I was 16, in 1976, when I first discovered the availability of bootlegs. After written requests to addresses in the back of a magazine, a few different catalogs arrived in the mail, and I stocked up on things like The Sweet Apple Tracks (still a favorite), The Beatles Christmas Album and a host of other Beatle related products of varying quality, from priceless to dubious.
One catalog promised something a bit different - reel to reel tapes featuring spoken word content involving or about the Beatles or the individual members. There were collections of Beatles press conferences, excerpts from the "Lennon Remembers" interview with Jann Wenner, a copy of a promotional interview released for a George Harrison album, and so forth. And so, long before I started deliberately collecting ephemera on this most magnificent of recording formats, I sent away for a half-dozen reels, perhaps the first reels I owned that were not pre-packaged releases from record companies or home-recorded tapes from my family's own collection.
The one that intrigued me the most promised to hold a radio documentary about the "Paul is Dead" rumors of late 1969. Every now and then I've thought about this tape, especially after a different program on the rumors was posted to the first 365 days project, several years ago.
This program is hosted by Christopher Glenn, who later went on to be the voice behind the iconic Saturday Morning "In the News" programs for kids, as well as the voice of the CBS World News Roundup, until just months before his death in 2006. The show features some of the early "clues", an interview with one of the people who broke the "story", other "expert" insight, and a lot of speculation.
I've always found the Paul is Dead stuff really fascinating - Iwhile don't believe for a moment that The Beatles were in any way behind the rumors, the sociology of it is quite compelling, and the lengths to which people went to imagine some of the clues is amazing. You can do the same thing with a lot of different ideas - I knew someone who came up with dozens of clues to show that The Beatles were trying to let us know that John had gone blind, just to show how easy it was to make unrelated lyrics and photos seem to mean something more important, and of course Charles Manson went in yet another direction with what he was sure was hidden in the lyrics. But that this particular group of clues spread so quickly and so completely is really something.
There is no indication within the program, as heard on the tape, as to its source, and the tape box was completely generic. But this program appears to date from very early in the spread of the rumors - I'm guessing late October or early November of 1969 - because many of the more obscure "clues" which were later taken as central to the "hoax" are not mentioned, and don't appear to have been "discovered" yet. What's interesting here is the almost complete acceptance of the exceptionally unlikely idea that The Beatles were involved in the hoax, on the part of everyone who is heard on the show.
Also interesting is that, despite being put together by a talented, respected newsman (and no doubt at least a few researchers), this program repeats the assumption that Paul wrote the music and John wrote the words, a description of their partnership that was never true, let alone by 1969. And finally, where would the report have come from in late 1969 that "The Beatles are known to be working on a new album"? By the time Abbey Road was released, John had quit the band, although this had been hushed up quite effectively, and although Let It Be was still awaiting release, no one at that time would have been reporting that the Beatles were recording together.
"Paul is Dead" is my favorite conspiracy theory. It is both beautiful and cruel, and as it is created by no one in particular, it is a sort of exquisite corpse that has spurred some beautiful art from "true believers," like that of "I am a Phoney" on You Tube, who made about a hundred videos of collages related to "Paul is Dead."
http://www.youtube.com/user/iamaphoney
(I'm not sure I didn't hear about this here.)
Posted by: Alison Randall | May 27, 2012 at 01:24 PM
I just love all the "Paul Is Dead" rumours. He isn't, of course, but it's fun to think there might really be some "clues" planted - just for the sake of the good old British tradition of "winding people up" (we go in for pranks like that a lot, don't cha know?)
In terms of dating this recording, then, Abbey Road was released on 26 September 1969 in the UK, and 1st October 1969 (George Benson had already started recording his version on 22nd October). Recording began in February and finished in August, so I'm guessing some details of that would have been reported in the press (either officially or unofficially), so I suspect this might could be any time between February to September - more realistically, I would say no later than August, as promotional material would already be in preparation by late August, with the album title probably at least reported, if unconfirmed, presuming my assumption of a one month release to manufacturing lead time is realistic. (tl;dr: my guess is July or August 1969.)
Thanks for that - this was great - really enjoyed! :)
Posted by: Simon C | May 27, 2012 at 03:03 PM
What are the John Is Blind "clues"?
Posted by: Conrad | May 27, 2012 at 03:55 PM
Christopher Glenn hosted the 1970s-1980s Saturday morning kids show "30 Minutes." He also did live CBS Radio coverage of the space shuttle Challenger disaster from Cape Canaveral (available from any number of online sources) beginning a minute or so after the shuttle exploded. Christopher was never a ridiculously big media star, but he is still missed.
Posted by: Andrew | May 28, 2012 at 08:36 AM
Nice one, Mr. Purse. I still delight in remembering listening to reports about this story on the AM radio when I was eight years old and a confirmed Beatle scholar. It fascinated and spooked me. Growing up in rural areas, the fab ones were already sort of 'mysterious' to me in many ways, and this rumor just SO fit in with all of the bizarre misconceptions about them that I already entertained. Good times...
Posted by: Mindwrecker | May 29, 2012 at 06:12 PM
Well, the Beatles certainly liked to mess around. The best "clue" is the obviously backwards spoken bit at the end of "I'm So Tired." Played backwards it of course says something like "Paul is a dead man miss him miss him." My theory is not that John was sending out clues to the faithful that Paul was dead, much less that he would "miss him," but simply that John was pissed at Paul that day and thought that would be a fun thing to drop into the mix. And so it was. As for Paulie's penchant for doing the opposite of the others in group photographs, well as George said in Help, "Don't encourage him. You've got the part Paul."
Posted by: Vic | May 30, 2012 at 11:02 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjUXjurAxHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAHT6bAHqvo
i solve the mystery its on the songs of the white album
Posted by: pablo andres silva | October 09, 2012 at 01:45 AM
Re: Iamaphoney
Within the ranks of the Fake Paul McCartney crowd there is now the belief that "I am a Phoney" is a sub-project of Apple Corps. Ltd. because the Iamaphoney channel on YouTube never gets deleted. Why create such a project? To keep people buying Beatles albums. The claim is that Neil Aspinall (the former head of Apple Corps.) paid out 200,000 Pounds to "unknown creditors" back in 2006-07, and that the money was used to create the Iamaphoney project. The evidence was that Aspinall (since deceased) was listed by the LinkedIn website as "Standby Films, Ltd." and that "Billy Martin" (the person allegedly behind Iamaphoney) worked for Standby Films in 2006-07.
Now you know you are dealing with a "real" conspiracy theory when the theorists begin attacking each other....
Posted by: mr. mike | June 03, 2013 at 04:54 PM