Thursday 8 August 2019

zebra crossing

On this day in 1969, photographer Iain Macmillan staged the iconic image that would be used as the album cover for the Beatles Abbey Road, captured outside their recording studio.
Released in September of the same year, the picture fueled elaborate but false narrative that Paul McCartney had died and was replaced with an imposter (a conspiracy instigated by MI5 to shelter the public from trauma), and that the “funeral procession” was a sort of confession with McCartney barefoot and walking out of step with the other band members and holding a cigarette (often airbrushed out) in his right hand—whereas any fan would know him to be left-handed. Furthermore, the number plate of the white Volkswagen Beetle in the background behind George Harrison has the characters 28IF—supposedly representing McCartney’s age if he had lived.  The rumour is a persistent and perennial one.