After a few beers and listening to the White Album backwards to hear Paul is Dead clues, it was suggested by one of my friends that I read “The Walrus Was Paul,” a book he lent me a few years ago that had been sitting in the embarrassingly large pile next to my nightstand. (Hey, I’m working on it!)
I finally got to the book this week. In what was a fascinating if not silly read, I actually laughed out loud every other page and said “c’mon!” a lot, the clues were so far-fetched and wild. Check out sites like Officially Pronounced Dead? The Great Beatle Death Conspiracy if you want to delve into the craziness of the hoax. It’s wild, man, wild, especially if you’re a huge Beatles fine like me.
The book reminded me how awesome the group’s cover art (not to mention sense of humor) was. Take for instance the Abbey Road cover, with more Paul is Dead jokes than you can throw a stick at — including the Beetle with the license plate that reads “28IF,” supposedly indicating that Paul would’ve been 28 at the time if he were alive. Now compare the album Paul released in the early 1990s that channeled Abbey Road, but with a license plate that reads “51 IS.” Clever, that McCartney. Not to mention the haha album title, Paul is Live. Say what you will about Paul, but you can’t deny that he has a great sense of humor.