The “Paul is dead” craze didn’t begin gradually or on a grass-roots level. It started in October 1969, when Detroit DJ Russ Gibb got a mysterious phone call giving him clues to investigate. Gibb played the “number nine, number nine” bit from “Revolution 9” backwards on the air—and like his WKNR-FM listeners, clearly heard, “Turn me on, dead man.” The mumbles on Side Two of the White Album, between “I’m So Tired” and “Blackbird,” when spun backward, revealed the message, “Paul is dead, man, miss him, miss him.” And there’s John at the end of “Strawberry Fields,” announcing “I buried Paul.” The
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