BS: Paul is dead...sort of

Subject: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 12:34 PM

I bought a 10-cd anthology of the history of Detroit radio and one of the tracks is the original, infamous "Paul-is-dead" broadcast. It was started by a guy named Russ Gibb who was a Detroit entrepreneur. He started the Goose Lake concerts which were popular in the early 70s when you could see the Rationals and Son House sharing the same bill. He also owned the Grande Ballroom--one of the best rock venues in Detroit history.

He threw the Paul-is-dead thing together as a put-on never dreaming much would come of it. It was just a tiny spark that flew out of Detroit and set the world on fire in a matter of weeks. This is notable because this was 1969 when nobody had PCs, macs, email, youtube or cellphones yet it went immediately and incredibly "viral" by today's parlance. Moreover, it was still making the rounds years after the broadcast.

The original broadcast had no mention of playing the record backwards and hearing "Paul is dead!" Someone else made that up and that went crazy too. Soon everybody was playing their records backwards listening for messages and some bands even put stuff there to humor people.

It has to go down as one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated. It intrigues me because even as I listened to it last night, I was intrigued by their info--knowing it was total baloney. Somehow, the way they put it together just pushes the right buttons. It was example of everything coming together just right. Today it is a legend in its own right.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 04:31 PM

What do you mean - total baloney? So you fell for the cover-up? The truth is out there. Paul IS dead. Have you listed to any of his CD's??

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 04:53 PM

As a songwriter, I have nothing to show for it. Paul has slightly more to show for his efforts than I. Therefore I wouldn't presume to mock the man for his songwriting abilities because I would be taking up residence in a very delicate glass house.

One of the bits of "evidence" they present is the Sgt Pepper's has left-handed guitar made of yellow flowers at the bottom of the picture spelling out "PAUL" so I dug out my old vinyl. Don't see it. I can't even tell that it's a guitar much less that it spells "PAUL."

And they never really say Paul is dead but strongly imply it. What they are really saying is that Paul was replaced with a lookalike and Apple Records has hidden the truth. It was done though in such a way that if you're a kid in junior high, you might just believe it. But that's really beside the point. I'm far more intrigued by how this little local broadcast was like a shot heard round the world. It went viral long before there was any such thing as going viral.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 05:44 PM

It's a very intriguing story. If true (and I'm certainly not saying it was), it could account for the venomous anger against "Paul" that was boiling in John Lennon for years afterward...and some of the odd lyrical comments from Lennon and some of the photographic oddities on the Beatles' later album covers.

If Paul did die in the mid-60s, due to an auto accident, and he was quietly replaced by a lookalike, then I'd have to say that the lookalike did a darned good job in his role and also made a bloody fortune! That's a powerful motivation for taking on the role, isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 05:53 PM

Ron Paul is NOT dead! He's just gettin' kind of old, that's all.

- Chongo

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 06:33 PM

Baloney! The idea that Paul died and was replaced by a look-alike, sing-alike, play-bass-alike is absurd!

The truth is that Paul did,in fact, die. But he was not replaced by a look-alike. His dead body was secretly flown to New Iberia, Louisiana, where it was reanimated by a Voodoo houngan. Yes folks, since 1969, Paul has been a zombie.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 08:47 PM

////If Paul did die in the mid-60s, due to an auto accident, and he was quietly replaced by a lookalike, then I'd have to say that the lookalike did a darned good job in his role and also made a bloody fortune!////

And forming Wings and writing songs that sounded exactly like the stuff Paul wrote was totally bloody brilliant!   

///The truth is that Paul did,in fact, die. But he was not replaced by a look-alike. His dead body was secretly flown to New Iberia, Louisiana, where it was reanimated by a Voodoo houngan. Yes folks, since 1969, Paul has been a zombie.///

Bullshit. He was converted by the Schwenkfelders and so I AM abducted him and is holding him in suspended animation in a super-duper magnetic field generated under Mt. Shasta. Your story is the old tired Apple cover story. That was exposed long ago. Where have you been?

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 10:12 PM

"And forming Wings and writing songs that sounded exactly like the stuff Paul wrote was totally bloody brilliant!"

Good Lord!!..Have you ever heard the individual tracks on the back up vocals for 'Wings'??..Especially Linda's tracks??!!.........Absolutely horrible!..No shit!..It must have been 'true love'...but the old man was Eastman, of Kodak/Eastman....oh well, lot's of free pics for the press!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 10:25 PM

Link on other potential info.

Interesting link

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 10:35 PM

More info.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Ed T
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 10:36 PM

Last two Guest posts were from me, not "formerly known as me":).

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 01:00 AM

My cousin in Detroit was a rabid Beatles fan. My sister and I went to visit in about 1966, and we played a "Paul is dead" hoax on her back then. With the help of my cousin's siblings, we called all her friends and convinced them to go along with the hoax. My poor cousin was frantic. I don't know who cooked up the idea. I plead innocence now, but I maybe have forgotten that I was the guilty party.

I wonder how common these "Paul is dead" hoaxes were.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 07:46 AM

Very common, it became one of those urban myths in the UK along with Cliff Richard and the colostomy bag myth when it was rumoured to be one of the reasons that he never married. Lots of my friends back then suspected that the bare footed Paul McCartney on the Abbey Road album sleeve indicated that he had 'passed on.' John Lennon and Yoko Ono discussed it on some footage during one of the Peace bed-ins with puzzlement and some amusement, what a twist of fate for John.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,Whistle Stop
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 09:43 AM

I was one of those junior high school kids at the time this story was making the rounds, and had great fun finding and interpreting the many "clues" that the Beatles had left in their records (and on their album covers). On Sgt. Peppers, that included his back-to-the-camera photo inside the fold-out cover, the "OPD" patch on his sleeve (reputed to mean "officially pronounced dead"), various interpretations of the car crash narrative in A Day In The Life, and lots of other things. On Magical Mystery Tour, there was the noodling at the end of Strawberry Fields, and a voice that reportedly said "I buried Paul" during the fade-out (it did sound like that, at least if you had already been told that's what it said; after-the-fact explanations by the Beatles indicated variously that the words were actually "I'm very bored," or, according to Lennon, "cranberry sauce"). On the White album, there was the gibberish at the end of I'm So Tired, which reputedly declared Paul dead if you played it backwards (I did, and you could sort-of hear it if you were predisposed to), lots of stuff in Revolution #9, and various other things. Abbey Road had a suit-wearing Paul walking barefoot (said to be the way corpses are laid out in Italy, I think) and out of step with the other three, who were variously dressed as the preacher (John), undertaker (Ringo), and grave-digger (George), and the license plate on the Volkswagen in the picture read "28IF" (meaning, supposedly, that Paul would have been 28 at the time "if" he were still alive). There were lots more, and because I was a young, impressionable kid, I remember all of them. It was quite a big story at the time, and eventually Paul issued a statement confirming that he was, in fact, still alive.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 12:15 PM

Well, if he was dead...it's a bit late now to do anyfink about it, innit? ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 02:29 PM

'E isn't dead! 'E's just pinin' for the fjords! 'E'll be back on 'is feet in no time at all. Mark my words.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 08:17 PM

///I was one of those junior high school kids at the time this story was making the rounds, and had great fun finding and interpreting the many "clues" that the Beatles had left in their records (and on their album covers). On Sgt. Peppers, that included his back-to-the-camera photo inside the fold-out cover, the "OPD" patch on his sleeve (reputed to mean "officially pronounced dead"), various interpretations of the car crash narrative in A Day In The Life, and lots of other things. On Magical Mystery Tour, there was the noodling at the end of Strawberry Fields, and a voice that reportedly said "I buried Paul" during the fade-out (it did sound like that, at least if you had already been told that's what it said; after-the-fact explanations by the Beatles indicated variously that the words were actually "I'm very bored," or, according to Lennon, "cranberry sauce"). On the White album, there was the gibberish at the end of I'm So Tired, which reputedly declared Paul dead if you played it backwards (I did, and you could sort-of hear it if you were predisposed to), lots of stuff in Revolution #9, and various other things. Abbey Road had a suit-wearing Paul walking barefoot (said to be the way corpses are laid out in Italy, I think) and out of step with the other three, who were variously dressed as the preacher (John), undertaker (Ringo), and grave-digger (George), and the license plate on the Volkswagen in the picture read "28IF" (meaning, supposedly, that Paul would have been 28 at the time "if" he were still alive). There were lots more, and because I was a young, impressionable kid, I remember all of them. It was quite a big story at the time, and eventually Paul issued a statement confirming that he was, in fact, still alive.////

All this stuff, with variations, was part of the original broadcast except for the playing the records backwards which gave birth to a new cultural phenomenon on its own. The Abbey Road cover was explained as John was Christ, Ringo is a minister, Paul is a dead man walking and George is a gravedigger. The guy in the photo is Paul's double because he's holding a cigarette in his right hand but Paul was lefthanded. The 28IF license plate is the same. The "Revolver" cover was explained that Klaus Voorman's drawing shows three Beatles facing forwards but Paul in profile. Another thing that became a staple that was not part of the broadcast was that Paul is the only one in Sgt Peppers holding a black instrument.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 10:57 PM

I just watched an interview with Russ Gibb. He's an old man now. This was shot in Nov of 2011. He talked a little about the Paul-is-dead thing. He said some kid called his radio station--apparently it was Keener 13 or WKNR as it is officially known--and said Paul had died in 1966 and that if you played "Revolution 9" backwards you will hear "Turn me on, dead man" over and over again. The White Album came out in '68 so it couldn't have been earlier than that.

They never mentioned any backwards messages in the broadcast but maybe I only got an excerpt and not the whole thing. Gibb said that so far, three guys are claiming to be the kid that called them and kicked the whole thing off. Unfortunately, Gibb doesn't go into any real detail about the broadcast or how they put it together. For instance, at the beginning, you hear someone they claim is Eric Clapton saying he didn't believe John would do anything like this for a lark because he and Paul were so tight. I don't know if that was really Clapton or whether it was Clapton talking about something else. Then you hear two different promoters being interviewed about meeting up with the Beatles. Both are asked point blank if they saw McCartney during these meetings and each says no. Again, I don't know if these were actors or if real interviews were used out of context for the gag. But it lends an air of legitimacy to the claim.

Gibb says he was not particularly proud of the gag and said he is far prouder of his many students who have since gone on to produce a lot of famous TV series, movies and such. Gibb said he never met Paul but met his manager who offered to transport him to Pine Knob where Wings were performing to meet Paul in person and prove that he's not dead. Gibb said since he never doubted it in the first place and that he was tired, he declined the invitation but added that he's always loved the Beatles and all of Paul's solo stuff and holds him in the highest regard.

Gibb has been to England many times to book acts. He's kind of Detroit's Bill Graham. He said the first band ever to play the Grande Ballroom under his ownership was the Fugs. He said the MC5 was the house band. The manager of the ballroom was formerly manager of the Who who did eventually play there. He said the real mover and shaker behind it was John Sinclair who knew most of the bands that played there when the place was just getting started including the Fugs, the Dead, Pentangle (who Gibb said he loved and was pissed at the audience for booing them), It's A Beautiful Day, etc. and it was Sinclair who actually booked them.

Gibb is also one of the earliest FM broadcasters and was a great admirer of Detroit's underground station--WABX which broadcast from the top of the David Stott Building. I began listening to ABX in '69 while still thoroughly hooked on AM radio--I was just a kid, after all. ABX turned me onto a whole new universe of music and I never looked back. The DJs were allowed to play whatever they wanted and these guys knew their music--esoteric jazz, avant-gard, psychedelia, acid rock, blues, folk oten all on single program. Gibb said he knew everybody at ABX and is still friends with some of the original DJs and engineers there.

He loved Etta James and was good friends with her but felt bad because he never booked her despite the fact that the Grande Ballroom was one of the first white-owned venues with predominantly white audiences to routinely book black acts. B.B. King said it was one of the finest places he ever played.

Gibb said it had superior sound because there was horsehair in the plaster and discovered the same was true of the Detroit Opera House when he was on the committee to have it restored (I've been there and it's incredibly impressive--super fine venue).

Gibb also opened the first punk venue in Detroit--the Graystone. Been there a few times. It's closed now.

He's had quite a life.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 11:12 PM

Thread drift:

I remember the Grande Ballroom... I went to hear The Stooges there back in, ahhhhh, I think '69... Hooked up with a black dude who was gonna help me get a bag of weed... So after the concert, which BTW didn't impress me, me and my buddy followed my new friend and he coped the weed and we it was like 2:00 am and we were just chillin' in an area where white boys and black guys didn't hang...

So, a cop car rolls down the street and figures that somethin' had to be wrong so they roll outta the car and have me , my buddy and our new friends face down in the street... Sumabichin' mean cops... So they go thru my Volkswagen and find a rifle... Hey, I was a Southern boy... And they arrest me and everyone on suspicion of armed robbery???

Like what the F did I rob???

2 days later, they let us outta jail???

Kept my rifle... Sumabiches lock me up and stole my gun... I hate them sumabiches for that... Stole my gun!!! Piss me off... Lock me up??? Piss me off...

"Armed robbery" my butt...

I don't wanta talk about Detroit no more...

Sumabiches, stole my gun...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 12:09 AM

A bad cop is just a criminal with a uniform and a badge as far as I'm concerned. You find a few of them anywhere. I bet you find a lot of them in Detroit.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 01:44 PM

Detroit cops are fucked up.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: gnu
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 02:14 PM

Here in Moncton, some years ago, the RCMP replaced the city force because they were "cheaper" and could be "more efficient". That's what the newspaper said so the force and the politicians could save face. The corruption was unreal. Gambling, prostitution, booze, drugs, "violence" (a buddy of mine told me that they kept the press away from the morgue when a John Doe was brought in.)

There was great debate last month about going back to our own force but a 10% subsidy was authorized by the feds... and, man-o-man, the RCMP are handing out traffic violation tickets left and right! Win-win, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: meself
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 02:56 PM

This may be one of those "you had to be there" things, but I'll give a go ....

There used to be a kind of hip variety show that ran on CKLW TV in the late afternoon or early evenings in Windsor, Ontario, back in the '60s. Might've been 'Swingin' Time' with Robin Seymour. All the Motown acts would come over from Detroit and lip-synch their hits. Well, there were a few different shows like that over the years, so I might be conflating them. Anyway, one time there was a touring comedy duo on, from England; one of them was, we were told, a brother of Paul McCartney. This was at the height of the 'Paul is dead' phenomenon, so the host of course asked Paul's brother for the goods. "No, he's not dead," said the brother. "In fact, he saw me off at the airport when we started this tour." The other comedian said, "But he wasn't looking too good was he? ... And there was a voice in the background saying [pinching nose], 'I bury Paul'!"

(McCartney's brother did not deny the validity of these observations).

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Ed T
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 03:28 PM

He may have felt more alive again once he shook off "the Heather McCarthy thing", minus a few odd million:)

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 08:38 PM

It was "Swingin' Time" on Channel 9 CBC. I can't tell you how many times I must have watched that. I remember seeing Funkadelic on there and the Rationals and Chairmen of the Board--boy, did Detroit have a kickin' music scene then. It was hosted by Robin Seymour who is still a close friend of Russ Gibb even though Seymour lives in California now. Seymour started off as a DJ on WKMH in Detroit in the mid-50s. I know he was there by 1956 because I have a broadcast of him from that year on CD that I bought a few years back. WKMH became WKNR a.k.a. Keener 13 which Russ Gibb owned. Another guy would host "Swingin' Time" once in a while and I think it was Joel Sebastian--another Keener DJ. Seymour and Sebastian used to host shows at the Motor City Roller Rink which is literally down the block from me. Well, it used to be--they tore it down and put up a Burger King and an H&R Block--big improvement.

Everybody played at the Motor City Roller Rink. I saw a bunch of people there. A lady I work with saw Stevie Wonder there when he was just a boy and he was so unknown that she didn't realize he was blind! She thought he wore shades trying to look cool! She actually caught Nolan Strong & the Diablos there. Those guys are the greatest doo-wop legend of all time! Sometimes I even skated there.

God, how everything has turned to shit.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 10:18 PM

Paul Revere & the Raiders on "Swingin' Time":

Swingin' Time

I saw them live when I was a kid and they were great. Under all the stupid minuteman costumes their label made them wear, there was a real band. Songs as "Just Like Me" demonstrated a real band was trying to make itself heard but you just can't take guys in minutemen get-ups seriously.

The same thing happened to the Turtles. They were trying to turn into a real rock band with political and antiwar overtones but their label said no. They were to do light poppy stuff. The band wanted to be released from their contract but the label said no. In disgust, Howard Kaylan deliberately wrote a horrible pop song that he hoped would be so badly received that it would kill the Turtles' career and force the label to drop them. He called it "Elenore" and it went on to be pretty big hit for them.

They did record most of a rock album on that label but never finished it and, as far as I know, has never been released. He and Mark Volman and bassist Jimmy Pons split from the band and left the label even thouogh the band was still under contract. The label retaliated by not allowing Kaylan and Volman to use their real names, so they called themselves Flo & Eddie and along with Pons joined Frank Zappa to form the Mothers of Invention.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Bainbo
Date: 07 Jan 12 - 06:06 AM

"A brother of Paul McCartney" was probably Mike McGear, which would mean the group was probably The Scaffold - usually a trio rather than a duo. McGear said he changed his name because he didn't want to trade on being a Beatle's brother. Their big UK hit was Lily The Pink.

The other two members were - I think - John Gorman and Roger McGough. McGough has gone on to be a national treasure as a poet. I don't know what happened to the others.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 07 Jan 12 - 10:31 AM

I remember McGough & McGear. They had a minor hit in the 70s.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: Mooh
Date: 07 Jan 12 - 03:51 PM

Paul IS dead, haven't you heard Silly Love Songs?

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 07 Jan 12 - 03:56 PM

FYI, Silly Love Songs has, by far, the best bassline in a pop song--ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Paul is dead...sort of
From: meself
Date: 07 Jan 12 - 09:20 PM

It could well have been a trio I saw ....