# Backward messages in Music **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110 "2005-08-22T14:55:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/21 "2005-08-22T19:15:51Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > On Weird Al’s album, _Dare to Be Stupid_, he placed two backwards messages: > “Satan eats cheez-whiz” > “You have too much time on your hands.” “Satan eats Cheez-Whiz” is played during the musical interlude on (what else?) “Nature Trail to Hell” (a parody commercial for a nonexistent slasher flick). Never heard of the “too much time” mask, though. ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/22 "2005-08-22T19:45:23Z")
Marilyn Manson has included a few backward messages in his songs. The two I can recall at the moment are at the beginnings of _Tourniquet_ and _Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes_. _Tourniquet_ begins with a backwards recording of Manson whispering “this is my lowest point of vulnerability.” _Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes_ begins with a backwards recording of children singing “and to die with dignity, sing the …” [Eeggs.com](http://Eeggs.com) claims that it’s a clip from _1984_. ---
**Author:** ![WonJohnSoup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f17d59/32.png) [@WonJohnSoup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WonJohnSoup)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/23 "2005-08-22T23:44:42Z")
I’d just like to know: is this backwards masking thing happening because the lyrics themselves being played backwards STILL make sense (which would be an impressive feat to me), or does the ‘backwards’ phrase ONLY show up when you play the album backwards? Like, somehow the record doesn’t produce any sound until it’s played backwards? Or is it something altogether where the singer basically speaks backwards and it sounds like mumbling when played forward? That Stairway to Heaven link doesn’t really help since it’s fake. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/24 "2005-08-22T23:51:10Z")
> [@WonJohnSoup](#): > > I’d just like to know: is this backwards masking thing happening because the lyrics themselves being played backwards STILL make sense (which would be an impressive feat to me), or does the ‘backwards’ phrase ONLY show up when you play the album backwards? Like, somehow the record doesn’t produce any sound until it’s played backwards? Or is it something altogether where the singer basically speaks backwards and it sounds like mumbling when played forward? > > That Stairway to Heaven link doesn’t really help since it’s fake. According to the idiots who buy into this crap, your brain can decipher the backwards phrase as a forwards phrase and make you do crazy stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/25 "2005-08-23T01:32:25Z")
> [@WonJohnSoup](#): > > I’d just like to know: is this backwards masking thing happening because the lyrics themselves being played backwards STILL make sense (which would be an impressive feat to me), or does the ‘backwards’ phrase ONLY show up when you play the album backwards? Like, somehow the record doesn’t produce any sound until it’s played backwards? Or is it something altogether where the singer basically speaks backwards and it sounds like mumbling when played forward? > > That Stairway to Heaven link doesn’t really help since it’s fake. In the case of the songs I mentioned, the backwards bits sounds like incoherent whispering and singing. Getting entire lines of songs to sound like something forwards and backwards _and_ fit the song would indeed be quite a feat. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/26 "2005-08-23T02:11:06Z")
Yvan eht niaj! ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/27 "2005-08-23T02:12:18Z")
doh, it turns out I can be incompentent backwards as well as forwards. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/28 "2005-08-23T02:14:45Z")
To his credit, Al Menconi used to do a demo in his seminars at Hume Lake Christian Camps. He’d play Stairway to Heaven backward (at the famous “masked” part), and put up 3 different sets of “backwards lyrics”. You could hear all three of them, showing that what you heard had way more to do with what you were told than with what was there. I’ve taped a CD of it to reel-to-reel tape and turned around the tape, and you can’t understand anything but that “muwhy shweet shatin” bit that people get all riled about. Meh. ---
**Author:** ![Xploder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a183cd/32.png) [@Xploder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xploder)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/29 "2005-08-23T03:04:25Z")
Frank Zappa used a lot of backward recording effects on his albums. One specific one that comes to mind is from the song “Mother People”. The record label wouldn’t release the album unless Frank cut the last verse because it had the word “fuck” in it so Frank took the last verse, recorded it backwards and added it as the final track to the album. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/30 "2005-08-23T05:13:37Z")
> [@Sequent](#): > > Suggestion: get a freeware wave editor and an mp3 of “Stairway to Heaven”, play it in reverse, and give your sober mind three tries to hear _anything_. Without having someone tell you first what you’re supposed to hear. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/31 "2005-08-23T05:21:41Z")
The Stairway to Heaven/“Toolshed” thing is hilarious, but I remember somebody here posting it seriously a few months ago. The ending of the Judas Priest story is also amusing, as the band argued ‘It would be pretty stupid of us to tell our fans to kill themselves instead of buying our stuff, wouldn’t it?’ ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/32 "2005-08-23T08:47:12Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > I’ve allways thought it would be funny as hell if one of those bands inserted, as a backwards masked message, something along the lines of “Stay in School, Jesus Loves You” just to mess with the heads of the folks who play stuff backwards listening for Satanic messages. Right [here](http://www.hallsofillusions.com/lyrics/ajb/5013) courtesy of the Insane Clown Posse. (Warning: lyrics not work safe!) I have an MP3 version of this song that has been reversed and that’s exactly what they’re saying. For those of you who don’t want to click the link, I’ll spoiler box the lyric: (Reverse talking saying: Fuck the Devil Fuck That Shit We believe in life legit If you diggin what we say, why you throw your soul away?) ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110/33 "2005-08-23T12:30:59Z")
This thread brings me back to 1985! Tipper, we hardly knew ye. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backward-messages-in-music/318110.md?page=1)