# Does Led Zeppelin's "stairway to heaven" in fact contain secret satanic messages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2014, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435 "2014-07-05T22:07:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/101 "2014-07-07T14:09:20Z")
From pretty early on [there were people who said the Beatles were evil and subversive and up to no good.](http://www.amazon.com/Communism-hypnotism-Beatles-analysis-Communist/dp/B0006CFG5Q) But according to Wikipedia, [fears about Satanic backmasking didn’t pop up until the '80s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backmasking). To me that says it’s more likely a piece of the Satanic panics of the era - like the terror about Dungeons & Dragons and the the McMartin trial, for instance. That makes the whole thing sound culture war and Moral Majority-driven. From Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > Backmasking has been a controversial topic in the United States since the 1980s, when allegations from Christian groups of its use for Satanic purposes were made against prominent rock musicians, leading to record-burning protests and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/102 "2014-07-07T14:39:15Z")
“Devil bunnies! I snort the nose, Lucifer! Banana! Banana!” ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/103 "2014-07-07T15:33:49Z")
> [@sara20](#): > > Led Zeppelin is actually one of my favorite bands, but after I heard that song backwards it was spooky and I don’t think it was just a coincidence. The person who said I can only hear it becasue they link the lyrics (and used that youtube experiment he linked) is wrong… I made the first statement in your last sentence above (and stand by it). I didn’t link to any YouTube experiment, however. Sara, you didn’t really give a clear answer to my earlier questions about your hearing of “Satanic” lyrics in “Stairway to Heaven.” Perhaps the fault is mine for not phrasing the questions as precisely as I might. So let’s try again: [ol] [li]Did you ever, at any time, listen to “Stairway to Heaven” backwards without ANY suggestion whatsoever from ANY source as to what you were _supposed_ to hear? (This was what I referred to in my earlier post as a “virgin” hearing of the track.)[/li][li]Or, the first time you listened to it backwards, had you already had some suggestions planted in your mind from an outside source (whether lyrics from a YouTube video or some other written source) as to what you were _supposed_ to hear?[/ol][/li] If you can’t answer “No” to the first question, then you simply can’t make the claim that the alleged Satanic lyrics are present and absolutely clear to anyone who would listen to them without suggestion. Please refer to the passage in my original post about the alleged “Turn me on dead man” passage in The Beatles’ “Revolution 9.” The offer I made there I would be perfectly willing to make in the case of “Stairway to Heaven,” too. Let’s you and I play it backwards to some folks who have never heard the allegation that one can hear Satanic lyrics when doing so. Make no suggestions as to what is _supposed_ to be heard. Just ask the person(s) listening what they think they hear. If anyone says they hear “Satan” and “woodshed” or whatever else is allegedly there, I’ll give you $100. > [@](#): > > …can you hear “screamer metal” lyrics without reading them? Only if you listen to the song 20 times. I’m not sure what this means, or how it’s relevant to the issue at hand. I’m sure there are more than a few lyrics you could listen to 20 times or more, and yet still have no certain idea what they are. What usually happens is that the lyrics are published somewhere, and you listen with them in front of you and then say “Oh, so _that’s_ what they’re singing!” > [@](#): > > Who ever found those lyrics probably listened to it backwards 20 times in a row. Anyone would be able to hear it on their own if they listen to it enough. I doubt it. What’s far more likely is that 10 listeners would give 10 different interpretations of what they heard…if they could even come up with anything remotely intelligible at all. ---
**Author:** ![Mithras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mithras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithras)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/104 "2014-07-07T15:41:38Z")
There are people that believe that a few times for every minute that you talk, you unconsciously insert [a backwards-spoken message into your speech](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_speech). This is obviously bunk. Given that that’s the frequency with which one can hear something they think is intelligible in reversed speech in general, it’s more surprising that you can only pick out a couple lines that sort of sound like words when Stairway to Heaven is played backwards. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/105 "2014-07-07T15:46:14Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > I doubt it. What’s far more likely is that 10 listeners would give 10 different interpretations of what they heard…if they could even come up with anything remotely intelligible at all. Yeah, listening to a song backwards pretty much is equivalent to an audio Rorschach test. It tells us much more about the listener than the performer. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/106 "2014-07-07T15:51:40Z")
> [@sara20](#): > > Led Zeppelin is actually one of my favorite bands, but after I heard that song backwards it was spooky and I don’t think it was just a coincidence. The person who said I can only hear it becasue they link the lyrics (and used that youtube experiment he linked) is wrong, can you hear “screamer metal” lyrics without reading them? Only if you listen to the song 20 times. Who ever found those lyrics probably listened to it backwards 20 times in a row. Anyone would be able to hear it on their own if they listen to it enough. Just like how some guy a million years ago ate some coffee beans and felt a buzz. Now we know coffee is stimulating becasue of him. The way I see it there are only a few possibilities: > > 1. Jimmy page or Robert plant are in fact satanists are intentionally backmasked the whole song and found words that would rhyme and tell their message backwards, this seems hard to do, but is possible I guess. > > 2. They are not satanists and just did it for fun, or publicity, but that’s alot of work for fun. > > 3. They are satanists and Satan wrote the song for them as Robert plant seemed to imply in a interview. ( It was Plant and not Page that said this I double checked it, although it was Page that did own Alister Crowley’s house.) > > 4. The song was meant to be played backwards, Stairway to heaven forwards, Stairway to hell backwards. Stairway was known as a song that sounded good played backwards or forwards, (although it doesn’t in the youtube video I linked becasue they sped up the guitar solo’s for time constraints) > > 5. Did backmasking even exist in 1971? Most of the other songs with known backmasking were made much later. Who taught you all this misguided shit? I already informed you as to where the song was written, so will you at least acknowledge that part and drop this “written in Alister Crowley’s house!” crap? ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/107 "2014-07-07T16:28:02Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Who taught you all this misguided shit? I already informed you as to where the song was written, so will you at least acknowledge that part and drop this “written in Alister Crowley’s house!” crap? I’m more annoyed by her #4 claim, Stairway to Heaven was meant to played backwards and that it sounds good played backwards. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/108 "2014-07-07T17:25:05Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > Sara, you didn’t really give a clear answer to my earlier questions about your hearing of “Satanic” lyrics in “Stairway to Heaven.” Perhaps the fault is mine for not phrasing the questions as precisely as I might. > > So let’s try again: > > [ol] > [li]Did you ever, at any time, listen to “Stairway to Heaven” backwards without ANY suggestion whatsoever from ANY source as to what you were _supposed_ to hear? (This was what I referred to in my earlier post as a “virgin” hearing of the track.)[/li][li]Or, the first time you listened to it backwards, had you already had some suggestions planted in your mind from an outside source (whether lyrics from a YouTube video or some other written source) as to what you were _supposed_ to hear?[/ol][/li] > If you can’t answer “No” to the first question, then you simply can’t make the claim that the alleged Satanic lyrics are present and absolutely clear to anyone who would listen to them without suggestion. Uh, speaking of making things clear, the above sentence should read “If you can’t answer ‘Yes’ to the first question…” My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/109 "2014-07-07T17:31:14Z")
> [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](#): > > I’m more annoyed by her #4 claim, Stairway to Heaven was meant to played backwards and that it sounds good played backwards. > > WTF? Of course. That’s why the backwards recording was included as the “hidden track” on Led Zeppelin IV. Since so few people listen to complete albums nowadays they might never have heard that cut. ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/110 "2014-07-07T18:11:23Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Of course. That’s why the backwards recording was included as the “hidden track” on Led Zeppelin IV. Since so few people listen to complete albums nowadays they might never have heard that cut. LOL You do realize that your sarcasm is completely lost on the denizens of backwards masking proponents, and that your post has very likely been whisked away to the archives of evidence. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/111 "2014-07-07T19:20:47Z")
Probably one of the reasons that Christians have found so much “satan” in backwards lyrics is that by coincidence, some very common word, like “it’s” sounds similar to “satan” backwards. “Satan” is only two syllables and has common sounds in it. Anyone know off-hand exactly what words reverse too “sweet satan” in that one part? And, FWIW, it does sound pretty clear to me that, in “Stairway to Heaven” sometimes it’s “say-TAN,” other times it “SAY-n,” it’s never really a perfect, forward-spoken “satan,” the way it’s pronounced in English. The means different forward-spoken words are producing it. Nonetheless, I still think that the reason “satan” is so commonly found by people looking for evil messages in backward-masking, is that it’s the result of some very common word, or words, happening to sound like that. This is why it’s so common the find “satan,” as opposed to “the devil,” “the anti-christ,” or any of the other ways one can refer to this entity, I think. Those others are much less likely to show up by coincidence, because of their phonetic make-up. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/112 "2014-07-07T19:45:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > 1. The whole thing is bullshit and people are just hearing what they are told to hear. > > Ockham’s Razor. There was actually an interesting experiment that was publicized in the last year or so about visual evidence superceding aural evidence. This is a hazy memory at this point, so the following is paraphrased. Video a close-up of someone saying, slowly: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - - and so on, randomly switching between the two words. Then record the same person saying either: ball - - ball - - ball - - or: fall - - fall - - fall - - , Splice both recordings into the video, to make two videos. When you listen to either video, what you will hear is: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - - . The visual cue of the movement of the person’s mouth will cause you to hear that word rather than the word that the recording is actually playing. It’s even freakier if you close your eyes and then open them again. While your eyes are closed you will hear: ball - - ball - - ball - - or fall - - fall - - fall - - , but when you open them again, even knowing which word is being said, you’ll hear: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - -. And that’s with distinctly spoken words. I assume that seeing the words written as you’re listening to something indistinct would have a similar effect. As for the persistance of something that you’ve already “heard”, [try not to see the facepalm, now](http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/dirty-tackle/brazil-s-world-cup-logo-has-a-hidden--facepalm--170959985.html). The arrow in the FedEx logo was put there deliberately. I doubt that the facepalm was put in the World Cup logo on purpose. But some things can’t be unseen, or unheard. Humans are interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/113 "2014-07-07T19:51:48Z")
Hell, Satan has three of six the letters that they give you as common freebees on the final Wheel of Fortune round: the others being RNE. ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/114 "2014-07-07T20:05:39Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > There was actually an interesting experiment that was publicized in the last year or so about visual evidence superceding aural evidence. This is a hazy memory at this point, so the following is paraphrased. > > Video a close-up of someone saying, slowly: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - - and so on, randomly switching between the two words. Then record the same person saying either: ball - - ball - - ball - - > or: fall - - fall - - fall - - , > > Splice both recordings into the video, to make two videos. When you listen to either video, what you will hear is: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - - . > > The visual cue of the movement of the person’s mouth will cause you to hear that word rather than the word that the recording is actually playing. It’s even freakier if you close your eyes and then open them again. While your eyes are closed you will hear: ball - - ball - - ball - - or fall - - fall - - fall - - , but when you open them again, even knowing which word is being said, you’ll hear: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - -. > > And that’s with distinctly spoken words. I assume that seeing the words written as you’re listening to something indistinct would have a similar effect. > > As for the persistance of something that you’ve already “heard”, [try not to see the facepalm, now](http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/dirty-tackle/brazil-s-world-cup-logo-has-a-hidden--facepalm--170959985.html). The arrow in the FedEx logo was put there deliberately. I doubt that the facepalm was put in the World Cup logo on purpose. But some things can’t be unseen, or unheard. > > Humans are interesting. That Bollywood video a few posts back was a perfect example of this. You can launch the video, close your eyes, and hear nothing that sounds like English. Open your eyes and start reading the subtitles and you hear nonsensical English phrases immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/115 "2014-07-07T20:26:55Z")
Cool. I’m going to have to listen to them later. They’re blocked here. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/116 "2014-07-07T21:35:16Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > There was actually an interesting experiment that was publicized in the last year or so about visual evidence superceding aural evidence. This is a hazy memory at this point, so the following is paraphrased. > > Video a close-up of someone saying, slowly: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - - and so on, randomly switching between the two words. Then record the same person saying either: ball - - ball - - ball - - > or: fall - - fall - - fall - - , > > Splice both recordings into the video, to make two videos. When you listen to either video, what you will hear is: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - - . > > The visual cue of the movement of the person’s mouth will cause you to hear that word rather than the word that the recording is actually playing. It’s even freakier if you close your eyes and then open them again. While your eyes are closed you will hear: ball - - ball - - ball - - or fall - - fall - - fall - - , but when you open them again, even knowing which word is being said, you’ll hear: ball - - fall - - ball - - ball - - fall - - fall - -. That is the [McGurk effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGurk_effect). It is not really the same thing, though (although loosely related, I guess). Try [this audio “illusion”](https://soundcloud.com/whyy-the-pulse/an-audio-illusion), which is a bit more to the point (though not really an illusion). [You need to click the orange button at the top of the page to play it.] The thing is that _expectations_ play a huge role in how we experience and interpret what we hear. (And, indeed, in what we experience quite generally. There are equivalent effects that can be demonstrated in vision and other senses. Your facepalm example is just one illustration.] ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/120 "2014-07-08T03:40:39Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > From pretty early on [there were people who said the Beatles were evil and subversive and up to no good.](http://www.amazon.com/Communism-hypnotism-Beatles-analysis-Communist/dp/B0006CFG5Q) But according to Wikipedia, [fears about Satanic backmasking didn’t pop up until the '80s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backmasking). To me that says it’s more likely a piece of the Satanic panics of the era - like the terror about Dungeons & Dragons and the the McMartin trial, for instance. That makes the whole thing sound culture war and Moral Majority-driven. From Wikipedia: Unless we’re talking at cross-purposes about two different things, Wikipedia is wrong on this one. I was a fully grown adult from the beginning to the end of the 1980s, and I know I heard these claims as a child. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/121 "2014-07-08T04:10:36Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Unless we’re talking at cross-purposes about two different things, Wikipedia is wrong on this one. I was a fully grown adult from the beginning to the end of the 1980s, and I know I heard these claims as a child. Or maybe your memory is conflating 3 different “memes” (as memory often does): [ol] [li]The Beatles as evil (goes back to the '60s)[/li][li]Messages in Beatles tracks played backwards (but nothing Satanic: stuff like “Paul is dead” and “Fuck off Superman”). This also goes back to the late '60s or early '70s[/li][li]Satanic messages in backwards tracks (from later, and generally not concerning The Beatles).[/li][/ol] Of course all three were always essentially nonsense (well, with the possible exception of #1 :)), but they each originate from different times. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/122 "2014-07-08T04:18:58Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Or maybe your memory is conflating 3 different things (as memory often does): > [ol] > [li]The Beatles as evil (goes back to the '60s)[/li][li]Messages in Beatles tracks played backwards (but nothing Satanic: stuff like “Paul is dead” and “Fuck off Superman”). This also goes back to the late '60s or early '70s[/li][li]Satanic messages in backwards tracks (from later, and generally not concerning The Beatles).[/li][/ol] > > Of course all three were always essentially nonsense. I admit that’s possible, but I really don’t think so. My memory of that preacher clown on my parents radio warning of this while I was a child is clear. I really think Wikipedia is off on this one. I also remember Bob and Doug McKenzie’s 1981 comedy album [The Great White North](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_White_North_%28album%29) satirized this phenomenon. They really did have a backward message on it that you were urged to play. It’s on the track “Black Holes.” Now, this is into the 1980s, but early, in 1981, and they started recording in 1980. It was a well-enough-known phenomenon that they could satirize it. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435/123 "2014-07-08T10:14:29Z")
> [@sara20](#): > > Led Zeppelin is actually one of my favorite bands, but after I heard that song backwards it was spooky and I don’t think it was just a coincidence. It’s a song, written by great musicians, stoned as hell, but you think it was spooky and not a coincidence. I think it was awesome songwriting and not a coincidence either, but awesome musicianship. > [@](#): > > The person who said I can only hear it becasue they link the lyrics (and used that youtube experiment he linked) is wrong, can you hear “screamer metal” lyrics without reading them? Only if you listen to the song 20 times. Who ever found those lyrics probably listened to it backwards 20 times in a row. This was addressed earlier in the thread, but I’m wondering what significance the number 20 holds for you in your username and how listening to the song, a magical 20 times, can give you the true answer to the meaning of the non-existant backspeak. Is it Numbers 20? Water from rock? The 20 years Jacob waited?? I’m sorry, but how you use number 20 in your analysis is a classic misrepresentation of what some call scripture. > [@](#): > > Anyone would be able to hear it on their own if they listen to it enough. Just like how some guy a million years ago ate some coffee beans and felt a buzz. Now we know coffee is stimulating becasue of him. The way I see it there are only a few possibilities: > > 1. Jimmy page or Robert plant are in fact satanists are intentionally backmasked the whole song and found words that would rhyme and tell their message backwards, this seems hard to do, but is possible I guess. > > 2. They are not satanists and just did it for fun, or publicity, but that’s alot of work for fun. > > 3. They are satanists and Satan wrote the song for them as Robert plant seemed to imply in a interview. ( It was Plant and not Page that said this I double checked it, although it was Page that did own Alister Crowley’s house.) > > 4. The song was meant to be played backwards, Stairway to heaven forwards, Stairway to hell backwards. Stairway was known as a song that sounded good played backwards or forwards, (although it doesn’t in the youtube video I linked becasue they sped up the guitar solo’s for time constraints) > > 5. Did backmasking even exist in 1971? Most of the other songs with known backmasking were made much later. Yadda, yadda. You say Led Zep was your favorite band, but now-- OOOH! You read something 40 years too old and stupid, but I’m guessing your fears were endowed by, say, some preacher?? I’m also guessing if the first part of my theory is correct, the next part is where you tithe even more to this born-again scripture nightmare. I’m feeling this is yet another perfect example of how religious = retarded. I can’t find a reputable example of an atheist, the Pope, or anything in between claiming in the '80s or '90s or even the '70s that rock ‘n’ roll lyrics aren’t anything but an attempt as a guidance towards evil. The more devout, the more gullible in critique. I would love to see your cites where you find confirmation in Stairway lyrics equivalent to loving Satan (an archangel created by Yahweh, don’t forget.) If anything, most of Zepplin’s lyrics written by Robert Plant were inspired by Tolkien, yet another attempt by ill-found religious sects trying their best to avert a boom in music. AHHHH! It’s evil! “Midevil” No, medieval. And not here, but Middle-Earth. When an artist says it felt like “something made my hand write the lyrics”, or when even Da Vinci said, “you just cut away the parts that aren’t supposed to be there” (if he even did), why does that jump to Satanic? Why doesn’t an inspiration jump to an individual’s artistry? No, Page didn’t own, rent or even take a crap in the Crowley house. Even if he did, I think you’re jumping to the misguided lie that Crowley followers learned to speak backwards and forwards. So? I’d love to speak any language backwards and forwards. Why would this song, or ANY freaking song be “meant to be played backwards”?? So I can miss Jimmy’s awesome guitar tracks? So I can not hear the words that were MEANT to be said and understand them as my own interpretation?? **Sara20** , please understand this: Satanic messages, if they even existed in modern art (they don’t) are entirely meaningless. If you find they DO have meaning, you’re not listening to yourself OR the artist! I think Don McLean explained how to interpret song lyrics best: (Paraphrasing) “How you interpret the song is the best way to interpret it.” If an outside source (even your mother) is influencing this train of thought, stop and then start with your own interpretation. What you’ve posted is certainly not your own interpretation. I suppose the next thing you’ll tell me is the part where John Bonham (best drummer ever) adds the break just before, “if there’s a bustle in your hedgerow…”, that the drum break he plays is exactly the drum break to honor Chutulu. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-in-fact-contain-secret-satanic-messages/692435.md?page=7)