Namely, what are they saying about three minutes into the song, shortly after the guitar solo? There’s a message in there backwards under the main vocal track. I don’t have the album (Defenders of the Faith) on vinyl (or anything else, for that matter - I downloaded the song from Napster) so I can’t spin the record backwards. A co-worker suggests its Rob Halford making a reference to his homosexuality, but I have a hard time believing he would have done that, considering how closely that secret was guarded in the eighties.
For years, there have been rumours that they’ve been Satanic messages. I’ve also heard strange things backwards on Beatles records, though. (PAUL IS DEAD)
When Rob Halford was sued for supposedly putting subliminal messages in his songs, he testified that the backwards message was “In the dead of the night, love bites.” I saw this on page 226 of Biggest Secrets by William Poundstone, which also has an entire chapter devoted to subliminal messages in songs.
Oh, and I apologize for mentioning the heretic’s name in this forum. What’s my punishment?
I’ve never heard anyone say there were subliminal or backwards lyrics in this song. I only heard about the album Stained Class as that was the album in the lawsuit. Halford did say when he “came out” a few years ago that you could hear some “gay” messages in songs like Hell Bent for Leather, don’t remember Love bites as one though. Does sound like one to me either, though I’ll admit I don’t go looking for gay references in songs.