I Miss I

Dear Mr. Iamaphoney, Do you know I miss you? We all miss you, don't ya boys? Do ya miss him, miss him, miss him? All the Beatles miss you.

We (or at least I) have not heard from Iamaphoney since the release of the severely underrated "Peace of Mind," but I am hopeful that things will change soon. I have never been that fond of the Iamaphoney posted "schedule," and quite frankly, due to some kind of extremely specific learning disability from which I apparently suffer, I have always had trouble decoding it anyway. But I sincerely hope that "01020410" as indicated on his YouTube channel means that we will see a new Rotten Apple effort in the next couple of days. I have been told that Iamaphoney has shared in various correspondences with viewers that he, in fact, does not control the release or revelation schedule, and in my studies in the rabbit hole, I am finding more evidence to support that assertion than I expected. I am also beginning to think that eventually there will be an answer (ebtitel) to all of this.

With that in mind, and in the absence of medication, I am offering a video of my own. If we do hear from Iamaphoney this weekend, I'm sure it will blow mine away, but my hope is that my effort will rest comfortably in the shade of the one, the only, the original Iamaphoney. We sure do miss you. All the Beatles miss you.

For my video I chose to do a cover version of one of my favorite songs on one of my favorite albums "Time Takes Time." The song is called, "Don't Know A Thing About Love." Stanley, I hope it's okay.



I do try to answer questions and honor requests, but it can sometimes take me a while. So if any of you have a request or question that has not been addressed in an article or on one of my videos, I haven't forgotten you. And, please keep sending me those clues.

As I said, things are rather slow in the Iamaphoney news department. Are there any Nutters fans out there? Hmmm. How about Nutters? Well anyway, if you are curious about this unusual item from 24 seconds into the video A BIRD IN THE BUSH - 1 by aGameOfFlVES...



...you can find it here if you scroll down to the bottom of the page.

The documentary version of Rotten Apple 65 can now be found again here.

I love this guy named sneidng who makes ukulele versions of Iamaphoney classics. If you play the ukulele, you're okay by me.



And yet another videomaker has joined the ranks of the Iamaphoney imitator society. Say hello to WeirdCandycain. A support group meeting is scheduled for next Thursday, but it will be canceled in the event of a new Rotten Apple video.

Come on, Iamaphoney. We all miss you.

The Phoney Figure

First of all, I am glad that I am not a real journalist because we are dealing with some very flimsy stuff today.

The name, "The Phoney Figure" or "TPF" seems to have caught on as a way to refer to the Iamaphoney actor character who first appeared around the time of Rotten Apple 39 K. I think it might have been Mikeynl1038 who coined the term originally. Mike credits himself for making me famous, but from my perspective, the opposite is true.



TPF has gone through some appearance changes since then. This guy, featured in a video from July of 2007 was shown briefly more recently in Rotten Apple 78.



The image below is from Rotten Apple 75 L.



Then we had the video called "Footage TPF 1" that threatened to expose everything. Have you ever noticed how everyone who threatens to blow the lid off the whole thing never does? I'm beginning to wonder if this thing has a lid.



Some have even claimed that the individual playing the part of Iamaphoney has changed from the original in a similar scenario to an American Television show of the 1960s that dealt with the occult.



Lately there has been some speculation on the identity of TPF based on some of the softest evidence yet. We haven't exactly been a fount of critical thinking up to this point, but now it's going to get much worse.

Apparently, for a brief period of time Iamaphoney changed the background on his channel to a picture that showed TPF with a guitar in his hand. Therefore, speculation was that if he is pictured with a guitar, he must be a musician. If he is a musician, he must be on the recordings in the Rotten Apple videos. If he is on the recordings on the Rotten Apple videos, he must sing on them too.

While we are at the Olympic Conclusion Jump trials, we might as well keep going...

On December 8, 2009 (yes strange things happen on infamous Beatle anniversaries) someone left a comment on my blog post "Curious Thing" supposedly revealing the identity of TPF. Someone using the moniker "thetruthmustout" claimed to be a former classmate and said that TPF was an actor named Richie King.

The Internet Movie Database actually has a listing for Richie King, who is alternatively known as Rich King. There is not much information on Rich King, but it does list two films in which he appeared. In 1978, he was in "Stunt Rock" and in 1984, he was in "Rocktober Blood." Despite the murky waters of this research, I did find it interesting that he portrayed a bass guitar player in both movies.

The IMDB had no pictures, but I did find this Rich King on Google.



Undaunted, I searched YouTube and actually found a clip from "Stunt Rock" with the band Sorcery. The bass player, Rich King looks like this.



Going back to the comment from "thetruthmustout," Richie King, the Phoney Figure can be found in the movie "Less Than Zero" playing an uncredited extra in the pool scene. I first should warn that "Less Than Zero" is one of those "brat" movies where almost everyone looks like TPF. But from the description in the blog comment, I believe the alleged former schoolmate is the young man with thick blond hair who walks in the background during the pool scene. You see him emerge in the picture below to the left of the principle actors.



In this second capture, he is right between the principle actors in the scene.



In this third shot, he is to the right of the actors.



In this last capture he is about to exit to the right side of the screen.



The most recent twist in the liquid tale of TPF emerged two weeks ago when a new YouTube channel called FORN00NE uploaded nine tracks credited to an artist known as "The Afterlife." Based on various anonymous comments, the lead singer of the melodic synth pop band is a previous incarnation of the The Phoney Figure. The videos contain a few low quality pictures of what is implied to be a young TPF.







I must admit, he does look like he could have been any one of about 26 extras in the movie "Less Than Zero."

Twin Peppers - An Investigation

In the Fall of 2008, the fifth and final Iamaphoney suitcase was left in Berlin, Germany and reportedly found at the Brandenburg Gate by YouTube user sdofik. Your friend and mine, MikeyNL1038 chronicled this momentous event in his famous video paul is dead - nothing is real 333, which features the obscene gesture heard around the world.



At the time, the famous finger was credited to blog reader Yenz, who I'm told is back on solid food and should be released within the next few months. People were a bit unkind to poor Yenz, who was never proven to be the individual in the famous video with the famous middle finger.

MikeyNL1038 continued to put pressure on Mr. sdofik, and eventually, I think, came in possession of what some consider to be the most interesting items from the suitcase. "The Twin Peppers" (two Parlophone vinyl copies of The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album) were strategically attached to a rumor that if you play them in sync, hidden messages would appear.



Mike made another video called paul is dead - nothing is real 334 suitcase contents showing the items found in the suitcase.

More recently, Mike generously shared a link (no longer active) to what he claimed were digitized versions of the two vinyl albums at rapidshare. He instructed listeners to open the two files in Audacity and play them at a speed of 0.93%. Do you have any idea of what happens to 40 year-old sleeveless vinyl records that are left in a suitcase on the ground in Germany? Am I supposed to try to play them in sync? They both skip a lot, so one would have to do quite a bit of editing to keep them in sync. Playing them at 93% speed results in a nearly imperceptible difference, even to a trained ear.

I did do some experiments with them, but the results were not too inspiring.

I was hoping that Rotten Apple 59 was giving us a clue. Released about one year before the German suitcase was dropped, the video features the sound of scratchy vinyl and a loop from the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." My first slightly out of sync attempts at playing the Twin Peppers simultaneously reminded me of the Iamaphoney mashup.



But a close listen to the soundtrack, which can also be found in Mike's Iamaphoney Bootleg 2 under the title iamaphoney - Paperbags For Pepper shows that the Iamaphoney recording bears no resemblance to the scratchy records I downloaded from rapidshare.

The idea of syncing up two vinyl records that skip is folly. And please don't suggest that the skips may have meaning. Variables such as the quality of the turntable cartridges, weight of the tone arm, condition of the stylus and environmental elements would not allow for planned skips in vinyl records. It is possible to sync them to some degree by putting breaks in the skips to equal the amount of time lost, but nothing emerged from that experiment.

There is one thing I can tell you about those two records. These are not alternate mixes of the Sgt. Pepper tracks. The sound on these records is what you would get if you played them on a monaural record player with a stereo needle. You basically have a mono mix of one channel with some bleed through. So, Paul's part at the beginning and end of the title track is buried, as are the backing vocals on "When I'm 64," the lead vocals of "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite," the laughter at the end of "Within You Without You," the chorus vocals on "Good Morning Good Morning" and the lead vocal of the first verse and bridge of "A Day In The Life." There is nothing on these records that can't be heard on the standard issue of the album. The only highlight would be that it is easier to hear the vocal at the end of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)," which some interpret as "Paul is dead, really dead."

So basically we have a phony alternative mix (actually two identical ones) of the Sgt. Pepper's album that can be easily achieved by using improper equipment. That was a rather curious choice by whoever it was that ripped them and uploaded them to rapidshare.

It is a surprise that neither record has the inner groove recording that existed on the first British release of the album. There is an extra bit of sound at the end of Side Two of Album Two, but it sounds like an accidental needle drop. Attempts to slow down this artifact did not result an any meaningful discovery.

I have inquired to MikeyNL1038 for some clarification, and will update this post when I receive any information.

There are some new videos inspired by the Rotten Apple Series. TheMagickian gave us A Craftsman in the Works.



YouTube user VomitonRBX303 has been uploading Rotten Apple videos with Spanish sub-titles. I have posted a permanent link on this blog under Essential Links. Sunssol also has a new backwards backwards video, if you know what I mean. And I'll be uploading a new video shortly.

It will be interesting to see if Iamaphoney says hello to us in April. April has always been an interesting month in the Iamaphoney saga.

Party Music

Since Iamaphoney has not exactly been bustling with activity lately, I have decided to do a self-indulgent post.

Some of you might have already seen my answer to the "Are you Iamaphoney?" question. If not, here is proof that I am not the Phoney with the ring he.



I would like to thank the anonymous person(s) who put the link to my video in the comments of this blog. I suck at self promotion and I appreciate whoever it was who took the time to let people know my video was there.

A couple new songs have appeared on MikeyNL1038's Iamaphoneymusic channel. I'm hoping that if I give Mikey his due, he won't spread any more rumors about me being Iamaphoney. I don't know the origin of these songs and don't recall any part of either song on in any Rotten Apple videos.




I do however remember this track from a Rotten Apple video. I was hoping it contained the formula for syncing up the "Twin Peppers," but that became a dead end after three minutes of intense investigation.



There are some other recently uploaded tracks and fragments on the Iamaphoneymusic channel worth checking out.

This next video is not new, but it is one of my favorite songs by JohnCharles231, who used to comment regularly on this blog.



It turns out that JohnCharles has a YouTube channel with lots of great songs and stories that deserve to be heard. I highly recommend "Proof" and "That's Where Mary Lived," but there is much more to explore on this talented guy's channel.

Another friend known as Take Your Soul Back has produced a new song called "Day of Reckoning" complete with a Beatley and slightly creepy backwards intro.



Take Your Soul Back has many other fine tracks to explore.

Bridge On (Over) The River Kwai

"I saw a film today, oh boy, the English army had just won the war..."

It was the mysterious discussion forum character Apollo C. Vermouth who speculated that the above line from the song "A Day In The Life" could have been a reference to the movie "Bridge On the River Kwai." The film, released in 1957 (the year that Lennon met McCartney), starred William Holden and Alec Guinness. Its connections to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, released a decade later, are remote but numerous.

Apollo pointed out that the film may have been the inspiration for the Beatles imaginary singer Billy Shears. As indicated in the IMDb entry, the name William Shears can be constructed from the main character credit.



Any avid reader of Apollo's posts must have been confused about why he would make a stretch like that. Apollo reported that the Shears character even told a nurse in the film "All you need is love." He also added, "What profound effect did it have on Lennon, who went on to play in a movie titled, "How I Won the War." [I would have put a question mark there, but I guess we'll blame that on his typist]



Although the Shears character is American, a main focus of the film is a bridge that English prisoners of war are forced to build for the enemy. The bridge is built and ultimately destroyed, leading to the defeat of the Japanese.

If you are looking for a connection between all of this and the Paul Is Dead rumor or The Rotten Apple Series, I haven't got one. However, if there is a code of some kind, this very well may be a part of it.

One reason why I have never accepted the premise that the Sgt. Pepper cover is simply a collection of the Beatles heroes is that I cannot imagine a gathering of that kind not having any representation from the British Comedy group The Goons. The Beatles praised the Goons frequently throughout their careers. George adored Peter Sellers, who was even present in the "Get Back" film footage. Paul paid tribute to Spike Milligan with a medley of "Yesterday" and the "Ying Tong Song."

The Goons may not have been on the Sgt. Pepper cover, but they do have strong connections with the Beatles and one pretty strong connection with "The Bridge On the River Kwai." This connection also involves the Beatles Producer, George Martin.

In 1962 Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, with Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller released the record 'Bridge On The River Wye'. It was a spoof of the film 'Bridge On The River Kwai', being based around the 1957 Goon Show 'An African Incident'. It was intended to have the same name as the film, but shortly before its release, the film company threatened legal action if the name was used. Producer George Martin (of Beatles fame) edited out the 'K' every time the word 'Kwai' was spoken. And so, 'The Bridge on the River Wye' was created. (from http://www.thegoonshow.net/facts.asp)

There are some other crazy connections. The song that the soldiers are whistling in the movie is called the Colonel Bogey March. In the late 1970s, Ringo signed the artist Colonel Doug Bogie to his Ring-O Records label. John indicated that the news story about the death of Tara Browne inspired part of the song "A Day In The Life." Browne was the heir of the Guinness fortune and Alec Guinness starred in "Bridge On the River Kwai." Oh yes, "The Bridge on the River Wye" skit by the Goons featured Peter Cook, one half of the team that would eventually record the famous Beatles outfake "L.S. Bumble Bee."

The last connection comes from Beatle Ringo Starr, who hosted Saturday Night Live episode #186. Towards the end of the show, Ringo starred in a skit that was a spoof on "The Bridge On the River Kwai."



In the skit, the British Army and their enemy utilized Reverse Psychology. (Didn't Rotten Apple #1 use REVERSE psychology?)

One final fact: The episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Ringo Starr and featuring a skit based on "Bridge On the River Kwai" was performed and broadcast live on December 8, 1984, exactly four years after John Lennon was killed only blocks away.

What is this code?


(Kwai, from LIBER 777)

Phoney Yoko?

New Iamaphoney Song and New GFA Video

UPDATE: Speaking of the Beatles and the Bahamas, have you ever heard this story from John Rook?

A few months later in February of 1965, Chuck Brinkman and I were invited to join the Beatles in the Bahamas where they were filming “Help”. I have many memories of that "vacation" but one clearly stands out in my mind. "The Boys" with their well known mischievous streak decided to have some "fun" by wrecking the MG sports car they had been provided. Together they lifted the rear of the card up on two cement cinder blocks, one below each side of the back bumper, and then took delight in starting the motor, laying a brick on the gas peddle and pushing it off the cement blocks for the unattended car to gather speed crashing into a solid cement wall. This was done over and over until the MG no longer could "make the trip" to the wall. With each crash "the boys" leaped for joy squealing in delight cheering on the death of the MG. Source
________________________________________

For some unknown reason, Ringo Starr is promoting a new recording of a Beatles Outfake from the early days of Contra Band Bootlegs. Oh, wait a minute. I don't mean Ringo Starr, the former Beatle who is releasing a new CD called "Y Not." I am referring to RlNGOSTARR, who released a new video on YouTube called "Peace of Mind."



In a similar vein, Paul McCartney has an official video on YouTube for his new song "I Want To Come Home." But PauIMcCartney of YouTube fame also has an official video for "I Want To Come Home." Only your pause button will know the difference.



It never ceases to amaze me how Grandfather Aleister is able to delve deeply into the minutiae of Beatles History and find the most uncanny connections. His latest effort under the name 999nowhereman is titled Paul is Dead - Sam Ahab is Bahamas Backwards Part 1. GFA is in great form.



And many thanks to MikeyNL for keeping up with and sharing the large amount of Iamaphoney audio material. He quickly gave us a crisp sounding version of "Peace of Mind" and several others on his Iamaphoneymusic page.