Why Paul McCartney Probably Died in 1966
Thanks to the fantastic people at Open Culture, a sixties conspiracy theory has come back to haunt our favourite band , the Beatles. The next time you go to YouTube to watch those old Beatles videos look at the adorable looking Paul McCartney properly, and before you begin aw-ing ask yourself, is this the real McCartney or a body double? Yes, according to conspiracy theorists and an American college newspaper, he died in 1966 in a car crash. His death was hushed and a body double was brought in to keep the Beatles mania growing.
Do not rubbish the news yet, for all you know, you could be wrong. What proof do you even have? That you have seen McCartney dance to all those numbers, that you have watched all those interviews, seen all those pictures from the various photoshoots? These are not proof enough, especially if you have been tricked into believing that Paul is not dead. Poor you. Take a look at this news report published in the Drake Times, Drake University’s student newspaper.
“An amazing series of photos and lyrics on the group’s albums point to a distinct possibility that McCartney may indeed be insane, freaked out, even dead,” they say. Now ask yourself, have you been looking those photos carefully? And then there is this overwhelming evidence you have not paid attention to. “On the front cover [of The Seageant Pepper Album] a mysterious hand is raised over his head, a sign many believe is an ancient death symbol of either the Greeks or the American Indians. Also, a left-handed guitar (Paul was the only lefty of the four) lies on the grave at the group’s feet.”
Basically you can comfortably say that it was the death of McCartney that turned their fates. From a teen band that made girls go “Yeah yeah yeah” they became anti religion, dark, spooky and spiritual, why? Because of McCartney. Or the lack of him. This may sound preposterous to you, but in the pre-internet era, this news did indeed go viral.
The Beatles have obviously denied all these rumors calling them made up and hoax. And of course have rubbished the claims that they were planting clues and dropping hints in their songs about the death of McCartney. John Lenon did ‘imagine’ a lot of things, but this does seem a bit too wild. Truth or not, one thing can not be denied, this theory got them a lot of attention and publicity, which probably did keep their success going. So then, is it possible that the Beatles were behind these rumours and not these rather prodigious college kids? Who knows.