Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Lily



We're all wondering about the significance of the name Lily that appeared on the Official EPK for "The McCartney Years" DVD set. We have seen Lily before on the cover of Ram.



Most people assumed when RAM was released that L.I.L.Y. with its punctuation was referring to Linda in some way. The most common interpretation was of course "Linda, I Love You" which would make sense in the context of the songs Paul McCartney was writing at the time.



It is not surprising that Paul would do subtle tributes to Linda like this. In fact there have been several since she died; and they might have increased in frequency since his marriage fell apart. Maybe it was an accident, but people discovered quickly that "Memory Almost Full" could be an anagram for "For My Soulmate LLM."

Another Linda tribute connection is the well reported fact that Linda's favorite flower was the Lily of the Valley. In fact a web site that is a tribute to Linda goes by the name "Lily of the Valley."

However, another Lily is Lily Evans, the widow of the late Beatles road manager Mal Evans. Mal was killed by police in 1975 after he had pointed an unloaded gun at them. As the story goes, Mal's ashes were lost in the post along with the manuscript of his book and presumably other materials which are now in a briefcase under a tree at Spahn ranch. Paul McCartney got in a legal battle with Lily in the late 1990's over her desire to sell his handwritten lyrics to "With A Little Help From My Friends." He got a little bit of bad press at the time about it. Here is a typical example.



Another Lily who has turned up in the Rotten Apple series recently is Lily Gray who has the distinction of having one of the most creepy tombstones in the United States (pictured above). No one knows why the tombstone says that she was "a victim of the beast." A researcher named Richelle Hawks has uncovered some facts about her (including the fact that the correct spelling of her name is Lily). I don't know of anyone who can connect Lily Gray to Aleister Crowley (or Paul McCartney) but it does make one wonder.

Earlier today an anonymous comment on this site produced yet another Lily. "Lily the Pink" was a song by the Scaffold, a British band that featured Michael McCartney also known as Michael McGear also known as Paul McCartney's younger brother. Wikipedia tells us that the song was based on the folk song "The Ballad Of Lydia Pinkham." Anonymous noted a particularly interesting verse:
And Uncle Paul, he was terribly small. He
Was the shortest man in town.
So on his body he rubbed medicinal compound,
And now he's six foot, underground.


I think those comments from anonymous deserve our attention. A little while later a new video appeared on YouTube under a couple of Iamaphoney's aliases. Guess what flashed by around the 0:10 mark? Yes, "Lily the Pink" by the Scaffold.



Watch Paul McCartney's appearance on the Brit Awards show. Lily might just show herself there.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you read that story that you linked to?

"McCartney" is upset at the fact that "There is someone in the U.S.A. who owns my own birth certificate."

And he goes on to say, "How people can feel that is right is beyond my comprehension."

Well, shoot. That's a little mawkish, I guess, but why get so upset about it?

How come "Paul McCartney's" birth certificate hasn't surfaced on Ebay if someone in the USA owns it?

Is there any chance that it isn't recognizable as the birth certificate of Paul McCartney?

Tafultong said...

According to an article in the New York Times:
In Japan, Spirited Bidding at Auction for Beatles' Yesterdays
By SHERYL WUDUNN
Published: March 23, 1997
A world apart from Liverpool and Penny Lane, Beatles fans from around the globe gathered today to bid for Paul McCartney's birth certificate, John Lennon's limousine and other Beatles memorabilia.[snip]
Staging an international auction created a few logistical problems, and the first item on sale had to be re-auctioned after it had been sold once. Sir Paul's birth certificate, which Bonhams said was originally sold by the musician's step-mother, was first sold for $14,613 before it was sold a second time for $73,064 to a bidder in London.

Anonymous said...

Wow, guess I was onto something when I asked about Lily last week... That info about McCartney's brother... those Lyrics...

Where is Spahn ranch?

Anonymous said...

Ah... I get it now. From Wiki:

Spahn Ranch is a 500 acre (2 km²) ranch situated at 1200 Santa Susana Pass Road, Chatsworth, California. Located in the Santa Susana Mountains, it is best known as one of the residences of Charles Manson and his group of followers commonly referred to as "The Family", who lived there in the spring of 1968.

However, it could be a reference to this band: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spahn_Ranch_%28band%29

Tafultong said...

The Spahn ranch thing was a bit of a joke in reference to Rotten Apple 101. Those who know California seem to believe that the notorious location that was home base for the Manson family was the destination of the guy with the suitcase in the video.

William Pattakos said...

The Spahn ranch thing was a bit of a joke in reference to Rotten Apple 101. Those who know California seem to believe that the notorious location that was home base for the Manson family was the destination of the guy with the suitcase in the video.

Anonymous said...

L.I.L.Y. = L(ONE)LY = IIIX

LOOK at all the LONELY people

The clue must be reflected along the horizontal axis, LILY has nothing to do with Linda

It has everything to do with the Occult

"One finds it almost instantly/unless one of us died"

~piece of mind

"There's nothing you can see that isn't shown"