Comments on: Ask an Amateur Scientist: Paul is Dead

By: Hoobajoobah

Hoobajoobah — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:35:47 +0000

I liked Sheryl Lee in that chinese dress in Backbeat – hubba hubba – but that’s about as far as it goes for me.

As I understand the theory, the idea was that they’d kill Paul off, “Leaking” the information ot the public, he’d be dead for a while replaced by “Billy Shears,” again leaked to the public, and then they’d “Resurrect” him, again leaked as a rumor and clues in songs. “Revenge” for people’s reaction to his admittedly-poorly-conceived “Bigger than Jesus” comment is probably a bit much. More like a delibarate parody of the Death/Burial/Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which would obsess their fans and drive home the idea that, yes, in fact, as far as their fans were concerned, the Beatles were Bigger Than Jesus. But then they got cold feet.

Most versions of this theory that I’ve heard suggest that Paul had no idea it was going on, and John and the others selected him because he (Paul) was being a royal pain in the ass at the time.

I do think it’s the kind of thing John would have thought of: Elaborate practical joke that pisses everyone off to no great purpose, but I kind of doubt he had the attention span to pull off something this big, particularly w/out Paul knowing about it.

By: Bram

Bram — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:25:34 +0000

For any who are curious about that Batman cover and what it has do with all this, Chris explains it all.

By: AmateurScientist

AmateurScientist — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:39:40 +0000

I’ve heard that theory as well, but it never made sense to me that spreading a rumor about Paul’s death would somehow equate to revenge for the “bigger than Jesus” blowup. If it really was orchestrated by John, I think it’s more likely that he did it as an anarchistic prank. John Lennon = The Joker.

And I kind of liked “Backbeat”.

By: Hoobajoobah

Hoobajoobah — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:13:59 +0000

I read a book some years ago called “The Walrus is Paul” that made a reasonably strong argument that the whole “Paul is Dead” thing was a gag cooked up by the band. The author suggested that John was pissed over the reaction to the whole “Bigger than Jesus” thing, and decided to play an elaborate prank to get revenge: They’d kill, bury, and resurrect Paul in Urban Legend, thereby getting revenge on the angry Americans who were, well, angry at him for that statement *and* on their creepy, overly-obsessive fans.

The theory goes that the Beatles really *were* putting secret messages into the liner notes, cover art, and songs, and they got as far as the “Paul is dead” part of the scheme when Charles Manson claimed to be getting secret messages from the Beatles, and went on a killing spree. Since they really were putting secret messages in their songs, the Beatles understandably freaked out and dropped the whole thing abruptly as a bad idea.

Not a conspiracy, just a gag gone wrong. That seems at least theoretically plausible to me. That doesn’t mean that it happened, of course, just that it could have.

Either way, I’ve always thought it’d make a great movie! Or, better still, you could flip it 180 and do a film where they’re at their peak, Paul really does “Blow his mind out in a car,” and they’re forced to hire “Billy Shears” as a replacement, who ends up being more popular than the rest of them and breaking up the band as a result of his mad scheme for personal glory.

I mean, it couldn’t be any worse than “Backbeat,” right?