"The cigarette in the right hand" revisited

[65if2007]

Four men on the front of Abbey Road
Across a London Street
The first in white; the next in black; the third no shoes on feet.
A cigarette is dangling from the right hand of the dead.
McCartney was left-handed so everyone has said...

From "The Ballad of Paul", Magical Mystery Tour (the group not the album or the movie - 1969)


Those lyrics made me think a little.

It IS true -- as others have noted -- that vintage photos sometimes show the original JPM using his right hand to smoke, which might negate the importance of the left-hand/right-hand element.

It's ALSO true that since the photographer was shooting from the right side, it would make sense to hold the cigarette in the right hand simply to allow the cigarette to be seen.

And yet, Paul IS decked out like a corpse with the burial suit, the bare feet, and the eyes closed.

Maybe the important thing isn't what hand the cigarette is being held in but that it's there at all and that it's being held in the hand that will make it visible to those who see the picture.

American Heart Association warnings aside, the dead do not smoke -- not after they die anyway. Smoking is an activity that requires the volitional movement of one who is still alive.

Maybe the idea was never supposed to be "Paul's holding the cigarette in the wrong hand, so it couldn't really be him".

Maybe the message was just supposed to be, "A live man (i.e., one who is able to smoke) is assuming the role of one who is really dead".

[B]

Interesting observation. Maybe that was his 'last cigarette'.
I mean, maybe they're on their way to the hanging or whatever.

[iameye]

letterb1 said:

Interesting observation. Maybe that was his 'last cigarette'.
I mean, maybe they're on their way to the hanging or whatever.

or it's used as a pointer, as in hey, look at the pavement!

[65if2007]

letterb1 said:

Interesting observation. Maybe that was his 'last cigarette'.
I mean, maybe they're on their way to the hanging or whatever.

I don't think so. That wouldn't be consistent with the theme of the automobile accident.

[skyward]

The cigarette in the right-hand clue, to me, is irrelevant. I don't smoke, I write and throw with my right hand but if I smoked, I would hold it in my left hand, more often than not. I think it is because a person needs their main hand to do more active tasks while holding a cig is a passive task. Maybe it has to do with sports, like a right-handed hockey goalie who needs a glove on the left hand to catch the puck or a baseball player who uses a glove to catch a ball.

[MikeNL]

yeah, i'm a leftie myself.. and do everything with both hands.. only intensive tasks like writing is very hard with my right.. and i also can hold a sigarette in my right hand without even trying hard. altough i don't smoke anymore ;D

[65if2007]

Well again, I have decided that the hand in which the cigarette is being held is not important, but the cigarette itself might still be important.