Paul is Dead: The Clash of Beatles Music, Drugs, and Conspiracy Theories in the Chaotic 1960s

From Introduction: 'After their beginnings in the late 1950s, the English band the Beatles came of age during the 1960s, a decade when psychedelic frenzy, Cold War paranoia, and anti-establishment sentiment had ripened American consciousness enough for unbelievable conspiracy theories to take hold (1). These came to include a rumor that Paul McCartney, one of the four Beatles, had died in a car accident and been replaced by a lookalike on November 9, 1966. In 2009, Time magazine included the “Paul is dead” rumor in a list of the world’s most enduring ten conspiracy theories (2). This theory took off as the band went through a rough patch and its members started consuming drugs, particularly LSD. The lyrics and form of their initially carefree music had begun to change to include darker, frenzied undertones, and even senseless words. Against a backdrop of paranoia-inducing McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s, speculation about John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, and new Illuminati conspiracies in the 1960s, Beatlemaniacs were led down a speculative path. In the band’s album covers and songs, Beatles fans frantically searched for clues that supposedly confirmed Paul’s death. The chaotic influence of drugs in songs during the 1960s and an anti-establishment sentiment combined to have an immense impact on the popular American consciousness that was more eager than ever to hold on to just about anything, as evidenced by the widespread belief that one of the most famous people in the world had died and was being impersonated.'