Dear Sir McCartney,
I'm one of those who have been a lifelong admirer of your work, and have always found it to be a huge inspiration to me personally as well as inspiring to my own material.
I just want to say, there's something I'd like to give you an apology for. I know that sounds ridiculous coming from someone you don't know personally, but I think you'll appreciate it after you read what I have to share.
You see, back around the eighties or so I had first heard from a friend all that stuff about the so-called "ingenious marketing scheme" that The Beatles "did" regarding the whole "Paul is dead" scenario. At the time, I thought it fascinating and intriguing. And being in my teens, I had just assumed that that was precisely what it was, and thought, "That was clever of them".
When another close friend of mine showed me a Beatles book around late 1989 showing you and the others having your photos taken and you were wearing those red sandals/thongs that day, he explained to me, "Paul says here they weren't responsible for that". And he went on to share with me what the book said regarding it being some bizarre outsider coming up with the idea on their own. I certainly wasn't trying to be closeminded, either; during that same period I had also heard you explaining that The Beatles weren't responsible for the backwards bit on Sgt. Pepper, and I had taken you right at your word, thinking, "Maybe it was a secret prank by some engineer behind The Beatles' backs or something?"
Now please keep in mind, I was only about 20 at the time. When I heard that, I asked him, "Are you sure? It all seems too precise and well thought out." In my innocence I had had my doubts simply because the "clues" seemed to be so carefully placed (although at that age I hadn't yet heard the more ridiculous ones, such as the notches and crack in the stone wall picture on the back of Abbey Road, all the more extreme ones).
Well, soon afterward I began to get my footing as a professional artist... and the chaos began. I was shocked when for the next two decades I would have weirdos from all walks of life suddenly crawl out from under the woodwork making all sorts of accusations against me: anything I said, anything I did, anything I drew, simply because (a) I existed, and (b) I was an artist. It got extremely way out, and it really terrified me. I have been accused of everything from communism to sodomy to insanity, and absolutely every other evil thing in between, all for absolutely no reason at all. I had never been so terrified in my entire life. And I kept thinking, "Why me?"
And somewhere along the line after it was getting to be too much for me to handle, that's when I remembered the whole "Paul is dead" routine and your words on how you had sworn that neither you nor any of the other Beatles had ever personally started any of that. And then I got the Anthology book shortly after it was released, and as I read the entire recollection that the four of you were sharing regarding that whole situation, I was nodding this time and going, "Yeah, now I understand." I understand now all too well how nonsense like that can happen, and how terrifying it can really be.
So I just want to say, I'm very, very sorry that I ever doubted you. I know I didn't mean it wrongly, and that I had just misunderstood the situation, but still, I just wanted to share it with you.
Your lifelong friend,
Craig Carrington
P.S. Thank you for putting on the Amoeba Records show in Hollywood. It was the only time I had gotten to see you live, I was broke and because it was free I was one of those who had slept on the sidewalk overnight in my old Miami Vice shirt and jeans hoping to get in; I had never done anything like that before, and at one point some kind of reporter interviewed me asking what I would do to get in to see the show, and I had politely said in response that you had always loved animation and produced several remarkable works of your own and since I'm an animator that I would love to draw you some pictures. During the show, I was near a back corner, and I had waited in between songs for the crowd to calm down just long enough so that I could be heard when I called out a sincere, "Thank you, Paul". ;)
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