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Backmasking Info

For the actual backmasking clips see Jeff Milner’s Backmasking Site

Years ago a relative told me that he played Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven song backwards on his record player and that he could hear “satanic messages”.

A few years ago I discovered that you could flip sound files on the computer and play them backwards. I did this and then put my discovery on the net for everyone to hear and be able to make their own conclusions.

I’ve since added some other songs to keep things interesting.

On Monday, 9 January 2006, my name and website were featured on the front cover of the Wall Street Journal. Since then the following outlets have contacted me and published content about me/my site:

  • Salt Lake Tribune
  • Wall Street Journal (on the cover! Check out the image)
  • ABC News Radio Affiliate in Seattle
  • Michael Smerconish Program on 1210AM WPHT in Philadelphia—a 50,000 Watt CBS Affiliate (broadcasting all over the eastern USA. Michael Smerconish is the guy that interviewed George W. Bush on the night he was elected President of the United States.)
  • CBC Radio Wild Rose Country with Donna McElligot
  • Arizona Central (reprint of Wall Street Journal article)
  • Ottawa Citizen
  • Edmonton Journal (reprint of the Ottawa Citizen article)
  • Calgary Herald (front page)
  • Lethbridge Herald (front page)
  • Global Television
  • CTV Television (broadcast across Canada January 10th and again on Canada AM and other CBC affiliated shows)
  • Jonathon Brand Show in Chicago
  • Rock 106 Big Breakfast Show with Fraser and Rosie (I wasn’t on, but they talked about me)
  • The Bob Rivers Show, Seattle’s top-rated morning radio show
  • Soundcheck on an NPR affiliate in Manhattan (I was on right after a senior editor from Rolling Stone Magazine)
  • Live At 5, ATV in Halifax, NS (I wasn’t interviewed, however my site was shown)
  • Medicine Hat News (reprint from Lethbridge Herald)
  • “Broadminded” on XM Satellite Radio in Washington DC (those girls are fun)
  • Prairie Post (Southern Alberta Newspaper)
  • BBC The World (200 NPR stations and 2 million listeners, archived at theworld.org)
  • Arkansas Democrat Gazette (reprint of the WSJ article — watch out for pop-ups)
  • The California Aggie Online (they wrote an article based on other articles, which just propagates previous mistakes… oh well)
  • 700WLW radio (in Cincinnati, Ohio)
  • Jay Thomas show on Sirius Satellite Radio (January 23 at 1:30pm MST)
  • The Charlaton (Carleton University’s independent paper)
  • CBC Newsworld’s “The Hour” (Aired during a live broadcast of the show February 7 at 8:00pm 6:00pm MST and again at 9:30 and midnight)
  • Colorado Springs Gazette (reprint of the Wall Street Journal article)
  • The University of Lethbridge Legend
  • The Seattle Times
  • Connecticut Fox 61 news
  • Ohios Fox 8 news
  • The Boston Globe
  • and more!

5 replies on “Backmasking Info”

You should do backmasking of more songs! I find it quite interesting!

Well, in response to the Stairway to Heaven lyrics, I’m seeing a lot of people say the forward lyrics are about commercialism or intelligible or other stuff… I don’t feel this is true (although the commercialism has some validity…)
For people who are educated about a form of spirituality known as “hedge witchery” or Wicca (not the same things, by the way) it’s well known that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were students of A. Crowley, a precursor of modern witchcraft. Terms like “hedgerow” and “may queen” and “piper” and so on have new symbology when you learn what they are symbolic FOR not just their dictionary definitions, which yes, make them make no sense. But to an aboriginal who’s never had contact with our “modern civilization” (an oxymoronic term if one ever existed IMHO) a $100 bill might best be used to wipe one’s bum, because they do not understand the *symbology* it represents.
So, in understanding words of songs, one HAS to understand the mindset and environment of the songwriter. As a songwriter, it would annoy the crap out of me to have people double or triple guess my lyrics. Just ask me. Or better yet, listen to the song, and tell me how you FEEL afterwards. If you’re happy, or enjoyed it, job done. Granted, not everyone has the same motives and ethics, hence the debate, but understanding the PERSON is a much better way to understand a song’s lyrics than playing the recording backwards, unless you know that the songwriter(s) had that in mind in the first place, which may be true in this case, but I wouldn’t hang anyone based on the assumption…