The Abbey Road billboard on Sunset

Billboard, Sunset Strip, LA. Photo: Robert Landau.

During research about the Abbey Road cover today, for inclusion on our ever expanding The Road Goes On Forever page, I came across this funny tidbit. Back in 1969, a huge billboard was erected on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles to advertise the album. Shortly after its construction, some prankster climbed atop the structure and cut Paul’s head off.

Billboard, Sunset Strip, LA. Photo: Robert Landau.

When Los Angeles author Robert Landau first published his book about classic rock ‘n’ roll billboards of the Sunset Strip, he made his readers an offer: pass along any info on the whereabouts of Paul McCartney’s head and you’ll get a free signed copy of his book. More than four decades later, that prankster, now in his 60s, contacted Landau. “He took it when he was 16, and it was still hanging in his living room,” joked Landau, who traveled to the man’s home in the San Fernando Valley to pose with Paul in 2012.

Landau with Paul’s head.

Source: Wehoville.com and LA Observed

6 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    What a find! Brilliant!
    Reminds me of then I came out of a pub in Bristol UK about 20 years ago to see a guy finishing off putting up a three sheet of the wide 'Paul Is Live' advertisement on a hoarding. I decided to remove the one that was still wet (showing the '51 IS' volkswagen) and take it home and it still goes from residence to residence with me today!

  2. Unknown says:

    haha awesome story and pics!

  3. wogew says:

    I so wanted that poster. They had one in a shop window in Oslo in 1993 and I asked at the counter if I could have it when they were finished with it. So they wrote my name and phone on the back of the poster and I never heard from them.

  4. Hey guys, please check out this Beatles Abbey Rd. Cover: Mean Mr. Mustard – Polythene Pam – She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BchfxFUD66s

  5. Hey guys, please check out this “The Beatles – Yesterday” cover by The Long Distance Band

  6. Hey guys, please check out this “The Beatles – Yesterday” cover by The Long Distance Band
    https://youtu.be/7_0pYwziT1g

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