upstill (05/18/82)
Lordy, have we all forgotten "I buried Paul", mumbled by John Lennon at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever"? An entire rumor was generated by that one. Steve
rlr (05/19/82)
"I buried Paul" (or "I'm very bored" or "Cranberry sauce", as John insisted) was indeed on Strawberry Fields Forever's final moments, but it was not backwards!!!! "Turn me on, dead man", contrary to previous reports, is supposed to be "Number nine, number nine" backwards (from the classic Revolution 9). In addition, at the very end of I'm So Tired, there is a slew of mumbling, which when reversed, sounds like "Paul is gone, miss him, miss him, miss him..." All remnants of the Paul is Dead "controversy". (The Rutles, in their satiric wisdom, included "This little piggy went to market" backwards on their "Walrus" clone, "Piggy in the Middle"---a classic!) My favorite backwards phrase comes from ELO (stealing benignly from the Beatles as usual) on "Face the Music" (?). During the intro, an obvious backwards phrase is heard, which when reversed says: "The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back..." Frankly I think all this brouhaha about so-called hidden reversed is pure fantasy. It would be very difficult for anyone to reconstruct a "forward" phrase which when played backwards would have a special intended hidden meaning. After playing Stairway to Heaven backwards on a tape recorder equipped to play in reverse (better than spinning your turntable backwards, both in terms of sound accuracy and the lifespan of your needle/record), I barely heard the word "Sat'n" (not "SatAn") and little else. The very notion of middle-aged establishment dinosaurs like Zeppelin and Styx being involved in subversive, brainwashing activity is preposterous. Styx is far more interested in paying for their large houses and cars than in corrupting youth and fomenting revolution (although their music IS revolting). I think this legislator who proposed this whole mess of requiring "warning labels" for records with "hidden messages" is 1) a hopeless Moral Majoriteer seeking publicity, and 2) a relic of 1960's record burning rock-hating religious fanaticism. But moreover, I think the whole notion of burning Styx/Kenny Rogers(?????)/REO Speedwagon records and/or hidden message warning labels (but of these are in the works) is to provide the youth of America with a message---that the music of THESE people is truly dangerous, subversive, and rebellious (which they certainly aren't), thus attracting them to this music. (That should read BOTH of these in the above sentence---sorry). Better they should like music that is controlled by big business and associated with large amounts of consumer purchases (T-shirts, jackets, bubblegum, posters, and of course, car stereos to play this music on and fast cars to put them in), than that] they should get into (God forbid)--PUNK, something they cannot control (not yet) (well, maybe...) Rich Rosen pyuxjj!rlr