CLARIFICATIONS / CORRECTIONS

The author John Higgs told me that it’s often the subject you’re closest to that you mess the facts up on. This is the case with the Beatles. So here we go… 

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I say that McCartney discovered (then forgot) the meaning of life while high on LSD, I mistook the parties - he was with Bob Dylan and he was on pot at the time. Apologies to Sir Paul. I thought it was LSD as the meaning of life feels more in line with someone that high, not pot high.

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I accidentally mix up the conspiracy theorists I was mentioning when referring to McCartney’s attempt to pen a soundtrack for the JFK Documentary. I say Richard Groden, but I meant Mark Lane. Groden was on my mind because I was at last minute going to include more about the JFK murders. My theory being that the reason it was so prominent in pop culture was thanks to comedians. The first time the famous Zapruda footage was shown on national TV, Groden was joined by Dick Gregory, the brilliant stand-up. Mort Sahl - one of the top satirists of his day - even quit performing for a while to help Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner in the Oliver Stone JFK movie) to do research to prove his case. Bill Hicks is the one who I first saw talking about it who got me into it when I was a teen. His stand-up routine I reckon re-ignited a lot of people's scepticism towards it. Certainly of my generation. And Richard Belzer, a very big stand-up in the 80s and 90s in America, wrote a book that included huge claims, saying that the Lee Harvey Oswald that they buried was shorter than the real Lee Harvey Oswald. And then these days you have people like Joe Rogan giving lots of space to it on his show with guests like Oliver Stone. I don’t know if Rogan believes it, or just like me, finds it all fascinating. 

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Outside of comedians the most interesting thing to me about the accusations of an inside job comes from JFK’s secretary. Here is a list she wrote (originally spotted thanks to the website Letters of Note:)

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DEAR X

Lyndon –

KKK –

Dixiecrats –

Hoffa –

John Birch Society

Nixon

Diem

Rightist

CIA in Cuban fiasco

Dictators

Communists

These names were jotted down onboard Air Force One, only a few hours after JFK had been assassinated. The list’s compiler was Evelyn Lincoln - it was a list of the potential murderers. 

Lincoln (no relation to Abraham) was in the same motorcade as JFK. Years later, she would scribble on the back of the sheet: “There is no end to the list of suspected conspirators to Pres. Kennedy murder. Many factions had their reasons for wanting the young president dead. That fact alone illustrates how the world suffers from a congenital proclivity to violence.”

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Lincoln sold a lot of the archive material, paper and objects that were entrusted to her by Jacqueline Onasis. 

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BACKMASKING

This was a dumb mistake. When writing about backmasking, I confused the technique as being applicable to putting instruments backwards too. Hence when I gave examples. I said ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘I’m Only Sleeping’. What I should have said was ‘Rain’ and ‘Revolution 9’. I am thoroughly embarrassed by this mistake.

CALIFORNIA BILL 

Sometimes, while writing this book, I have been fooled by good sources. It turns out that the bill in California to make backmasking illegal without a sticker, was proposed but not passed. In most cases I have good sources for the mistakes I’ve made. Here are my sources for my incorrect facts. 

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PHILIP K DICK

Apologies to the Dickheads out there (this is the nickname fans of Dick have given themselves). I say he wrote hundreds of short stories. I meant all his other writings, including non-fiction and screen plays. He actually only wrote 121 short stories. Also, I say that when he had the Beatles infused message this was the first time that he was transmitted this alien knowledge. The Beatles encounter happened at another later time.