The Beatles: The Mystery Behind The Abbey Road Album Cover. A Coincidence?

             Three weeks ago I saw Senator Bong-Bong Marcos in a talkshow at Studio 23. Aside from the recently concluded impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona, he discussed two interesting topics, amongst others. One is the Beatles fiasco in Manila in 1966 and the other one is the popular urban legend surrounding his personality wherein the real Bong-Bong Marcos supposedly died in London during the 70s and the Bong-Bong Marcos we  see today  is just an impersonator.

            Silly as it may seem, I recalled the similar urban legend surrounding Sir Paul McCartney  during the late 60's. He supposedly died in a car crash in 1966 and  was replaced by a look-alike. Among the many clues cited by the believers or perpetrators of this urban legend were the following:

1. Near the end of the song “Strawberry Fields Forever” John muffled, “I burried Paul.” It was later explained as “cranberry sauce" instead.
2. If you play the song Revolution 9” backwards, you will supposedly hear John say, “Turn me on, dead man.”
3. The most famous of all clues is the  Abbey Road album cover.

1. On the left, the plate number of the Volkswagen Beetle which  supposedly just happened to be there during the photo shoot reads LMW 281F.  The LMW  was interpreted as Linda McCartney widowed, whereas  28IF,  means  Paul would have been 28 years old if he was alive (actually only 27 years old at that time) .

b. The black car on the right symbolizes a hearse.

c. The Beatles outfits: John in white symbolizes, God or an angel. Ringo dressed in black the preacher or mourner. George Harrison in denim  as the gravedigger. The  barefoot and out of step with the others  McCartney symbolizes the corpse. He was also holding a cigarette on his right hand although he is a well-known lefty. 

      Well , this  issue surrounding his supposed death  was debunked by Paul McCartney himself in an interview published in Life Magazine.

WIKIPEDIA:

            On 21 October 1969, The Beatles' press office issued statements denying the rumour, deeming it "a load of old rubbish"^[12] and saying that "the story has been circulating for about two years—we get letters from all sorts of nuts but Paul is still very much with us."^[13] Rumours started to decline when,^[14] on 7 November 1969, Life magazine published a contemporary interview with McCartney in which he said,

“

Perhaps the rumour started because I haven't been much in the press lately. I have done enough press for a lifetime, and I don't to say these days. I am happy to be with my family and I will work when I work. I was switched on for ten years and I never switched off. Now I am switching off whenever I can. I would rather be a little less famous these days.[4]  ********************************************************************* Years later , he made a parody of the Abbey Road album cover with his 1993 live album, Paul Is Live.

                                                                                                                                                         

WIKIPEDIA:

The infamous "281F" on the Volkswagen Beetle's license plate – mis-read as "28IF", and purportedly saying that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – is edited to read "51IS", indicating his age at the time is 51.

McCartney is wearing shoes; on Abbey Road he had appeared with bare feet.

He is stepping with his left foot. In the original cover, McCartney was stepping with his right foot, instead of the left like the other three Beatles; this lack of synchronism was perceived as another eyecatch to the hoax.

He holds the dog's leash in his left hand; since he is left-handed, many thought that another clue of the "dead Paul" from Abbey Road was the cigarette he held in his right hand.

On the original Abbey Road cover, many conspirators said that if you were to connect all of the cars on the left side with a line, the line would go through Paul's head. On this cover, Paul is leaning forward, and his head falls out of such line.

The police car was removed as well because on Abbey Road the police car was said to symbolise the policemen who had been bribed by the other three Beatles to keep quiet about Paul's death to stop fans around the world from committing suicide.

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            The question that  remains today is,  did the Beatles ride on this “Paul is dead legend” and toyed with  their fans  with this mysterious  Abbey Road album cover? Did they offer explanations for their outfits and Paul’s being barefoot and out of step with the others in the picture. One thing  certain though is the plate number LMW 281F is genuine. Personally, I find it hard to believe that   any of the Beatles or someone who belong to their inner circle would thought of this imaginative plot. Perhaps everything was just really a  coincidence.

            As far as I’m concerned, everything's water under the bridge   regarding  the mysterious Abbey Road album cover-- until I read that  the title of Sir Paul McCartney’s 2005 album, MEMORY ALMOST FULL, is actually an anagram of “FOR MY SOULMATE LLM”( Linda Louise McCartney). When ask if this was intentional, he replied, “ Some things are best left a mystery.” My question is-- could   the man behind the Abbey Road  and  Memory Almost Full album-covers,  be the same?  Looks like a clue to me.