09 August 2009

Can Touring Kill You?

Apparently, the stage is a dangerous place. In the span of a week, two guys I like fell out onstage and required medical attention, Drake (further injuring his knee in which he had already torn three ligaments and speeding up his surgery date) and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler (well, he fell off the stage in South Dakota) and neither man can continue touring for the time being. I remember Jim James tumbling off last year when he was performing with My Morning Jacket, not to mention that incident with Bret Michaels at the Tonys earlier this summer.

At least everyone is okay.

Unlike, say, Paul McCartney. Well, that's according to all those conspiracy theorists in the '60s who insisted that Macca had died sometime after the Beatles had stopped touring in '66 and the group and their management were trying to cover up his untimely demise, but not without leaving a set of clues for the fans to follow.
Of course.
Because anyone would leave a set of clues behind deliberately when they are trying to keep something like that on the low.
Anyway, I bring this up because the cover photo for the album Abbey Road played a substantial part in the "Paul is Dead" thing and this weekend was the 40th anniversary of the cover shoot.

According to the urban legend, the Abbey Road cover proved that Paul was really dead because he's the only barefoot Beatle (just like a corpse would be) and the license plate on the car on the back cover is "28 IF," as in Paul would have been 28 that year if he had not perished. Macca himself has said that he merely took off his sandals that day because it was hot outside. But what does he know? He's been dead for over 40 years!

Here's a compilation of clues that fans have "discovered" over the years in order to prove the theory.

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