The Memoirs of Billy Shears: The Nine After 9-09 Edition
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The Memoirs of Billy Shears: The Nine After 9-09 Edition
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Narrated by:
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Gregory Paul Martin
About this listen
In 1969, a rumor erupted that Paul McCartney, “the cute Beatle”, had been replaced. Generations later, we see that the Beatles spent hundreds of hours making “Paul is Dead” clues but were required to deny it. What if “Billy Shears” really had replaced Paul and still plays that role today? How would he explain taking over the band?
The memoirs, from Billy Shears’ perspective, reveals his conflict with John but also his delight in working with “Fifth Beatle” George Martin. With a shared commitment to quality, innovation, and a global agenda, their work transformed the planet, leading us through a psychedelic revolution that changed how we see ourselves.
In July 2018 (28 months after George Martin passed away), his eldest son, Gregory Paul Martin, received an advance copy of the Nine After 9-09 Edition of the Memoirs of Billy Shears. He had known the Beatles’ original Paul since 1962 and still has dealings with “Sir Paul” today. Gregory generously found time in his overbooked schedule for this performance.
To record this significant book, he thought it fitting to use the original recording equipment that his father, George Martin, had used with the Beatles. Sitting at that same historic equipment to record the memoirs, Gregory sometimes felt that he, too, had become Paul. It felt uncanny.
Special thanks to sound engineers: William Shinker (British Grove Studios), Andy Cook (Red Planet Records), and Clint Ramon Harrigan (Ranch Trailing Post-Production).
The Memoirs of Billy Shears: Nine After 9-09 Edition is also available in hardcover, paperback, and as an e-book. Printed versions have footnotes, word-stacking, and the world’s longest acrostic. In the US, get the hardcover from www.BillyShears.com. Elsewhere, find the paperback via Amazon. Whatever you believe about Paul, let this performance take you on the Beatles fantasy of a lifetime. It is your ultimate magical mystery. With this view of the Beatles’ inner-workings, you, and their songs, may never be the same.
©2009 Thomas E. Uharriet (P)2018 Thomas E. UharrietListeners also enjoyed...
Thankyou Sir Paul McCartney!
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In this parallel, Paul McCartney dies in a car crash in late 1966 (11th September if you're American, 9th November if you're not). He is replaced by a near lookalike by the name of William Shepherd/Campbell (aka “Billy Shears”) who becomes an exact double after plastic surgery.
Now imagine you're this double. It’s well into the 21st Century and you've lived as McCartney more than twice as long as the ‘original' Paul. It’s time to set the record straight: to tell the world about The Beatles from 1967, the split, the rumours, Linda, Wings, John’s death, Linda’s death, and much more. You can't do this openly so you do it by means of the world’s longest poem, this memoir.
By the same confidentiality clause you can't even tell it straight, so you must put some fiction into the account so that the lawyers aren’t involved. What in this account is fiction and what is “fact” is never made clear, but some of the fictions are obvious:
1. You say you also played the part of Viv Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Band. As Stanshall’s life is independently verifiable, this is clearly fiction.
2. You say you were a far better musician (songwriter; singer) than Paul who mostly wrote ‘silly love songs’. This of course ignores the fact that the ‘original' Paul wrote I Saw Her Standing There, Can't Buy Me Love, Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, For No-one, Here There & Everywhere, so chalk this up as fiction.
3. You say Paul was deeply loved by the other 3 Beatles and his death left a huge hole that was not filled by the arrogant, ambitious, coercive, workaholic you. Again, there is no evidence of this, but there is evidence in our universe that even by Rubber Soul and Revolver, Paul - much more than the other three - was becoming quite deeply involved in the recording process, which in turn led to his becoming the de facto leader of the band after Epstein’s death.
4. You claim several leading artists of the day were also “in the know”, and made references to it in some of their work. ‘Mellow Yellow’ (Donovan), ‘Ruby Tuesday’, ‘We Love You’, and other songs by The Stones, ‘’I Can See For Miles’, Won't Get Fooled Again' (The Who). There is no independent evidence for any of this, so again… fiction!
You serve up some content with a knowing smile, for example the chapters on numerology, and the mentions of the Illuminati so beloved of conspiracy theorists. I get the impression we are quite possibly meant to take these as fictional?
Your thesis that Paul died and that you - similar in some ways but very different in others - replaced him in autumn 1966, is made much more believable by the fact that The Beatles stopped touring in late summer 1966; that they became in effect a very different band from then on - studio-based, not touring, and as individuals all looking completely transformed and thus different from the moptops who went on tour. In our universe (but not the parallel, in which 'anything goes') how much more convincing it is to promote a 'Paul Is Dead' myth that dates from exactly then and not before or after?
Talking of conspiracy theories, many of the ‘Paul Is Dead’ clues have now been discredited, so you acknowledge a lot of these ‘from a distance’. To give one example, the OPD patch Paul wears on the sleeve of Sgt Pepper’s (‘Officially Pronounced Dead’) is now known to be OPP (Ontario Provincial Police), so you say that you leant forward so that it LOOKED like OPD.
Anyway. Throw in a lot of additional typically Paul psychology and philosophy of life, gleaned no doubt from many sources, and here you are: the Memoirs of Billy Shears.
Is there any truth in it? Of course. Paul is on record since 1966 for much more than before that year, so a lot of it is uncontroversial. As for the rest of it - that’s for you, dear reader, to decide.
(Audio footnote: there are many ‘drop outs’, the majority only very brief, but it can make the listening experience confusing at times.
George Martin’s son Gregory, who does the reading, does give a passable imitation of McCartney; not unnervingly close but acceptable.)
What if...?
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Brilliant .
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This is the book that finally woke me up!
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