Paul Was In Los Angeles in June, 1966

I have been exploring the KRLABeat archives and I found another important bit of information.

The magazine had a column called, "'In' People Are Talking About . . .".  In the July 9, 1966 column, they wrote the following:  "['In' People Are Talking About . . .] . . . Paul McCartney's stop-over in L.A. and how in the world he pulled it off."

There was an approximately two week lag time between an event described in The Beat and the magazine's publication which would put Paul in L.A. sometime around the week of June 19-25, 1966.  The Beatles' schedule on that week was:
1.)  Two off days on June 19th. and 20th.
2.)  Work at the London EMI Studo on two songs for the Revolver album.
3.)  ~ two more days off on June 22nd. and 23rd.  (Although some sources said the 23rd. was a travel day
      to Germany.
4.)  The German concert tour of Munich, Essen, and Hamburg.  Our Paul was beginning to be replaced
      starting with the German tour:  he definitely played Munich; I'm still tracking down Essen; and there was
      a replacement for Paul in Hamburg.

The questions are:  What day or days in June, 1966 was Paul in Los Angeles, and--most importantly--why was he there?

What Is Ten Miles North on the Dewsbury Road?

In the B/Featles 1967 movie, Magical Mystery Tour, there is a scene where Ringo and Faul converse. Ringo asks Faul: "Where's the bus?" Faul answers: "It's ten miles north on the Dewsbury Road." People have been puzzling over this segment for years and, with the help (again) of KRLABeat, I believe I've found the answer.

 In the April 16, 1966 edition of the magazine, Tony Barrow, who was the press secretary for The Beatles, is writing about our Paul's authorship of the song, Woman. The title of the article is "Paul Exposed" (!) He talks about how Paul created a "fictional" fifth Beatle named Bernard Webb. This man "was a young university student whose hometown was Leeds, Yorkshire. He had sent in 'Woman' to Northern Songs as a possible number for The Beatles to record. The song had been passed on to Peter and Gordon. Apparently Bernard Webb had a current Paris address but had left it and disappeared on some kind of extended skiing trip in the Swiss Alps. On the face of it, the talented young Bernard might have met up with PAUL MCCARTNEY who has just returned to London after vacationing at a secluded ski center hideaway in the Swiss Alps."

 Was Paul exposed in this article as the author of Woman or as having been a (former) university student whose hometown was Leeds, England. I think Paul was talking about himself. Click the "View Larger Map" below the Google map below. The distance between Dewsbury, West Riding, Yorkshire and Leeds, West Riding, Yorkshire is ~ TEN miles.
View Larger Map

Before All The Other Clues, There Was KRLABeat's "Dream"

I have been commenting in several posts about the idea that Paul was--let's say--nailed by the British government for an indecent exposure incident.  I traced the beginning of it from a New Musical Express interview with Paul published on July 29, 1966 where Paul said he had dreams of being caught out in the street in his underwear.  There was musical "chatter" following on this, beginning--from my research--with Procol Harum's 1967 song, Lime Street Blues, and continuing in 1968 with The Bonzo Dog's Band, We Are Normal and in 1969 with Jose Feliciano's So Long Paul.  But before even Paul's interview was published, the Los Angeles radio station KRLA's fan magazine, The Beat had in its July 2, 1966 edition a column that talked about a "dream" the writer (Shirley Poston) was "sent".

She commented that a "Narcissa Nash" wrote her with a dream she had about The Beatles.  They were riding in her VW bus, nicknamed NIGEL (!) and Paul finds that his pants are on fire:

At this point, I pull Nigel to a
screeching halt and up to a fire
hydrant.  But before I can turn the
water on Paul, he has shed his
trousers and is now headed toward
the nearest fountain with purple-
polka-dot shorts on.  (No com-
ment).  As he leaps into a posh
fountain in front of a posh bank, a
loud sizzling is heard and a great
mass of steam rises.
      Indecent Exposure
At which time Paul is arrested
for indecent exposure and for con-
tributing to air pollution (the
steamin' nit).

In my July 6, 2012 post, I speculated that NIGEL was the code name they gave our Paul.  Now I'm convinced of it.  The next thing to look into is the setting of a posh fountain in front of a posh bank sometime in 1965.  We are getting closer to the truth.

                                                                      ---paulumbo

Odds and Ends, Page 2

Continuing with my Odds and Ends post of July 13th., I found an interesting item about our John and something about the group that I'd like to put out a request to readers on:

                      A SPANIARD IN THE WORKS? 
1.)  In the February 19, 1966 KRLA Beat magazine, there was a small item that said:  "John is building a home on the Costa Brava [Spain] coast."  I did a little research and found that there is a place in the Sant Pere area next to the town wall at the section going up to MontJuic, at 17007 Girona, Spain called (and as the Brits say, wait for it):  Jardins de John Lennon.  It is very likely our John did indeed attempt a home there. 






2.)  In the June 4, 1966 KRLA Beat magazine, Tony Barrow (who was The Beatles' press secretary) wrote that during the Revolver album recording sessions all of The Beatles would meet at our John's Weybridge, Surrey home and:  "Quite frequently they give themselves a break from more serious work and shoot off some zany home movies in John's vast garden."  I have never read any other mention of these home movies and I would like to ask readers of this blog if they know of these movies and have seen any of them. 

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.