Over my lengthy lifespan there have been some comments that I could pass for Paul McCartney.
The first time, it was pointed out by my 9-year-old nephew who saw Paul on the TV screen. He reacted instantly, “There’s a man who looks like Uncle Bob.” The image was gone before anyone noticed – except me. I was impressed with his insight.
The second time was about a dozen years ago in a Costco store in Ottawa. A nice-looking woman, squirming with excitement and with a voice sounding like a broken-down opera singer let out a scream, “You’re Paul McCartney. Can I have your autograph?” Others gathered around but correctly disclaimed I wasn’t the famous ‘one’. Remarks like, “He’s not sexy enough,” and “He looks more like Ringo than Paul,” and so on until I got away from them.
Whether people think we do or do not look alike there are many other comparisons between us to be made. We were both born in the British Commonwealth, he near Liverpool and I in Belleville. He had a younger brother Peter and mine was Doug. After the war both our father’s worked as machinists. His mother was a nurse. So was my oldest sister.
Paul McCartney in an interview with Playboy, 1984 said regarding his small hometown: The type of people that I came from, I never saw better! The people I met from Liverpool were not half as nice as of the people I know from my town, not important or famous but they were smart like my dad was smart. I mean, these are people who can just cut through problems like a hot knife through butter. The kind of people you who need in life – the salt of the earth.
When I read that I knew exactly what he meant. He took the words right out of my mouth. He could have easily been talking about Westmeath
.
McCartney is a largely self-taught musician, and his approach was described by a musicologist as “by nature drawn to music’s formal aspects yet wholly untutored and produced technically ‘finished’ work almost entirely by instinct, his harmonic judgement based mainly on perfect pitch and an acute pair of ears.” McCartney likened his approach to “the primitive cave artists, who drew without training.”
Admittedly, I have no talent for music whether its beating a drum or singing the ‘Oh Canada tune.’ But when it comes to writing stories or poems, talent comes to me as McCartney’s musical skills, ability without training whatsoever.
While at school during the 1950s, McCartney thrived at art assignments, often earning top accolades for his work. However, his lack of discipline negatively affected his academic grades. I earned top marks in math and spelling but also showed a lack of discipline.
When McCartney was a child, his mother encouraged him to read books. I started reading the same novels as my mother at the age of 13. Both our fathers influenced us to solve crossword puzzles in order to increase our word power.
[Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is a fictitious account originally published on the World News Daily Report website, an entertainment tabloid. Paul McCartney is still alive as of the time of this publication, and the story that he died in 1966 and was replaced is a confirmed hoax. Bob’s account is left as-submitted, with this note attached for clarification, and is paraphrased from the original parody article]
In an exclusive interview with the Hollywood Inquirer recently, Ringo Starr explained that the “real” Paul McCartney had died in a car crash on November 9, 1966, after an argument during a Beatles’ recording session.
To spare the public from grief, the Beatles replaced him with a man named William Shears Campbell, who was the winner of a McCartney look-alike contest and who happened to have the same kind of jovial personality as Paul. I was terribly irked to hear this. I might have been the look-alike to replace him but the need to be a musical guru would have killed that.
“When Paul died, we all panicked!” claims Ringo. Brian Epstein, our manager, suggested that we hire Billy Shears as a temporary solution. As time went by and nobody seemed to notice, we kept playing along. Billy turned out to be a pretty good musician and he was able to perform almost better than Paul.
“We felt guilty about the deception, but we were afraid of the reactions it would provoke,” added Ringo. “I was afraid the truth was going to die with me.”
I’m not sure if I had of died along the way, would someone have replaced me with my doppelganger?
