four thousand holes in blackburn, lancashire
For a summer between 5th and 6th grade I was obsessed with the 'Paul is dead' myth. I think this was sort of a high point in the deep reading of bands, and the epitome of the (critically endangered) dialectic that bands once had with their fans. The story still impresses me because of the amount of textual spadework--interpretation of obscure symbolism, sussing lyrical interreferentiality, and just even technical analysis--their audience was engaged in. The fans are not engaged in a futile, Baudrillardian, cataloging of free floating signifiers...seeing meaning where there is none...but there is actually a great dialogue that goes on over years between the band (who love wordplay and clever studio editing etc) and completely obsessed fans.
Friday was the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The cover is one of the most paul-is-dead-symbolism-laden pieces. Besides the fact that it's shot at the edge of a freshly dug grave, other details people have pointed out: the yellow flowers are in the shape of a bass, with three rather than four strings, and are arranged to spell 'PAUL?'; some people have interpreted the statue in the foreground to be the Hindu goddess Kali the destroyer, and she is pointing one hand at Paul and the other at a wax figure of him; if you place a mirror horizontally across the midline of 'Lonely Hearts' on the drum, you will see 1 ONE I X HE ^ DIE....of course endlessly interpretable. Crazy stuff for sure...but sometimes I wish a band still engaged us in this kind of meta-hoax-art game.
Friday was the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The cover is one of the most paul-is-dead-symbolism-laden pieces. Besides the fact that it's shot at the edge of a freshly dug grave, other details people have pointed out: the yellow flowers are in the shape of a bass, with three rather than four strings, and are arranged to spell 'PAUL?'; some people have interpreted the statue in the foreground to be the Hindu goddess Kali the destroyer, and she is pointing one hand at Paul and the other at a wax figure of him; if you place a mirror horizontally across the midline of 'Lonely Hearts' on the drum, you will see 1 ONE I X HE ^ DIE....of course endlessly interpretable. Crazy stuff for sure...but sometimes I wish a band still engaged us in this kind of meta-hoax-art game.
'Paul is Dead' [wiki]
