On a more obscure note, Blue Öyster Cult’s “You’re Not The One I Was Looking For” includes a deliberate and blatantly obvious backmask (at about 0:32 or so), as a parody of the phenomenon.
When slowed down, it is, in fact, the Lord’s Prayer.
sara20 - how do YOU think about this as a topic? Do you believe that musicians did this type of thing, and did it with the goal of being agents of Satan?
If so, I am not sure what to say: you are asking folks on an anonymous message board to help you accept or reject a Big Satanic Conspiracy Theory (BSCT) based on stuff you see on youtube. So it goes.
When I was a teen in the 70’s, this BSCT stuff was circulated on cassette tapes. But…but…listen to Hotel California! That’s Anton LaVey’s shadow in the window on the cover!! But…the Beast…steely knives…checking out! But the Eagles are mellow guys - what? how?!
To paraphrase Paul Simon - people hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest.
So - sara20: what do you want to hear?
(yeah, yeah, I know: Freebird!!)
ETA: can you imagine if a band like ZZ Top got into back-masking back in the day? For the actual lyrics, you’d hear something like “She wants a Pearl Necklace!!” and when you play the song backwards, you’d hear “what Mr. Gibbons is actually requesting is for you to let him titty-fuck you - please assume the position.”
Too late to add: and for all of this silliness, why aren’t the Rolling Stones lumped in to this approach? Probably because their forward-playing lyrics already say stuff like “yeah, I am Satan - do me, do drugs, and do the rock and roll!!!”
Left nothing cute or cryptic for folks to interpret. I love that.
Do not speak ill of Lawnmower Man.
^ Healthy soil, that’s what you got there, by Circe. Pan’s the boss.
If you play the Rolling Stones backwards, it says "“Go to church, say your prayers. TITHE!!! TITHE!!!”
One of the most bizarre short stories ever!
Having listened to Led Zep and other satanic-message-bearing songs for decades now, I don’t feel I have been inordinately affected by those messages and started worshipping The Dark One, conducting Black Masses, or sacrificing household pets to Beelzebub. I have listened to “Itchykoo Park” more times than I can count and never once cut school to caper through a park to get high with friends. I’ve listened to countless songs about suicide, optimism, endless love, disappointment, and lust - they’re all just songs. Just words. If one takes those words to heart…there’s something wrong with them, and it’s not the fault of the songwriter.
^ One exception: MacArthur Park.
Even if there were intentional, secret backmasked words in there, could the human brain actually subconsciously decode the message? I am highly dubious.
the Navy has used this.
I have it on good authority that if you play “Hair” by the Cowsills backwards, you hear the satanic prayer “Owah Tagu Siam.”
Used what exactly, and for what purpose, and what were the results?
How long have you been waiting to use that, Sam? 
It’s true, dammit!
First, I don’t believe in subliminal backmasking.
That said I find it interesting that no one has ever proved their hypothesis that you could find basically any message in the gibberish by coming up with an alternate semi-coherent positive message.
Yeah, that stuff is great (and funny!).
Even Yngwie got in on that act in his song (oddly titled) “Disciples Of Hell”. During the bridge part, a demonic voice can clearly be heard to say (while creepy keyboards play along):
Raise your cup,
and praise the Prince of Darkness
signature of the power within the Beast
and when the time has come
the gates of Hell shall open!
Of course, funnier still are the bands that have playful fun with it. Iron Maiden has a song called “Still Life” on their Piece Of Mind album that has a deliberate backtracking message at the beginning of it that was put there in response to accusations of them being Satanic.
It’s essentially the drummer Nicko McBrain imitating Idi Amin. When played backward it says something like “What ho said the thing with three heads, don’t meddle with things you don’t understand”…followed by an audible belch.
The house Alister Crowley lived in was known as “The toolshed”, Jimmy page bought his house and wrote “stairway to heaven” in it.
That’s not true. The beginnings of the song were at Bron-Yr-Aur in Wales. (ETA: yeah, yeah, I know: link to that thread about Jimmy ripping off Spirit…)
sara20, let’s be clear about this: rock bands did not back-mask satanic messages - at least, not until they heard it was a thing feared by religious folks.
What are you trying to accomplish with this thread? If you are looking for fellow believers, then I haven’t seen much evidence over the years that you will find many here on the SDMB.