I’ve heard this old cliche many times dating back to the vinyl era, when there was supposedly a rumour (maybe even a true one) of a song which when played backwards contained evil, satanic messages. Which song did this originate from and did it actually contain the messages?
I may be mistaken, but I recall Judas Priest were taken to court by the the parents of a teenager who committed suicide while listening to their record. They claimed when it was played backwards there were hidden messages that goaded him to do it. I think the band won by finding similar evil messages could be heard on discs by more wholesome artists like Elvis or such like.
I don’t know if this is the origin of the story.
I think that Prince, inserted a message backwards in a section of one of his songs, not sure which though.
Backwards messages on LPs
Paul is Dead
Backmasking, or “Who’s Paul, how he died and why should we miss him, man?”
Hidden phrases in Judas Priests’ "Love Bites?
There are a number of songs where this is alleged, but listening to them takes quite a bit of creative interpretation. It also helps if you are a paranoidly convinced that satan is corrupting the world’s youth through music.
There are a number of real examples though, where a band has deliberately used backward masking, as it is called. They do this for two reasons;
1/ It’s a bit of a laugh.
2/ It annoys those paranoidly convinced that satan… Especially if you claim to be one of satan’s foot soldiers. As many bands have discovered there is nothing considered cooler by the record-buying teenager than something that’s going to upset your parents.
Do a google search on backward masking for lots of examples, many of which are the paranoid ramblings of those convinced that satan… The suggestion is that the backward message enters your brain, by-passes your higher brain functions and is reversed back the right way by your sub-conscious mind. Obviously this means you are going to believe and act out everything these words then say. This gives satan a direct route into your very soul. Others say that this is total BS.
The most famous example of this nonsense is Stairway To Heaven by Led Zepplin. IMHO it’s more the usual case of the human brain trying to make sense and order where there is none.
I think it was the Beatles who first did it. Or certainly the first well known band to do it. They did it to show off and for a laugh. This hasn’t stopped conspiracy freaks playing everything else they did backwards and ‘discovering’ other examples. There also those who are convinced that practically everything you say can be reversed to discover further deep hidden meanings from your sub-conscious.
Re: The Beatles. The final verse of “Rain” (1965 or '66) is backwards, which is the first occurrence of using a backwards track in a song AFAIK. That’s not quite the same thing as the backmasking b.s. the fundamentalists liked to harp on in the 70s and 80s, but it probably got a few gerbil wheels rolling.
Of course, one of the funniest examples of backward masking is on “Empty Spaces” from Pink Floyd’s THE WALL. Played backwards, a voice can be heard saying, “Congratulations. You have discovered the secret message…” etc.
The funny thing about the supposed “satanic” messages in rock songs is that few of the accused examples contain any backward masking. Rather, the paranoid accusers listen to the records backwards and try to decipher some message out fo the reversed syllables of the lyrics. Apparently, the chorus of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” sounds something like “Everyone smoke marijuana.” Or so they say…
steve biodrowski
http://www.thescriptanalyst.com
Here’s a freaky website somewhere with some bloke claiming that every recorded voice message automatically contains information (revealing truths) from the subconsciouos of the speaker. Hmmm.
There is an ELO record that contained some backward
masking that I discovered when I was reading one of
those fundamentalist “Rock music is evil and will
lead your kids into satanic perversions” books (you
know the type). It listed a record that we actually
had and sure enough the message was there. Very
clearly, it stated “The music is reversible, but time
is not. Turn back, turn back, turn back…” Whoo,
totally creepy, huh? :rolleyes: Of course, that didn’t
make the rest of the garbage, ahem, I mean book, any
more believable. Can’t recall what ELO record it was
though…
However, since we’re on the subject of backwards
masking, I hope it won’t be considered a hijack if I
say that the last time I ran across any was in the
film “Eyes Wide Shut”. In the part where Cruise first
arrives at the mansion and there is a circle of masked
women doing a ritual of some sort- okay I really
wasn’t that into the movie- but I did notice that the
overlay of chanting going on in that scene was backwards.
So if anybody has info as to what was actually being said
in that part- I’d like to know.
Romana
I remember seeing an example of this on T.V. once. It was the Queen song Another One Bites the Dust. Backwards “another one bites the dust” becomes “smoke marijuana”.
This is probably apocryphal, but funny nonetheless:
Supposedly on one of the hard rock albums of the 80s, when played backwards, the hidden “Satanic” message was: “Go to school… Do your homework… Obey your parents…” 
It’s all true! If you play the Deathtongue single “Hell’s Bells” backwards, you get terrible messages:
Goooo to church …
Saaay yoour prayers …
Tithe! Tithe!
I believe it was George Carlin who said that if you play a certain album backwards at 78 speed, you’ll hear: “Stop! You’re screwing up your record.”
Prince and the Revolution’s “Darling Nikki” contains a backwards message towards the end that is actually a religious message of sorts. If you have it on CD, you can feed it into your computer and play with it to hear it. It’s at the end, when you hear the bacon-frying noise.
The ELO song with the backwards message, IIRC, is “Fire on High”. Spooky enough forward, I can’t imagine what it sounds like backwards.
Styx’ “Heavy Metal Poisoning” on Kilroy Was Here has a message before the song that comes out to “Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum”. That’s Latin for “God has favored our undertakings. A new order for the ages”. It’s the message on the back of the one-dollar bill. It should be further noted that Styx had been targeted specifically when Bob Dornan was picking on backwards messages, and this message was intended to poke fun at him.
William Poundstone discusses this topic rather extensively in his “Secrets” books. Check 'em out (and don’t believe what he says about Uncle Cecil. That part is a lie!)
Robin
The Judas Priest court case fell apart quickly when the band came in and played things like “I want a lollipop” and similar silly messages that they found hidden backwards in their music.
I saw the “I want a lollipop” scene on a TV documentary from the actual court case, it was pretty funny (IMHO).
Somewhere around here I have an iron maiden record that clearly has some backward voice stuff on it. I had a reel to reel tape deck back in those days that could play in either direction (and could even do quadrophonic sound! woohoo!) so of course I taped it then played it backwards. It said something very silly like “forsooth said the thing with three bumps…” I don’t remember the rest, but I always wondered if it was a famous quote from somewhere.
The wackos who were taking people to court over hidden meanings and such were rather scary at the time, because they got a surprisingly large following and a lot of people in high places who actually took them seriously. The warnings on record albums that are now common in stores were a fallout from the whole mess.
Here you can actually listen to a few clips of Beatles songs played backwards:
Those parents are mad about the fact that they didn’t clue in to their son’s depression. Finding something to blame will ease their pain. Instead of finding out what was wrong with him by talking to him, they may have just been mad about the music he listened to. We don’t know anything about their relationship to their son, or if he was being picked on at school, or anything else that causes depression. 
They are picking on a symptom, rather than finding out what was really wrong. 
It is a cop out. If your kid only listens to these types of records, and seems to hate the world, talk to him. If he won’t talk, ask for advice from a respectalble source.
This was a bad place to try that smiley command in my post, please ignore the
I too did the reel-to-reel trick, but with the infamous “Stairway.” We all agreed that you have want to hear “my sweet Satan” to hear it at all, really. Additionally, you have to use the logic that Zep was devious and creative enough to get that phrase through, but not “the rest” that some people claim to have heard, which is so debatable that it becomes sort of an audio Rorschach (sp?) test.
The backwards part in Fire on High says:
“The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back! Turn back!”
Darling Nikki goes something like:
“How are you? I’m doing fine, 'cause I know the Lord is coming soon.”
On a marginally related note, if you take the 33 rpm version of Imaginary Lover by the Atlanta Rhythm Section and play it at 45 rpm the vocals sound exactly like Stevie Nicks. Freaky. Ah, the things one did when one was 14 and bored.
Wow i always knew that rock and roll stars were very talented. I just thought it was because they could play and write meaningful music and lyrics that entertained. But WOW this whole time they were writing music that made sense forwards and made sense when played backwards. That takes major talent.
Oh well. Just think of how little there would be to talk about on this board if there were no freaky coincidences.