# Playing records backwards for satanic messages **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112 "2003-11-30T21:10:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/21 "2003-12-01T06:57:41Z")
There are a few examples of intentional back-masking, but none that I know of that are overtly satanic. At the beginning of “Still Life” by Iron Maiden, there’s a backwards recording of their drummer saying “What who said da ting wit t’ree bonts.” One of Hirax’s albums ended with a track that played backwards said something like “Bleah! F— the world! Bleah! Bleah!” Perhaps Slayer’s “Hell Awaits” comes closest with “Join us, join us” being played backwards at the beginning of the song, but all the blatantly satanic stuff in that song doesn’t need to be played backwards. These examples were clearly audible when played normally, almost as if to say “hey! check it out! evil backwards message! play me backwards!,” so I’m not sure if they qualify as being “masked”. I remember being told by my church that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” repeats the phrase “my sweet Satan, Satan is beautiful” throughout the entire song. Then, when I had access to a cassette player capable of playing the tape backwards, I checked and found nothing but gibberish…except one very specific part (somewhere around the “bustle in your hedgerow” lyric) where I distinctly heard “ngaaaaaa seep-zept,” which sounds close enough to “my sweet Satan” to hear that line if that’s what you wanted to hear. I couldn’t figure out where the second half of that bit came from, though, and it definitely was not repeated anywhere else in the song. Since then, I’ve dismissed any claims of back-masking as paranoid hysteria. D ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/22 "2003-12-01T07:01:41Z")
I’ve done the Led Zeppelin thing. There’s a part in the song that, when played backwards, sounds like “Oooo…Here’s to my sweet Satan.” If you’re looking for it, you should notice it, otherwise it might pass you by. Also, in my backward masking experiments, I heard “There’s no escaping him/it” in “Stairway to Heaven.” And, yeah, it is just paranoid hysteria. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/23 "2003-12-01T07:35:12Z")
I think anyone who is going to the trouble of listening to records playing backwards is going to find something. I also think it’s a sales pitch for the suckers as well. Surely, **if** Satan exists, he and his followers could find a better way to communicate. AND are these examples the best messages we’ve come up with. I believe if I really wanted to deliver a message backwards within a song, I could do better than what I’ve read/heard so far. Think record sales = more $$$ ---
**Author:** ![aenimiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df788c/32.png) [@aenimiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aenimiac)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/24 "2003-12-01T10:55:45Z")
Empty Spaces by Pink Floyd has the following backwards message at the beginning… “Congratulations, You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to ‘Old Pink’, care of the funny farm, Chalfont…” ---
**Author:** ![milk\_milk\_lemonade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@milk\_milk\_lemonade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milk_milk_lemonade)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/25 "2003-12-01T11:52:35Z")
I’ve got a B-52’s record (Detour through your Mind - Bouncing off the Satellites) that has a backwards message: “I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you’re playing the record backwards. Watch out, you might ruin your needle.” ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/26 "2003-12-01T13:09:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Blue Sky \* > **The Electric Light Orchestra was accused of this crap. In retaliation, Jeff Lynne wrote the ELO album, _Secret Mssages_.** But ELO _were_ doing this crap. Practically everything they ever did was riddled with them. And I don’t mean just backwards masking, the whole satanic schtick as well. You have to wonder what Jeff Lynne was on. _Secret Messages_ was more a case of owning up having been thoroughly rumbled. ---
**Author:** ![Striss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@Striss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Striss)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/27 "2003-12-01T14:38:35Z")
Re: The Beatles “White Album…” I believe they were the first to employ this clever makrketing stunt… Kinda cool, actually… Give it a try if you can… ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/28 "2003-12-01T14:52:32Z")
> [@](#): > > _Striss wrote:_ > I’m obviously the oldest contri within this thread (48) as there has been no mention of the Beatles White Album’s “Revolution 9” track… John Lennon’s narration " Number 9, Number 9" distinctly becomes “Turn me on, dead man”… Distinctly??? Now I’m only 42, so not as wise as you, but it takes a brain pre-distorted by religious fundamentalists to hear any words in the backwards “number nine.” At least, the people I knew who claimed that was what was being said were fundies. To me, it sounds like unintelligible mumbling, with a rhythm pattern that, after someone suggests it, can be linked to the phrase “turn me on dead man.” But “distinct” it ain’t. ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/29 "2003-12-01T14:57:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Striss \* > \*\*Re: The Beatles “White Album…” > I believe they were the first to employ this clever makrketing stunt… > Kinda cool, actually… > Give it a try if you can… \*\* Forget #9 - what about Rain? A much better backwards offering, IMHO 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/30 "2003-12-01T15:28:39Z")
I heard that there are Satanic messages in the theme to _Mister Ed_, if you play it backwards. Honestly? People hear what they want to hear. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/31 "2003-12-01T16:24:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Striss \* > \*\*Re: The Beatles “White Album…” > I believe they were the first to employ this clever makrketing stunt… > Kinda cool, actually… > Give it a try if you can… \*\* Try reading this quote from **Striss** for the message hidden within. :eek: koo…koo…kachoo Well **Isabelle** , you get your answer yet? I suppose there are some examples of reverse masking in music. Their reasons seem to vary. The most apparent intentional examples would be for promoting records sales. Then again perhaps there are a FEW examples of musicians doing this intentionally “just for the Hell of it.” 😉 Probably the best excuse/reason would be an unitentional or coincidental occurrence found by listeneners with a biased viewpoint. (Folks looking for messages) IMO of course. I’ve listened to a few of these “Satanic messages” and as far as I’m concerned…nothing to it. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/32 "2003-12-01T18:44:58Z")
Two of the books from William Poundstone’s _Big Secrets_ series (1983’s _Big Secrets_, 1986’s _Bigger Secrets_, and 1993’s _Biggest Secrets_) each have a chapter on backwards masking. I forget which of the books doesn’t cover backwards masking … I’m thinking _Biggest Secrets_. Most of the examples mentioned in this thread are mentioned. Poundstone also offers some laymen-level (if dated) technical information as well. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/33 "2003-12-01T18:55:06Z")
There are genuine reversals and there are what are sometimes known as chance reversals. A “chance” reversal is an instant in which a sound played backwards sounds like some other sound. Such chance reversals generally require a fair amount of imagination to hear properly. The “Turn Me on Dead Man” passage in Revolution 9 is an instance of a chance reversal. All the voice was really saying was “Revolution 9”. Possibly John Lennon was aware of what this sounded like in reverse; there is, after all, athentic “back masked” material in the record, as a brief passage from a BBC broadcast of King Lear is included in reverse. An old friend of mine got the white album when it was knew, and listened to it for the first time in the dark in the basement of his grandparent’s house. He was in junior high at the time, and was smoking marijuana for the first time in his life. For a brief moment he thought the marijuana was causing him to hallucinate. It is extremely difficult to predict what something will sound like precisely when played backwards. It is a problem of a whole different order from merely figuring out a palindrome. One is not merely reversing the order of sounds, but reversing the individual sounds themselves. Revolution 9 may be the first prominent instance of such techniques being used in a well-known commercial recording, but it was not the first time it had been used in any commercial recording. I recall hearing once that in the 50s (IIRC) a French recording studio issued an experimental record which included a cut in which a woman sang backwards. That is, she sang a song and it was recorded. Then the recording was played backwards. Then she learned to imitate the sound of her own voice being reversed. Then she sang a recording of the song in reverse. Then this recording was played backwards. The effect was said to be quite eerie; one could understand the words (provided you knew French), but she continually sounded as though she were inhaling rather than exhaling. While I have never heard the record, I expect too that there were other subtle clues that something was wrong. In something of the same way, there are moments in the films **Shane** and **Bringing Out the Dead** in which actors moved backwards and then the film shot of them was played in reverse. The Judas Priest recording Dream Deceiver is another famous instance of an intentional reversal. An American teenager shot himself to death after an extended drinking binge while the song was playing, and a friend with whom he had made a suicide pact left himself horribly mutilated when a shotgun blast only wounded him. The parents of the surviving boy sued, insisting that the song contained reversals which drove him to want to kill himself. At trial it came out that there was an intentional reversal. It was of the singer saying he liked peppermints. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/34 "2003-12-01T19:10:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slipster \* > **I recall hearing once that in the 50s (IIRC) a French recording studio issued an experimental record which included a cut in which a woman sang backwards. That is, she sang a song and it was recorded. Then the recording was played backwards. Then she learned to imitate the sound of her own voice being reversed. Then she sang a recording of the song in reverse. Then this recording was played backwards. The effect was said to be quite eerie; one could understand the words (provided you knew French), but she continually sounded as though she were inhaling rather than exhaling.** It’s mentioned in one of the _Big Secrets_ books that this recording method was also used in the TV series _Twin Peaks_ for the voice of “the dwarf” (I put that in quotes because I didn’t watch TP often enough to know whether or not that was the ONLY dwarf). The aforementioned Poundstone also revealed that They Might Be Giants used the same technique in part of their song “Ana Ng”. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/35 "2003-12-01T19:49:10Z")
I seem to remember that Twin Peaks did an entire episode using backwards speaking. All the characters spoke nonsense backwards, walked backwards, etc. Then it was shown backwards to make sense, but in a very strange way. It was a weird series. ---
**Author:** ![Level3Navigator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Level3Navigator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Level3Navigator)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/36 "2003-12-01T20:07:45Z")
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir used backward masking. If you play them backward, you’ll hear them reciting old jello and casserole recipes… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/37 "2003-12-01T20:19:08Z")
Actually in Twin Peaks they spoke the words backwards first and when the clips were played in reverse the lines were understandable but very eery. Mr. BlueSky\*\*, I know you’re another big ELO fan. I can’t recall all that much backwards masking on their stuff as **Futile Gesture** contends. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/38 "2003-12-01T20:54:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jimpatro \* > \*\*Actually in Twin Peaks they spoke the words backwards first and when the clips were played in reverse the lines were understandable but very eery. \*\* Correct. I apologize for being unclear, for what you wrote is exactly the technique I was posting about. **Slipster** mentions this technique in his post. ---
**Author:** ![Flash-57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/839c29/32.png) [@Flash-57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flash-57)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/39 "2003-12-01T21:12:31Z")
And, of course, “Maybe I’m Amazed” reveals a good recipe for lentil soup if played backwards. [http://kaeding.homelinux.org/veg/McCartneyLentilSoup.html](http://kaeding.homelinux.org/veg/McCartneyLentilSoup.html) ---
**Author:** ![Striss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@Striss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Striss)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112/40 "2003-12-01T21:23:16Z")
As far as backward tape loops, on The Beatles “Tomorrow Never knows” (Revolver) Lennon asked George Martin to “Make his voice sound like it was coming from a distant mountain.” What they did in the middle passage was to record the vocals forward, re-record the tape backwards, then re-record it again forward… Pretty innovative for the time although I have little doubt Sir Martin may have gotten the idea from the “French” studio experiment. The Beatles were quite fond of getting hammered and experimenting with various tape loops having no real studio budget… 'Bless 'em… And knowing the history, I also believe that Lennon may had discovered “turn me on, dead man” accidentally, I have little doubt he didn’t realize the end result, even if not by design. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playing-records-backwards-for-satanic-messages/216112.md?page=3)