UNKNOWN:vmicro1@ucbvax.UUCP (06/02/83)
Ok, folks, here is the real truth on the backwards masking on "Stairway to Heaven". First of all, it quite clearly exists. No, I don't have the words memorized. No, Jimmy Page is not a Satanist, a Communist, a perverter of youth, or any of that stuff. He is a student, maybe a disciple, of Aleister Crowley. So what was he trying to do? Crowley's work was largely dedicated to discovering the "inner truths" of the human being: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." One of his methods was remembering dreams, with the possibility of remembering past lives. To this end, he had a method of training oneself write backwards, read backwards, remember backwards, and -- speak backwards. Essentially, "Stairway" was an exercise along these ends. And a difficult one! You try to carry on a conversation where the words make sense both forwards and backwards. Oh well. It sure has a lot of people upset.