(Note** This is a poem about a lie spread sixty years ago, that Beatle Paul was dead. This is not, in fact, what happened. Paul McCartney is very much alive today, as of this writing in 2025.)
Paul is dead.
A most beloved Beatle.
I was in junior high school, bussed across town like so many of us then. Against our will. It was a confusing enough time for anybody—never mind a former Mormon girl who knew the church was no longer right for her, but had no idea what might replace it. My parents’ violent drama was coming to a head—if not an end just yet. Of course I had no idea what would take its place. Church, family, blast, boom, bam. Gone.
All my dreams had culminated in this void.
Then The White Album. Second-to-last track: Revolution 9.
Play it backward.
You would hear an otherworldly voice moaning, Turn me on, dead man.
In 1969, this was enough to convince Beatles fans: Paul was dead.
I failed Critical Thinking 101 then. You could hardly blame me, given my upbringing. I was just lost. Instead of considering possibilities—as I might have ten years later—I could only feel despair. The particular existential despair of teenagers.
I remembered The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, singing No Reply.
I tried to telephone, they said you were not home,
that’s a lie, ’cause I know where you’ve been,
I saw you walk in your door.
I nearly died! I nearly died!
Insert at this point, my dad singing, I wish you had! I wish you had!
How he hated his teenage daughter’s adoration of those mop tops. He had been supplanted—though I could not have known it then. A life saver for me, I now realize.
Paul? Dead?
John Hiatt’s lyric lines creep in years later, all jumbled up.
Gone, like the shape I’m in,
gone, like a fifth of gin,
gone, like a Nixon file,
gone, gone away.
Years later, after it was determined to be a hoax, I—and many Beatles lovers like me—still wondered.
And then, sixty years later, I see the similarities.
Feed them lies.
Repeat them often.
Seed them—again and again.
And the masses are left to wonder:
what is real?
What, fiction?
I must have been in a different realm Bela, as I had not even heard that Paul of the Beatles had died..
Yes the Beatles were my favourite band back in the 60s too… Paul, was my favourite.. I remember I had a book photo broach that held about 10 tiny photos of the ban… It was my pride and joy 🙂
May he rest in peace..
There were rumours many years after the band started that Paul had died, and someone too his place in the band who looked like him…
In todays reality, we know anything is possible Bela..
He did NOT die!
My point in writing this was that we are being fed similar lies today and it has become difficult for many to determine truth from fiction.
Sorry to confuse you! Paul is very much ALIVE! Bless you! 💗💗💗
Well Bela … Yes I agree about the LIES continually… both sides of the Pond.. And it just goes to show you how far removed I have been in the MSM of things lately.. I wouldn’t have known if Paul had died or not.. Haha… Such has been my own absence lately 🙂 haha…
Glad to hear he is still breathing.. 🙂 xx
Me too. So many dropping dead, famous and just ordinary folks. Glad we both love our mother the Earth enough to choose to stay every day! Love you, sweet friend.
Indeed… Too many…. ‘Sudden Deaths’… And the old famous folk we grew up with, are taking their last bows.. xx
They certainly are. I was talking with a friend about this today. I have long in my professional life practiced causal medicine. It is not a stretch for me to think that people hit a saturation point in life when they just can’t handle it anymore. Can’t handle the challenges coming their way. Not consciously most of the time. But boy I’m so aware of that. Not sending my body mixed messages. I love you, I will care for you, thank you for caring for me, I’m sick of all this crap! Like that. I try really hard not to do it. To treasure and support life. Because this whole earth journey is an incredible magical miracle. I want to enjoy it while I’m here, because I’m not so sure I want to repeat it. 💗
Indeed… a magical earth journey Bela… May we continue to enjoy the JOY xxx
And dear Sue, I have placed a caveat at the beginning of the piece, so others do not likewise assume Paul is actually dead. Again, my apologies and blessings to you! 🌹💗
Chuckling here Bela… as the world drops to pieces around me.. I am in my bubble 🙂 xx haha xx
I am so sorry to stir you up like that! Not at all what I’m about. But I can see how anybody could’ve misinterpreted it, thus the new caveat at the beginning of the piece. And yes, we are in our Hawaiian bubble for sure. And the world is pretty much dropping the pieces, in order to get re-shaped into something more humanistic? I dearly hope so. 💗💗💗
It will take some doing Bela, that reshaping, but Mother Nature is also going to have a hand in this too.. The ‘ Reshaping’ which may well be a harder blow.
But it cannot carry on in the same way as it is doing, that is for certain..
And no worries Bela… We all of us have to move through to that next realm, sooner or later…
Though I am pleased Paul hasn’t quite got there just yet 🙂 haha.. xx
Of course Gaia is a sentient being. Of course she is. And yes, oh my God, I felt so bad for you thinking Paul was dead!! and here I was trying to make a point of how ridiculous it was at the time, but in fact recreating the myth!! 😂😂😂♥️
HAHA… Don’t fret…. He has lived a good life if he went tomorrow xx 🙂
Likely so!
I was struck by your terrible upbringing, Bela, much more so than your post including the Beatles info (and being English and born in 1944 Beatles music was an incredible new sound to a teenager).
From your writings one can presume that you have come to terms with your younger days. You choose to write poems, and powerful poems they all are. That is so good!
Aww, how tender of you, Paul. You touch my heart with this comment. It has taken a virtual lifetime, but I am well and truly healed from my past. And writing was absolutely my salvation when I was younger. I would say that may be true even now, but in a different way. Thanks again, dear one. 🙏♥️
I find it fascinating how this online world brings strangers together in one way or another!
It surely does. And I am happy for it, because we spend most of our time on this tiny island in the middle of the Pacific in our tiny bubble, as Sue calls it in this comment thread. You all are some of the most caring people. 🐾🐾🐾
It’s funny, I never believed those rumors about any rock star that was either really dead or still alive (hello Elvis). But I don’t believe Epstein committed suicide. We all have our points of entry…
Oh my God, we definitely think the same. Of course he wasn’t a suicide victim, come on. 😞😘
That’s what I think too, but then the whole Epstein thing is one giant conspiracy.
I actually have a young friend I think highly of. And that’s what she thinks. OMFG. Enjoy your weekend, Kerfe. xoxo
♥️
What a crazy reality we live in Bela. I think I remember many years ago the rumours of him being dead. I was never a huge Beatles fan but still. And over the past five years or so I truly wouldn’t know what’s true and what’s not. Perhaps even before that but I think 2020 changed everything for me. I tend to stay well away from the MSM.
Oh my gosh, crazy is right. And yes, when Covid was settled into the populous in 2020, it was the beginning of some kind of ending. We tried not to participate in any of the coercions, but I tell you. The powers that be just keep casting the net wider. Still, we continue claiming our sovereignty. Trying not to buy into the fear and horror, while supporting those who get trapped in the net. What a mess. Blessings to you, Miriam. It’s going to be a wild ride from now on. 🙏🌺