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backmasking

My 15 Minutes of Fame

I woke up pretty early this morning when a radio station from Illinois called me at 6:25am to ask if I’d do an interview on the air this morning. All the attention has been great!

Other than the Illinois radio interview, today I’m going to be on Global, City TV, and CTV Lethbridge. Yesterday I was interviewed live on an ABC News radio affiliate in Seattle, and pre-recorded for The Michael Smerconish Program on 1210AM WPHT in Philadelphia…a 50,000 Watt CBS Affiliate (I’m told 50,000 Watts is huge). I was also interviewed live on the CBC’s Wild Rose Country with Donna McElligott.

The newspapers that interviewed me include the Lethbridge Herald, the Calgary Herald, and the Ottawa Citizen. I understand the Medicine Hat News, The Arizona Republic, and the Globe & Mail might also be running stories related to my site.

Who knows I may even get more calls today.

See my backmasking page.

Categories
backmasking

Many Interviews

I’ve had such a great day giving interviews. I did three radio interviews and three newspaper interviews. I’m going to be doing three television interviews tomorrow morning. This will go down as one of my favorite days ever.

Categories
article backmasking

Wall Street Journal Article Published Tomorrow

The article in the Wall Street Journal about backmasking that I was interviewed for is going to be published tomorrow. I’m pretty excited to see it. I had my photo taken by Bob Cooney (he’s in charge of media relations at the University of Lethbridge) and he is pretty excited for me. He wants to do a story for the Legend (the official University paper), and figures that the Lethbridge Herald and the Medicine Hat news will each also want to do stories.

He described getting into the Wall Street Journal as being like the Oscars of getting into the news. He was also pretty excited to be getting a photo credit for the photo he was taking. It will be interesting to monitor the stats on my site tomorrow and see if there is a big influx of visitors.

From the teaser exerpt of the article (it’s already online):

Playing songs backwards — a popular pastime from the days of turntables — went out of fashion when CDs arrived. But now it’s enjoying a new cult following thanks to Web sites and software that do the trick.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out my backmasking page.

Update: Here is the Wall Street Journal’s archive of the story.

Categories
backmasking

Wall Street Journal Article on Backmasking

I received word today that The Wall Street Journal is going to go ahead with the article about baskmasking in which they are featuring my backmasking page! The reporter also asked if I had a photo to send — I’m a little stunned that they would want my face in their paper.

More updates as I get them.

Categories
backmasking

Another Backmasking Interview

I’m pretty excited because today I was contacted by a reporter from a big newspaper. She would like to do an interview with me for a story about the re-emergence of backmasking.

I did an interview for the Salt Lake Tribune back in April, and while that paper is pretty big, this paper is freaking huge! Wow, I’ve hit the big time and I’m totally thrilled. More details to come after I actually do the interview.

Categories
backmasking

Backmasking: Your Opinions?

justcurio.us is an anonymous question and answer system, open to anyone, with one simple rule: to ask a question, you must first answer someone else’s question.

Here someone asks the question: Does Stairway to Heaven have satanic messages when played backwards? Please feel free to add you opinion.

Categories
backmasking

Empty Spaces Backwards

This morning I received the following email about my backmasking page:

Hey Jeff,

Just wanted to let you know that your backmasking site rocks. Just one thing you’ve probably heard before, but when you play Empty Spaces backwards there’s a bit more to the lyrics than what you have on your site. The full lyrics are:

“Congratulations, you’ve just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont – ”

“Roger, Carolyn’s on the phone.”

The first guy speaking is bassist Roger Waters. I have no idea who the second guy is, but the ‘Carolyn’ he refers to is probably Roger’s wife of the time, Carolyn Christie. Roger claimed that Carolyn often saved him from going crazy by forcing him to communicate with her, even when he didn’t want to, so that’s probably what the backwards message is referring to. But I’m rambling. Take care and keep the site going, I really love it.

-Carmen

Thanks Carmen. I have received a lot of email about the missing line “Roger, Carolyn’s on the phone” but this is the first time that anyone has offered any kind of explanation as to what it means.

Categories
backmasking

Robert Plant on Stairway to Heaven Backwards

Back in April I received an email about my Stairway to Heaven backwards clip. I know there is probably just as much chance that what this guy says is completely made up as true, but nonetheless he emailed me back yesterday and whether it’s true or not I find the possibility interesting.

Hey dude, amazing what you can find on the net when your bored, pretty cool site, some of the lyrics im really skeptical about but hey thats life.

The main thing i wanted to say was my uncle’s cousin is Robert Plant and the next time they get together i’m gonna ask if i can tag along and i’ll ask Rob about the lyrics, more than likely he’ll say it’s all “Bollocks” but hey — Worth a go.

To which I replied:

I figured it was bound to happen that eventually my site would reach someone from the band. Let me know what he says.

Yesterday I received the following:

Hey, i spoke to Rob a week ago and when i asked him he kindly replied “Not all this bollocks again” but he swore that the lyrics were just as they were and nothing was intentionally there when played backwards.
So words from the horses mouth seems that people are j[u]st reading too much into the song, always good to have a bit of controversy though.

So there you have it: Robert Plant, member of Led Zeppelin and the writer of Stairway to Heaven, thinks this whole backmasking controversy is a bunch of bullocks. It’s too bad he didn’t get a photo with Rob, that would have gone a long way in knowing that he really did talk to him.

Categories
backmasking

How Our Brain Makes Sense of Gibberish – Backmasking Related

I received an email a couple of months ago from Michael R., and thought I should share it. Those coming here from my backmasking page may find it interesting. Michael writes:

I saw Simon Singh, author of ‘Big Bang’, use your Stairway to Heaven backwards lyrics in a lecture to make a point about how the brain imposes order on gibberish when it expects to find order, like words, where there is none. I am an ophthalmologist, and specialize in glaucoma. This is exactly the same thing the brain does when a glaucoma patient begins to lose peripheral vision. They are not aware that they have blind spots in the periphery of their visual field because the brain fills in the blank spots by continuing the pattern in the area surrounding the blind areas. This pattern completion is a lot like what goes on in interpreting the backwards Led Zeppelin lyrics.

Thanks Michael.

Categories
backmasking

Great Moments in Backmasking Page History

I was talking to a couple of the other interns here in Malaysia this evening about my backwards music page and they said they had seen my site and were just talking about it a couple of days ago. It’s so awesome to go around the world and meet someone that is familiar with something you put together.