Episode #82 | 6.15.21
Paul McCartney: Paul Is Dead, Smuggling Drugs and Composing the World’s Most Beloved Songs
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In this episode
Despite his reputation as “the safe Beatle,” Paul McCartney was a badass. He took wild artistic risks, rubbed elbows with truly dangerous characters and because of his crimes, did hard time in one of the world’s most notorious prisons. His public spats with Beatles bandmate John Lennon are the stuff of legend, as is the “Paul is dead” conspiracy at the end of their time together as a band, but the truth may be even stranger.
Sources
Washington Post: The Fullest Biography of Paul McCartney Ever
The Guardian: Paul McCartney: The Biography by Philip Norman - Review
Paul McCartney: The Life, by Philip Norman
The Lives of John Lennon, by Albert Goldman
Last Days of John Lennon, by Frederic Seaman
Bradley Calvin, Medium: How Sir Paul McCartney Endured Prison and Other Hardships
The U.S. vs John Lennon, directed by David Leaf & John Scheinfeld
Imagine: John Lennon, directed by Andrew Solt
Tokyo Weekender: “The Conditions are Barbaric”: Real Stories from Japan’s ‘Hostage Justice’ System
Human Rights Watch: Prison Conditions in Japan
UK420: 40 Years Ago: Paul McCartney Busted for Growing Cannabis
Celeb Stoner: Paul McCartney and Marijuana
John Lennon & Yoko Ono - The Mike Douglas Show 17/02/1972
Miami Herald: Drugs, protests and mass arrests. What happened last time Miami hosted a convention?
Politico: Demonstrators Disrupt Republican National Convention, Aug. 22, 1972
Wikipedia: Band on the Run / Commercial performance
Wikipedia: Paul McCartney discography
Beatles Bible: Paul McCartney is Arrested in Japan for Marijuana Possession
The State: The legendary Strom Thurmond
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Music
Score by Jake Brennan.
Mixed and Engineered by Sean Cahalin.
Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak