In Search Of.... Backmasking

Welcome to In Search Of... 2006, where I will probe great mysteries and deal in cold hard fact and not psuedo-science.

Backmasking is an audio technique in which sounds are recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. Backmasking has been a source of much controversy, especially related to supposed subliminal messages in rock music.

Have you ever sat in a dark room with a Led Zeppelin IV album and played Stairway To Heaven Backward?

I have, and I heard "My Sweet Satan".

But, was it my imaginitaion, or is backmasking real?

Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant denied the accusations in an interview: "To me it's very sad, because 'Stairway To Heaven' was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music."

Regardless of what Robert Plant says, backmasking is real.

Backmasking first became famous with The Beatles. Just before the band's break-up in 1970, DJ Russell Gibb initiated the infamous "Paul Is Dead" urban legend (a rumor that Beatle Paul McCartney had died) by playing certain Beatles records backwards to reveal hidden messages. One album in particular, The White Album, was said to contain backwards messages. Intentional gibberish at the end of "I'm So Tired" was supposedly "Paul is a dead man, miss him, miss him..." Likewise, the repeated words "Number nine, number nine, number nine..." in "Revolution 9" were supposedly "turn me on, dead man, turn me on, dead man..." backwards.

There is no doubt that bands have purposefully added backmasked messages to their work intending for it to be found by fans.

On Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict, a track from the two part 1969 Pink Floyd album Ummagumma, someone says, "That was pretty avant-garde, wasn't it?"

On Pink Floyd's rock epic The Wall there is an intentional backwards message halfway through the track "Empty Spaces": "...congratulations. You've just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont."

A famous, deliberately recorded backward message comes from the beginning of the Electric Light Orchestra song "Fire on High," where the mysterious deep mumbling reverses to "The music is reversible, but time is not...turn back! Turn back! Turn back!"

Radiohead created the song "Like Spinning Plates" from Amnesiac by playing the backing track from "I Will" backwards. Singer Thom Yorke then sung the lyrics, played them backwards and learned how to sing them backwards. He recorded them backwards and reversed them for the final take of the song.

Can backmasking deliver subliminal messages that influence the listener's behavior?

Absolutely not. I have yet to embrace Satan from my "Stairway" experience and I refuse to blame my college years on Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust"

This theory was put to the test in 1985 when British heavy metal band Judas Priest was sued over a suicide pact made by two Nevada schoolboys. One of the two boys survived, and the lawsuit by their families claimed that a 1978 Judas Priest album contained hidden messages. The words "Do it" were allegedly audible when the record was played backwards, and the letters S U I (supposedly for "suicide") are in the sleeve artwork.

The case was dismissed after evidence was introduced that the boys had grown up in "violent and depressed" surroundings, and after the band demonstrated that other, nonsensical, backwards messages could be found if one exercised enough imagination. Judas Priest members also commented that if they wanted to insert subliminal commands in their music, killing their fans would be counterproductive, and they would prefer to insert the command "Buy more of our records."

If you want to listen to some alleged backmasking from bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Queen, and even Britany Spears, check out these links:

Backmasking Samples(link)

Backmasking Online(link)