I remember one stormy night when a bunch of us were staying at Owl’s place when we were kids. We sat around on a stormy night talking about sneaky rock and roll devil imagery and back-masking. I think Owl’s mom may have brought it up. I’ve just realized at some point I will probably have to dedicate an entire posting to Owl.
Anyway, we talked about a Rolling Stones album (I think Goat’s Head Soup) that had a picture on the inside of the album cover of a still from The Exorcist. And then there was this scene in The Exorcist where there was like a spooky skull hidden inside a cloud of breath that comes out of one of the characters. It’s shit like that that gives me the creeps a little bit, and I LOVE it!
The whole Abbey Road cover and “Paul is dead” thing got me going again.
See each of the band members is dressed for a role here; John is the preacher, Ringo the pallbearer, George the grave digger and Paul is dead. He has no shoes because he doesn’t need them… Because he’s dead! His right leg is forward while everybody else has their left leg forward… Because he’s dead! Okay I don’t necessarily get that one, but it’s weird… And if you could see the license plate on that VW in the background it says 28IF. Paul would be 28 IF he was alive, but he’s not… Because he’s dead!
And on the back of the cover, near the plate that says “Abbey Road”, you can see the bullet holes that killed him. And what I just recently found out, the back-masking trick that started the whole thing, the backwards voice that utters, “Paul is dead” is apparently on the song “I’m So Tired” from the White Album. It’s possibly my favorite Beatles song.
Creepy! <-In long, drawn out, low voice)
When I started hearing about bands putting backwards satanic messages on their albums, oh man the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I dove in completely. Someone told me that on “Stairway to Heaven”, if you play it backwards, you can hear like “there is power in Satan” and something about a toolshed for sad Satan. There is a backwards bit at the beginning of “Empty Spaces” by Pink Floyd on The Wall that says:
“Congratulations! You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont.”
This gets mildly spooky if you realize that they’re talking about former Pink Floyd lead guitarist/singer Syd Barrett who indeed went crazy.
But I think my favorite back-masking might be on a song called “Cry of the Vatos” by Oingo Boingo. The song is a percussion and horn piece for the most part with what I thought was just weird vocal noise, but when you play it backwards:
“Praise God brothers and sisters.
Accept Jesus into your heart and you will saved.
You will receive everlasting life.
Listen to me, I've sinned, I know.”
Truly spooky…
4 comments:
according to roger waters (as noted during his appearance on the ROCKLINE radio program) there is a mental institution in Chalfont. they have received sacks and sacks of mail over the last 25 years from people who've found the message and what to know what they've won.
Well, let's be honest, a lot of Floyd fans are known to abuse substances that may impair their judgement.
the first time i heard stairway to heaven backwards i flipped. it was scary! satan's toolshed, man! you know nothing good happens in there!
My first, and probably only firsthand experience with back-masking was when Mike and I took apart a copy of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Mother's Milk and re-built the cassette backwards.
I can't remember what the name of the track is... but it doesn't matter anyhow, because the backwards text was just the chorus and you can hear that it is backwards when playing the song the right way.
I can't tell you how many times I listened to that thing over and over to try and find something more. But there is only so much backwards music one man can listen to. (Then again, just finding it "accidentally" in the first place was really, pretty cool.)
By the time I got my hands on a cassette deck with reverse-play, I had totally lost my interest. And thus closing a short chapter in my life that will never be re-opened. Thanks a lot, Red Hot Chili Peppers. :(
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