History Lesson - PID

You probably know that Paul Is Dead rumors started in 1969 when a listener called Russ Gibb’s radio show on WKNR in Michigan claiming that Paul McCartney was dead. This started a chain reaction of hysteria in the United States. People all across the country were taking out their albums, (or in some cases buying them for the first time) playing them backwards, and perusing the cover art with a magnifying glass. Reminiscences of this initial wave of PID can be found in the short film “Who Buried Paul McCartney.”


The story finally quieted down when a reporter found a disheveled, but seemingly alive Paul McCartney on a farm in Scotland. The Life Magazine cover, the apparent lack of clues on the “Let It Be” album and the announcement of the break up of the band seemed to put the rumor to rest.

To hear most accounts you would think that the beast did not wake up until the emergence of computer software that could do photo comparisons and reverse recordings and the explosion of the Internet where groups could easily form to share esoterica and perpetuate all kinds of conspiracy theories.

It is a crime that most histories of PID fail to give enough credit to the guy in the middle who provided the link which catapulted the theories of PID into the communication age. His name is Joel Glazier and you hear his voice on several Rotten Apple videos including a conversation with Elliot Mintz about the impostor in RA 15, an explanation of the girl on the back of the Abbey Road cover in RA 32 and a description of the OPD patch in RA 34.

Joel Glazier earned his place in Beatledom by writing an article that appeared in the American Beatles Fanzine Strawberry Fields Forever, Issue #31 in January of 1979.


The Paul Is Dead rumor had been dormant for nearly a decade when Joe Pope, the editor of the fanzine, a beautiful guy who adored the Beatles, committed 28 pages, over half the issue to Joel Glazier’s article "Paul Is Dead...Miss Him, Miss Him." The article, which was incomplete despite the large quantity of pages, started off with a recapping of the major clues that people knew back in 1969. But then on page 4 there was a drawing which showed you how to place a flat mirror against the drum on the Sgt. Pepper cover. I don’t know if Joel is the first one who found that clue. I know I have not seen any earlier reporting of it. The flat mirror on the Pepper Drum trick rocked my world. Many people still feel that it is still the single most convincing clue.

This picture from the article forever changed PID.


Glazier created a slide show and appeared at Beatle Conventions like the Magical Mystery Tour in Boston and the Merseyside Convention in England.

Here is a Radio Interview with Joel Glazier from one of those conventions.

But Glazier went much further; and that’s something you don’t hear about in these interview snippets. In the Strawberry Fields Forever Issue #31, after a dozen pages of clues, Joel started to speculate in his article why the Beatles did it. He could not believe that they would go to such lengths just to keep their popularity. And even if greed were at the bottom of the plan, it doesn’t make sense that they would put clues on their albums and risk being found out. So Glazier proposed a theory that runs surprisingly close to what has been emerging out of the Rotten Apple Series. Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions: If this is just about a cover-up of a death from a car accident, why is it so scary? Why do I get goosebumps and a lump in my throat when I hear certain sounds or see certain images in the Rotten Apple videos?

I believe that Joel Glazier was the first to propose that the man on the Flaming Pie was Satan. His theory of Paul is dead was based on the story of Faust. The Beatles (or at least one of them) made a deal with the man on the Flaming Pie who said you will be Beatles with an “A” and you will have fame and riches as long as you give the devil his due. When the long hair and the drugs and the sexual revolution wasn’t enough to please their master, they had to offer a sacrificial lamb in the person of Paul McCartney.


Then either out of guilt or out of a continued desire to give tribute to Satan, they put the clues on the albums. Glazier tells a convoluted tale of the involvement of the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Mia Farrow and the whole crowd who gathered in India. He talks about Mia Farrow’s involvement in the movie Rosemary’s Baby and the strange connections between the plot of the movie and the life of its director Roman Polanski, whose wife and unborn baby were killed under the orders of the former roommate of a Beach Boy, Charles Manson. He even believed that Sharon Tate was in the Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour.



And in this article from 1979, Joel Glazier expressed shock that the movie Rosemary’s Baby was filmed in “the building in which John Lennon lives!” Even more shocking was Glazier’s assertion that John Lennon had been “tormenting the CIA” with secret messages in his music and his appearance at the Watergate hearings. By the end of the year, Lennon was dead.



I think it is important to say that Joel Glazier should be given credit (or blame) for much of what we see in the Rotten Apple videos.

Why Now?

A reader asked: Why didn't the Beatles do anything sinister while they held so much power in the 60's? Hell, even afterwards in the 70's? To pull out something now when most people aren't interested in them anymore would seem ridiculous.

This is a complex question. No matter which of the various scenarios you choose to follow, what is done is done. It happened a long time ago. The most likely scenario remains that the Paul McCartney we know today is the same one who met John Lennon on Saturday July 6th, 1957, at Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete. But we are here because some other compelling scenarios exist.

The most well known alternate theory is that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in late 1966 and was replaced. Books have been published about this version. The problem with the story is that it just doesn't add up. There are too many holes that don't make sense. How could an unknown person step in and take leadership of the biggest rock band on the planet? But that initial idea spawned other theories that attempted to fill in the holes.

In the late 1970s, Joel Glazier came up with a story that tied together the McCartney car crash scenario with the story of Faust. The "man on the flaming pie" was the devil and the Beatles made a deal. I believe it was Joel Glazier who discovered the mirrored message on the Sgt. Pepper drum. That is his voice describing the discovery in Rotten Apple 47. Glazier was also the first to tie in the Manson murders with his devilish portrayal of the moptops. Despite its supernatural components and appearance of being nothing more than a work of historical fiction, Glazier's scenario was more cohesive than any of the others that preceded it.

More recently Apollo C. Vermouth arrived on the discussion groups scene to set people straight about the ridiculous stories that were being conceived there, including multiple replacements for all of the Beatles, a bogus George Harrison death bed confession, Masonic conspiracies, and the infamous story of Don Knotts replacing Brian Epstein. Apollo hinted that the original Paul McCartney was replaced (by more than one person), but he was still alive and may have even continued to contribute to the Beatles behind the scenes. This mysterious character told his story in a convincing way, often via personal messages, and remained remarkably consistent throughout the process. Unfortunately when Apollo made his exit last year, there were pieces of his story that remained missing, although he promised that all of them were still right in front of our eyes.

Finally we have Iamaphoney, who has built an incredibly complex story that, like Joel Glazier, includes supernatural elements and like Apollo C. Vermouth, includes specific insights about clues within the works of the Beatles collectively and as solo performers. There was another common element between Apollo and Iamaphoney. Many of those who interacted with Apollo believe that he was in fact, Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall. But who was the brains of the Iamaphoney organization? Interestingly, a person who claimed that he or she quit the Iamaphoney organization told me that things started to unravel when their leader, Neil Aspinall passed away. The problem of course is that we can't ask Neil if he was behind either of these scenarios. It is difficult to harmonize the stories of Apollo and Iamaphoney, but I'm not sure that it would be impossible. One thing that Apollo said was that in order to solve the mystery, you need to start at the proper point of entry. I believe that both Apollo and Iamaphoney have the same point of entry.



So, why is this all coming to a head now instead of back in the 1960s or at least the 1970s when the Solo Beatles were still topping the charts?

The impact that the Beatles had on society has already happened. When we try to explain the magnitude of that impact we encounter differences of opinions. Some feel that their influence has been exaggerated. Some suggest that the Beatles, by bringing peace and love into the mainstream had positive influences on women's rights, race relations, and the reduction of hostility around the world. It's easy to look around the world and say, "Yeah, right. Where is that impact? Things are worse now than they ever were." The other side of the "Beatles changed the world" coin is that the impact and the motivation behind it was sinister. These people suggest that the Beatles are responsible for the drug culture, Satanic messages in music, and yes, the Manson murders.

It is an exaggeration to call him the Savior or to call him the Anti-Christ, but there is some evidence that Sir Paul McCartney is a powerful guy. Look at some of the headlines from his recent trip to Israel.

Sir Paul McCartney gets 5000-strong security guard after Israel gig death threats.



McCartney security 'greater than Bush'


He has met with World Leaders, such as Vladimir Putin. The documentary portion of "Paul McCartney in Red Square" contains several testimonies from people who believe that Paul McCartney and the Beatles changed the world.

On his recent trip for a one off concert in Kiev, McCartney met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

He received an honorary doctorate from Yale University.

He is also a knight.


Dr. Timothy Leary said, "I declare that The Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen."

So, it is fair to say that he has some power. That begs the question: Is he a force for good or for evil? This is where I differ from most people who watch the Rotten Apple videos and believe they present Paul as the devil. However, although I disagree, I certainly see their point.


But there are also images in the Rotten Apple videos that seem to present a different view.


So is he the sacred ram and sacrificial lamb or is he the goat and the beast?
This next image from Rotten Apple 65 shows the Beatles logo superimposed over a sculpture from Coventry Cathedral, the place where John and Yoko planted acorns for peace 40 years ago. But it quickly fades into a shot of Aleister Crowley.

In the sculpture by Sir Jacob Epstein, St. Michael is subduing the devil. I wonder which of those two characters is most like Paul. The answer may be neither. It could be that the Beatles, because of their talent and fame, were chosen to be the messengers for the end times. What if the Sgt. Pepper album was some type of prophecy? What if all of the clues since then are simply there to point us back to Sgt. Pepper? It sounds crazy, but it might answer the "Why now?" question. Maybe Iamaphoney is saying that the world was warned in 1967 and now is the time that the events are unfolding. I am not the only one who has suggested that the Sgt. Pepper album is a clock. Maybe it is like a Mayan calendar. You can look at it and listen to it as it ticks away. Hell, maybe it's a time bomb. I hope not.

RA #1 Flashback

This is the first in a series of occasional reviews of past Rotten Apple videos.


The first voice you hear in the Rotten Apple series is that of Joel Glazier, the author of the article "Paul Is Dead...Miss Him, Miss Him," that appeared in the January 1979 issue of the fanzine “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Glazier shared his expertise as a guest on “The Beatle Years” radio show hosted by former Lennon Publicist Elliot Mintz in 1993. In the audio clip Glazier is explaining how to place a mirror over the words “Lonely Hearts” on the Sgt. Pepper bass drum to reveal the secret message “1 ONE 1 X HE ^ DIE.”

Several still pictures, some of which came from the “Paul Is Dead” sequence of the film “Braverman’s Condensed Cream of Beatles” accompany Glazier’s explanation. Braverman had used an out of context picture of Paul in a swimming pool and an old World War II photograph to "illustrate" the "Paul Is Dead" phenomenon. This technique of using unrelated images to help tell a story would be borrowed by Iamaphoney on many occasions.

Glazier's speech is followed by a bit of the promo film for "Strawberry Fields Forever." After a few familiar bars, the audio is reversed. Unlike most backwards audio, you don't need to have the creativity of Sunssol or the "Sleepy Red Moose" guy to hear understandable words in this clip. "We'll sing it, man. We'll be reverse." Admittedly, the sentences don't make a ton of sense, and the word "reverse" in particular sounds as if it was spoken by a toddler. But you don't have to be crazy to interpret it as an invitation to listen to Beatles music backwards.

Then other visual and audio clues are presented in a somewhat random manner until we see some John and Yoko footage and hear John debunking the "I buried Paul" claim. His "cranberry sauce" story is then contradicted by Apple executive Allen Klein's "On that particular take, his guitar buried Paul's sound" excuse. That sound bite and the one that follows came from a television show produced in 1969 by RKO. The program centered on a mock trial featuring lawyer F. Lee Bailey interviewing some of the principle characters in the "Paul Is Dead" rumor story.

One of those characters was Paul McCartney's close friend Peter Asher. Peter, the brother of Paul's ex-girlfriend and member of pop duo Peter and Gordon is heard admitting "It sounds like John is saying 'I buried Paul.'" While this is happening, we see video footage of Beatles Road Manager and "Castle Keep" Neil Aspinall moving his lips. This of course, can only be classified as misleading, deceptive and blatantly dishonest, because I'm sure it caused some people watching to think that it was Aspinall speaking. What was the name of the person who made this video containing such a unapologetic misrepresentation? Oh yeah, Iamaphoney. That's cool.



The next image we see is the overhead shot from the Magical Mystery Tour book rotated 90 degrees. Glazier suggested in the "Strawberry Fields" article that the rotated picture resembled a human skull. The sound is the "I Buried Paul" ending of the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" as it was heard on the WNEW-News Closeup with Christopher Glenn from November of 1969. The video concluded with another quick backwards clip of "Blue Jay Way" interpreted as "Paul is bloody."

The description of the video states: "I`m preparing the world for the revelation" and "We'll sing it, man. We'll be reverse." Although appropriate, it may be apocryphal. I'm not sure that Iamaphoney was using this "revelation" language this early on in the series. Say what you want about his questionable manner of fudging evidence, it is a tribute to his artistry that many are still around two years later, still curious about what he intends to do next. It is also a tribute to the mystical quality of the Beatles music that has fired the imagination of the world for decades. The link below is an unsolicited ad with the hope that they will allow me to continue to use that wonderfully ironic picture of a beheaded guy wearing a backwards "Paul Is Dead" tee shirt.

Close Encounters

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the convergence of religion, archaeology and extraterrestrials, thanks in large part to author Erich Von Daniken, who had frequent close encounters with legal authorities over the years. This new field of "Pop" archaeology provided a way to use imagery from the Bible and other ancient texts and artwork to support Von Daniken's hypothesis that all this religious stuff over thousands of years developed out of a visit or series of visits by aliens from other planets. Not only did this spawn thousands of books, but it also allowed individuals to read various religious texts without the inconvenience of morality, piety and self discipline getting in the way.

Now that the whole process has come full circle with mysticism and consciousness entangling themselves into this mix, it might be helpful to examine some of the Beatles "close encounters" with quasi-religious and extraterrestrial manifestations that have shown up in their art over the years.

One of the most interesting close encounters was also the earliest. In Mersey Beat, July 6, 1961, there was a piece called, 'Being A Short Diversion On The Dubious Origins Of Beatles (Translated From The John Lennon)'.

John spoke in a rather Biblical style about the origin of the name Beatles:
It came in a vision - a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them 'From this day on you are Beatles with an 'A'. Thank you, mister man, they said, thanking him.

It doesn't take much imagination to classify this Lennon quip as either a religious experience, a close encounter or both. Interestingly the PID expert Joel Glazier (the first voice you hear in Rotten Apple 1) interpreted this event as a meeting with the devil. How shocking it is that Paul would take this image 36 years later and reveal "I'm the man on the Flaming Pie." [And here's another clue for you all, the walrus is Paul]

In the artwork for the Flaming Pie album, Paul even provides an interpretation of what a flaming pie looks like, and damn if it doesn't look like a flying saucer.


In an interview from the February 1965 issue of Playboy Magazine, Paul shares a story of an odd encounter he had with an American girl, which had some religious overtones:

PAUL: "Well, you know, alot of Americans are unbalanced. I don't care what you say. No, really. Alot of them are quite normal, of course, but we've met many unbalanced ones. You know the type of person, like the political Whig."

PLAYBOY: "How do you mean?"

PAUL: "You know... the professional politcal type; in authority sort of thing. Some of them are just mad! And I've met some really maniac American girls! Like this one girl who walked up to me in a press conference and said, 'I'm Lily.' I said, 'Hello, how do you do?' and she said, 'Doesn't my name mean anything to you?' I said, 'Ah, no...' and I thought, 'Oh god, it's one of these people that you've met and you should know.' And so Derek, our press agant, who happened to be there at the time, hanging over my shoulder, giving me quotes, which happens at every press conference..."

GEORGE: "You'd better not say that."

PAUL: "Oh yes, that's not true, Beatle people! But he was sort of hanging about, and he said, 'Well did you ring, or did you write, or something?' And she said, 'No.' And he said, 'Well, how did you get in touch with Paul? How do you know him?' And she said, 'Through God.' Well, there was sort of a ghastly silence. I mean, we both sort of gulped and blushed. I said, 'Well, that's very nice, Lily. Thanks very much. I must be off now.'"

PLAYBOY: "There wasn't a big lightening bolt from the sky?"

PAUL: "No, there wasn't. But I talked to her afterward, and she said she'd got a vision from God, and God had said to her..."

JOHN: "It's been a hard day's night."

(laughter)

PAUL: "No, God had said, 'Listen Lil, Paul is waiting for you; he's in love with you and he wants to marry you, so go down and meet him, and he'll know you right away. It's very funny, you know. I was trying to persuade her that she didn't in actual fact have a vision from God, that it was..."

GEORGE: "It was probably somebody disguised as God."

Moving ahead into the solo years, there is quite a bit of imagery related to outer space and religion.

The artwork to Red Rose Speedway may have a motorcycle on the front cover, but the inner booklet suggests some more sophisticated means of travel. (Note that the picture of Marilyn Monroe serves as yet another backwards reference to the Sgt. Pepper album)

While the "Mind Games" L.P. is credited to John Lennon on the covers and on the labels, the inner sleeve musician credit reads the "U.F. ONO BAND."

The cover of "Mind Games" depicts John walking away from the Mother Ship.

The cover of Yoko's companion album "Feeling the Space" also nods to ancient astronauts.

George Harrison's "Dark Horse" album contains an image of Babaji (also found on the cover of Sgt. Pepper). Wikipedia notes, "Babaji is reputed to be ageless, according to some accounts, and about 500 years old around the late 1800’s, according to Swami Pranabananda." The human body is not built for that kind of longevity.

That same year John Lennon and Ringo Starr released albums around the same time. Lennon's "Walls and Bridges" featured this strange announcement.

Although this might simply be interpreted as a tie-in to Ringo's "Goodnight Vienna" album since both were promoted together, May Pang reported John's UFO sighting as an actual incident. "Walls and Bridges" also contains the song "#9 Dream," which could be interpreted as an encounter with a spiritual or extraterrestrial being.

Ringo's "Goodnight Vienna" gave us an in your face extraterrestrial connection.


The doctored photograph from the 1951 Science Fiction classic "The Day The Earth Stood Still" resulted in a revamping of the top of the Capitol Records Tower to promote the release. The name of the character in the film whose body now features Ringo's head was Klaatu. A little over a year later, a mysterious band called Klaatu released an album featuring the song "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" prompting rumors that it was actually a pseudonymous Beatles album.

Paul continued the space theme on the project McGear, a close collaborative effort with his brother Michael which featured the beautiful track, "The Man Who Found God On The Moon." The next Wings album was, of course, "Venus and Mars" with its mention of Starship 21ZNA9 and "Spirits of Ancient Egypt."

There are many other references that I could add to this list, but one of the most compelling is found on Wings "Back To The Egg" album. Obviously the front cover features an outer space theme, but the real gem is found on the album's inner sleeve.

This picture is from the interior dome of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, Turin, Italy, the place where the alleged shroud of Jesus resides.



A recent issue of Guideposts Magazine revealed a close encounter that a mission church in Karuizawa, Japan had with John Lennon in the mid 1970s. In the article, Carol Fleenor, the minister's wife admitted that she felt judgmental towards the Ex-Beatle and Yoko as they rolled up to the church on bikes. But, in the end she was disarmed by John's humility and patience. One church member even asked John about his "more popular than Jesus" statement that caused a storm in America in 1966. John's response was "When we talk to reporters, we play around with them." He added, "We're just a music group. Don't people know that Jesus is far greater than we are?" I'm a little suspicious about the quotes, but whatever John said must have endeared him to the church people.


Paul McCartney also showed respect for traditional religious values recently on his trip to Israel when he lit a candle at the Church of the Nativity.


Former Apple Executive Ken Mansfield has been speaking at several churches in recent years about his work with the Beatles, his transformation as a Christian and his perspective on an illness from which he was not expected to survive. In at least one of his messages available on video Mansfield declares that at least one of the two remaining Beatles will profess belief in Jesus before he dies. "Mark my words," Mansfield challenged as he made the pronouncement. I never mark people's words. It is just something I do not do.

We can look all around and see numerous connections between art and ancient mysteries, but the work of the Beatles, collectively and individually seems to evoke these ideas more than most. I suspect that ancient mysteries are at the heart of the Beatles mystery.

Correction

A reader asked me recently when the mirrored message "I ONEIX ♦ HE DIE" on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band drum was first discovered. I answered that the first time I heard of putting a flat mirror horizontally in the center of the words "Lonely Hearts" on the drum was in the 1979 article by Joel Glazier that appeared in the Beatles Fanzine "Strawberry Fields Forever." However, after a trip back through my archives, I have found strong evidence that the discovery was made a decade earlier.



On Volume One, Disc Two of the bootleg "Miss Him Miss Him Miss Him," there is a rebroadcast of the "Paul Is Dead Special" from WPLJ-FM in New York City. The show focused on the debunking of "Paul Is Dead" theories. The tone of the host, Bob Lewis (aka Bob-a-Loo) was rather insulting to those who found clues in the Beatles music. He called them "cluesters" and "clue freaks" throughout the broadcast. Some of his explanations to discredit Paul is Dead theorists were more bizarre than the sinister interpretations of the clues.



The liner notes indicate the date of the original broadcast was 1969, but a rebroadcast from the mid 1970s is what served as the master for the CD. The mid-1970s introduction of the rebroadcast dates the original from the fall of 1969. The web site Gary Pfeifer's Radio Airchecks identifies the original air date as November 14, 1969. If that is correct, then the mirrored drum was in fact discovered during the initial wave of "Paul Is Dead" hysteria. Bob Lewis dismissed the drum clue by suggesting that there was a Beatle who died on the cover, and his name was Stu Sutcliffe.

The rebroadcast was followed by a much more sympathetic review of the major clues and had no input from Bob Lewis, who had apparently moved on by then. So, I am convinced that the Sgt. Pepper drum clue was part of the original broadcast. That proves that the mirrored drum was discovered in 1969, but it doesn't identify who found it. Lewis credited the discovery to those "Paul Is Dead" freaks, but doesn't give a specific source.



If the drum clue was known in 1969, it is surprising that it did not come up in the RKO television special "Paul McCartney: The Complete Story, Told For the First And Last Time." This TV Special, which aired Thanksgiving weekend of 1969, was in the form of a mock trial to determine the truth behind the McCartney rumors. The show featured an amazing group of "witnesses" including Russ Gibb, Peter Asher, Allen Klein, and Fred LaBour. Audio clips from the special can be found on Brian Moriarty's Excellent Web Site. The drum clue also did not appear in a "Paul Is Dead" Special from WKBW-AM, Buffalo, NY, despite the fact that it included a lengthy segment on the Sgt. Pepper cover art.

Bob Lewis must have heard that clue somewhere in 1969, but it doesn't seem to be available in any of the recordings known to still exist from that time period.