts that Paul was hinting about things that were happening--or about to happen--in his life in that song and it was very possible that he was also alluding to memories in his childhood.

Other Voices, Part 12 (continued)

One of the lyrics from Paint It Black  is:

     I see a red door and it has been painted black.

Here is a photo of Paul's home at 7 Cavendish Avenue.  Note the front door.

Other Voices, Part 12: Paint It Black

I speculated in my April 22, 2013 post that Paul's real last name might be Black, so I started thinking about songs around the year 1966 that had the word "black" in them.  Of course, The Rolling Stones released the song Paint It Black in 1966--recorded March 6-9, 1966 and released May 7, 1966 in the US and May 13, 1966 in the UK, so I checked for backmasking in the song and I found some.

The song is on Youtube at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?fPVUa29kHu8  .

Beginning about 2:47 in the reversed song, you can here Jagger sing something about "out."
At 3:08-3:11, you can hear:  "He was from us . . . but he's out."

If you remember the Christmas Time Is Here Again song from the Beatles' 1967 Christmas fan club record--which I believe chronicled the selection of our Paul's replacement--Ringo sings, "O-U-T spells OUT" several times in the song.

Was Mr. Black on his way out in early 1966?

Those "Other" Beatles

It's my contention that our Paul and our John never made it to the 1966 American concerts:  in 1966, we were seeing half of the Beatles that American fans came to love.  I found a Youtube video that suggests that the John that toured in 1966 was not our John.

The video is at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLxBcALNE6c  .

Beginning at 1:44 in the video, the 1966 American tour John was explaining "his" comment on the "Beatles-as-more-popular-than-Jesus" controversy.  He said:

I was talking to the effect the word "Beatles" as a remote thing.  Not what I think as Beatles:  as those, those other Beatles, like other people said.  I just said they are having more, more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus."
 

It's pretty clear that he was saying that he was not a part of those "other Beatles."  What I think happened is that our Paul and our John knew they were going to be ousted from the group and decided that if they were going to go, they were going to try to take the group down with them.  Hence the "butcher" cover, the "more popular than Jesus" statement, Paul allowing his broken tooth to be shown in the Rain and Paperback Writer videos, etc. 

The music press was scrambling to neutralize the damage, but, as original fans know, Paul's and John's efforts took their toll on The Beatles' popularity in America in 1966.  I also think that is why the music press fell over their faces to try to convince the world public that the Sgt. Pepper album was a classic (I'll print some of the gasping praise of the album in a future post).  That massive Cash Cow called The Beatles was too good of a thing to lose.