Paul Is Dead: Encyclopedia II - Paul Is Dead - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album

Paul Is Dead - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album

The cover and songs of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album are alleged to have the most "clues" out of all the Beatles albums.

Paul Is Dead - Cover

According to believers, the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover shows a group of mourners standing in front of a freshly dug grave. McCartney is the only person holding a wooden instrument, representing his coffin, and the instrument is the only one that is black, representing death. The instrument itself is a cor anglais, which is the only instrument shown on the cover which is not used in a marching band. Paul's "true" instrument would have been the tuba, which is sitting unused at feet of the wax figure of Ringo. Paul is the only Beatle wearing a "cool" color (blue), while the other three Beatles are all wearing warm colors. It also appears like he's being propped up by Ringo Starr and Harrison, as if he were stiff. McCartney is the only person with a hand over his head, a religious symbol for blessing the dead. The hand belongs to Stephen Crane, an American writer who died at the age of 28. Around the "grave", there are several symbols. A doll with a cracked head represents McCartney's fatal injury; that same doll has printed on its shirt "Welcome the Rolling Stones" (The Beatles #1 competition at the time), a toy car on one knee and a bloody driving glove on the other. A TV that is not turned on represents the news blackout about his death. Over the letter L in Beatles, one can see McCartney's rugby trophy. A small statue of the Hindu god Shiva can be seen in front of the "grave", who is allegedly pointing a finger at Paul. In the Hindu tradition, Shiva is the Destroyer.

Paul Is Dead - Billy's Here

On the first track, "Paul" introduces "Billy Shears," the leader of the fictional Sgt Pepper's band. It has been observed that if you move the beginning letter of "Shears" to the end of Billy, it is now pronounced that "Billys Hear" or "Billy's Here," signifying that the real Paul is gone and Mr. William Shears Campbell has taken his place.

Paul Is Dead - The flowers

The red flowers on the Sgt. Pepper's cover coming before the word "BEATLES" almost look like the number 3, which would make the phrase "3 Beatles". Also, if the ring of red flowers at the end of the word is considered to be an "O" and added to the word "BEATLES", the letters now form "BEATLESO". Believers have interpreted this to mean "BE AT LESO". Leso was the name of the Greek island that the Beatles bought with their songwriting royalties, and it is there that Paul's funeral supposedly took place.

The yellow flowers on the cover of Sgt. Pepper appear to spell out "PAUL?" Also, these flowers form the shape of Paul's left-handed bass, but with only three strings, it is interpreted as signifying the presence of only three of the original members.

Paul Is Dead - The badge

The inside cover of the Sgt. Pepper album has Paul wearing an emblem on his shirt sleeve whose initials have been sugested to be "O.P.D." ,for "officially pronounced dead". Most believe, however, that it in fact reads "O.P.P.", and it is a badge for the Ontario Provincial Police. Due to this, Paul's supposed replacement has been suggested to have been a policeman in Ontario.

Paul Is Dead - 1 ONE I X HE ^ DIE

An interesting trick is to take a shiny, polished butter knife (or a small mirror) and lay it horizontally across the words "LONELY HEARTS" on the drum on the cover of Sgt. Pepper. The top half of the words, combined with their mirror image, spells out "1 ONE I X HE ^ DIE".

This has been interpreted by believers in two ways. The first is the 1, the "ONE" and the I each represent one of the Beatles, while the "X" signals one is missing, the explanation being "HE DIE(d)". The second interpretation is that the date of Paul's alleged death is given. In this interpretation, the "1" and "ONE" make the number 11, meaning November, the eleventh month. The "I" and "X" are taken to represent Roman numerals making the number 9, which would be the day of the month. According to this interpretation, the message is "November 9th, he died".

In both cases, the arrow formed between "HE" and "DIE" appears to point to Paul, signifying they're talking about him.

Paul Is Dead - Back cover photograph

On the back cover of Sgt. Pepper McCartney is facing backwards, which is supposedly because he was dead and replaced with an imposter in the photograph. It is possible he was absent on the day that shot was taken, and it is indeed somebody else. Also, George Harrison is pointing to the lyric "Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins" from the song "She's Leaving Home", allegedly a reference to the day and time when Paul crashed and was killed. The words next to McCartney's head are "Without You", hinting they're missing their allegedly dead friend.

If you notice the other Beatles' hands, they could be spelling a word - George's fingers could be spelling the letter 'L', John is spelling the letter 'V' and Ringo is spelling the letter 'E'. The only letter missing is 'O', that would spell 'L-O-V-E'. This has been suggested to be signaling out Paul McCartney, being the only Beatle without an 'O' in his name (unlike George, John and Ringo).

Paul Is Dead - The lyrics

The are a number of suspicious lyrics from this album.

Paul's "Fixing A Hole" contains lyrics that may refer to his alleged fatal head injury: "...I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in, and stops my mind from wandering", which led many believers to the conclusion that Paul's accident happened during a rainstorm. Others interpreted this line to be a reference to his fans weeping for him, this preventing his soul from "wandering."

"Lovely Rita" contains "...I took her home, I nearly made it..." which has been interpreted as hinting to Paul's failure to reach his destination due to the crash. It has also been suggested that Rita was a hitchhiker who Paul picked up on the night of his alleged death.

The lines "nothing to do to save his life, call his wife" from "Good Morning, Good Morning" have also caught the attention of Paul is Dead believers, for obvious reasons.

Harrison's "Within You Without You" has the lyrics "life goes on within you and without you" and what could be interpreted as the sounds of weeping near the end. Again, believers interpret this as the Beatles missing the deceased Paul.

In "A Day in the Life", some contest that the line "Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords" is really "Nobody was really sure if he was from the house of Paul." Other lyrics suggest suspicion of Paul's death in "A Day in the Life," such as, "He blew his mind out in a car, he didn't notice that the lights had changed" suggesting Paul was driving erratically under the influence of hallucinogenic compounds, and "They'd seen his face before" as the Beatles were very popular, and most people knew what Paul looked like, at least before the alleged disfiguring accident.

Finally, believers consider the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" to be a list of directions to McCartney's urn.

Paul Is Dead - The Inner Groove

The gibberish at the end of the original UK version and eventual CD edition of the album, the so-called "Inner Groove", when played in reverse could be interpreted as "Will Paul be back as Superman?"

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki