Tag: stairway to heaven
Stairway…
You can call it a coincidence that this album was released on the same date that God died on in the Time obituary, keep in mind though that the LP was slotted to be released months before and was deliberately delayed to be released on November 8th.
Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1966
1966
Now we’re in 1966. Anton LaVey starts the Church of Satan in 1966 and declares this year “Year One”. June 1st after all is in fact 6/66 and quite eerily is exactly 922 days after the assassination of JFK.
Dylan probably christened the era, but 1966 would probably be considered Year One of the sixties also; components of it had been building for quite awhile but this was the year that those ideals started to reach mainstream America.
For some reason, 1966 always comes across to me as sort of the equivalent of the discussion God and Satan had about Job in the Bible, you almost get the feeling that Lennon’s Beatles vs. Jesus comments sort of foreshadow this entire era.
On July 29th, Bob Dylan has his motorcycle accident at Woodstock NY and decides to take the rest of the sixties off, at least from touring; he focuses on his basement tapes and studio work instead.
3 days later, Datebook publishes the John Lennon interview in which he said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
I don’t think that Lennon is much more than a pawn because of it, he certainly meant it to be more of an indictment on people’s relative values at the time rather than his own; but he certainly brought the subject to a head very quickly and this is also when the “mysteries” in the Beatles music really started, mainly through John.
In the last post, I debated whether “Paul” could have represented something other than McCartney.
However there’s another possibility. Wouldn’t “Paul is dead” be the ultimate false flag, if there were certain messages really intended to be about John?
I don’t mean a false flag intended by the Beatles; I’m referring more to the possibility that they meant to do one thing by planting “Paul” clues in their songs and Satan intended something different; to hide the fact that there were also other clues that he had “tempted” the Beatles to write that really referred to the fate of John, not Paul.
It would keep everyone occupied on the clues, but trying to apply all of the Faces in Toast to the wrong person. It’s the sort of misdirection that has people believe that Paul died on 11/9/66 when in actuality it is the date that John met Yoko, to show one example. (Although if McCartney really had died, he would have been 24 at the time).
The Walrus was John; the Walrus was Paul; the Walrus was John, to show another.
So, regardless we have a genius who was certainly “built” through childhood hurt that loves to put mystery into everything the Beatles do, starting mainly from 1966 forward.
Me, as well as thousands of others, pour through everything the Beatles did looking for hidden meanings in everything. What do we hope to find? Well I defined what I’m looking for, many looked for “Paul is Dead” clues and others just like the riddles in general.
And the ironic thing about it is, there is plenty there to suggest that something was really being planted, someone really wanted to communicate something to us; and yet I almost get the feeling that the search for Beatles riddles became its own vehicle to destruction.
And yet, it seems impossible to believe that the “psychosis” is just a series of coincidences. But in misinterpreting the meanings, the search for the riddles attached actually served to fuel evil itself.
Even after Lennon’s apology (you guys have taken this totally out of context and I’m sorry you did that, and also that I said what I said, allowing you to…), groups are still sponsoring rallies to burn Beatle records; radio station KLUE (yes, it actually reads clue) in Texas organizes one such burning on August 13th.
On August 14th, still in protest mode, their broadcast tower gets struck by lightning, putting the program director in the hospital and knocking the station off the air indefinitely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLUE
No other clues are forthcoming as to just Whose bolt it was…
While Dylan and the Beatles still command most of the popular attention, a group of musicians that has been convening in the hills of Los Angeles is spearheading a movement in the United States against a Vietnam War that is now growing beyond anyone’s level of comfort.
While the Beach Boys, the Byrds, and the Mamas and the Papas have carved a well-deserved place for themselves early in the sixties movement, others such as Frank Zappa are just arriving in the global Pop Culture scene in 1966 although having already been very prominent in the Laurel Canyon scene prior to 1966.
Admiral George Morrison’s son Jim, with a birthday of December 8th, is part of that group; his band The Doors are the house band at a fledgling LA club called the Whisky-A-Go-Go when it opens in 1966 although Jim is initially very shy and stands mostly with his back to the crowd.
But after watching unrelated artist Van Morrison perform in June, Morrison undergoes a startling stage transformation over the course of the summer of ’66 and adopts what he later terms his Lizard King persona.
By August, Morrison and The Doors are signed to a recording contract when Morrison decides without anyone else’s knowledge to improvise an Oedipus section into a standing song of theirs called The End during a performance at the Whisky.
The resulting performance as portrayed here by Val Kilmer both got the Doors fired from the Whisky on the spot and was transferred to vinyl within a few days; the Doors went from an unpolished but very unique band to one of the sixties most haunting acts within the span of a couple of weeks.
Producer Paul Rothchild said this about the recording session of The End:
“The most awe-inspiring thing I have ever witnessed in a studio.” For the recording, the studio was completely darkened except for the lights on the recording console and a single candle burning next to Jim. “I was totally overwhelmed. Normally, the producer sits there just listening for all the things that are right and anything about to go wrong, but for this take I was completely sucked up into it, absolutely an audience.”
“We were about six minutes into it when I turned to Bruce and said ‘Do you understand what’s happening here? This is one of the most important moments in recorded rock ‘n’ roll.’ It was a magic moment. Jim was doing The End, doing it for all time, and I was pulled off, right on down his road. He said come with me and I did. And it was almost a shock when the song was over – it felt like, yes, it’s the end, that’s the end, that’s the statement, it cannot go any further. When they were done, I felt emotionally washed. I had goose bumps from head to foot. For one of the very first times in rock ‘n’ roll history, sheer drama had taken place on tape…Bruce was also completely sucked into it. His head was on the console, and he was just absolutely immersed in the take – he became part of the audience, too. So the muse did visit the studio that night, and all of us were audience. The machines knew what to do, I guess.
It was magic.”
“Magic” sounds rather cliche’ until you consider that the world went from Bobby Vinton and Blue Velvet to this, in 2 1/2 years. To be more precise, from the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan to the Doors signing with Elektra was again, 922 days.
Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1939
1939
The Wizard of Oz is released. The book contains 24 chapters and the final one closes with Dorothy returning home to tell her aunt about the wonderful land of Oz that she has just returned from.
Finnegans Wake is also released by James Joyce and foreshadows virtually everything, including properties of the Nuclear bomb which have yet to be invented. “John for a John, led it be” being the most prescient line.
Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1941
1941
Pearl Harbor. It’s interesting in the context of this topic that although we all know December 7th as the date of the Pearl Harbor bombing, the United States declared War on December 8th 1941.
December 8th will resurface a number of times in this article.
This may be the key to the entire experience, when you ask yourself the question as to why a supernatural conspiracy would be taking place through Politics and Rock and Roll?
The United States enters the War on Great Britain’s side and there is no real question that FDR’s “righteous might” applies to the allies in World War 2; the two countries are allied against pure evil, even as described by Nazi officers after the war.
However after the War is over, it is these same two countries that will be the subject of a stealth attack to blur the distinction between good and evil for future generations; aided by a Japanese artist and a lost young man traveling from Hawaii…
Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1947
1947
Thomas Mann writes Doctor Faustus and explores in detail the combination of mental illness, physical illness and a “Deal with the Devil” that has been made for a 24 year span with a demon to provide Composing Genius. After his 24 years are up, he is now physically and mentally ill and the final 10 years of his life becomes an allegory for Nazi Germany and the Third Reich.
Exactly 20 years after this manuscript is completed, The Beatles finish writing Sgt. Pepper and the song opens with a cryptic reference to Sgt. Pepper having “taught the band to play” exactly 20 years ago.
Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1965
I think of 1965 as sort of the “bridge”, with innocence on one side and “the sixties” on the other.
On August 28th 1963, the march on Washington saw Martin Luther King give his I have a dream speech. On August 28th 1964, the Beatles met Bob Dylan and tried cannabis for the first time.
On August 28th 1965, 24 year old Bob Dylan plugged in his guitars at the Forest Hills Music Festival, after debuting his electric band a few weeks earlier at Newport.
On this night, he switched in the middle of his set, ironically enough. But just before going electric, he premiered the song Desolation Row.
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row.
Cinderella, she seems so easy
“It takes one to know one,” she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning
“You belong to Me I Believe”
And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place, my friend
You better leave”
And the only sound that’s left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row.
Now the moon is almost hidden
The stars are beginning to hide
The fortunetelling lady
Has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody is making love
Or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he’s dressing
He’s getting ready for the show
He’s going to the carnival tonight
On Desolation Row.
Now Ophelia, she’s ‘neath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday
She already is an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic
She wears an iron vest
Her profession’s her religion
Her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Noah’s great rainbow
She spends her time peeking
Into Desolation Row.
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
You would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On Desolation Row.
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They’re trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser
She’s in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
“Have Mercy on His Soul”
They all play on penny whistles
You can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough
From Desolation Row.
Across the street they’ve nailed the curtains
They’re getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera
In a perfect image of a priest
They’re spoonfeeding Casanova
To get him to feel more assured
Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence
After poisoning him with words
And the Phantom’s shouting to skinny girls
“Get outa here if you don’t know”
Casanova is just being punished for going
To Desolation Row.
At midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row.
They be to Nero’s Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
Everybody’s shouting
“Which side are you on ?”
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain’s tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation Row.
Yes, I received your letter yesterday
About the time the door knob broke
When you asked me how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke ?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can’t read too good
Dont send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row.
The Beatles then met Dylan in the middle by releasing Rubber Soul.
And in the background, a number of young musicians, who are mostly the children of military officers, oddly start gathering from all over the country in a community in Los Angeles named Laurel Canyon.
…thus began the sixties.
Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1967
1967
The “13” foreshadowing (one and one and one is three) in the Sgt. Pepper drum. Of course, most people believe it’s 11/9 and signifies Paul’s death. I happen to believe that interpretation to be a classic Paul false flag and the Come Together line signifies it’s real meaning.
For 3 years, a revolution has been building. 1966 saw people starting to believe that they actually could change the world.
And then right in the middle of it, first Bob Dylan went underground and then almost immediately afterwards, the Beatles did too.
From their last concert in August of ’66 they had more or less disappeared from the music scene. Everyone had Revolver to keep themselves occupied late in ’66 but it was becoming clear from the occasional Beatles sightings that Beatlemania was dead.
The mop-tops were gone, and mustaches were on each of them now. And no one really knew what their plans were, heading into 1967.
There was a movement threatening to explode in 1967; peace and love and protest were not just ideas blowing in the wind anymore, the youth of 1967 were serious about changing the world and maybe the Beatles would be left in the wake of the coming revolution.
But in February, they released a single and everyone stopped for 5 minutes to listen…and what they heard was-
Let me take you down, cuz I’m going to…
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys pulled off the road to listen; he knew before the song was finished that he could not match what he had just listened to. And in Pet Sounds, he had just finished what ranks today in Rolling Stone as the second greatest LP of all-time. (The entire top 5 come from the 1965 to 1967 era)
The song was almost sickening, like a trustworthy friend trying to talk you into something terrifying and exhilarating. Lennon was beckoning for you to go somewhere, but you weren’t sure exactly where that somewhere was.
The effect of Strawberry Fields Forever was that the Beatles were becoming something new and dangerous; it was no longer about the sixties leaving the Beatles in the dust as the precursor to the revolution; now the question had suddenly become where were the Beatles going to take everyone?
For all of the fanfare that accompanied Sgt. Pepper by the time it was released on June 1st, it was Strawberry Fields that most point to as the moment they knew they were part of something special; something the world had never seen.
The kids were going to take over.
That isn’t to say the Beatles were alone, but the band that could have been left behind was clearly now leading everyone else again.
And then came Sgt. Pepper.
June 1st, 1967 might be the apex of Pop Culture; to this day it is probably still the top of the mountain in musical history.
…and really, the album musically might be overrated.
But it’s importance can’t be overstated. Sgt. Pepper released and stunned everyone. The color, the printed lyrics, the artwork.
And the first “concept album” in history, at least the first one that everyone heard; all of the rules went out the window with Sgt. Pepper, a study in contrasts and mystery and mysticism and real life people with real life problems.
June 1st, 1967 was when the sixties became a revolution. The Beatles didn’t cause it with Sgt. Pepper, and in fact a year later John Lennon quite famously stayed on the fence with the Out/In lyrics of the song Revolution; but what they did was empower it, they both normalized the counter-culture and made it something special at the same time. The “kids” were still looking for something, and took Sgt. Pepper as their license.
The LP starts with the Beatles “death” and re-introduction as this new band, and closes with a reprise of the same song, a send off from the Sgt. Pepper band that has been with you for all of these years, although no one really quite understands just what that means.
But then afterward, as the applause for Sgt. Pepper on the record fades, there’s a final song; on the album but in some unexplained way outside of the Sgt. Pepper show which has just completed.
Song number 13.
A Day in the Life might be the greatest song in rock history in my mind, and there isn’t much question in many people’s minds that I’d love to turn you on is quite possibly the most stunning moment on a rock LP; given that the Beatles did just that to an entire generation from the moment it was first heard.
(What isn’t heard as often is the audible counting of bars from 1 to 24 immediately following as the crescendo starts to build, ending with the alarm clock before Paul’s verse starts)
…and this isn’t said to diminish a period that absolutely drips with mood and passion; but there is a clear agenda in Sgt. Pepper.
It’s agenda was the permission to be turned on that a generation wanted, that a good portion of the youth of America still needed to really break away, one they would obviously not get from the establishment.
In the case of the Beatles, they wanted to make an album that set them apart and helped change the landscape of pop culture and the entire sixties generation.
They succeeded magnificently. The summer of love started when Sgt. Pepper hit stores. Some of the greatest artists we’ve ever heard; Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Stones, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and on and on, all took their rightful place on the rock horizon over the summer of ’67 and yet all did so on a level somehow below the “magical” plateau that the Beatles had now achieved.
And although the Sgt. Pepper album as a whole was considered the experience, there was certainly plenty of room on the mountain for Monterey and the San Francisco scene to ignite; as well as other seminal classics such as Light My Fire to climb to the top of the charts and further help the mainstream become exposed to the counter-culture.
Jim Morrison “forgetting” to change the lyric get much higher to get much better as Ed Sullivan’s staff had instructed him, by the end of the song you can actually hear Sullivan screaming “stop” in the background.
When you look back at rock history, one would expect to see something of an evolution; a growing complexity in music through the years.
You wouldn’t expect that the most complex and electrifying music ever created came in 1967 and then was never equaled or possibly even rivaled in the 43 years since.
Really.
When you hear A Day in the Life, Light My Fire, White Rabbit, Eight Miles High or Nights in White Satin, you hear magic, for lack of a better word.
The production has improved since 1967, but did the music itself ever rise beyond this?
The open question was, just what had the Beatles turned everyone on to?
I’ve spent umpteen hours looking for what I believed to be a logical answer to “It was twenty years ago Today, that Sgt. Pepper taught the Band to play”. I found an answer in Doctor Faustus, a manuscript that did in fact coincide with the completion of the Sgt. Pepper song, that actually makes me think I could have gotten it right.
Did I? Well that’s sort of the problem, isn’t it?
Actually, the biggest problem isn’t in having a pastime that traces back through significant events, it’s in using the search to justify something that inherently doesn’t make any sense; or worse, to justify actions that are morally wrong.
So, this isn’t really about trying to lump any obscure connection into a basic premise; Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd are two mental illness casualties of the sixties that it might be unfair to put into the context of this article.
Barrett, who’s schizophrenia as well as his legendary drug usage is quite well documented, was a flame that burned out so quickly that it’s hard to view his sad story and apply it to this one.
However, he was the author of Pink Floyd’s initial LP, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (a story about Pan that fits this premise quite well in fact) and contained in the LP also is the song Chapter 24 with it’s haunting lyrics taken from the I Ching about a movement being accomplished in 6 stages and the 7th bringing return, being accomplished during the month of the winter solstice (December).
In addition to possibly foreshadowing the bigger picture, Barrett’s breakdown in 1967 culminated in David Gilmour being brought in to replace Barrett for live shows by December of ’67. (The most eerie and possibly telling story about Barrett also having more than just illness to contend with was when the band decided in 1975 to do a song about Barrett; Shine on You Crazy Diamond, and inexplicably Barrett, who no one in the band had seen in 7 years, happens to walk into the studio during the recording of the song, sit down and brush his teeth. They didn’t even recognize him for almost an hour… so yeah, maybe he actually is a part of this too.)
So, when we look at the weekend of December 8th, 1967; there obviously is something pretty remarkable about those couple of days. The Stones release the first outright Satanic themed album ever in Their Satanic Majesties Request on December 8th; the Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour on the same date, Jim Morrison has his 24th birthday as well as his New Haven arrest and 24 year old Sharon Tate appears in her greatest role in Eye of the Devil (also called 13) which opens in the US that weekend also. (Otis Redding also recorded “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” on the 8th and tragically died 2 days later, although again I have a tough time fitting that event into the context of this article.)
December 8th, 1967 is the start of our 13 year journey towards December 8th, 1980 when John Lennon is killed.
The “clues” aren’t quite as blatant at this point as we’d prefer for a demonic conspiracy; we’d rather see a 7 foot winged creature with glowing red eyes stalk a town beginning about when Paul supposedly died and ending exactly 13 months later in December of ’67 with a large bridge collapsing and dozens of people perishing; that is the sort of drama we require to see what we are dealing with.
Actually, that happened too, but we’ll come back to that…
Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1968
1968
The movie Dr. Faustus opens in the US in January.
Then a few months later, Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby opens in the US. Beyond being a generic Satanist movie, the movie actually points back to 1966 as being the time of Rosemary’s pregnancy and references the Church of Satan’s “Year One” during the movie.
In fact, the timing of the baby’s delivery is pretty close to identical to the Beatles short lived unveiling of the Butcher cover in June of ’66. (You almost get the feeling like the “6/66” is sort of a tease of some type rather than the real thing, like we’re all getting played with somehow)
The Stones release Sympathy for the Devil; a song probably unlike any other in Rock. The song has it’s origins primarily in The Master and Margarita from the ’20’s which itself is based on Faust, and runs through a list of Satan’s potential escapades throughout history; it’s poignancy is underlined in that during the recording of the song, the line about the death of JFK is changed to “Kennedys” as RFK is assassinated during the week of the making of this song, (not to mention that the recording studio roof caught fire during the recording as well).
Oddly, the assassin waits for Robert Kennedy in the kitchen with a gun, but Kennedy wasn’t supposed to exit through the kitchen after finishing his speech in Los Angeles. He only went there because his planned exit was blocked with supporters.
The night before his death, he has dinner with Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski.
(Altamont on December 6th, 1969. After the stabbing which came a couple of songs later during Under My Thumb, the Stones didn’t do this song live again for another 7 years)
And, the Beatles release the White Album. The album, the fourth in a string of LP’s after Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper that for all-time place the Beatles above all musical competition (which will probably always be true; it’s hard to fathom anyone ever coming along that will surpass what the Beatles did during their 7 year run coupled with the importance of the era they did it in); is loaded with clues throughout a good portion of the songs on this double LP.
At the center of this is an avant-garde piece done by John Lennon that is certainly the “worst” song the Beatles ever wrote, and quite by design; the haunting and truly bizarre Revolution Number 9.
This song was so odd that it turned everyone on in a whole different way; it brought mystery into the mainstream. Songs like Glass Onion where John deliberately characterized Paul as the Walrus and McCartney’s Helter Skelter that Charles Manson takes, among other songs, to be a message directly to him and his group, take some of the focus off of the music itself and put it into a search for the messages contained in the music and artwork.
Now, there seemingly is no outright connection between Lennon who likes to build mystery into the Beatles music and artwork; Roman Polanski’s movie which is set at the Dakota in New York City; Sharon Tate who stars in this pagan movie known as 13; and Charles Manson or Mark David Chapman. There is nothing that links any of them (beyond Tate and Polanski being married).
Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1969
1969
But look at how it comes together. Lennon’s penchant for mystery turns on Charles Manson who is psychotic; he listens to the White Album and thinks he’s hearing about a race war.
OK, that’s psychosis, except it should be pretty obvious that Satan actually wouldn’t mind a race war or someone that is crazy acting out to somehow participate in one.
Plus, in 1968 a race war wouldn’t exactly be a radical idea; within a week of LBJ’s announcement to not seek re-election Martin Luther King is assassinated and a race war was a distinct possibility at the time.
They just happen to show up at the Polanski-Tate residence and carry out an act that ends Sharon Tate’s life while at the very least invoking a theme similar to Polanski’s “demonic” movie.
So, the mystery actually fuels the crime even though no one other than Manson’s group actually intends anything harmful.
And even his group didn’t seem to have any motive directed at Tate herself, it’s just a house they knew of because they had visited there earlier in the year. It’s an almost random act by the people actually involved that seems quite poignant when viewed after the fact.
Soon after this, Abbey Road comes out and college underground radio begins to buzz with a new topic. Paul McCartney was supposedly killed in 1966 and replaced with a lookalike. This rumor goes from campuses in Illinois to Michigan and in Detroit a couple of DJs start fielding on-air calls discussing the rumor.
One person tells DJ Russ Gibb to take Revolution Number 9 and play it backwards; he does and hears “Turn me on, dead man” and the Paul is dead rumor explodes across America.
Paul McCartney is actually interviewed and put on the cover of Life Magazine to try and dispel the rumor that he is dead.
Strangely enough, no one seems to quite be able to convince everyone that he is in fact still alive.
Why?
Well because the clues are really there. They are in the music and they are in the artwork. Not just a couple, there are dozens and dozens of them.
http://homepages.tesco.net/harbfamily/opd/index.html
There must be a reason why, everyone reasons…
Well let’s go back to Charles Manson. Here’s someone who took the Beatles “clues” and completely twisted them as a justification for evil.
However the actions of their group also should have served some rather frightening clues themselves; but just as their group gets caught, Paul is Dead takes off and switches the focus of the Beatles clues and more importantly any connection between Beatles clues and other Pop culture coincidences squarely onto Paul and away from any other interpretation.
(And when I say “just as”, I mean the same day. October 12th, 1969 is when “Tom” called Russ Gibb about Revolution Number 9 and is also when the Manson Ranch was raided. October 12 also happens to be the day Aleister Crowley was born. The oddest coincidence may be that the Abbey Road cover shoot, which launched the Paul is Dead phenomenon, actually took place mere hours before the Sharon Tate murders. )
And, Detroit isn’t quite as “random” as it might seem. Terry Knight, a relative unknown at the time, although he did know at least a couple of the members of the Beatles, was from the Detroit area and for some reason that seems to defy any explanation, was summoned to Apple Headquarters to speak with the group.
He came out of that encounter with the inspiration for a song entitled Saint Paul. He had the song produced and published by MacLen which is McCartney – Lennon and their Apple Co.
The song was out months before Paul is dead took off and contains these lyrics.
I looked into the sky
Everything was high
Higher than it seemed to be to me
Standing by the sea
Thinking I was free
Did I hear you call or was I dreaming then St. Paul..
You..knew it all along
Something had gone wrong
They couldn’t hear your song of sadness in the air
While they were crying out beware
Your flowers and long hair
While you and Sgt Pepper saw the writing on the wall…
You saved one minute of your life to the future
They said they’ve got dues to pay today
You say it’s a fool who plays it cool Sir
And if tomorrow comes you know they’ll all hear St. Paul say..
Let me take you down down down down down down down down…
You had a different view
Hey there Paul what’s new?
Did Judas really talk to you or did you put us on?
I think there’s something wrong
It’s taken you too long to change the world
Sir Isaac Newton said it had to fall
Hey St Paul…
(Hey Jude reprise instrumental for a bit)
You saved one minute of your life to the future
They said they’ve got dues to pay today
You say it’s a fool who plays it cool Sir
And if tomorrow comes you know they’ll all hear St. Paul say..
I read the news today oh boy…
(ADITL orchestra build)
You had a different view
Hey there Paul what’s new?
Did Judas talk to you or did you put the whole world on?
I think there’s something wrong
It’s taken you too long to change the world
Sir Isaac Newton told you it would fall
You didn’t listen St Paul..
Hey Jude reprise..
Na..na na na na na na na na…Hey Paul
Na..na na na na na na na na…Hey Paul
(repeats)
Background:
You say yes, I say no I say hi…
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
She loves you yeah yeah yeah
She loves you yeah yeah yeah
She loves you yeah yeah yeah
Love is all you need (13 times)
Once Paul is Dead did take off, some of the more shrewd started to look back on this song and wonder what in the world Terry Knight was talking about; and understood that this song was published through the Beatles themselves and came out months before October 12th 1969.
But while it certainly alludes to some sort of mystery involving Paul, if you honestly look at the lyrics it seems to foreshadow something other than Paul being dead, what in Sgt. Pepper did Paul see “on the wall” and what did “Judas” tell him?
Much like many of the Beatles songs from this period, Saint Paul could be taken many ways.
The Judas reference from Hey Jude supports this article very well, however we also have been told about it being for Julian Lennon from Paul as Julian’s parents were splitting up.
Some of the lyrics support that, others really do not.
Like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, we know by now that it really was a drawing by Julian and there really is a Lucy, but at the same time to believe John didn’t see “LSD” in the title and imagery regardless of how innocent the origin was is ludicrous.
Likewise The movement you need is on your shoulder in Hey Jude and a few other lyrics don’t seem to relate to Julian at all.
This is what we always face when confronting song meanings and no one really helps and that is by design.
To be honest, the artists quite often aren’t when relating song meanings or any of their other creative choices.
To ask which Beatle wanted Aleister Crowley on Sgt. Pepper is to expect an answer that hasn’t come for 43 years. Ringo deferred, George picked Eastern gurus, that leaves John or Paul and no one seems to know which one for sure.
So, back to Saint Paul we have another challenge in discerning what Terry Knight really was referring to in many places of this song.
Doesn’t it come across as something Paul chose not to participate in, or possibly backed out of? Or had deferred somehow?
Paul helped to fund a London underground newspaper in 1966 called the International Times. Fortunately for us, they have now archived all of their issues online.
In issue 6, we find this interview with McCartney: http://www.internationaltimes.it/index.php?year=1967&volume=IT-Volume-1&issue=6&item=IT_1967-01-16_B-IT-Volume-1_Iss-6_008-009
As you read, you’ll see that for some reason that isn’t quite explained, he considers himself to be “2” and the other 22 years of his life was someone else, a figurative rebirth so-to-speak.
An excerpt:
“To take a film and to superimpose on top of it so you can’t quite tell what it is anymore, it’s all trying to create magic, it’s all trying to make things happen so that you don’t know why they’ve happened.”
If you question the authenticity of this interview or the Beatles involvement with this publication, just move forward one page to the last page of his interview.
There is a cartoon underneath that shows a “Seedy Bee’s Mystery Tour” bus. This issue of International Times is in January of 1967, a full 11 months before Magical Mystery Tour came out.
Is this where they got the idea?
If you read through the issues you get a pretty good sense of the stream of consciousness of not only the Beatles but a number of late 60’s acts; you’ll see how prominent that Yoko Ono and the Indica gallery is, that Roman Polanski was at Yoko’s premiere on the infamous 11/9/66 date which might help explain why John screamed “It’s all Roman Polanski’s fault” 7 years later in a drunken rage.
You also read that The Pink Floyd, prior to having recorded anything, was typically the house band in 1966 (before later recording Piper at the Gates of Dawn right next door to the Beatles in Abbey Road), and also that Aleister Crowley, Black Magic and the Golden Dawn aren’t hidden from our view at all.
It’s all right out in the open if you read it, and Paul McCartney helped launch this paper. In fact, in Issue 9 in early ’67 you will see the name Ian Iachimoe listed as the emergency contact.
Ian Iachimoe was used as a pseudonym by Paul McCartney at one point while autographing a well known copy of the Paperback Writer single, seemingly because it’s the name Paul McCartney when played in reverse.
McCartney is mentioned often in the early issues, one issue even says he gave the paper money, but he never seems to be mentioned again after June of 1967.
Could this “scene” have been what Terry Knight was talking about?
I think if you look at the lyrics to Saint Paul honestly that you see something. We don’t quite understand what that something is or refers to; but do you get the impression that Paul has made some sort of choice by somehow “saving one minute to the future”?
And yes the song could be an allegory about the state of the band, but there are also some references in the song that seem rather inside and confusing; so if you took it more as a double-entendre:
And if he’s around tomorrow…then what?
Let me take you down
I heard the news today oh boy.
Those are Lennon lyrics.
If Paul McCartney is around tomorrow then does something happen to John instead?
Do you get the impression that something bad has to happen to either Paul or to John?
Is this what he means?
When John was asked about the cover of Sgt. Pepper in 1967 and his infamous cryptic response was “two are flying, two are not”, no one ever could reason what he meant; other than he’s making an inside joke that none of us understood.
Are John and Paul trying to somehow “will” a necessary sacrifice of some sort to the other person?
Is that what this is all really about? “Someone” has to go and who’s it going to be?
That sounds absurd, or the plot to Help!, but if an artist or a band thinks that someone is offering them a gift but there’s a price, do you take the “gift” and laugh off the “price”?
Did they think it was all a game, up until Tara Browne, Brian Jones and then Sharon Tate let them know it wasn’t?
Or, maybe Paul realized at some point that it wasn’t a game at all…
(In Help! Ringo needs to be painted Red in order to be sacrificed)
How many prominent bands of this era, all seemingly connected to the same “scene” that we aren’t outwardly privy to, lost exactly one member to an early death?
Is it possible that if a band were to make a Faustian deal, and one member changed his mind, that the others would start painting him red, so to speak; in an attempt to tell the local demon to get him, not us?
As the sixties come to a close, the glory of peace and love and the moon and Woodstock being slightly tainted at the end by Manson and Altamont; it’s a simple question. A question that most people give up on once they reason that Paul isn’t actually dead.
If Paul is dead isn’t accurate, who would drive that deception and why?
Well let’s peek ahead a bit for a second.
Two years later, John wrote this:
So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise,
You better see right thru that mother’s eyes,
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead,
The one mistake you made was in your head,
How do you sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night?
You live with straights who tell you you was king,
Jump when your mamma tell you any thing,
The only thing you did was yesterday,
And since your gone you’re just another day,
How do you sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night?
A pretty face may last a year or two,
But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do,
The sound you make is muzak to my ears,
You must have learnt something all those years,
How do you Sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night
What could Paul have done to make John wonder how he sleeps at night?
And why does this song and Saint Paul both use inside references to Sgt. Pepper?
And really, how could John Lennon possibly believe that Paul McCartney doesn’t have songwriting ability? Especially when Paul did the bulk of Sgt. Pepper which John just pointed to a verse earlier?
Not to be obtuse, because John’s granny music belief is understood, but he couldn’t really hear the likes of Let It Be and still believe Paul couldn’t write on his own, could he?
Could the assertion actually be that Paul has now “lost” a gift?
In some iterations of the story of Faust, the person making the deal tries to outsmart the devil.
The best way to beat the devil, which many have tried to do in the various stories, is to simply walk away from the deal. But if a band makes a deal, and a member walks away, are the others left “holding the bag”?
Saint Paul talks about “Dues to pay today”, the Death Cab for Cutie sequence in Magical Mystery Tour says over and over “Someone’s going to make you pay your fare”.
But if you decide to be alive in the future, A Day in the Life so to speak, and walk away from a deal, that’s what you get, right?
Maybe Paul is Dead happened precisely because Paul broke a Faustian deal in order to stay alive…
And lest we have a post about 1969 that fails to include Woodstock, the festival happened 24 years to the day from the end of World War 2.
Cool 