Back in the ’70s, there was a lot of controversy about alleged backward masking (i.e., subliminal messaging) in rock music. Parents were absolutely freaking out over it, and forbidding their children to listen to rock music. It should surprise no one to discover that I was one of the kids back then who played a lot of albums backward, just to see what all the controversy was about. It was pretty easy to do on a record player, after all.
While most songs played backward have words here and there that you can clearly recognize, and some even had recognizable sentences which appear to make sense in some way, the undisputed king of all backward messages was, and still is, “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. In fact, many hardcore rock fans at that time called the song “Oppositioner”, based on its backward message.
Don’t misunderstand, I don’t think this was intentional at all, since even human speech played backward can say some pretty weird stuff. Still, it’s kinda freaky that the entire song seems to be a message in line with the song title, LOL. So, for your viewing and listening pleasure, I present to you “Stairway To Heaven” played backward, with the ”Oppositioner” lyrics printed on-screen.
Less
aynrkey
bostonteapartygoer
Kenn Jacobine
mattdharris
Mike Seebeck
Miche
paulie
Jim Davidson
ponggod
Stuart Richards
Todd Andrew Barnett
I’m a fan of all of that music, but I don’t think that the backwards messages were accidental, I believe that they were done on purpose. It is a fact that they were involved in the Occult & Satanism.
It is a sad and startling thing to accept, but this doesn’t mean that it is not true.
Even if it was intentional, and even if it is true that LedZep was involved in the occult and Satanism, I’m neither sad nor startled by it. I just think the backward lyrics are interesting.
Here’s a good example of another atypical backward message, involving the late Layne Staley of Alice In Chains:
and here’s the more amusing version of that same backward message from Layne Staley:
Are you fucking serious?
No, really?
I never thought anyone took those Chick tracts seriously…
And Tipper Gore was behind the conspiracy to do away with the vinyl records and go to CDs so that we couldn’t do that backwards stuff anymore, but I don’t recall if that was before or after the Mena airport hijackings with the CIA and the Iran Contras
p.s have a bottle of Sam Adams and relax. It’s time for stories from the Green Dragon.
Wow. Like it’s not hard enough to write a song forwards that sounds great, meshes perfectly with Jimmy Page’s guitar, and makes sense, but they spent the necessary time to figure out a way for it to mean something complete and coherently different in the opposite direction, too? Those guys were good, considering it would be next to impossible to know how something would sound in the opposite direction before the forward song was recorded and played back in reverse. Seriously, is that even possible given that these bands were high much of the time? I think the establishment was looking for a way to discredit rock and roll because it was inherently anti-establishment. Parents were afriad of their kids being sucked into anything that wasn’t Christian Leave it to Beaver Toll House Cookie wholesome chocolately goodness. It’s a myth.
Andy – Go back and listen to your slayer 8-tracks in reverse — they prophesized the NAU!
Yeah, what Nick said! It’s a big enough stretch to translate those backward sounds into something close to recognizable English words, but the idea of DELIBERATELY recording something that could actually be understood when played backwards is simply preposterous.
That said, I was surprised at how recognizable the music is when played backwards. Had I not known in advance which song it was, it wouldn’t have taken me long to figure it out.
What’s not to take serious? Either the backward messages are there or they are not? As far as I can tell they are there. Either the messages are Satanic or they are not? As far as I can tell they are Satanic.
Should these messages be taken seriously, or was it just a bunch of people screwing around in a recording studio? I don’t know.
I’m not even religious myself, but I do find worshipping evil (which is what Satanism represents even though some may deny this) to be disturbing. I dropped out of organized religion (Christian) years ago and I don’t have any plans to return to it but having said this, I think that the concept of being into the Occult or Satanism is absurd.
I’ve been a big fan of classic rock/hard rock/heavy metal, etc…, for years, but dispite liking the music I do think that there is a lot of negative influence in a lot of it.
Here’s a story related to this. I’ve got a friend on-line that lives in England. He writes articles from time to time for a heavy metal magazine in Europe. I met with him a couple of times when he came to this country. The second time that we met we took a trip and we were in an area where a guy who had been in a once famous death metal band lived and since this friend had corresponded with him on-line he set up a meeting with him so he could write a “Where are they now” type of article for his magazine. I’m not going to say the name of the guy or the band, but I’ll just say that they were semi-big at one time and I’d heard of them although I wasn’t really familiar with their music.
Anyway, when it came time to go and meet with this guy from the once semi-famous death metal band I drove my friend from England over to the house but I figured that I’d just drop him off and go do something else and then come back later to pick him up. I thought that the death metal guy sounded like a real wacko so I wasn’t really interested in meeting him. I imagined going into the house and seeing goat’s blood splattered on the wall and I pictured the guy as having a Pentagram tatooed on his head and stuff like that. LOL! So my friend from England was like, “Come on mate. Just come with me in the house. If you don’t like the guy you can leave.” So I gave in and reluctantly went with him to the door. My friend starting knocking on the door and I was thinking “Get me out of here.” and then the guy anwsered and much to my suprise he looked completely normal and was quite friendly. It turned out that the guy was married and had a kid who was a toddler. His wife was working that night so he was watching the kid. He also had a musician friend over at his house and this friend of his had his kid with him who was like 5 or 6. The death metal guy also had a regular 9-5 job which he worked during the week.
We ended up hanging out for several hours that night. We ate pizza and drank beer and talked about his expierences in the music business and a bunch of other stuff. He had some acoustic guitars laying around and since I’m a guitar player myself (I played seriously for several years but then got to a point where I didn’t play that much for a few years due to getting sidetracked with other stuff) I jammed with him and that friend of his for a while. It turned out that he was into a bunch of other music besides death metal, a lot of stuff that would suprise some people.
Since that friend of mine from England was going to write an article about him for that magazine he was asking him questions for the article and then the death metal guy actually wanted my friend to lie in the article. He didn’t want people to know that he was living such a normal life! I guess that he thought that it would be bad for his image. LOL! He was saying things like, “Tell them I’m hooked on heroin.” and other crazy stuff like that. LOL! I never did see the article so I don’t know what my friend ended up writing.
During the course of the night I asked him why he got into death metal in the first place. He said that he was looking for a way to rebel and that he wanted to do something that scared & shocked people. I asked him something like, “Come on, you seem like a good guy. You don’t really believe in this Satanic stuff, do you?” Then he replied, “Yeah man, I’m a total Satan worshipper.” I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
Regaurdless of whether he was serious or not, I will say that I ended up having a good time that night and that it turned out that after a few hours it was my friend from England that had to peel me away as it was getting late and we needed to get back to our motel room as we had other activies planned for the next day.
So that was my expierence hanging out with a guy who was once a member of a semi-big death metal band.
Andy – I wish I knew who it was. Most people that seem strange are in fact, very normal. But who isn’t a bit strange? And who defines noromal?
You could be the first.
Do you mean that Jimmy Page was/is into occult? That’s not very controversial. Read any biography.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Page#Occult_connections
BTW, hate to say it, but if “Oppositioner” is a real song, its lyrics are quite subpar for Zep. It starts out with some promise, and shows a few sparks on occassion, but ends up in mush.
Here they are for reference:
Plaaaay backwards,
Hear why its sung here, oppositioner..
Allll on track, all arriving
They all sing, and they are one.
Shall I loathe you now, parishoner?
Oh hear Him, Christian within me.
It stirs my sin; the river,
Oh, she swells with our lousiness.
All my life will end for him?
We’re all out of signs,
I know I’m sorta shocked
To hear The Lord,
My God now will save me!
Oh I will n’er be saved,
Because I live with Satan..
One wish today;
That you’ll all pray for
Three who will make it here late.
Pray now and you’ll see..
The ‘Lord’ turned me on,
But, oh, I was the shaggy fool..
Clothed in agony,
Lost at a height.
There’s no escaping it,
Nor his woes..
So here’s to my Sweet Satan.
The one who’s little path
Would make me sad,
Whose power is satan.
He’ll give you 666.
there was a little toolshed,
where he made
us suffer sad Satan.
Ohohohoh…
“Family won’t get loose,
They’re offered me”
Always soothes the worker.
Always will be as we know now
“I see ruins,” said he,
“the world they offered me?
Who wished the Lord’s fall”
If we lose feather,
Say you’ll save me!
And no wimps can bend the rules..
And no wimps can do..
Hunt next to the shore,
‘Cause they see all from there,
See here’s the news,
Who walks with mute grief!
Perhaps no-one found thee…
“Heavy, lift me out,”
Spake the Reve,
“Someday, failed, we’ll lose one line-up,
They’ve gotta leave forsaken”
And no wimps can do..
And no wimps can do…
He, who say the lords
Thoth have our laws,
Maat must be superb. Mass is ended..
Over there,
He who should learn thee.
Any moot that serves by my sworn music,
I wish it with snow be shushed, All for my mass’s sake.
Hear why its sung,
here, oppositioner, Ohh..
He who should show
May make his show worthy,
To look, for us, odd.. sickly,
There’s one chance – take his show.
Hold thy head,
Hear why its sung here. oppositioner.
Who owns this earth built below?
Oh sweet Israel…
No, I mean the backmasking thing.
Hmmmm. Should be pretty easy to check. Remind me next time I’m in Alabama, I think I still have an old fashioned record player and Zep albums.
Titanium Girl, I don’t want to blab the name of the person or band on a public forum, however, perhaps I could tell you in a private e-mail.
You can email it to me, I’ll pass it on.
I love death metal (I’m a metalhead) and I smoked weed with Chris Barnes formerly of Cannibal Corpse now with Six Feet Under. I had to ask him how he came up with some of the most vile lyrics known to man. He just said that he just smoked a lot of weed and let the pen flow! And Cannibal Corpse is banned from playing any of the songs from their first three albums in concert in Germany and Australia. And yes I am a huge Slayer fan too…and I’m a Christian!
Since this song is the subject of the opening post, here’s a clip that I stumbled upon a few months ago on YouTube of jazz-fushion guitarist Stanley Jordan playing “Stairway To Heavan”. This is one of the best and most unique covers that I’ve ever heard. For those of you who’ve never heard of him, Stanley Jordan developed an 8 finger tapping technique and he can play two guitars at the same time!
Chris, I never would have guessed that you were a death metal fan.
It’s been my experience that they strangest people by appearance are usually the nicest and “most normal” if there is such a scale. The rudest, cruelest, most hypocritical are usually the establishment, well dressed, clean appearanced…and they usually tell you how great they are, if not blatantly but by show of pride, wealth, and mention of deeds. The “weirdos” are usually the best people. They certainly tend to think for themselves which is sorely lacking in our society. But, everyone here probably gets that better than most. We have to remember that just because we know so many others that “get it” and agree with us for the most part, society in general is made up of sheep.
But, there are no absolutes. That too, should not be forgotten.
Oh please!
Those backwords “words” could be deciphered as meaning many different words. They don’t sound enough like real words to attach any amount of certainty to them.
Can something truly be completely different after three headlines in a row that say, “now for something completely different”?
ROFLMAO – I was wondering if anybody would notice that. It’s just my little way of amusing my geeky self.
Yes, well. How about, just to be really different, calling the next one “and now for the exact same thing”?
Because there’s no fun whatsoever in that, of course.
If the topic IS completely different, the title fits every time. Will the Parrot Sketch be included any time soon? Or has it ceased to be?
no one will ever really kno, but just because someone doesn’t ask God to constantly bless them dosen’t mean they are satanic