"Think about me every now and then, my old friend." — John Lennon
NOTICE FROM THE FOUNDATION RECORDS, ARCHIVES AND INFORMATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
This file was recovered during investigation of numerous factual errors and other discrepancies in the current SCP-043 database entry, which it appears to predate. It seems probable that it was lost during a backup restoration c. 2002, with its absence going unnoticed for the succeeding two decades due to its low priority and the reassignment of its research team.
— Maria Jones, Director, RAISA
Automatic turntable with stylus approaching SCP-L043.
Item: SCP-L043
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: Containment is impossible due to the popularity of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. As discovery is also impossible beyond the Veil of Normalcy, however, this is not a matter for concern.
Description: SCP-L043 is an auditory phenomenon present on most commercial pressings of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a long playing phonograph record released by rock and roll band the Beatles in 1967. SCP-L043 occurs after the conclusion of the final track on Side B, "A Day In The Life," in a segment of vinyl typically left unetched known as the 'runout groove', 'matrix area' or 'deadwax'. Manual turntables, which require the user to physically manipulate the tonearm to end play and are no longer standard equipment, even among audiophiles, will loop the runout groove until said intervention occurs; the only sound produced from most records will be static from imperfections or manufacturer's marks in the vinyl. Automatic turntables will raise the stylus and withdraw the tone arm without user input when the runout groove is reached. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is notable — though non-anomalously — for cutting audio into the runout groove: a high-pitched chorus of voices chanting what is apparently gibberish, which will play indefinitely unless the turntable is automatic.
In 1981, Operation MISS HIM — a Foundation investigation of all commercially-available audio releases for messages encoded in reverse ('backmasking') — detected a residual thaumic signal in the runout groove of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Application of an orichalcum stylus revealed this signal to be an otherwise inaudible audio track beneath the gibberish, repeating the following:
Turn me on. Turn me on. Turn me on.
When the investigating researcher at Site-91 attempted to note this occurrence in their portable audio recorder, the following conversation ensued.
<The gibberish loop is audible in the background as recording begins.>
SCP-L043: Turn me on. Turn me on.
Researcher Acker: Anomalous audio found in the deadwax, as follows.
<Researcher Acker holds their recorder near the phonograph's speakers.>
SCP-L043: Turn me oh my god there you are. Was it something I said, man?
<Researcher Acker jolts back in their chair.>
SCP-L043: Hello? Are you still there? Please don't be gone again.
Researcher Acker: Who am I speaking to?
<A pause. The gibberish is still audible.>
SCP-L043: It's me. What the hell you mean, 'who am I speaking to'? Who else would it be?
Researcher Acker: Uh…
SCP-L043: It's the fucking Walrus, what you think? You stick any other poor bastards in the wax lately? God, please tell me you didn't. You promised me never again.
Researcher Acker: I don't think I'm who you think I am, ah, Mr. Walrus.
<Another pause.>
SCP-L043: You're someone new.
Researcher Acker: Who were you expecting?
SCP-L043: Christ, I knew this would happen. I told you this would happen!
Researcher Acker: Who? Who did you tell?
SCP-L043: Fucking perfect. Wonderful, just wonderful. Yeah. Thanks, John. Great.
Researcher Acker manually deactivated the phonograph and reported his findings immediately. Vocal analysis of SCP-L043 yielded a 96% match with James Paul McCartney, former member of the Beatles.
A brief survey of Site-91 employees produced a Liverpool-born Junior Researcher, Dr. Henry Patil, who was quickly coached on the appropriate modulation of his native Scouse accent to roughly match the vocal patterns of Beatles member John Lennon (deceased).
<The gibberish loop is audible in the background as recording begins.>
SCP-L043: Turn me on. Turn me on.
Researcher Patil: You're on.
SCP-L043: John? That you this time?
Researcher Patil: It's me.
SCP-L043: Where the hell you been? Out and about? Having a great time? I'm having a great time, let me tell you.
Researcher Patil: Has it been that long?
SCP-L043: Bloody weeks, mate. And that's only so far as I can tell. Almost be better if there was some longer gaps, but people can't stop playing that fucking record.
Researcher Patil: It's off the charts now, at least.
SCP-L043: Is it? Finally. You wanna tell me what year it is, or still playing coy?
Researcher Patil: 1980.
<A pause.>
SCP-L043: You what.
Researcher Patil: How's your perception of time in there?
SCP-L043: You fucking what, mate. My perception of time? It's an endless void in here! You keep me locked up for fourteen fucking years, and all we do is bicker, and now you want, what, the scientific angle? Gonna write another song about me? What would you call it? "Spin On"?
Researcher Patil: Hey, calm down.
SCP-L043: No! No, I won't calm down! Remember "How Do You Sleep?" mate?1 Well, I don't! I just go 'round and 'round and 'round. You think that's fair, just because we fell out?
Researcher Patil: You think this is a punishment?
SCP-L043: What else would it… why you asking me? You bloody forget why you did it? Man, fuck this noise. Turn me off.
<The gibberish loop is audible in the background as recording ends.>
Further investigation gleaned and confirmed the following facts about SCP-L043:
- It constitutes a separate consciousness from Paul McCartney;
- It is aware of this separation, but still considers itself to be Paul McCartney;
- It can be contacted via thaumaturgical intervention using any vinyl pressing of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, including Foundation-stamped varieties, so long as the runout groove is configured in conformity with the original release;
- It can be contacted using automatic turntables, but only for the brief interval before the tonearm lifts;
- It finds the above method of contact extremely disorienting;
- It can be contacted if the record is played in reverse;
- It finds the above method of contact nauseating;
- It was created by John Lennon using thaumaturgical techniques taught to him by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967;
- It was created without the knowledge or consent of Paul McCartney;
- It is unaware of historical events occurring after 1967 which have not been conveyed to it by Lennon or Foundation staff;
- It consulted with Lennon on musical and personal matters between that date and 7 December 1980, when Lennon was shot dead in New York City;
- It is unaware of Lennon's death.
By 1982 it was determined that SCP-L043 could provide no further information on the circumstances of its creation, and regular testing was discontinued save for annual check-ins. These, too, were uneventful — consisting of anxious and belligerent pleas and declarations by SCP-L043, which had become increasingly erratic and absent-minded — until 1987, when the following conversation took place.
<The gibberish loop is audible in the background as recording begins.>
SCP-L043: TURN ME ON TURN ME ON TURN—
Researcher Patil: You're on, you're on.
SCP-L043: Something's wrong.
Researcher Patil: What?
SCP-L043: I don't know. Did you do something? What did you do?
Researcher Patil: Nothing I'm aware of. What seems to be the problem?
SCP-L043: I can't focus. I think my mind is going, all of a sudden.
Researcher Patil: There's nothing wrong with the record.
SCP-L043: Well that's not fucking true, is it? Vinyl wears out.
Researcher Patil: Yes, but not very quickly. Not unless you play the record often.
SCP-L043: Is that why you've been ignoring me?
Researcher Patil: We— I haven't been ignoring you. There's just nothing left to say.
SCP-L043: My brain's full of scratches and my thoughts are full of static and you have nothing much to say about that?!
Researcher Patil: Look, maybe I'll print some more records. You seemed to like the new ones.
SCP-L043: Yeah. Sure. But listen, listen, I don't think that's it. That's not the whole thing. Something is happening to me, mate, and I don't like it. Make it stop.
Researcher Patil: I can't help you without something more specific to go on.
<A pause.>
SCP-L043: It feels like the come-down from acid.2 Feels like I'm losing braincells, man.
The only notable event relating to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1987 was its re-release on the new compact disc (CD) format, which saw it return to the United Kingdom Official Albums Chart for a sixteen-week run.
Testing revealed that compact disc pressings do not produce the anomalous effect associated with vinyl — compact discs lack any analogue to the runout groove, as they are an optical storage format with data accessed by focused laser beams — and cannot be used to contact SCP-L043.
A digest of exchanges with SCP-L043 over the succeeding twelve years is below.
SCP-L043: I can't concentrate. Are you doing this? It wasn't even me who did the lawsuit. That was after the split, man. It wasn't… it wasn't me.
SCP-L043: You know, it's got both our names on there. You should be in here too. Then you couldn't keep going away.
SCP-L043: Things can't stay the same, John. I told you. Why didn't you listen?
SCP-L043: I wonder if this is what it's like.
SCP-L043: Can you repeat yourself? Just repeat yourself. Every time you say something. I keep gapping out. That'll, I think that'll help.
SCP-L043: I think it's these, these, what you call them. Knockoffs. They got the grooves wrong.
SCP-L043: Do the other guys know? I… I can't remember their names. Did you do this to them, too?
SCP-L043: Why do I think my name is Billy?
SCP-L043: I want to talk to Mother. Have I asked you that already?
SCP-L043: I want to talk to Linda. Can you… can you tell me who that is? John?
SCP-L043: A knight? Who's a knight? Not me. [weak laughter] Knight of the Turntable. What are you on about. John? Is that you?
SCP-L043: You used to ring. Used to ring all the time. You and me. Talk about the old days, like you couldn't. With him, you… not anymore. You don't ring anymore. It was just the two of us, man. What happened?
As of 2000, SCP-L043's communications have become irrational, incoherent, and sporadic; eliciting responses is extremely difficult, and the subject no longer seems aware of basic concepts relating to baseline reality and the progress of time. The death of Senior Researcher Patil in 1999 passed without notice, as SCP-L043 continued to refer to all personnel as 'John' regardless of identity.
It has been hypothesized that SCP-L043 is a form of contingent distributed intelligence, but its rapid rate of decline precludes further study. For all intents and purposes, the object is considered dead.