Great post. I knew about the Zep and The Beatles but not not ELO. And listening to Michael Mills was a trip. He's pretty ridiculous.
WHarrisBullzEye
· 1 year ago
Awesome. I, too, listened to that "sermon" on the evils of backwards masking, and it made me way more of a fan of the Beatles than I ever would've been. (Perhaps not coincidentally, Nicholas Shaffner's "The Beatles Forever" is one of my favorite books of all time.)
Old_Davy
· 1 year ago
Some nut job came to my college in '82 and delivered this kind of message to the mostly right-wing Christian audience. That was, except for me and a group of friends who showed up to listen to the examples of backwards masking because we all thought it was a cool phenomenon.
He played the usual suspects - Stairway To Heaven, Fire On High, Another One Bites The Dust, Revolution 9, but ... what was this? A song by Hall & Oates?? Oh no! Now we have to burn our Hall & Oates records too? SHIT
I knew we were being duped when - to prove his claim that church music was holy - he played a hymn backwards. He took the word "hallelujah" from a hymn, and played it backward, and lo and behold, it STILL sounded like "hallelujah". WOW! Really! Think about it. It's kind of like a palindrome pronunciation.
He brought up the point that a lot of the backward masking examples he presented were hard to understand because these were the works of the devil. Then he played another hymn that when played forward was pretty unintelligible. "But listen to this!" he proclaimed. "When you play THIS SONG OF GOD backward, the message comes out LOUD AND CLEAR" and so he plays the song backward and of course the vocals are crystal clear (because they were really backward on the tape to begin with) and the audience went WILD. Me and my friends kept shouting PLAY IT AGAIN FORWARD so the audience might realize they were being taken down the garden (of Eden) path, but we were ignored.
He told us that John Lennon was the most evil devil worshipper of all. How else could you explain the phenomenal popularity of the Beatles and their substandard, mediocre music (his words - I can still hear them to this day). "Jesus did indeed die" he said, "but Jesus arose. John Lennon is STILL DEAD". Again, the audience erupted in a bunch of hoots and hollers and "praise Jesus"'s and I shouted out "Lennon was a man of peace who was assassinated by a mad man". The lecturer looked in our general direction with a glare that would have vaporized all of us if looks could kill.
At the end of the lecture, the entire audience was invited on stage to engage in something called "fellowship" which looked more like a group grope to me. And tapes of the lecture were available for purchase at only $29.99 for three - THREE - COUNT THEM cassettes. Ah, now I see the light! Praise Jesus!
Bible-thumping Jesus freak
· 1 year ago
Heck, listen to Zeppelin forward, you know R. Plant is of the devil! But don't you think he's seen the Light now, singing folk songs with sweet little ole' Alison Krauss?
But seriously, here in the Bible Belt we aren't all as gullible as that. Back in the era of back masking hysteria, being an audiophile and not wanting to damage my precious cartridge stylus, I hooked that devil music up to my 4-track reel to reel, then reversed the tape to hear for myself. Like I said, worry about what the music is about when spun the right direction. Just like a good conservative would -- the right direction. :)
I know the Religious Right is a source of endless amusement on this website -- the same function the religious left serves on talk radio. Both sides have their share of rubes, seeing eee-villl conspiracies where none exist.
Rock on, Brother Jon.
eric
JonCummings
· 1 year ago
You're so quick to walk away from the unattractive folks who operate at just a slightly greater extreme. Tell me "we aren't as gullible as that" after you re-watch some video of the post-"The Beatles are Bigger than Jesus" record-burnings, or after I describe (in some future column) the mid-'80s record burning I witnessed in Michigan after a Michael Mills appearance.
The epic battle against rock'n'roll is merely a battle (among many) that the Christian right has lost. Your "share of rubes" (how quaint! It makes intolerance sound like an episode of "Petticoat Junction"!) have simply absorbed the loss and moved on to other in-the-long-run pointless battles (gay marriage). I wish them no luck with that one, either.
eric
· 1 year ago
I said we aren't "ALL" as gullible as that. In fact, you're looking at only a fraction of the evangelical universe.
The gay marriage battle is pretty mainstream, not just the rubes, not even just the evangelicals, or the strictly religious. Even Mr. Obama, last Saturday night at Saddleback, firmly defined marriage as between one man and one woman. I suppose he's one of the intolerant enemy too, now? Well, I hope you'll be happy in the voting booth choosing Mr. Nader. :)
jefito
· 1 year ago
Who cares how "mainstream" it is? Plenty of heinous shit has been "mainstream," and you know it. Obama should know it too -- and should have the stones to say so during a national forum. Just because he doesn't, and just because plenty of people share your foolish views on this subject, doesn't mean you're right.
JonCummings
· 1 year ago
Eric, gay marriage is just a waiting game at this point--waiting for the polling numbers to move far enough (mostly through attrition, if you know what I'm sayng) for politicians to grow a pair and do what's right.
I would guess the moment will not happen during the next eight years; it likely will have to wait until early in Mark Warner's second term, in 2021.
When the moment comes, evangelicals will simply move on to the next fight, whichever one they can conjure in order to gin up more outrage (and more cash in the collection plate).
EightE1
· 1 year ago
As a parochial school student in the Bible Belt during the 80s, I had many opportunities to sit through "backmasking" demonstrations and anti-rock sermons. A few years ago, I decided to go looking for copies of the books they gave us back then, to further indoctrinate us -- books with titles like "Backward Masking Unmasked" and such. Found every one of them, too -- paid a penny each (plus 3 bucks shipping, of course). Had a great time reading and chuckling.
Afterward, I had to do a "demonstration" of my own, so I ripped a few choice excerpts, loaded them into Audacity, and hit the "Reverse" effect (which is SO much better than fucking up my brittle turntable). I put on a little "sermon" for the wife, who just shook her head and left the room. Too bad. She missed Queen intoning "Decide to smoke marijuana" or "The devil is number one" or, you know, "Tsud eht setib eno rehtona."
Rob EightE1
JonCummings
· 1 year ago
I used to find all these old anti-rock tracts from the '50s and '60s in the local library (in southwestern Virginia), and I'd take them out and howl with laughter.
My favorite such story, though, is about my college friends Jason Cohen and Casey Seiler, who had a 2-to-4-a.m. radio show on the campus station. Casey (I believe) had arrived on campus with a copy of a book that dated from the '30s (I think) called "Catholic Girls' Problems." It was a book of do's and don'ts, and they would read hilarious passages from it on the air (in between playing one track after another from the Cure's "Head on the Door" LP).
BobCashill
· 1 year ago
Reading more about this on Wiki (the California and Arkansas state legislatures were all a-tizzy about this in 1983) I chuckled...then developed a nosebleed. Could it be...Satan?
Shrewd Dude
· 1 year ago
I remember being brainwashed by Micheal Mills in like '83 or '84...somehow it just isn't quite as gripping now as it was then. haha It just annoys the fire out of me that Christianity (heavily in the Catholic church) historically has used fear and shame as a control mechanism. BLEH!
arensb
· 1 year ago
What if I forwarded the cassette to the end of “Fire on High,” turned the tape around in the player, and played it AT TOP VOLUME with my headphones on? Maybe, since the other side of the tape was blank, the backward “shadow” of “Fire on High” would play clearly enough that I could hear the spooky voice!
No, no, no! The way to do it (or at least, the way I found the secret message in The Wall) is to unscrew the cassette shell, then flip over the two tape spools, so that the tape is upside-down. The sound is muddy, but it still comes through the tape much better through the tape, than bleeding off onto adjacent tracks.
But having said that, EightE1 is right: the "Reverse" menu option in Audacity works much better.
Terry
· 7 months ago
I have wondered how someone who could music like ELO, could be guilty of Satanic backmasking. I just had an Elo song running thru my mind, and that question arose with it.
All Comments
He played the usual suspects - Stairway To Heaven, Fire On High, Another One Bites The Dust, Revolution 9, but ... what was this? A song by Hall & Oates?? Oh no! Now we have to burn our Hall & Oates records too? SHIT
I knew we were being duped when - to prove his claim that church music was holy - he played a hymn backwards. He took the word "hallelujah" from a hymn, and played it backward, and lo and behold, it STILL sounded like "hallelujah". WOW! Really! Think about it. It's kind of like a palindrome pronunciation.
He brought up the point that a lot of the backward masking examples he presented were hard to understand because these were the works of the devil. Then he played another hymn that when played forward was pretty unintelligible. "But listen to this!" he proclaimed. "When you play THIS SONG OF GOD backward, the message comes out LOUD AND CLEAR" and so he plays the song backward and of course the vocals are crystal clear (because they were really backward on the tape to begin with) and the audience went WILD. Me and my friends kept shouting PLAY IT AGAIN FORWARD so the audience might realize they were being taken down the garden (of Eden) path, but we were ignored.
He told us that John Lennon was the most evil devil worshipper of all. How else could you explain the phenomenal popularity of the Beatles and their substandard, mediocre music (his words - I can still hear them to this day). "Jesus did indeed die" he said, "but Jesus arose. John Lennon is STILL DEAD". Again, the audience erupted in a bunch of hoots and hollers and "praise Jesus"'s and I shouted out "Lennon was a man of peace who was assassinated by a mad man". The lecturer looked in our general direction with a glare that would have vaporized all of us if looks could kill.
At the end of the lecture, the entire audience was invited on stage to engage in something called "fellowship" which looked more like a group grope to me. And tapes of the lecture were available for purchase at only $29.99 for three - THREE - COUNT THEM cassettes. Ah, now I see the light! Praise Jesus!
But seriously, here in the Bible Belt we aren't all as gullible as that. Back in the era of back masking hysteria, being an audiophile and not wanting to damage my precious cartridge stylus, I hooked that devil music up to my 4-track reel to reel, then reversed the tape to hear for myself. Like I said, worry about what the music is about when spun the right direction. Just like a good conservative would -- the right direction. :)
I know the Religious Right is a source of endless amusement on this website -- the same function the religious left serves on talk radio. Both sides have their share of rubes, seeing eee-villl conspiracies where none exist.
Rock on, Brother Jon.
eric
The epic battle against rock'n'roll is merely a battle (among many) that the Christian right has lost. Your "share of rubes" (how quaint! It makes intolerance sound like an episode of "Petticoat Junction"!) have simply absorbed the loss and moved on to other in-the-long-run pointless battles (gay marriage). I wish them no luck with that one, either.
The gay marriage battle is pretty mainstream, not just the rubes, not even just the evangelicals, or the strictly religious. Even Mr. Obama, last Saturday night at Saddleback, firmly defined marriage as between one man and one woman. I suppose he's one of the intolerant enemy too, now? Well, I hope you'll be happy in the voting booth choosing Mr. Nader. :)
I would guess the moment will not happen during the next eight years; it likely will have to wait until early in Mark Warner's second term, in 2021.
When the moment comes, evangelicals will simply move on to the next fight, whichever one they can conjure in order to gin up more outrage (and more cash in the collection plate).
Afterward, I had to do a "demonstration" of my own, so I ripped a few choice excerpts, loaded them into Audacity, and hit the "Reverse" effect (which is SO much better than fucking up my brittle turntable). I put on a little "sermon" for the wife, who just shook her head and left the room. Too bad. She missed Queen intoning "Decide to smoke marijuana" or "The devil is number one" or, you know, "Tsud eht setib eno rehtona."
Rob
EightE1
My favorite such story, though, is about my college friends Jason Cohen and Casey Seiler, who had a 2-to-4-a.m. radio show on the campus station. Casey (I believe) had arrived on campus with a copy of a book that dated from the '30s (I think) called "Catholic Girls' Problems." It was a book of do's and don'ts, and they would read hilarious passages from it on the air (in between playing one track after another from the Cure's "Head on the Door" LP).
It just annoys the fire out of me that Christianity (heavily in the Catholic church) historically has used fear and shame as a control mechanism. BLEH!
No, no, no! The way to do it (or at least, the way I found the secret message in The Wall) is to unscrew the cassette shell, then flip over the two tape spools, so that the tape is upside-down. The sound is muddy, but it still comes through the tape much better through the tape, than bleeding off onto adjacent tracks.
But having said that, EightE1 is right: the "Reverse" menu option in Audacity works much better.