# Satanic Messages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582 "2003-02-07T22:03:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/21 "2003-02-08T17:35:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pucky Schumer \* > \*\*Lissa, the principal must not have thought you were old enough at the time to hear the real words. It looks to me like the record was saying “Da Devil He Mastruhbays.” > > Everyone else sees it that way, right. I’m not the only one who thought of “masturbates.” Right I oh skip it. \*\* I sincerly doubt this woman would have known the definition of “maturbate.” The running joke among us kids was that she nailed her underwear on. BTW, we were around 16 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/22 "2003-02-08T19:44:16Z")
I’ve mentioned this before, but once while trying to prove my point that you can find eerie sounding statements on _any_ recording I threw on the song “Rain” from the album [_Four Freshmen and Five Guitars._](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000088DR/ref=m_art_li_4/104-1548763-5466347) The refrain of the song is, “it’s ten to one you’ll kiss her in the rain.” By playing it backwards and modulating the rotation speed, I managed to freak the entire house out by making the poor Four Freshmen scream quite unmistakably, “YOU GUESS WHO–WE’RE SATAN!” When you can make those guys say that sort of shit, pointing the finger at Zeppelin seems a little bit silly, in my opinion. I’ve often thought about running Pat Roberson and Jerry Falwell through the computer backwards to see what they’re really laying on the masses. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/23 "2003-02-08T20:43:53Z")
People still talk about this? I haven’t heard about it since the 80’s. (not a snipe, just a question) ---
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/24 "2003-02-08T20:52:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by erislover \* > \*\*People still talk about this? I haven’t heard about it since the 80’s. (not a snipe, just a question) \*\* Yeah, we’re still talking about it, we are now aren’t we? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/25 "2003-02-08T20:55:27Z")
Course, if you pick the _right_ songs, you don’t even have to play 'em backwards to hear the Satanic messages. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/26 "2003-02-08T21:12:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ultrafilter \* > \*\*Course, if you pick the _right_ songs, you don’t even have to play 'em backwards to hear the Satanic messages. 😃 \*\* True, try Slayer or Deicide 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Pucky\_Schumer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Pucky\_Schumer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucky_Schumer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/27 "2003-02-08T21:17:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissa \* > \*\*I sincerly doubt this woman would have known the definition of “maturbate.” The running joke among us kids was that she nailed her underwear on. BTW, we were around 16 at the time. \*\* That’s hilarious! From your description of the record, it’s seems like it would be much easier to hear “masturbates” than “my strawberry.” Perhaps someone told the poor dear about the “message” and then didn’t have the nerve to explain it. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/28 "2003-02-08T21:42:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lissa \* > \*\*_snicker_ > > I went to a Christian school which had “chapel” sessions every morning. I remember that once, or principal dragged out an old record player, and played a record bacwards. “DAAAAAA DEEEEEBUUUL EEE MUUH STRRRUUU BAH” it warbled. > > “See!” she shouted triumphantly, “It says 'The Devil is my strawberry!!” and then went on to preach for the next hour about the insidious evil of rock music, and how it would “get you” before you even knew you had been got. I always wanted to ask her if it would be okay to listen to rock, provided I listened to it forwards, and not backwards, but never got up the courage. \*\* Did the song happen to be “I Get Around”, by the Beach Boys? This story sounds awfully familiar to a portion of the book **Boys Life**. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/29 "2003-02-08T22:01:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by El Elvis Rojo \* > \*\*Did the song happen to be “I Get Around”, by the Beach Boys? This story sounds awfully familiar to a portion of the book **Boys Life**. \*\* I honestly don’t know what record it was that she played. She did not reveal the name of the song, or, God forbid, let us hear it before she played it backwards. I’ve never read the book myself, and I know that she would have never read any “secular” novels (we were the recepients of many lectures on the subject, and I was once almost expelled after being caught with a copy of \* Gone With the Wind) \*, but I guess it’s entirely possible that someone could have read the book and alerted her to the “message” on that particular record. As I recall, it was a 45, not a full length album. It was the only record that she used for demonstration, though she warned us about Led Zepplin and Kiss (“Kings in Satanic Service”), but didn’t have any of the albums to demonstrate with. (Owner of several fine Zepplin vinyls myself, a friend of mine grinningly urged me to bring them in so that the principal could search for devilish slogans hidden therein. I refused, because I was afraid she’d scratch them up.) ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/30 "2003-02-08T22:40:19Z")
I remember a …erm… controversy over backward masking in the theme song of “Mr. Ed.” I distinctly recall being at a swimming party, listening to the radio, and hearing the announcer mention it, then play it. We all heard some kind of “satanic” thing, and I was scared out of my wits. What a dingus. hrh ---
**Author:** ![Opengrave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/919ad9/32.png) [@Opengrave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opengrave)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/31 "2003-02-08T23:29:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KGS \* > \*\*Similarly, Iron Maiden created a backwards track that said (in a nearly unintelligible accent): **“What ho said de t’ing wit the three bonce? Don’t mess wit’ t’ings you don’t understand!”** (Yeah, I don’t know what it means, either.) \*\* It was Niko doing a goofy imitation of Idi Amin that was recorded and ‘backmasked’. Niko got his voice on an album! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582/32 "2003-02-09T05:14:23Z")
Backmasking has been pretty well debunked, along with all of the rest of that subliminal junk. Most of it, like all of those **KGS** and **jb\_007clone** mentioned, is based on people hearing what they expect: They listen to syllable salad, or random conglomerations of noise made by human vocal chords, and pick out words and phrases _based on what they know they `should’ hear._ It’s like seeing constellations in the sky. The human mind likes patterns, and will perceive them even when they do not exist. [Highly relevant quote.](http://www.crispen.org/rants/secrets.html) – It’s less than 10% of “Big Secrets” by Wm. Poundstone, so it’s Fair Use. Nyah. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/satanic-messages/153582.md?page=1)