Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Another photo of Paul in India

I think it is important to document where Paul was and where he wasn't in 1966.  That's why I'm always on the lookout for rare photos of him in '66. 

I found another photo of him in India:

He's wearing the same shirt as in the photo I
posted on October 10, 2010.  So, apparently,
both he and a replacement were in India at that
time.
(Thanks to the Facebook page, "John Lennon
is my life" for the photo.  Check this Facebook
page out:  there are many new photos there.)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Speaking of a John Replacement . . .

Take a look at The Swinging Blue Jeans ( a Liverpool Merseybeat group who were recording at the same time as The Beatles.)  This is the cover of a 1967 single by them.  The man in the middle is Ralph Ellis.  Look like someone familiar?

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Is This Paul? I Think So.

I believe Paul was in and out of the group when they made their German and Far East tour in 1966. (More on that later.)
 
I think a good example of our Paul in and out of the group is their press conference in New Delhi, India on July 5, 1966.  I have finally found news footage of that in the Youtube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSwLIkcRhTw beginning at 3:03 in the video.  Take a look.  The footage of "Paul" with the striped tie leaving the plane at 3:11-3:17 in the video could very well be a replacement.  In contrast, at the New Delhi press conference footage between 3:36 and 3:46 in the video, Paul with what looks like a lei around his neck is, I believe, our Paul.  Paul was definitely in New Delhi at that time--see my post of October 10, 2010 that has a photo of Paul and George and an Indian musical instrument dealer.

And again, take a look at The Beatles' "Manila incident" interview beginning at 4:30 in the video I mentioned above.  Although I've read other comments saying that this man is our Paul, I think he was NOT.

They could have been "breaking in" Paul's replacement on that tour--giving him experience on a tour and getting fans used to seeing different images of Paul.  Blurring the lines, so to speak.

Monday, December 5, 2011

More On The Outtakes Recording

My last post talked about the outtakes recording of The Beatles' 1965 Christmas record and several interesting things I found in it.  Again, the Youtube recording is at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50dI7WJZbBo  .

I found several more interesting aspects to the recording that I'd like to share.

The first begins at 0:18-0:26 in the recording when John says, "Bring back the cat, that's what I say.  Bring back the cat, that's what I say, and let's get rid of all these mice once and for all."  Then beginning at 0:29, The Beatles are making their annual thanks to the fans.  John's thanks--from 0:39-0:42--are:  "For coming to our shows and collecting our records."  Listen very carefully to these "sound bites."  Do they sound like John imitating an older man or do they sound like John as an older man?

The second--at 3:34-4:42-- is an extremely sick discussion amongst The Beatles about babies being sliced up and put into meat sold at stores.  Do I think The Beatles were randomly that sick?  No.  Remember the famous Butcher cover that was supposed to have been photographer Bob Whittaker's idea?  My guess on this segment is one of two things:  1.)  Either The Beatles had early ideas about wrecking the image of The Beatles in the event that one or more of them was replaced;  or 2.) (And I speculated about this before in my June 12, 2011 post) that the Butcher cover had to do with abortions, that one of The Beatles had a girlfriend(?) who had had one, and this was their way of wrapping their minds around something they considered awful.  Someone's third guess--that The Beatles were describing something literal that they caught wind of--is too awful to contemplate.

Again, listen to this recording.  It is a gold mine of information.

Monday, November 28, 2011

An Extremely Interesting Outtakes Recording

As most fans know, The Beatles recorded a Christmas record for members of their fan club each year.  I found the outtakes of their 1965 Christmas record on Youtube at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50dI7WJZbBo .   There are several extraordinary sections from the recording that need to be talked about.

1.)  The Beatles are laughing about John "winning an award".  At 5:07-5:14, John says, "This is the first time I've won a policeman and I'm going to look after him like he was me own."  As Beatles researchers know, there was heavy speculation (and clues on their post 1966 tracks and album covers) that the man who replaced Paul had once been a policeman.

2.)  at 5:21-6:07, they are joking about variety contestants at "the Blackburn Labor Club."  George says, "This fella was at the Labor Club and I thought he'd stand a good chance.  Here he is."  One of The Beatles asks for his name and George says, "We've had trouble finding his name due to the fact that he lost his birth certificate when he was born . . . So, anyway, whoever he may be . . ."  I think this is their biting comment on the fact that replacements for Paul and John were contemplated and made.

3.)  at 11:58-12:16, they are talking about a Charlie who is standing in the corner.  Paul says:  "What is one of the three of you doing hanging around here."  At 12:16-12:23 you here the sound of a car's tires squealing and the car crashing.  This hints strongly that an early Paul or John replacement died in a car accident. 

      Listen to the video.   More on it later.       ---paulumbo

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Throwing Something Out There For Other Researchers

Sometimes you run across small things that if added to other information might help solve the mysteries surrounding The Beatles.
I found something interesting while listening to The Beatles' Live At The BBC cd.
John is singing Chuck Berry's Too Much Monkey Business and he subtly "customizes" some of the lyrics.  At the beginning of the song, Berry's lyrics are:
     Runnin' to and fro hard workin' at the mail,
     Never fail in the mail, yeah come a rotten bill.

John's lyrics:
     Runnin' to and fro hard workin' at the mail,
     Never fail at the mail, yeah come a rotten [(B)ill ?]  (It's common consensus among Paul Was Replaced researchers that the man who replaced Paul is named Bill.)

Remember Paul's Paperback Writer lyric:
     His son is working for the daily mail.
Alot of people interpret that as the London newspaper The Daily Mail, but I've always felt he was talking about a man who was working for the English postal system.

So if you piece it together one of the members of The Beatles at one time worked for the English mail system and possibly knew Paul's replacement.

Again, anyone new to Beatles research would criticize this as reaching, but it's obvious when you get into the research that The Beatles were dropping in hints, puns and clues into their music.  This might be a slight bit of information, but it might be valuable to someone researching the mysteries, so I dropped it in.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Paul Was Trying To Tell Her Something

I commented in the last post about Paul and John's attempts to clue broadcaster Larry Kane in on trouble that was happening to them in 1965.  I found another example in 1965 of Paul talking with a teenage girl reporter and how his tone was NOT flirty as has been suggested but was more a desperate attempt to reach out to someone he thought might be able to help him.

The girl reporter was Ruth Anson who was one of two teenagers chosen from a pool of 3,000 applicants to be a "teen beat" reporter for ABC news in Los Angeles.

The relevant clip can be seen at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54mHF1SW3w0  at 0:30-0:34.

Ms. Anson asked Paul:  "Paul, any definite plans for marriage coming up soon?"
Paul answered:  "No, unless you'll marry me now."

It would seem as though he was talking playfully, but there is a sense of desperation in the tone of his voice.

So what was going on here?  I found a passage in Larry Kane's book, Ticket To Ride where he summed up The Beatles' attitudes toward the fans and press and that was, "Trust and love the fans and be wary of the press."  I think it's very possible that Paul saw a chance to reach out to the press by way of a young fan-reporter, if she was flattered by his comment and continued to talk with him.  Unfortunately, Ms. Anson took the comment playfully and the opportunity for Paul was lost.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Paul and John Were Trying To Tell Him Something

In my June 25, 2010 post I said, "If you look at enough pictures of Paul during that period [when The Beatles were filming Help in 1965], you realize that Paul was having a very hard time.  So I think that was when things were beginning to get serious and it culminated in his being ousted from the group in July, 1966.  My sense of it is that they were threatening to remove Paul before 1966 . . . ".

Here are some photos during the period.  [Notes:  all photos are from secondary sources. The second photo (of Paul at a press conference on the 1965 American tour) is "flopped":  backwards.]








I found confirmation of my theory in the book I talked about in my last post.  In Larry Kane's Ticket To Ride, he got to interview The Beatles in Nassau when they were filming the Caribbean scenes for Help.  He had the following exchange with John and Paul:

KANE:  How are you doing?
LENNON:  Well, look, all I can say, Larry, is, this thing's wide open.  Anything can happen, man.
KANE:  What is this 'everything can happen' business?
McCARTNEY:  Listen--everything is wide open, anything can happen, man.  It's a new phrase which sums everything up.
LENNON:  Now look, Larry, all I can say is, this thing is wide open--anything can happen, man.
McCARTNEY:  That's it.
LENNON:  Anything.
McCARTNEY:  See the way he said it?

They were obviously trying to clue Kane in on problems they were having.  It seems as though at the time Kane was confused about what they were hinting to him and he moved on to talk about another subject.  The question would be why Paul and John didn't alert the world about being harrassed, bullied and threatened and that is a question to be explored.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Why We Care: An Aside

I was reading Larry Kane's book, Ticket To Ride  Inside The Beatles 1964 Tour That Changed The World (Running Press, 2003.)  Kane is a former radio station manager and television broadcaster and he travelled with The Beatles to every city on their 1964 and 1965 American tours.  He got to know each of The Beatles well and there are several telling impressions he had about The Beatles.  Here are two:

P. 172:  "One of the untold stories of the early Beatles years was their outright appreciation for their fans, demonstrated by their attempts to guarantee them access when security said otherwise."

P. 179 "So when people ask, 'What were they really like?' I have an easy answer.  They were decent, caring nice people who were even richer in character than they ever would be in financial success."

And that's why--some 47-to-50 years later-- millions of people around the world still care about The Beatles.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Why You Need To Trust Your Own Senses

I was an original Beatles fan and I saw the group at concerts in Detroit in 1964 and 1966.  As I've said in the introduction to my blog, my girlfriends and I KNEW  that the voice on Penny Lane was NOT Paul's.  We started seeing photos of "Paul" that we KNEW were NOT Paul.  So when the 1969 "Paul is dead" rumors surfaced, many "old" Beatles fans took it as a possibility that his death may have been the reason for the change in appearance and voice.

Christopher Glenn, who was a radio personality in New York and later worked for CBS, appeared on The Mike Douglas Show in October, 1969 to discuss the rumor.  Mike Douglas also had Paul McCartney's brother, Mike, in the audience.  The relevant portion of the segment can be seen on the Youtube video at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCYh1pcrR4U .

Glenn outlined some of the clues on Beatle albums and then Douglas asked Mike McCartney if Paul was alive.  McCartney began to talk naturally then adopted an upper-class British accent at 0:24-0:30 in the video with, "I find it very embarrassing that that you were just saying . . ."

At 1:47-1:48 in the video, McCartney talks about A Beatle being dead.  (As I've tried to point out in several posts, somewhere along the line, The Beatles ceased to be persons in the eyes of many of those interested in exploiting their popularity and, instead, were seen as disposable, interchangeable parts of a worldwide phenomenon.)  McCartney had to be aware of several members of the group being replaced.

At 3:05-3:15 Douglas and McCartney had this exchange:
Douglas:   When was the last time you saw your brother?
McCartney:  The last time? [He swallows and looks slightly to the right and down.  He was grappling with his feelings, stalling for time.  When a person looks down and to the right it usually indicates the person is self-questioning  his or her feelings about something.]  Was his funeral, I think.
(Laughter)
Douglas:  No, really.  When was the last time.
McCartney:  I don't know.
Douglas:  You don't know?
McCartney:  Yeah, I mean, before I came, you know.

McCartney spent his time on the attack, ridiculing Glenn.  But in the end, ladies and gentlemen, the original Beatles fans will tell you to trust your own senses.  The Paul of 1969 (1968, 1967, the latter part of 1966, and 1970-on) is NOT the Paul we knew and loved as fans of The Beatles.  The only questions that remain are what happened to Paul and who was behind it.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Conspicuous By Her Absence

I am reading English singer Marianne Faithfull's autobiography, Faithfull:  An Autobiography (with David Dalton; Little Brown, 1994).  She and her husband John Dunbar were friends of Paul. 
There is a story floating around that Paul had a romantic relationship with Maggie McGivern, who was, supposedly, a nanny for Faithfull and Dunbar's infant son, Nicholas.  Their son was born in November, 1965 and McGivern, according to the story, would have become the Dunbar's first nanny soon after that, because the story talks about Paul and McGivern's relationship turning serious during The Beatles' recording of the Revolver album, six months after Paul and McGivern's first meeting.
Interestingly, Faithfull never mentions McGivern in her memoir.  Since there are later photos with McGivern and the Paul replacement, who McGivern did have a relationship with, you wonder whether she pushed back the time of the relationship to give a continuity between Paul and the replacement.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Lost Beatles (continued)

In the last post, I described the Bob Bonis photograph collection book I read.  Again, I don't think Paul or John came to America on the last Beatles tour of 1966. 
In my December 7, 2010 post, I told you about the website that has photographs from the book.  It's at:  http://www.nfagallery.com .  (And, again, this isn't an advertisement for the site or book.)
They've changed some of the photographs, but if you take a look at the Paul McCartney labeled photos [click on photographs on the left of the site and then click on Paul McCartney], you can see in photos #6 and 15 from Cincinnati; #17 from Philadelphia; and #25 from Detroit (all from the 1966 tour, although the Detroit photos are mislabeled at first as 1965), the subtle differences in the facial features of "Paul."  It wasn't  Paul.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Lost Beatles

I recently read The Lost Beatles Photographs The Bob Bonis Archive 1964-1966 by Larry Marion (!t [HarperCollins] publ., 2011).  Bonis was the tour manager for all three of  The Beatles' U.S. tours.  He loved photography and took almost 900 photographs of John, Paul, George and Ringo.  I pored over the photographs and have grimly concluded that Paul (and John) never made it to America on the 1966 tour.
 
In the mockumentary about The Beatles, The Rutles All You Need Is Cash, they interviewed Mick Jagger.  He said that The Beatles played so far away from the fans that they could have put anyone on stage and who would know the difference?  I believe that is what happened to Paul (and John) in 1966.

The common timeline of Paul disappearing has been sometime in September, 1966.  From what I saw in these photographs, I would push back the date to AUGUST, 1966.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A Interesting Song from Madeline Bell

I mentioned in my post of August 10th. the possibility that Paul had a relationship with the American-turned-English soul singer Madeline Bell.  I found a song she sang for her first album, Bell's A-Poppin that I (intuitively) feel was about Paul.   The album was released in the UK in 1967 and the song has the heavy-handed orchestration that was typical of the post mid-1960's B/Featles.  Listen to the song on Youtube at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTzgHIUZ81w .  Here are the lyrics:

     Beat the clock.
     Try to make it stop.
     Before time can draw the line
     And cut you down to her size.
     Beat the clock.
     Try to make it stop.
     Tell me how long will it take
     Before you finally realize
     That the carnival is over
     And you've seen much better days.
     You have wasted too much time
     In too many different ways.
     You denied a possibility of
     Growing old.
     You are filled with false humility.
     Oh, much too bold.

     Beat the clock.
     Try to make it stop.
     Tell me how long will it take
     Before you finally realize
     That you're in this game the same as me
     Although you think you're not.
     When you try to lie above it all
     You get  just what you got.
     Seems to me you're slipping
     You seem slightly unnerved.
     When you finally see yourself
     You get what you deserve.

Bell sings the song in a such a clipped, tight way it definitely seems to be a song she was aiming at someone.  That someone could have been Paul.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Where Did All The Pauls Go?

When you start researching Paul McCartney's disappearance in 1966, you assume there was Paul and then there was his one replacement who shows up in November, 1966.  It's a little unnerving at first as you delve into the mystery and find that there were several other Pauls who were photographed at various times from 1963-1966.
One was a Paul who appeared on the Beatles' 1966 tour,  (see photo on right.)

And you start wondering, what happened to these "other Pauls"? 
I was looking for photos of Paul in 1966 and I found a photo of what looks like the "Paul" on the right.
Check out the photo at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_first_rays/5468694697/

This photo is captioned Paul McCartney 1969.  Not our Paul but a Paul.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Unforgettable

A cd was released in March, 2011 by the His Master's Choice label--HMC 011--that contains parts of Paul's Christmas gift to the other Beatles that Paul recorded in November, 1965.  Paul reportedly had four acetate records made of the tape he recorded:  three were for the other Beatles and one record was supposed to have gone to Jane Asher.
The His Master's Choice rerecording is taken from a tape of Paul and John's "recovered from the Lennon archives."  The cd is called Unforgettable. 
Paul and John used the tape to record song demos and John recorded over Paul's gift recording (see my last post about John's excerpt from Tales of Mrs. Tigglywinkle.)
The liner notes for the Unforgettable cd say that Paul was imitating a disc jockey and the cd had what survived of the original record--5 songs and Paul's introduction to them.
The songs give an idea of Paul's thinking at the end of 1965.

The songs are:
     1.)  Someone Ain't Right, cowritten by Doris Payne (a pen name for the singer Doris Troy.  More about her later.) and Gregory Carroll.  The song Paul played on the tape was Peter and Gordon's recording for their 1965 album, Hurtin' 'n' Lovin'.
     2.)  I Get Around, the Beach Boys' record.
     3.)  Don't Be Cruel, by Elvis Presley
     4.)  ( Love is Like a) Heat Wave, by Martha and the Vandellas
     5.)  Down Home Girl, by The Rolling Stones.

The lyrics of Someone Ain't Right describes Paul's relationship with Jane (?).  It talks about how the girl is avoiding him and how she had better make up her mind to be his.  The interesting part of the song is the lyrics that suggest that they weren't together "physically":
          Don't think you're clever
          Because you never
          Oooooo me, ee.
Paul was supposed to have had a romantic relationship with Jane.  So the song suggests that wasn't the case.

The I Get Around lyrics are interesting because they talk about how Paul is tiring of his current situation and how The Beatles are threatened:
          I'm gettin' bugged driving up and down the same old strip,
          I gotta finda new place where the kids are hip.
                          ---And---
          My buddies and me are getting real well known;
          Yeah, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone.

The Don't Be Cruel lyrics are similar in tone to the Someone Ain't Right lyrics:
          You know I can be found
          Sitting home all alone.
          If you can't come around,
          At least please telephone.

The Heat Wave lyrics describe a love relationship, but with Paul it was also talking about other things that were happening to him:
          Sometimes I stare in space
          Tears all over my face.
          I can't explain it, don't understand it:
          I ain't never felt like this before.
          But that doesn't mean it has me amazed,
          I don't know what to do, my head's in a haze,

But the last song--Down Home Girl--is the most interesting.  The lyrics talk about a girl whose perfume smells like turnips and kisses taste like pork and beans.  Is that Jane Asher?  The song describes a girl who dances in clubs:
          Everytime you monkey [note: a 1960's dance] girl
          You take my breath away.
But the most unusual lines are:
          I'm gonna take you back to New Orleans
          Down in Dixieland
                 --And--
          I can tell by your giant step
          You been walkin' through cotton fields . . . [!]
This is clearly not Jane Asher.  The song suggests that she was a black girl.  Who was she? 
It could have been Doris Troy.  She wasn't a Southerner but she was an American.  She cowrote and sang the 1963 pop hit, Just One Look.  She first visited England in 1965 where she sang back up vocals to Dusty Springfield's song, In The Middle of Nowhere.  (Remember The Beatles' Nowhere Man?  I connected the song with the contents of a play I think was used to menace Paul. See my post of April 23, 2011.) Troy moved to England in 1966 (or 1969, depending on the source) and made a career of singing background for The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Dusty Springfield and others.  She also was signed to Apple records by George Harrison in 1969, which suggests she had a past connection with The Beatles. 
But I'm thinking the black woman Paul apparently had a relationship with had a stronger personality than Troy because of Paul's 1966 interview with journalist Maureen Cleave where speaking of America he said,  "And it's a lousy country where anyone who is black is made to seem a dirty n*gger.  There is a statue of a good Negro duffing his hat and being polite in the gutter.  I saw a picture of it."  Paul might have been wanting to sour the future of the replacement Beatles (he knew he was leaving the group and that the "powers that be" had plans to keep the group going with look-alikes), but I also think his statement sounds like a man in love who was trying to impress the woman he was in love with. 
There's a possibility the black woman was Madeline Bell.  She is a soul/r and b singer from New Jersey who toured England and the rest of Europe in 1962 and 1963 in the Langston Hughes' play, Black Nativity.  She stayed in England after the close of the play and worked singing back-up gigs.  With Doris Troy, she sang back-up to In The Middle of Nowhere.  She became a close friend of Dusty Springfield and lived with her in several flats in 1965 and 1966.  It's interesting that in the 1966 French film that I think was about Paul--Masculin Feminin--the Paul character's love interest is a singer named Madeleine.  Madeleine in the film might be a composite of Ms. Bell and a (yet to be identified) French ye-ye singer that Paul was apparently in love with.  Also suggesting a connection, Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas was a close friend of Dusty Springfield.  (Springfield was credited (as they say) with helping popularize Motown record music in England when she convinced the producers of Ready, Steady, Go, the British TV music show she hosted, to film a special featuring Motown music.  She met Martha Reeves on the special and sang with her.)  So there are two direct connections in Paul's choice of songs--Doris Troy and Martha Reeves--and the possible indirect connection of Madeline Bell.

And, again, this opens up a new avenue to explore in finding out what happened to Paul. 
        
         



  









Saturday, July 30, 2011

Lucy

The name Lucy (or the variant, Lucie) is mentioned by Paul, John and replacement John [the man who replaced John Lennon beginning in 1966] from 1965-on:

1965On the tape that had Paul's Christmas gift recording for the other Beatles (called Unforgettable), John recorded over it with a reading from children's author Beatrix Potter's book, The Tale of Mrs. Tigglywinkle which is about a little girl named Lucie who loses handkerchiefs and a pinafore and goes looking for them.  (A passage from the book):  "Lucie climbed upon the stile [a set of steps for passing over a fence or wall] and looked up the hill behind Little-town - a hill that goes up-up into the clouds as though it has no top!"


1966Paul's quote from John Micheline's short story, "In the Bronx":  "Lucy had no panties on." [Mispelled as "Lucie" in the article.]  The boy in the short story goes to a playground and finds Lucy swinging on a swing.  The air pushes her dress aside and she has no underwear underneath.  He describes her as a wild girl.  The boy takes her to a park and kisses her.  She pulls away from him and tells him she will tell her boyfriend that the boy raped her.  The next day, the boyfriend finds the boy and beats him up.

1967:  Replacement John's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds about someone on an LSD trip and a girl named Lucy who appears and disappears throughout the experience.

1973Replacement John's Bring on the Lucie (Freda People) which was supposed to be an anti-war song but has more personally-directed lyrics like:
     [spoken word intro]:  Alright boys, over the hill!  .  .  .
     We don't care what flag you're waving;
     We don't even want to know your name.
     We don't care where you're from or where you're going;
     All we know is that you came.
     You're making all our decisions .  .  .   [This passage suggests that the B/Featles were not fully aware of who was behind the things happening to them; akin to Faul's Maybe I'm Amazed's lyric:  "Maybe I'm a man, maybe I'm a lonely man who's in the middle of something that he doesn't really understand."]
     Well, we were caught with our hands in the air .  .  .
     We understand your paranoia,
     But we don't want to play your game.

It's difficult to speculate how all the references connect, but it appears that Paul met a girl--or thought he did when he was in a hallucinatory state--possibly in a park--and something happened between them.  An incident--or virtual incident--that could have been used against Paul.
   

Friday, July 29, 2011

Paul Was Trying To Tell Us Something (continued)

In the last post I quoted from a short story--"In The Bronx"--that Paul said he was reading when he was interviewed by journalist Maureen Cleave for an article she was writing.  The paragraph in the short story after the one I quoted I think is also indicative of Paul's state of mind at the time:

      "I walked wobbly with my head limp and I did not know why, but I walked and there was fear in me.  I did not know what was good or bad.  I did not know my mother, my brother, or my father.  No one seemed to be real.  Everyone seemed to be acting a part in a play.  I did not understand the reason why life must be such a mystery."

In the short story, it was the boy's state of mind.  For Paul, I believe it was a coerced state of mind.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Paul Was Trying To Tell Us Something

Maureen Cleave, a British journalist and friend of The Beatles, interviewed each of them starting in March, 1966 for The London Evening Standard newspaper.  Near the beginning of the article she wrote:
    
"This interesting and complicated young man arrived in the restaurant for lunch with a book he had just bought.  A costly and significant-looking paperback entitled In The Bronx and Other Stories [story collection by Jack Micheline.]  He opened it at random, composed his features and, in a solemn voice, began to read it aloud:  'Lucie (sic) had no panties on . . .'"


I read the short story and, again, during this critical time period I think Paul was trying to clue people into what was happening in his life.  The Lucy quote I'll write about in the next post, but there was a very interesting part of the short story that I believe reflected Paul's situation at the time.

First, background on the short story.  The character Micheline was writing about was a boy growing up in the Bronx, probably in the 1940's.  He was describing the boy's feelings and his surroundings.

The quote:
   
"All the time there were forces at work trying to shape my mind, to tell me what to do and how to think, to say this was good and this was bad, to tell me what to believe or disbelieve.  Luckily I had a mind and I was able to hold just a little doubt in my mind.  Otherwise I would have been crushed and shaped into a mind that was not mine."
I think Paul was bucking the system and I think they were not going to let him leave The Beatles quietly.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Disinformation With Intent To Discourage

If you are reading this blog you are interested or at least curious about the mystery surrounding Paul McCartney and his disappearance around September/October, 1966.  Theories abound and I'll be adding more information to them tomorrow or Sunday.

Let's take a look back, though, at The Beatles.  They were 4 (or possibly 5 or 6) young working class men who were musically talented and wanting to make a name for themselves in England in the early-and-mid 1960's.  They had working class parents who had limited educations.  They had what amounted to high-school educations (and Ringo had less.)  They were intelligent but because of the intensely hard work it took for them to establish themselves they had practically no time to add to their intellectual knowledge.  They had working class sensibilities which means they were extremely down to earth, practical and literal.  Because of the rough and tumble atmosphere they found themselves in at the beginning of their collective career they also were street-wise.  They were very close knit and surrounded themselves with a very few men who had sensibilities like them (except in some senses, of course, for Brian Epstein.)  They grew up in a country with an entrenched class system that was all about limiting or denying opportunities to anyone who did not have wealth in his or her background or some tie to a royal title.

They were interested in making music and making money.

So when you, dear readers, read about The Beatles' involvement in the occult, the illuminati, some cosmic conspiracy, reincarnation or a dozen other far-out ideas, I wouldn't believe a word of it.  It's the kind of disinformation that is used to disgust people and get them to not look at what REALLY happened to The Beatles.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Another Bit Of Evidence That There Were Two Pauls

Cottages and Villas The Birth Of The Garden Suburb by art historian Mireille Galinou chronicles the development of the English Eyre estate that resulted in the area of Northwest London called St. John's Wood.  Ms. Galinou spent five years researching the Eyre estate and the book is a thorough and detailed work [not an advertisement.]

St. John's Wood is where Paul bought his house so I was interested in what Ms. Galinou would write about him. This is what she wrote about Paul McCartney in the Appendix 10, Distinguished Residents section of the book: 

     Sir Paul McCARTNEY (born 1942), musician
     The Liverpool singer, former member of the Beatles, has been based in St. John's Wood
     for a number of years.  He purchased his house there as early as 1966 but did not 
     immediately adopt it as his residence.

Paul, by all the accounts I've read, bought his house on April 13, 1965 and moved into it in late March, 1966.  So Ms. Galinou is referring to the Paul replacement and not Paul.

 

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Dr. Robert

There has been alot of speculation about John Lennon's song, Dr. Robert.  The running theory was that John was writing about a New York doctor, Doctor Robert Freymann who prescribed drugs to rich, celebrity clients.  Another theory was that Dr. Robert was a composite of several figures who were involved in the dispensing or promoting of LSD. 

If you look at the lyrics, though, it is PLAIN that John was talking about a British physician because the lyrics have John "quoting" someone who is talking about having a friend in the National Health--the English socialized medicine system.

So I've been waiting to find some confirmation of the above and I found it in an interview of Paul (or possibly Faul) by Patrick Skene Catling in the November 23, 1966 edition of the British magazine, Punch.

Skene discussed John maturing as a writer:
     "After the fragmentary adolescent journal, 'The Daily Howl,' after the dark thoughts of loneliness and insecurity expressed in the Joycean punning fables of 'In His Own Write' and 'The Spaniard in The Works,' he now seems to be confident enough, and certainly he is able, to write sermons and diatribes as well as today's best love songs.  There's nobody else anywhere writing songs like 'Dr. Robert,' about a mercenary National Health panellist, except, of course, Paul McCartney and George Harrison."

The question would be, of course, why the song is a "sermon or diatribe"?  And obviously it's because a Dr. Robert was involved in The Beatles' lives in a negative way.  I think the character Robin, the butterfly stomper in the animated film, Yellow Submarine is supposed to be Dr. Robert.  And when people track down who Dr. Robert was, we will be closer to finding out what happened to Paul.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Making It Clear Who Paul Was

The Paul I'm researching is the Paul of The Beatles' movies, A Hard Day's Night and Help.  Anyone who has done research on Paul knows that The Beatles--and Paul in particular--were apparently being threatened with replacement all the time they were in the group; you know, get in line or you're out. 
There were several photographers who did photo shoots with Paul look-alikes but these men never actually made it into the group.
Again, if researchers will stay focused on "our" Paul--the Paul of the movies--the truth about The Beatles will be found.  If you get sidetracked with the many facial doubles, it will be an Alice In Wonderland chase.  Maybe that's what the English "powers that be" wanted.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Could The Butcher Cover Have Been About An Abortion?

Because The Beatles' "Butcher cover" was so controversial--not any less today than "yesterday" [(:]--there have been a range of speculations as to what The Beatles were up to when they pushed publishing the photo.
I was watching the 1966 French movie Masculin, Feminin and one idea suggests itself:  that the cover was about an abortion. 
In the movie one of the main characters, Madeleine becomes pregnant by another main character, Paul.  At the end of the film, it's hinted that Paul committed suicide.  When the police investigator asks Madeleine what she will do about her pregnancy, Madeleine says, "I don't know.  I'm not sure. Elizabeth [her friend] suggested using a curtain rod."  In a video discussion of the film with two French film scholars, one of them talks about how upsetting it was for a girl to become pregnant out of wedlock in the 1960's and how he had lived next to a doctor who performed illegal abortions.
I flatly think the film was about Paul McCartney (more on that later.)  It's very possible that Paul got a French girl pregnant, wanted her to have the child, and that she chose to have an illegal abortion from a doctor. Because it was Paul who argued to have the photo widely published-- [see my May 29, 2010 post]--it was more than likely his protest.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

More To Come

Researching what happened to Paul can get very involved as anyone who has or is trying knows.  I've found several interesting areas I'm looking into and I'll have posts on them next week.

Again, if you read this blog, please feel free to comment and offer any additions you may have found.  I'm dedicated to help find the truth out about what I think will be found to be the abuse of The Beatles-- there are important lessons to be learned from it-- and I hope you readers will join into the discussion and, if you can, the research.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Somnambulent Adventures or Bringing The Boys Down

As I talked about in my June 4 and April 30, 2010 posts, The Beatles in 1966 worked the subject of sleeping into songs and interviews with a regularity that suggested that it was a strong element in one of The Beatles' lives. 

It was a theme that photographer Bob Whitaker picked up on in his series of four photographs of the Beatles that he labeled Somnambulent Adventure.  He gave varying explanations for the series that also included the Butcher cover photo.

I was reading The Kinks The Official Biography by Jon Savage (Faber and Faber, Ltd, 1984) and I found an interesting account of The Kink's Ray Davies' 1977 interview in New Musical Express where he described his "nervous breakdown" [my quotation marks]:
     "' I was a zombie.  I'd been on the go from when we first made it till then, and I was completely out
        of my mind.  I went to sleep and I woke up a week later with a moustache.  I don't know what
        happened to me.  I'd run into the West End with my money stuffed in my socks, I'd tried to punch
        my press agent, I was chased down Denmark Street by the police, hustled into a taxi by a
        psychiatrist, and driven off somewhere.
        I remember Robert [Wace, one of The Kinks' managers] came and picked me up with a doctor.
        I supposed it was all a bit near the mark. . . .  And all I remember is that Dave [Davies, his brother
        and fellow band member] brought a tape in, some people who were auditioning, and I fell asleep.
        I woke up, I swear, five days later, and they'd gone on tour.'"

A similar scenario is what I think also happened to Paul. 

Saturday, April 23, 2011

A BREAKTHROUGH: Harold Pinter's A Birthday Party -- Life Deliberately Imitating Art

I was looking into photograper Robert Whitaker's March 25, 1966 photo session with The Beatles that produced the infamous "butcher" photo (see photo below.)  I will comment on this in my next post.

The "butcher" photo appeared in color for the first time on the front page of
Disc and Music Echo (an English music newspaper on June 11, 1966.
Significantly, The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein co-owned that newspaper.  The headline under the photo read:  "Beatles:  What a Carve-up!" (see image left)






I went looking for the definition of carve-up and found:
     -  In The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1984) the definition was:  to cheat, swindle (swindle accomplice out of his share.)
     -  In  A Dictionary of the Underworld by Eric Partridge (London, 1949, 1961 [reprinted, 1964], it gave the definition above and also:  to betray, to "double cross."

 The Oxford English Dictionary gave as an excerpt from English writer Harold Pinter's 1957 play, The Birthday Party, so I read the play and there are so many parallels with Paul's life that I feel that:
     1.) From 1965-on details of the play were used to harass and threaten Paul;
     2.) That Paul fought back using details of the play;
     3.) That John wrote a song reflecting part of the play;
     4.) That the outcome of the play might have been Paul's;
     5.) That the reconstituted Beatles of late 1966-on (real George and Ringo, fake John and Paul) taunted
           Paul (or the memory of Paul) in the same ways that the two characters in the play taunted the main
           (doomed) character.


The first thing to explain is why a play and its contents would be chosen as a running commentary about Paul's life and as a looming threat against Paul.  I think it was because Paul was an intelligent, literate man who could understand and be affected by such a play.

          Details Of The Play And How It Parallels Paul's Life
The Birthday Party's plot involves a man who was hiding away in a boarding house for some unexplained reason, and who was tracked down by two assassins who corner him in the house and after a night of harassment and ruthless interrogation, lead him away to be killed.
The analyses I read about the play reason that Pinter was writing a symbolic play of one man's struggle to resist conforming to the conventions of the establishment and how the forces of conformity embodied in the two assassins succeed in crushing him.
  • The central character's name is Stanley WEBBer.  Paul used the name Bernard WEBB as a pseudonym when he wrote the song Woman, released in early 1966.
  • Stanley Webber was a musician.
The man is rebelling against an organization.  One of the killers says,  "Why did you leave the organization?" and "You betrayed the organization."
  • Paul was making solo efforts in 1965 and 1966 with Michelle (1965), Yesterday (1965), and Eleanor Rigby (1966).
  • He rebelled against The Beatles' recording company EMI's pressure to record songs The Beatles didn't like.  An example of this is Paul's trashing of the song, That Means Alot (see my June 25, 2010 post. The Youtube link is no longer available, but I will try to find another link for the song.)
  • One reason Brian Epstein was part of the harassment of Paul was because Paul was apparently resisting advances by him.  Paul put his protest is a version of 1965's I'm Down that was finally released on the Past Masters, Volume One cd.  Listen to it on Youtube at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=alPGrT-283o    (Note:  Paul--to use boxing slang--hit below the belt by using Epstein's religion in the song.  Paul knew Epstein was sensitive about this, but I have found no evidence that Paul was anti-semitic.)
  • As I outlined in my May 29, 2010 post, Paul was behind putting the "butcher" photo on the U.S. Yesterday and Today album and told the president of Capitol Records that the photo was a protest against "the war".  I believe it was a Paul's (and John's) was against the British power structure.
Paul was saying publicly as early as 1965 that he could see himself as a composer for a long time but could not see himself touring indefinitely.  For example, in the March 21, 1966 edition of Newsweek magazine, Paul said,  "We think in terms of 40 more years of writing."  "I wouldn't mind being a white-haired old man writing songs," adds McCartney, "but I'd hate to be a white-haired Beatle playing at Empress Stadium."

Like the main character in Pinter's play who was blocked by the assassins from leaving the boarding house, I think Paul was blocked from leaving the group in 1964 and 1965.  But in 1966, Paul apparently reached a deal with the "organization" to leave.  John's song, And Your Bird Can Sing (see my January 11, 2011 post) lays out John's exasperation at this.
I think Paul was double-crossed.  Paul wasn't "playing the game" and I think the establishment threatened his freedom or his life.


          Beatles Songs That Paralled Dialog In The Play

     - Nowhere Man (John, 1965)
       He's a real nowhere man,
       Sitting in his nowhere land,
       Making all his nowhere plans
       For nobody.

In The Birthday Party, Stanley has a conversation with Lulu, a neighbor:
    Stanley (abruptly).  How would you like to go away with me?
    Lulu.                      Where.
    Stanley.                  Nowhere.  Still we could go.
              .         .        .
    Lulu.                      We might as well stay here.
    Stanley.                 No, it's no good here.
    Lulu.                      Well, where else is there?
    Stanley.                  Nowhere.

       -  I Am The Walrus (John replacement, 1967)
          Sitting on a cornflake
          Waiting for the van to come.

In the beginning of the play Stanley and another character ate cornflakes for breakfast.  After Stanley learns two men are coming to the boarding house, he talks with Meg, the boarding house owner:
    Stanley.                They're coming in a van.
    Meg.                     Who?
    Stanley.                They've got a wheel barrow in that van.
                 .            .               .
    Stanley. (advancing upon her).   A big wheel barrow and when the van stops they wheel it out, and they
                                 wheel it up the garden path, and then they knock at the front door.
                 .                          .
    Stanley.                They are looking for someone.  A certain person.
    Meg. (hoarsely).   No, they're not!
    Stanley.                Shall I tell you who they're looking for?

       -  Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da  (Paul? 1966?)
The word "barrow" appears in what some people believe is real Paul's song.  It's in a positive context of Paul leading a quiet life, something Paul was planning.  The barrow reference is a counterpoint to the barrow mentioned in the play.  The barrow in the play would be used like the French tumbrel - a cart that carried political prisoners to their death by beheading  (see photo at right.)   [Note:  There were rumors
that Paul was beheaded in an accident in September or November, 1966 when his car swerved to miss a van.  This theory was reinforced by several images that showed up in later Beatles albums and movies.  In the Magical Mystery Tour movie, for example, there is an image of a headless man shown when George sings Blue Jay Way.


Toward the end of the play, after hours of verbal harassment, both men taunt Stanley by telling him he's dead.  A series of backmasking songs from 1967 until the group split up in 1970 talk about Paul being dead, some in taunting ways like Revolution #9's:  "Turn me on, dead man" and I Am The Walrus's:  "Ha, ha, Paul is dead."  [Note:  for a thorough review of the Paul-is-dead clues check out the website, "Officially Pronounced Dead?" at:  http://homepages.tesco.net/harbfamily/opd/index.html ]

I suggest you read Pinter's play.  As the truth about what happened to Paul starts coming out, the play's details and message will become more and more relevant.

   



Thursday, April 7, 2011

Before Paul Was "Suzanne" He Was "Bernard"

In the years after Paul disappeared, there were English and American songs that alluded to Paul under the code name "Suzanne" or "Susannah".  (For a discussion of these songs, check out the Paul-was-replaced discussion board:  http://www.invanddis.proboards.com/ in the "Clues" section under PID/PWR Songs.)

Paul was making it clear in his songs of 1966 that he was heading to France.  There was a woman there he was interested in.  So I started looking into French references to Paul and I believe I've found one.

The French singer/songwriter Jean Jacques Debout (who I mentioned in my post of March 5th. about the Gold Rose song competition in France) wrote a song recorded by the French ye-ye singer Chantal Goya in 1964 called C'est Bien Bernard  (It's Bernard.)  Debout and Goya latered married and they had an explanation for the title of the song (something about a little boy calling Debout "Bernard".  But the lyrics of the song belie the explanation because it talks about Bernard being in a band and my research shows that Debout was a solo singer.)

The most important lyrics in the song are:
     That is the most lucky Bernard of the band.
     But I know that at the start in September
     He will find me well and understand
     That we both can love without the band.
     That we both can love without the band.

In an early book about The Beatles (written in 1964):  Love Me Do, The Beatles' Progress, the author Michael Braun said that Paul wanted to quit The Beatles.

And remember the lyric in Paul's song, Michelle (recorded in November, 1965):
     I'll get to you somehow.

Beatles fans will remember that Paul wrote a song in 1966 under the pseudonym of Bernard Webb for Peter and Gordon called Woman.  It was released in January, 1966 in the U.S. and the most important lyrics of it are:
     And should you take your time and tell me
     When we're alone, love will come home
     I would give up my world
     If you'll say that my girl is my woman.

So it looks as though Paul found his French woman singer in 1964 and carried on a clandestine romance with her.  When people are looking to find out what happened to Paul, this could be another way to approach the answer.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

The Yellow Cubmarine

I am reading a book called Palm Beach  The Place, The People, Its Pleasures and Palaces by John Ney (Little, Brown and Company, 1966), and on page 90 he was talking about a Palm Beach resident who helped develop and produce a 2-person personal submarine called a Cubmarine.  (See photo on right.)
Look familiar?  Check out the image of the yellow submarine in the Beatles' cartoon feature  (image on the right.)

The Cubmarine was first marketed in 1962.  In John's song  And Your Bird Can Sing, he talks about when Paul's prized possessions start to bring (or wear) him down.  I think one of Paul's prized possessions might have been a Cubmarine.  But would he have wanted one for amusement or for some other reason?

   Note:  I'm researching Palm Beach, Florida because I believe real John moved to America and settled there.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

999

I was looking in the 1968 British Telecom telephone directory and I found something interesting.  On page 5 of this directory (and on page 7 of the 1965 directory), it has the following:
     Call the operator for the emergency services
                Fire
                Police
                Ambulance
                by dialling 999
                      (if available)
 (or by dialling 100 or 0 - see your dial label or dialling instructions - if the 999 service is not available from your telephone)
Tell the operator the service you want.  Give your Exchange and Number.
Wait until the Emergency Authority answers.  Then give them the address where help is needed and other necessary information.

Remember the song Revolution #9?  Reversed, it described a car crash.  And the voice kept repeating number 9, number 9, number 9 . . . .

Also, on the 1967 Beatles Christmas record  (listen at  www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPaMEHAs7nQ  ) at 3:59-4:12 it has someone speaking to the operator with the following dialog:
     Hello.  I'm speaking from a call . . . Hello, hello, operator.  Hello, operator.  I've been cut off!  I've been cut . . .   It's an emergency!!

One explanation of 999 might be that Paul and someone else tried in vain to make an emergency call on the road and was stopped by  ?

Note:  To see 999 being used, check part 5 of The Beatles' movie Help on youtube at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucNbtCtfgfo at 8:03-8:12.  The Beatles are at Scotland Yard looking for help from the "chief superintendent".  The "superintendent" asks for the phone and says:  "Lifeline of the service.  Dial 999."  When Ringo says he and the other Beatles need protection, the "superintendent" says:  "And you shall have it.  Get me protection."

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Rose D'or D'Antibes Festival--Another Explanation of the Yellow Rose

From 1962-1979, the festival Rose D'or D'Antibes was an annual competition for French song writers.  The festival stopped in 1980, but resumed in 1994.  See picture on right and explanation (in French) at the website: http://www.rose-dor.fr/ .

Rose D'or in English means gold rose.  In my post of September 3, 2010, I showed an image of the  Time magazine charicature of the Beatles with real Paul leaning back and appearing dead, holding a yellow rose.  There may be a connection between the Rose D'or festival and Paul.  More coming up.   ---paulumbo.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Narrowing Down Where Paul Was Headed And With Whom

Paul was apparently interested in a French singer and, as I pointed out in several posts, put clues in his songs in 1966 showing that he was headed to France to be with her.

In 1966's Good Day Sunshine, Paul talks about being in love with a girl and spending time in a hot, sunny place:   "We take a walk, the sun is shining down.  Burns my feet as they touch the ground."

In my research I found at least 30 French girl singers of the 1960's---called ye-ye girls.  It's difficult to narrow down if one of them was Paul's love interest, but you can find some direction in the 1978 mockumentary, The Rutles in All You Need is Cash.  In the Youtube video part 6 of the film, they talk about Dirk McQuickly (the Paul character) marrying Martini, a French actress.  They say in the film:  "[She] spoke no English and precious little French.  When they married in London, the service was conducted in Spanish, Italian, and Chinese, to be on the safe side." -- www.youtube.com/watch?v=QECizI13ZOM at 5:54-6:07.  Curiously, from 6:43-7:37 in that segment, they show the Paul character stumbling and bumbling with Martini which suggests that Paul was disabled.

 The song, Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da was sung by the Paul replacement, but on at least one Paul-was-replaced board it has been suggested that that song was written by Paul and in fact sung by Paul but was not released as his song, and that, instead, his recording was mimed by the group, Marmalade. (Hear the song in the Youtube video at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kev9hhI7V8 .)  It's sung in a Caribbean calypso style, and talks about a placid life where Paul and Molly--a singer--marry, have children and live happily ever after. 

The song talks about Desmond (Paul) taking a trolley to a jewelry store and buying Molly a 20-carat golden ring.  I've found several sub-tropical places that use trolleys for transportation:  Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and Florida.  Since the gold standard in the song is 20-carat, rather than the American 18-carat, it suggests a Caribbean country.

So it looks as though Paul was contemplating a peaceful life in a Caribbean country with a French-based singer and the suggestion persists that something got in the way of his peaceful future.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Why We Need To See IR 59/1291

Again, this blog is exploring the mystery of Paul's disappearance and replacement, but, if you believe that John was also replaced, there is a document that you would want to be able to see in the UK National Archives:  IR 59/1291.  It contains Death Duty Accounts for John Winston Ono Lennon (John Lennon) and unless Baby Boomers are planning on living for a really, really long time, we won't be able to see the contents because the document's opening date is January 1, 2076.

The importance of seeing details of the document is to know WHICH John Lennon died in December, 1980.  The Death Duty Accounts name hiers to the decedent and their respective inheritance. 

The replacement John Lennon changed his name--apparently by a British device called "deed poll"-- on April 22, 1969.  He changed his name to John Winston Ono Lennon. Unless the man wants the information in the deed poll known, it would never be published.

An interesting "reason" The Archives makes for not releasing the document is that the youngest beneficiary would be 22 in 1997.  That would most likely be Sean and that would mean that the replacement died because Sean is the child of Yoko and the replacement.

The Archives lets you browse to see other well-known Britons and lets you know that their files are closed for a long time, too.  For instance, actor and comedian Peter Seller's file is closed for 84 years.  But I browsed through the list and couldn't find a British illuminary of the stature of John Lennon.  And I don't think that's my age bias.

SO . . . all you John researchers should consider noising about the need to see some details of IR 59/1291.  Maybe they could use a black magic marker on the confidential parts like they do in US Foia requests.  It seems to me if we knew who the heirs are, we would know who the John was.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Or Maybe It Was France Gall

In looking for the French singer Paul was interested in, I have found several other French pop singers of the 1960's.  France Gall was voted the #1 pop singer in France in 1966.  And there are others . . . .
It will take some research (and that's what this blog is all about), but if Paul's love interest does not turn out to have been Sylvie Vartan, I think the girl he loved can be found.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

And Paul's Bird Was Green

If you listen to John's all-emotion song, And Your Bird Can Sing [listen at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC6D2N4nylg ], there are three more clues that Paul was headed to France and a possible romantic involvement with Sylvie Vartan.
John says the bird (girl) of the man he's singing about:  1.) can sing
                                                                                  2.) can swing
                                                                                  3.)  is green.
Green in this context doesn't mean romantically naive because the girl can swing.  So what does green mean? 
In the book, The American Language (1921) by American linguist H.L. Mencken, he is talking about English World War 1 Army slang and mentions that Frenchmen were called frogs by British soldiers.  Green.  Sylvie Vartan could sing, was married and was French and I think John's song was about John being abandoned by Paul if Paul went to France.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Revolver

I was searching for photos of Johnny Hallyday at gettyimages.com and I came across an interesting one.  If you go to http://www.gettyimages.com/ and type in:  johnny takes aim  you will see a photo of Hallyday aiming a revolver
The caption says:  "French pop star Johnny Hallyday takes aim on a shooting range after opening the new Robinson Village leisure complex outside Paris 8 October 1966Hallyday is the major shareholder in the development." 
From the little I could find on the complex, it was a American West-themed amusement park with restaurants and demonstrations---and, apparently a shooting range.
Given the date, was it a shot across the bow?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Trying To Connect The Dots With Les Blackburds

In a 2010 interview (which can be read in its entirety at http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/mick-jones-0813/ ), Mick Jones, guitarist for Foreigner talks about his being a fan of and knowing The Beatles:
     Question:  Were you a Beatles fan?
     Jones:       Oh full on -- absolutely. . . . I had met The Beatles when I was much younger, about 18, I guess, and I got to hang out with The Beatles for a couple of weeks in Paris.  We were on the same bill at the Olympia Theater at the time  [note:  that was for three weeks beginning January 15, 1964 ---paulumbo].  I was playing guitar with a French girl singer Sylvie Vartan. . . . Then Sylvie's husband, who was Johnny Hallyday, stole me away from her and I played with him.

The group that Jones was in that backed (French pop singer) Johnny Hallyday was called Les Blackburds
Remember the Paul replacement song, Blackbird?  The lyrics talked about a blackbird who would, "Take these broken wings and learn to fly."  The broken wings line echoes the line in the Beatles' song Revolution 9 which said, "My wings are broken . . . ."

So what is the connection?  Again, it comes back to France, to a rumored romance between Paul and Sylvie Vartan.

Vartan and Hallyday married April 12, 1965.  They were rumored to be separating in 1966.  He attempted suicide September 1, 1966.

Paul was supposed to have been in Paris the weekend of September 16, 1966 with John and Brian Epstein and in Paris again with John for the weekend beginning Thursday, October 13, 1966.  Johnny Hallyday had a short tour of France in Mid-October, 1966 with Les Blackburds as his backing band.  The tour was very close to Paul in Paris, if he was there:  Evereux-- Hallyday's first stop on October 13th.-- is in the Haute-Normandie region about 54 miles west-northwest of Paris.  The Hallyday tour also played in Paris on October 18, 1966.

The information has to pinned down, but it would explain Paul putting clues in Paperback Writer about November 10th. and France.  (See my April 30, 2010 post.)