Customer Reviews

The Walrus Was Paul: The Great Beatle Death Clues

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In total, this isn't an irresponsible examination of the hoax, but the book's pacing is unsteady, it seems that Patterson believes the hype a bit too much, offering links and connections that neither engage the reader nor make much sense. I'm sorry--the bare feet on McCartney's "Off the Ground" album are not related to Paul's barefoot stroll across Abbey Road. Fans of the Paul death clues should be prepared for outlandish theories, I suppose, but many examples in the book simply prove how far some people will go to see what they want to see, to believe what they want to believe--and you can't help but feel like an outsider as a result.

The book is peppered with neat summaries of non-death-clue-related Beatles history along the way (which turn out to be more enjoyable, smooth reading than anything else), but they do sidetrack the Paul-is-dead narrative somewhat, and eventually the book degenerates into a psuedo-religious, semi-sociological essay. The repeated first-person voice/name dropping ("My good friend so-and-so gave me an interview...") shifts focus from subject to author in a most jarring fashion.

The topic is worthy of examination and Patterson does sometimes hit his stride, but as a whole the book falters. A less critical/more tongue-in-cheek look (or, perhaps, a shorter book) would have been welcomed. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

There is some interesting information contained in this book. I had heard most of the "death clues" given in this book when I was in high school (over 20 years ago) but it was interesting to have them brought to my attention again, especially now that my daughter is interested in the Beatles and was curious about the album cover photography. The most interesting material in the book was about how the rumors got their start in Detroit and spread like wildfire through the radio and then the print media. The history of this rumor would certainly suggest that the news industry hasn't changed all that much in 40 years.
My biggest difficulty with this book is the writing. I would say that the problem is with the editing but it would appear that a competent editor never saw the manuscript before publication. Most sentences are incoherent and awkward. Thoughts are suggested in one sentence and dropped in the next. In fact, the author seems incapable of completing one line of thought before continuing on to the next. Finally, the organization of the book would seem to be chronological but in fact is anything but logical.
I would recommend this book for the content but certainly not for the delivery of that content.

Don't waste your money on this poorly written book. Doing a quick search online for "Paul Is Dead clues" will unearth everything that's in this book and then some. R. Gary Patterson goes way beyond the beyond to provide "newer" clues that don't even make sense in the context of the originals. Be prepared to read this book once and then let it collect dust, or give it away to someone who needs to kill an hour. There are much better resources to give you a Paul Is Dead fix than this book.

This is not a serious examination of the "Paul is Dead" clues and should not be mistaken for one. The credibility of the book is nil because it is full of obvious factual errors such as...

Pg 14: Glen Campbell spells his name with one "n" not two. It's Bruce Johnston with a "t". Page 65: Though an early working title for the Stones lp was possibly Her Satanic Majesty's Request, the actual title of the final release was Their Satanic Majesties' Request. (Neither title makes a whole helluva lotta sense)

Pg 21: Robert Fraser is misidentified as a "photographer," when in fact he was Paul's heroin-addicted gallery owner friend, a business partner with the actual photographer for the Sgt Pepper sessions, Michael Cooper. All this is detailed in the book, Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, released after Patterson's book, but Cooper is clearly noted as photographer on the back cover of Sgt Pepper!

Pg 27: Though Lennon may've said that Paul's major contribution to "A Day in the Life" was the "I'd love to turn you on" bit, surely his major contribution is the well-known middle eight, the "woke up, fell out of bed" bit. Paul wrote that exclusive of John and Paul sings it.

Pg 40: The assertion that it "took a full night" to record the "inner groove" is wrong. It was a fairly quick effort on Friday 21 April, part of a session that also included mono mixing for "Only a Northern Song." Surely the mixing took up most of the time. Why, when Patterson's own bibliography lists the Lewisohn book, The Beatles Recording Sessions (univerally admired for its accuracy), did he go to the suspect Dowlding for the lowdown on this issue? (See page 109 of Lewisohn).

Pgs 99-100: The Question and Answer session described as a "press conference" is no such thing. Those questions and the answers were authored by Paul McCartney as part of a promotional insert given away with some early copies of the McCartney lp. There was no real press conference, just a self-serving fake one by a recently solo Beatle.

There's too much reliance here on bad secondary and tertiary sources, and no fact checking. It's just plain awful. This odd pop culture phenomenon deserves better treatment. (Comments are based on an earlier edition by Dowling Press)

This book is shallow in its research, without even bothering to dig up the real story by conducting hours of interviews with the people involved in the "Paul-Is-Dead" rumor. Even the "quiz" at the top of this page is rife with errors---the title of the book, THE WALRUS WAS PAUL, refers specifically to the song "Glass Onion" (of which it is a key line), not "I Am the Walrus". If you really want to learn about the history of this rumor and its place in rock history, the book to buy is Andru Reeve's TURN ME ON, DEAD MAN, also available through Amazon.Com--- It's the superior tome.

In was in October of 1969 that American radio spread the incredible news that Paul McCartney "may" have been killed in a car crash and his place taken by an imposter. Like many others who lived this the first time around, I spent many hours in my dorm room playing my Beatles records backwards and caught up in the "Paul is Dead" hysteria. This book takes me back to those magical days as each chapter reveals many of the clues I grew up with. What was fascinating to me is how many clues I missed!! It is true that there are several websites that include photographs from this work along with the author's anaylsis ( in particular the bass drum clue from the Sgt. Pepper's LP).

If you are just discovering the "Paul is dead" phenomena for the first time you are in for a treat. All the clues are contained in an appendix along with a quiz to test your knowledge of one of the greatest myths of all time. The author is also a fascinating radio guest and is capable of keeping me up all night long listening to his stories of rock and myth. Pick this book up. You'll enjoy it!

This book is very well written. I never dreamed there were so many clues to the "Paul is dead phenonmena! The color photos are great, (especially the secret message in the Sgt. Pepper's drum skin!) and the 'clues' are arranged in chronological order. I couldn't put this book down! I bet you won't be able to either!

This is a cute little book for any Beatles fan, assuming you don't take the whole "paul is dead" thing seriously. There is some intresting Beatles history, and the book even talks a little about Charles Manson, which is on the subject of hidden messages.

As far as rating the book goes, I gave it 3 stars for two reasons. First of all, like I said, it's a cute little book. To rate more than 3 stars (for me anyway) a book needs to more than "cute" and more than 208 pages (which includes the bibliography). Second, I feel there should have been a few more pictures in the book. If you are going to talk about pictures on the cover of the Yellow Submarine, show what it is you are talking about.

Other than those two things, it's a good read for an airplane, a long afternoon, or something like that.

I remember being a little boy when my Mom told me all about the "Paul is dead" rumors, and I've always been fascinated by the odd clues in the songs and album art of The Beatles. The book is a brisk read, written in a fun, breezy style, and there's a color insert so you can see pictures of most of the visual clues described in the book.

It seems too coincidental to me that all of these clues were accidents or misinterpretations; I tend to believe that this was a big joke between John and Paul, and that after the Manson killings it was decided to just keep mum about it; After all, it did sell albums...

It was also fun to show my mom clues that she wasn't aware of. And just try to read the book and NOT go running out to buy some Beatles CD's.....

I am a huge Beatle Buff and when it came to my senior class project I knew it would be about the Paul is Dead hoax. The first thing I bought was this book and I used it as a mjor resource for my report. Not only is it well written but provides massive amounts of information relating to the hoax. Definitely a good read for any fan of the group, Paul, or conspiracy theories!