Thirty eight years ago today, Detroit DJ Russ Gibb first began spreading the urban legend that Paul McCartney was dead. Somehow, more and more hokey "evidence" was found on album covers, songs played backwards and cryptic references. Overall the entire hoax was pretty silly, but it definitely produced some funny parodies and a nice jab from Mr. John Lennon directed at Paul.
Chris Farley might've done my favorite when he interviewed Sir Paul on SNL's "The Chris Farley Show":
Next, "The Simpsons" TV show takes a bite out of the hoax by writing Paul and his wife Linda into the episode. Paul references the hoax and says that "Maybe I'm Amazed" has a hidden message that plays when you spin the record backwards. Hilar:
John used the hoax for a vengeance song directed at Paul back on his Imagine album. The song was "How Do You Sleep?" (that's intense), so listen for the lyric, "those freaks was right when they said you was dead" (uhm, that's intense too):
Superheroes are in on this action too. A Batman comic issue called "Dead ... Till Proven Alive" parodies the Paul is Dead Hoax on the cover and in the issue's story. In the story, Saul, from the band The Oliver Twists (pictured on the cover below), was supposedly dead and replaced with a double. But in the twist ending, it was he who survived and the other members who had died.
Finally, Paul even famously parodied the hoax with the title and cover of his 1993 live album, Paul Is Live. The cover was meant to parody the rumor that the license plate on the white Volkswagon from Abbey Road, inscribed with "281F", was supposed to have meant that Paul would've been 28 "if he had lived." Funny that he was actually 27. He used the original cover and hired an expert photoshopper for the results. The updated cover includes "51 IS," as Paul was 51-years-old when he released the live album:
For more about the hoax, you can head to its wiki entry.
