Dearly beloved We are gathered here today 2 get through this thing called: ... ‘backmasking’
Watching ‘Purple Rain’ last night, made me think of this..
It occurred to me that Prince seems to really have a thing with backward messages. He did it with two songs on the Purple Rain soundtrack. At the end of 'Darling Nikki': "Hello, how are you? I'm fine, 'cause I know that the Lord is coming soon. Coming,... coming soon." and at the beginning and end of 'Baby I'm a Star' : "Like what the f**k do they know? All their taste is in their mouth. Really... What the f**k do they know? Come on baby. Let's go... crazy." There’s also a scene in the movie where Apollonia enters The Kid’s room and turns on the tape recorder. A drum beat followed by the sound of a woman crying/moaning backwards fills the room.
- Apollonia: “Who's the lucky girl? Sounds like she was having a good time.”
- The Kid: “She's crying... It's backwards. It makes me sad when I hear it. It sounds like she's laughing, doesn't it?”
The woman on the tape is Jill Jones (who plays the waitress), saying: “It’s not alright, I don’t wanna go to hell ....... I want to go to heaven.”
Some people believe that there are many more Prince songs that contain hidden messages. Like for instance 'Paisley Park' . When played backwards you vaguely hear the words: “God is here.” But I think that is purely coincidence.
The use of backmasking (the Easter eggs of the vinyl era) started in the late 60’s. John Lennon claimed he was the first to use backward recordings on the Beatles ‘Revolver’ album, while accidentally (read: under influence) playing the tapes in reverse. Other artists like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen.. followed using this technique during the 70’s and 80’s.
In the 80’s, me and my friends jumped into the backmasking-hype and listened to every record of which we thought it contained hidden messages. We sure screwed up a lot of vinyl by playing them backwards on the turntable. It was also the controversy attached to the subject that made it the more intriguing. For instance some Christian groups claimed the messages were connected with the devil himself. I also remember this urban legend claiming that – like Robert Johnson at the crossroads – Prince made a pact with the devil in order to become a successful artist. So-called proof of that would be his extensive use of symbolism and the album cover of the ‘1999’ album. When turned upside down it says ‘666’ with an arrow pointing down to Prince’s name, which – with some imagination – now spells ‘evil’ backwards.
We, as kids of course didn’t care about the whole controversy. On the contrary... We loved it! It made everything more exciting in a spooky kind of way. Kinda like an Ouija board for music lovers.
Anyway, this isn’t an essay...
I was just wondering if any of you guys did the same thing and if you ever played suspected records backwards to decode hidden messages? Especially the metal-fans amongst us must be familiar with the use of backmasking. Iron Maiden, Slayer, Deep Purple, Judas Priest.. they all used backmasked messages in some of their music. Any thoughts?
P.S. Yes, I had too much time on my hands. Posted by NowhereGirl (Member # 465) on :
i remember me and a friend playing the album backwards and we could hear the "hello, how are you"...along with other mumbo jumbo. i haven't done it since so i don't remember what else was said. it was forever ago. what odd sayings in his hidden messages. what is it supposed to mean? did he ever talk about it?
that was the only album i ever tried playing backwards, as i know there were a lot of other artists who did the same.
it's creepy in a sense, isn't it?
Posted by Riptide (Member # 457) on :
Incredibly for as long I've been into rock music I never tried backmasking. Although being a Led Zep fan it's strange I never tried to. I liked the part In Trick or Treat where dead rocker Sammi Curr was mentioned as his last recordings having this feature.
Posted by 80'sRocked (Member # 6979) on :
I never did either. I always had the cassettes, not vinyl. It always p*ssed me off when people called all the metal bands satanists. I'm sure that a couple might have been, but most of them were, and are, christians. They put on an act to sell more albums and concert tickets.
Posted by TKO (Member # 1471) on :
I’m not sure if there was a meaning behind all these messages Ronniebear. As for the message at the end of ‘Darling Nikki’ it’s been said that it was some kind of apology because of the explicit nature of the actual lyrics of that song. But for as far as I know, Prince himself never made any statements about his use of backmasking. Prince is pure genius. And like most geniuses, he’s probably a little coo coo as well, haha. Probably there isn’t much more to it, than to trigger our subconscious attention, though I like the idea that there’s a deeper meaning to it. Who knows? I think you’re right though, it is indeed a bit creepy, but fascinating nonetheless.
I’m surprised you – as a Led Zeppelin fan – didn’t dig deeper into the subject Riptide. I never got the chance to watch Trick or Treat, so I can’t comment on that. Backmasking doesn’t happen as much anymore since the arrival of the CD. Simply because it’s not so obvious to play a CD backwards. But if you have audio files from backmasked songs on your pc, this audio editor is a very easy to use tool to reverse them.
It’s amazing how many bands used backmasking in their records. A few others that I can think of are The Eurythmics with ‘The City Never Sleeps’ (also known from the 9 ½ weeks soundtrack), where at the end Dave Stewart says something like: “I enjoyed making the damn record. Very good... very good.” The Sisters of Mercy on their part, used a quote from the movie ‘Apocalypse Now’ on the extended version (aka the Canadian Club Mix) of ‘Vision Thing’: "Only the Americans would build a place like this in middle of the jungle... Only the Americans would want to."
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