"Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," on side one, introduces "the one and only Billy Shears," which could be the Beatles' way of introducing an addition (LaBour's William Campbell) to the old group.

Magical Mystery Tour came next. People musing on Paul's death have hit upon the walrus- an animal featured in the album- as a symbol of death. One Beatle is portrayed in a walrus suit on the front cover, and the song "I Am the Walrus" ends side one. LaBour made the unsubstantiated assertion in his story that "walrus" means "corpse" in Greek- somehow. It has also been rumored that the walrus is an Eskimo symbol of death, but LaBour says that he has studied the Eskimos and knows of no such symbol.

ON THE inside cover of Magical Mystery Tour is a reference to "4 or 5 Magicians" - i.e., John, George, Ringo, Campbell (or manager Martin) and, if you're counting dead people, Paul. On page three of the inside picture section Paul (or Paul's double- get it?) is pictured above a large sign saying, "I You Was." A bizarre picture on page five includes surgeons and policemen- "both involved in Paul's car crash," according to LaBour.

Paul is pictured in black trousers and no shoes on pages 10 and 13 of the section, and, according to LaBour, "dead men are buried in black trousers and without shoes." Also on page 13, there are a pair of empty shoes to Paul's left, which, LaBour wrote, "were a Grecian symbol of death." Paul is holding, a wreath on page 24, in addition to wearing a black carnation.

"The Story of the Magical Mystery Tour," printed inside the album, says on page nine, "Meanwhile PAUL BEGINS TO DAYDREAM. His thoughts fly FAR AWAY. He is standing high up on a warm, grassy hill... SUDDENLY Paul's day-dreaming is over." And the songs on the album include "Strawberry Fields Forever" ("I buried Paul") and "I Am the Walrus." The latter song ends with a quote from King Lear- "Is he dead? Sit you down, father, rest you" -and includes, according to LaBour, "the radio broadcast that never took place announcing Paul's death to the world."

IT IS VERY difficult to draw clues from the plain white cover of The Beatles, the group's next album, although an expert at the Paul game might suggest that the blankness represents Paul's mind just after the fatal accident. The words, however, are loads of fun.

Beatle diggers have always assumed that "Dear Prudence," the second song on the album, refers to Mia Farrow's sister. But LaBour wrote that "John called McCartney 'Prudence' back in the old days..." And so we come to the part of the Paul game which involves interpreting song lyrics, far from being obvious clues in themselves, within the framework of Paul's being dead. The reinterpreted lyrics seem quite eerie: "Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play... greet the brand new day... open up your eyes... see the sunny skies... Dear Prudence, won't you let me see you smile?"

"Glass Onion" is better as a clue container, because in it the Beatles are obviously trying to say something about Paul. "I told you about the walrus and me, man, you know that we're as close as can be, man. Well, here's another clue for you all; the walrus was Paul." And "the fool on the hill," identified with Paul on page 9 of the Magical Mystery Tour picture section, is "living there still." (Note the laudable technique of using reference material from two different albums.) "Lady Madonna trying to make ends meet" could refer to the new Paul.

Also taking on extra significance is "While My Guitar Gently Weeps": "I don't know how you were diverted; you were perverted, too [remember the homosexuality business]. I don't know how you were inverted; no one alerted you." In "I'm So Tired" the Beatles sing, "You'd say I'm putting you on, but it's no joke, it's doing me harm." And my roommate looked up "Gideon" -mentioned in "Rocky Raccoon" -in his Smith's Bible Dictionary (p. 210), and found a reference to "the reluctant Asher."

"Don't Pass Me By," of course, can be interpreted as a painfully obvious reference to Paul's death: "I'm sorry that I doubted you; I was so unfair. You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair." "Revolution Number Nine," the strangest cut on the album, includes a backwards tape which repeats the words, "Turn me on, dead man," according to LaBour.

"Find me in my field of grass," the Beatles sing in "Mother Nature's Son." And, in the picture collage included with the words to The Beatles there is a very strange picture, in the upper left corner, of Paul's head lying in a pool of water. There is also a weird photograph, not far from the lower right corner, in which a bespectacledman seems to be threatening a shuttered Paul.

THE FRONT cover of Abbey Road, the Beatles' most recent album, shows the group walking across the street, possibly from a cemetery, Paul is the only one barefoot and is the only one out of step; here is another good clue that the Beatles are trying to single out McCartney. The license plate on the Volkswagen behind George has the number 28IF. This is significant because it means that Paul would be 28 years old today IF he were alive, and would be even more significant if it were true, which it is not, since Paul would actually only be 27 if he were alive, or is 27, or something.

It has also been tossed around that Paul's profile is visible as a superimposition on the girl in blue pictured on Abbey Road's back cover. This clue, however, is far from being obvious, and possibly should be tossed away.

"Come Together." the first song on the album, can really seem strange if looked at the right way. One of the possible explanations for the Beatles' "preoccupation with Paul's death." according to John J. Small. coordinator of WKNR-FM, is that "Lennon is a self-proclaimed Jesus Christ who has devised a scheme to make the world come together over Paul." And so: "One and one and one is three [not four]; got to be good-looking cause he's so hard to see. Come together... over me."

LaBour also mentioned that "Octopus's Garden," on side one, is a British cemetery for naval heroes, and that "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" "is Lennon wrestling with Paul. trying to pull him out of the earth." And in "Oh! Darling," the "Oh! Darling"'s sound a lot like "Oh! Johnny"'s and the words include. "I broke down and died."