FOREWORD:

by ex-Beatle Paul “bass” McCartney

It was great for us at the time, you know - John was great like that, he was always, “hey lads”, which was great for John at the time, he was really into that. I was a bit more, you know, “hey, lads, should we?” you know, but John was always the one who was, “hey lads, yeah, let's do it”, you know, which was really great, and that was just John really, he was great like that, you know?

Chapter 14

“I'm Fixing A Hole where the rain gets in,” sings William Campbell on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, referring of course to the gaping hole in the skull of Paul McCartney, and the rain pouring into the wound on that cold July morning of 1966. The rain stops his mind – or soul – from wandering to heaven as it fills up his cranial cavity (cf. the ‘glug glug’ sounds on Yellow Submarine).

“I'm feeling the cracks that ran through the door,” sings faux-McCartney, referencing the gashes in the door of the car; in his final moments, he is pawing helplessly at the mangled metal. They weren’t important yesterday, because none of this was happening yesterday.

See the people standing there, observing the wreckage, disagreeing as to the identity of the fatally wounded passenger. They're trying to lever open the disfigured door, and wondering aloud why they don't get inside. Meanwhile, McCartney is painting his “room” (the only space left available to him) in a colorful way – the color of blood, the color of the rear sleeve of the Sgt Pepper album, the color of Harrison's uniform – always pictured by McCartney's left shoulder. (Chillingly, Fred Astaire is pictured directly above McCartney’s head).

To Harrison's right, McCartney is dressed in cadaverous blue; Starkey is in innocent pink, the colour of childhood, the color of nakedness, the color of rebirth; and Lennon, always the Child Of Nature, is in green, his significance obvious to even the most casual viewer.

Is it coincidence that a trail of 'blood' leads from Campbell/McCartney's heart to his right shoulder? I don't think so. The naked, child-like man behind Starkey has his head bowed towards the blood, mourning.

“I used to get mad at my school...” McCartney's life flashes before his eyes in a ludicrous soliloquy of regret. He beat his woman, he was an angry young man – but now things are “getting better”. He is being released from these worldly concerns and going on to the better place of the title. He need no longer be concerned with his past or his character failings.

“Me hiding me head in the sand,” though, brings us sharply back to the moment. Losing his ability to correctly construct sentences, Paul struggles to describe the state of his skull – perhaps also anticipating his own burial. Finally, the emergency services break into the vehicle and free the critically-injured McCartney – they're holding him down (as he convulses), they're turning him round (moving him onto the stretcher), and filling him up with their rules as they ask him to breathe, stay conscious, cooperate with their attempts to save his life...

Chapter 67

…The black mustaches worn by The Beatles on the album cover represent gaping, down-turned mouths; sadness pervades the scene. In Italy, departed men would often be buried with a black oboe - said to be the saddest instrument of the orchestra. The other Beatles wear hats or spectacles – but 'McCartney' is naked, bar his clothes. Furthermore, were 'McCartney's' feet visible on the sleeve, we would see that he was barefoot.

Of course, all this might be conjecture were it not for the title of the album – the significance of which only the compulsively skeptical (or the chronically stupid) could fail to appreciate. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. “SPLHCB”. Got it yet? That’s right – Subliminal: Paul Lies Here; Clandestine Burial. Need I say more?

Finally, the playout groove – a female voice appears to say “Lucy Stanley's other one”; Ms. Stanley, 34, was the coroner on night shift. About to leave for home, she is interrupted by an orderly who tells her, “we have another one”, one last patient. She instantly recognizes her “other one” as a dead rock star. She can be seen on the album's cover: dressed in a yellow overcoat and blue scarf, her eyes are distant, showing her final traumatic experience of the night.