From: drice@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Keith Rice)
Subject: Re: Is music amoral??
Organization: University of North Texas
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 07:31:15 GMT

In <1992Aug18.022459.9536@uoft02.utoledo.edu> steiner@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (jason "Think!" steiner) writes:

>drice@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Keith Rice) writes:
>> aaron@binah.cc.brandeis.edu (Scott Aaron) writes:
>> 
>> >I was just reading in Romans 15 that NOTHING is unclean in itself. 
>> >It's only how we take it as individuals.  To say that oscillations
>> >of air molecules have associated moral/ethical concepts has always
>> >been amusing to me.  The same goes for assigning ethical beliefs to
>> >instituions.  I have heard many say that "Stairway to Heaven" is a
>> >Satanic song.  I'm always moved by what I perceive as its Christian
>> >message ("there are two roads you can go by and there's still time
>> >to change the road you're on...").  The morality is in how YOU take
>> >it.
>> 
>> "Stairway" is considered to be a classic example of a song with
>> backward messages dealing with Satan.  Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin is
>> an avowed follower of Alistair (sp?) Crowley's writings.  I can't
>> remember exactly what "Stairway" says backwards as I have lent mt
>> tape of its message to a friend but it is most definitely satanic.

>i've done some sampling & processing of supposed backmasking and
>Stairway to Heaven has -no- deliberate backmasking. (Def Leppard,
>One Bad Pig and Petra do, on the other hand.) the supposed backmasking
>on Stairway apparently says "my sweet satan" if you listen closely
>enough.

>that particular phrase is just a phonetic inversion of the lyrics.
>you can tell from the ramping. normal waveforms, including singing
>and speech look like this:
> 
>   __|\__ rising rapidly, then fading away.

>backmasking, or a natural voice flipped over, looks like this:

>   __/|__ slowly rising, & then cutting off.

>"my sweet satan" has the latter waveform, indicating that it's
>just an inversion of the normal lyrics. filtering out everything
>but the lyrics & then inverting confirms this. if you -really-
>want to go on a backmask hunt, don't look for it in the sections
>of the songs that have vocals. it interferes there. check the
>instrumental parts, especially the ending loop that a lot of bands
>use. if you're listening closely you can recognize the distinctive
>waveform.

Go back and read mt post more carefully.  I did not say that "Stairway"
had backward masking, only backward messages (whether intentional or
not, I don't know).  I have listened to it backwards a number of times
and the second waveform pattern is easily distinguished.  But just because
it may not be backward masking doesn't mean it's unintentional.

Example: The group Black Oak Arkansas in a song I think is entitled
"The Day Electricity Came to Arkansas", has the following lyrics
(forward)--"Dog se ee, dog se ee, dog se ee....natas, natas, natas".
Backwards the phrase "Satan, Satan, Satan...He is god, he is god, he
is god" can be heard.  To me this is obviously intentional.

While we're on the subject of backward messages, I pose another question
for discussion.  Why do we only hear of satanic messages in secular rock
music and never hear Godly messages when the songs are played in reverse?

--
Keith
drice@ponder.csci.unt.edu

Newsgroups: rec.music.christian