The Beatles Song That Caused The Paul McCartney Is Dead Story

It’s as if two different bands were responsible for the music from The Beatles’ two distinct periods. While their innovative spirit may have propelled them to the top of the charts, conspiracy theorists suspected that it was one-half of the legendary songwriting duo of Lennon-McCartney had passed away.

A rumor circulated in the mid-1960s that Paul McCartney had been killed in a vehicle accident in 1966. In light of the event, it was speculated that following Macca’s death in a car crash, The Beatles hired a lookalike to perform as him. It was widely believed that The Beatles buried the news of one member’s death in their music to continue.

Fans first began picking up references to McCartney’s death in the psychedelic adventure Strawberry Fields Forever. In the song’s conclusion, John Lennon uses a variety of reverse effects, including a fade-in. Lennon’s supporters noticed that his mumbled “cranberry sauce” resembled the words “I buried Paul” and so attributed the two phrases to him.

It would take more than one song to make up for the loss of a Beatle, so, throughout the band’s history, listeners sifted through their discography in search of hidden meanings in their music. Some tracks on The White Album have been singled out by fans as possible explanations for McCartney’s passing. While “Glass Onion” was intended to poke fun at fans who read too much into Lennon’s lyrics, his admission that “the walrus was Paul” all but validated the speculation. The walrus is a symbol of death in many European cultures.

Not only did song lyrics provide hints, though. McCartney’s “Your Mother Should Know” is a soft-shoe number that The Beatles play in the film Magical Mystery Tour. McCartney is the only one of the white-suited men to wear a black carnation, a symbol of a dead person. Even the album covers weren’t safe, with Sgt. Pepper’s cover perhaps foreshadows McCartney’s death by depicting a funeral wake complete with flowers.

The cover of Abbey Road is the most blatant evidence of the McCartney death plot. As McCartney appeared to be walking out barefoot on the cover, many assumed he had passed away. This was because, in certain cultures, the shoes of the deceased are removed before burial. John Lennon as the preacher, Ringo Starr as the undertaker, Paul McCartney as the corpse, and George Harrison as the pallbearer made up the official procession of The Beatles (the gravedigger).

McCartney never let it get to him; he dispelled the rumors in the press and even released a cheeky live album with a cover parodying the iconic Abbey Road photo called Paul is Live. For McCartney, if you can’t beat them, be them.