From: lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism,alt.satanism
Subject: Re: Backward Masking
Date: 8 Apr 92 22:15:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: skyblu.8APR199215152365
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Arizona
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <ogorman.702753753@unix1.tcd.ie>, ogorman@unix1.tcd.ie (Lucifuge) writes...
>In <7APR199209183545@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu> lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard) writes:
> 
>>A couple of comments:
> 
>>(1) A reversed piece of tape is not the only kind of backwards message.
>>In fact, this is NOT the case with "Stairway to Heaven."  Fundamentalists
>>claim to find messages in the ordinary, forward-recorded vocal tracks,
>>when played backwards.  They claim to hear these messages in reversed
>>human speech.  These sorts of messages have been found to be greatly
>>enhanced by the power of suggestion.  When fundamentalists give lectures
>>on rock music, they tell you what to listen for before they play these
>>messages.  When people aren't told what to listen for, they rarely hear
>>the same message.  (I've successfully "found" Satanic and bizarre
>>messages in Christian music by listening to records backwards and looking
>>for the same.)
> 
>Ok. This is true. I gave the generic definition of a backmask. It's just
>as easy to do the other. Get a tape. Record your message (say "Jesus
>Saves" - it's been done though with heavy sarcasm). Play backwards. Work
>out from the phonetics off the phrase (it will sound nothing like sevas
>susej BTW) some words that approximate that sound. Record this forwards.
>Listen backwards and you'll hear a muddy version of the original
>message. No technical difficulty. For the record, I've never been able
>to hear anything in 'Stairway...'.

Actually, this isn't what I meant, but you're right that this is yet
another type of backwards message.  What I meant was that the fundamentalists
claim that vocal tracks which are ordinary, plain English when played
forwards (not "manually" reversed words), e.g., "if there's a bustle
in your hedge row, don't be alarmed now, it's just a spring clean for
the May Queen"--becomes a satanic message (again in English) when played
in reverse (e.g., "he will give you 666").  The Beatles' "Revolution #9"
is another example--the "number nine" that sounds like "turn me on, dead
man" when reversed.  (If you try this at home, you need to say it like
"number nye-nuh.")

>>(2) There is also a third kind of backwards message, and this is represented
>>by Kate Bush's backwards message on the song "Leave It Open" on her
>>_The Dreaming_ album.  This is where a vocal track has been electronically
>>processed so that one and the same track contains one message when played
>>forwards and a different message when played backwards.  The technology
>>for *this* probably didn't exist when "Stairway to Heaven" was recorded,
>>yet it is sometimes implied by fundamentalists that this is what Led
>>Zeppelin did.  (More frequently, however, the claim is made that what
>>Led Zeppelin did was not humanly possible and is thus evidence of
>>demonic influence.)
> 
>'we let the wierdness in'? I asked about this on rec.music.gaffa awhile
>ago and was told that it was done by saying the wordS phonetically
>backwards and the reversing the audio and recording to obtain a forward
>message that sounds like a backmask. 
> 
>Again no problem with technology. Nowadays with computers and sampling
>technology all this is no problem and virtually anything can be done for
>a forward recording....

That's the message.  That's not how it was done, however, as you can determine
by playing it backwards--it has the same "backwards-like" sound when played
in either direction, and furthermore says something in English when played
in either direction.  (Or at least, so it has been claimed.  I'm not
sure what the reversed message is supposed to be, even after listening
to it several times.)

>--------------------------what you letting in?----------------I---------
>                     tell me what you're letting in        ___I___     
>                      say  what we're gonna let in           \I/ 
>                                                              /  
> ogorman@unix1.tcd.ie                                        /I\ 
>                                                              I
>-------------------------ew tel eht ssendriew ni--------------I---------

Jim Lippard              Lippard@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Dept. of Philosophy      Lippard@ARIZVMS.BITNET
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Xref: sparky alt.atheism:8160 alt.satanism:1318