jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jawaid Bazyar) (01/19/90)
In article <6497@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> ccm020@deneb.ucdavis.edu () writes: >I recently got Led Zeppelin IV (Runes) on CD, and I had a few questions >about the "Backmasking" on "Stairway to Heaven" > >1. Does anyone know if the band PURPOSELY put the backwards lyrics on >there, or did someone just play it backwards and pick out a few >semi-clear words? This has never really been determined. I have heard this part of the song many many times and it seems to make sense both ways. That's almost frightening. >2. If the backwards lyrics (read: prayer to Satan) were intentional, does >anyone know if Zeppelin were serious about it? Jimmy Page (and indeed Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple) is an admitted Satanist. In fact he lives in England in the house of Alistair Crowley, author of the first witchcraft manual of the modern age (written sometime in the 1800s). I don't believe any of the other Zeppelin members were directly involved in this, but Page certainly had to have had some effect on them. >3. Can anyone tell me what the EXACT backwards lyrics are supposed to be? >All I could pick out was "My sweet Satan..." Alas, I do not remember. I have an article a friend wrote that I can post if I can find it. >4. Does anybody know of any other groups that have used backmasking? > >This just interested me since I got this album, so please post or e-mail any >info you have. Thanks a lot! > Well, here's a list of the ones most familiar to me. Queen: Another One Bites the dust in reverse is "Start to smoke marijuana". (this one is rather far-fetched if you ask me, surely just an accident) Styx: Heavy Metal Poisoning: the evil sounding monologue at the very start of the song is actually the Latin phrase "Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum", which you will find on the one dollar bill in a circle around the pyramid on the back. This one is just plain cute! Prince: Purple Rain- there are two songs (that I came across) on this album that have backtracks on them- one reads "Yeah, fuck them, who needs them" (paraphrased, I cannot remember it exactly) and the other "How are you? I am fine, cause I know the heavenly Lord is coming soon". Led Zeppelin: IV (Runes) You didn't mention the Battle of Evermore which clearly says in reverse "I am the Bible, please spit on me". >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Andy Bates "You take a chance getting up in the morning, crossing the street, > or sticking your face in a fan." -- Lieutenant Frank Drebin > ambates@ames.arc.nasa.gov or ccm020@deneb.ucdavis.edu >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One thing we have to remember about backmasking- it's only important if things the brain receives backwards can be understood. An evangelist once had a few shows on the subject which made their way to tape, which I had the fortune to hear. His explanation went something like this: If someone came up to you and said "Satan is God", you'd blow it off, your conscious brain would filter it out, discarding it as nonsense. If however you heard "Satan is God" BACKWARDS, your conscious wouldn't detect it and would let it pass into the depths of your brain, where it would be un-reversed. You would then be warped by it. For one thing, this argument hinges on whether the brain can unscramble that message. I don't believe it can. The bozo on TV cited studies that showed it can (these studies were no doubt done by other evangelical-type loonies). For another, I know MANY people who have listened to Led Zeppelin IV countless times, who know every last note, guitar squeak, inhale and exhale on the album, every ooh and ahh and baby- you get my drift- none of them, I repeat NONE worship Satan now, or have in any way mysteriously changed their religious beliefs. Subliminal messages are the same way. Studies done on "flash advertisements" "prove" that people in theaters get an urge for a Coke when a picture of a cold refreshing coke is shown on the screen for 1/60th of a second. This is also bull. It's more likely the barrage of Coke ads the viewer was assaulted with the moment he entered the theater. Anyway, the subject is pretty much moot since this is all psychology, and of all of the pseudo-sciences psychology is on the bottom of the heap for providing consistent results. -- Jawaid Bazyar | This message was posted to thousands of machines Junior/Computer Engineering | throughout the entire civilized world. It cost jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu | the net hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars.
ccm020@deneb (01/19/90)
Regarding Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" have the accidental backmask of
"Start to smoke marijuana," I think that it might have actually been done on
purpose. The reversed message only comes up later, when the chorus becomes
more slurred, and sounds something like, "Ana wam bites da dast" If it
was done on purpose, I think it would be easy to take "marijuana" and
reverse it so it sounds like "Anawam" (which forwards would sound like "Mawana")
Anyway, the slurred "anawam" could be changed a little to sound like
"another one" and then the song could be built around those lyrics.
I think the song is putting a correlation between smoking marijuana and
biting the dust, as in "marijuana is bad" type of stuff, not SUPPORTING
marijuana smoking. However I've heard religious tpoics on this, saying
something like, "Marijuana kills brain cells, muddles your thoughts...
(etc.)...so that's why Satan wants you to 'Start to smoke marijuana' ".
Personally I think that's stretching it a bit, to just pull out of the
air that Satan is behind all of this. But the "Stairway to Heaven" stuff
is just plain weird. I don't know what to think. More later...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Bates "You take a chance getting up in the morning, crossing the street,
or sticking your face in a fan." -- Lieutenant Frank Drebin
ambates@ames.arc.nasa.gov or ccm020@deneb.ucdavis.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------