# Pal McCartney is dead?!?!?!?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2002, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456 "2002-08-31T17:08:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![a\_gherkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@a\_gherkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a_gherkin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/1 "2002-08-31T17:08:19Z")
well, only being a young pup, i am not a devoted beatles fan, however, i recently heard about a rumour that was circulated in the late 60’s that paul mccartney was killed in a terrible road accident while he was ‘perving’ over a parking meter attendant. anyway, this has really interested me, i was just wondering if anyone had any good links or has more information about this subject. there are alot of subtle clues hidden in the beatles work and also in some of their pictures and albumn covers, abbey road being the most famous cheers all ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/2 "2002-08-31T17:09:41Z")
Would the parking meter attendant have been Lovely Rita Meter Maid? 😛 ::d&r:: ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/3 "2002-08-31T17:10:43Z")
If he’s dead, who did I see walking with Heather Mills in Covent Garden last year? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/4 "2002-08-31T17:16:46Z")
He’s not dead, Crusoe, but he’s a mite stiff! ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/5 "2002-08-31T17:17:42Z")
That would be Heather again. ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/6 "2002-08-31T17:18:40Z")
Stiff? You mean her artificial leg? ::d&r again:: ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/7 "2002-08-31T17:20:16Z")
Yahoo has a [category devoted to it](http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Artists/By_Genre/Rock_and_Pop/McCartney__Paul/Paul_is_Dead/). Here’s a link to one site ([http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/paulisdead/home.html](http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/paulisdead/home.html)). (see my comment below) ---
**Author:** ![a\_gherkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@a\_gherkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a_gherkin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/8 "2002-08-31T18:09:39Z")
thanks for the link arnold. it is a good one, however i feel that the author of the site comes up with some pretty crappy reasons for the ‘clues’ not being valid. stuff like, ‘there was a fold in the negative when the photo was developed’ and ‘it is a printing error’ i’m sorry but this is the beatles we are talking about. surely they would never settle for faulty photos on their albumn covers ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/9 "2002-08-31T18:56:10Z")
OK, joking aside, NO, Paul is not dead. As you say, “this is the Beatles”; for several years these guys were some of the most photographed, interviewed, plublic people on the planet. No way could something like that be faked. And if he were dead and they had cynically organized this elaborate (and illegal) scam, I feel certain they were too smart to go putting cryptic references to it on their albums. By the way, “Strawberry Fields Forever” does not say “I buried Paul”; if you turn it up and listen closely, it clearly says “cranberry sauce.” Why it says this remains a mystery. The entire idea is totally ridiculous, really; they take the winner of a Paul look-alike contest and get him cosmetic surgery to make him look just like Paul, and then–what luck!–the guy can sing and play _just like Paul_! No. Paul is not dead. This is the result of some people with too much free time sitting around with some (un-Straight) dope and some Beatles albums. Cecil makes a passing reference to Paul’s “greatly exaggerated” demise here: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m25or6to4.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m25or6to4.html) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/10 "2002-08-31T19:17:43Z")
As I was opening this thread, along with “Not Paul too!” I was thinking, “I’m old enough to remember when he was dead the **first** time!” And now I find out that’s the time we’re talking about, thank goodness. > [@](#): > > By the way, “Strawberry Fields Forever” does not say “I buried Paul”; if you turn it up and listen closely, it clearly says “cranberry sauce.” Why it says this remains a mystery. [Rutles] And the part that sounded like “Stig has been dead for ages honestly” actually said “E burres stigano” which is very bad Spanish for “Have you a water buffalo?” [/Rutles] Maybe they’ve doctored later versions of the “Tragical History Tour,” umm, “Magical Mystery Tour” album so that it says “Cranberry Sauce” at the end of “Strawberry Fields”, but it certainly didn’t **used** to say that. And I’d be willing to bet that early pressings of the LP did in fact say “We buried Paul” amidst that sonic thicket at the end. The Beatles apparently had a fun time placing pseudo-clues in their albums, particularly the White Album and Magical Mystery Tour, about Paul’s supposed demise. My favorites were the things on the White Album that you heard by turning off the motor on the turntable and rotating the LP backwards at ~33rpm. [aside] If “backward masking” (some of you surely remember the fundie fuss over that) was part of a Satanic plot on the part of the recording industry to corrupt our youth, why’d they convert to CDs without a fight? [/aside] ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/11 "2002-08-31T19:19:51Z")
he got better. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/12 "2002-08-31T19:34:51Z")
Actually, according to the thread title, the OP is looking for a pal named McCarney… ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/13 "2002-08-31T21:06:07Z")
Yes he is. Miss 'em. Miss 'em. Hang on. [Half an hour later] (Damn slow system) [http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/faqs/pid.html](http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/faqs/pid.html) There ya go. It convinced me. ---
**Author:** ![Mercutio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Mercutio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mercutio)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/14 "2002-08-31T23:24:50Z")
Paul is dead, Paul is dead, Paul is dead, Paul is dead ---
**Author:** ![mancunian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mancunian/32/12244_2.png) [@mancunian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mancunian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/15 "2002-08-31T23:30:42Z")
Great book: “The Walrus was Paul” ---
**Author:** ![mancunian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mancunian/32/12244_2.png) [@mancunian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mancunian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2002, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/16 "2002-08-31T23:34:30Z")
and a link too, gosh, I am so kind:D [http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0684850621](http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0684850621) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/17 "2002-09-01T00:33:21Z")
> [@](#): > > **Chris Farley:** you remember when you were with The Beatles, and you were supposed to be dead, and, uh, there was all these clues, that, like, uh, you played some song backwards, and it’d say, like, “Paul Is Dead”, and, uh, everyone thought that you were dead? That was, um, a hoax, right? > > **Paul McCartney:** Yeah. I wasn’t really dead. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/18 "2002-09-01T00:38:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \* > \*\*Here’s a link to one site. \*\* A word of warning about some of the many pop-ups that accompany that site: some of them attempt to install spyware, one of them attempted to install a dialler to connect (presumably at premium rate or something) with a German site of unknown content; be careful. (see comment below) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/19 "2002-09-01T01:22:00Z")
> [@](#): > > “Tragical History Tour,” umm, “Magical Mystery Tour” “Vaginal Misery Tour”? ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456/20 "2002-09-01T02:30:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TwistofFate \* > \*\*he got better. \*\* (When said with an english accent) There’s a Monty Python quote for everything. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-mccartney-is-dead/126456.md?page=2)