May 8, 2002

7:03 PM

Remember all the furor in '70's and '80's over Backmasking , which for the uninitiated is inserting backwards messages(usually Satanic) into records to seduce the innocent.Usually the allegations came from folks like this. Judas Preist even found themselves dragged into court over it. Thankfully, the audio at this site you can judge for yourself. More links here. I don't buy it myself. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go kill my parents.
posted by jonmc (12 comments total)

I remember playing Styx 'The Grand Illusion' backwards when I was a kid and hearing Dennis DeYoung clearly chanting "Your taste in music sucks".
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:26 PM on May 8, 2002

Bastard! This is just like Miguel's earlier thread. Now I'm never going to get to sleep hearing "nevaeh ot yawriats a gnibmilc s'ehs dna" over and over in my head.
posted by dchase at 7:45 PM on May 8, 2002

Legend has it that John Lennon put the first backwards segment in (modern) music history onto the song "Rain" because he picked up the spool of tape, put it in the wrong way, and in his - ah - heightened state of mind at the time thought it was the coolest thing he'd ever heard.

And, although I've mentioned it before, I'll say again that my favorite deliberately-inserted backwards loop is "I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you're playing the record backwards. Watch out, you might ruin your needle" in the B-52's song "Detour Through Your Mind".
posted by yhbc at 8:18 PM on May 8, 2002

I read somewhere that if you play Country Music backwards you get your girlfriend back, your job back and your pickup truck back.
posted by Mack Twain at 8:37 PM on May 8, 2002

Prince's Darling Nikki has some nice backwards masking, but I can't find a link to the audio of it.

"If you play 'Maybe I'm Amazed' backwards, you'll hear a recipe for a really rockin' lentil soup!"--Paul McCartney, standing in Apu's garden.
posted by gluechunk at 11:05 PM on May 8, 2002

At the very end of the track "Happy Cycling" by Boards Of Canada, there's a reverse-speech message. If you play it backwards it turns out to be an excerpt of a 1970's interview with Jeff Lynn from E.L.O., in which you can hear him denying the use of 'backward masking' in E.L.O.'s music. You can hear him say 'someone would have to be a genius to do that' etc.
posted by Espoo2 at 12:05 AM on May 9, 2002

If you play Kylie Minogue backwards, she sounds better.
posted by John Shaft at 12:14 AM on May 9, 2002

In the early 80's when Christians were finding these satanic messages, Oingo Boingo, a Southern California band, had a throwaway song on one of their albums that was mostly African-style drumming and a little chanting, but backwards it said something like "Read the Bible, go to church, be good."
posted by planetkyoto at 2:43 AM on May 9, 2002

watch the kylie bashing...
posted by goneill at 4:43 AM on May 9, 2002

great links, jon. these christian parents spent wayyyy too much time listening to music backwards. i never would have come up with any of this stuff. maybe they should have spent a little more time with their kids then with looking for satanic symbols everywhere.
posted by witchstone at 7:47 AM on May 9, 2002

Backmasking: Old Skool Easter Eggs.
posted by IPLawyer at 2:15 PM on May 9, 2002

Another interesting reversal is from the not so innocent nursery rhyme 'Twinkle Twinkle little Star', a recording was made from a 6-year-old girl and when played backwards the words 'I wish there were no Allah' canbe heard. Some say that this is the work of freemasons, attempting to subliminally secularize their biggest enemy, Islam.



HAHAHAHA!!!
posted by delmoi at 3:51 AM on May 10, 2002