As Halloween sneaks up on us, I think an eerie piece of news regarding the potential death of a rock n’roll icon would be an appropriate way to get into the mood for this holiday (which originally was about communicating with the dead, ironically enough).
On September 1st, Highway 61 Entertainment released a documentary entitled Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison. Director Joel Gilbert, (Atomic Jihad, Bob Dylan Never Ending Tour Diaries), has put together a film narrated by “George Harrison” through casettes that were apparently sent to the production company, with no return address, in 2005. On these tapes “George Harrison” validates the old conspiracy theory that first surfaced in 1969, three years after the bassist’s famous car accident in 1966.
It is explained in the documentary that after Paul’s alleged death, British intelligence, MI5, introduced a Paul McCartney lookalike to prevent the mass suicides of Beatles superfans worldwide. Whether the voice of the narrator is actually George Harrison’s or not, the speaker provides new evidence and explains clues that the band tried to share with fans regarding the death of his band-mate in some of the band’s song lyrics and album artwork, among other things. In the film, “George Harrison” even claims that John Lennon was assassinated in 1980 only after becoming too careless about concealing this secret, having threatened to expose the truth about Paul’s death to the public.
In my opinion, I think the whole concept behind this conspiracy theory is kind of foolish, but according to people I know who have seen the documentary, it exposes aspects of this rumour that were once overlooked. Who really knows what happened, anyway? Maybe “Saint Paul” really was a tribute to McCartney after his passing, and the album cover of Abbey Road really does symbolize a funeral procession with Paul as the deceased. Either way, Paul McCartney Really is Dead: the Last Testament of George Harrison has been shown in select cities and is now available on DVD and digitally (through pay-per-view/on-demand providers) in Canada and the US. The DVD will be released with Weinerworld LTD in Great Britain, France, Ireland and Spain on October 4th, allowing people worldwide to draw their own conclusions to the mystery of whether or not Paul McCartney really is dead.
