Paul is Dead, You Know

Contributed by Jon Bryant

Yesterday, I was viewing the famous "LSD" interview clip with Faul [McCartney] from June 1967.  One thing I noticed was Faul using the phrase "y' know" a LOT.  In fact, I timed Faul's responses during that brief clip, which totaled 1:49.  During that time, Faul uttered "y'know" twenty-one times.

Then I looked at a clip from JPM's [James Paul McCartney] BBC interview of 1966.  I chose that for a comparison since it was a similarly relaxed, one-on-one interview in addition to being close to the time of The Switch.  I timed 1:49 of Paul's responses from the middle of the eight-minute interview.  During that 1:49 segment, Paul used "y'know" only nine times.

Maybe the difference means nothing, but I would think speech mannerisms are habitual -- and a more than 100% increase in "y'knows" in less that a year seems significant to me. 

Faul "LSD" Interview (6/1967):  

Paul's BBC Interview (5/2/66):   (The 1:49 segment I used was from about the mid-point of the video).