The devil is said to appear in countless forms, and many people were convinced he appeared in the form of rock bands when they began backmasking their lyrics in the 60s. Backmasking, or backward masking, is a technique of recording song lyrics backward onto a track that is played forward. What started as an innocent accident by John Lennon swirled into a frenzy of controversy, record-burning protests, proposed government legislation, and a witch hunt for bands whose lyrics were deemed satanic.
Backmasking of song lyrics was one of the Beatles’ many musical innovations. While high on pot, John Lennon accidentally played the tapes for the song “Rain” backwards, and liked the sound of the reversed lyrics. The rest of the band agreed, and incorporated the effect into the tune, making it the first to contain backmasked lyrics: “Sunshine....rain.…when the rain comes, they run and hide their heads.”
At the time, music was recorded on vinyl, which could be manually played backwards on a turntable. A disc jockey, intrigued by rumors that Paul McCartney was dead, played the tune “Revolution 9” backwards, and heard the lyrics “Turn me on, dead man,” as well as the lyrics “Paul is a dead man, miss him, miss him,” when playing “I’m So Tired” backwards. These lyrics appeared to confirm the “Paul is dead” rumor, which popularized the backmasking of rock music lyrics.
This led to a fierce backlash from Christian fundamentalists in the 70s. They accused Led Zeppelin of planting satanic lyrics in “Stairway to Heaven.” They also alleged that bands, including the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Electric Light Orchestra, Queen, and Styx were cooperating with the Church of Satan by backmasking messages from the devil into their song lyrics. The religious right pushed for legislation to place stickers on these bands’ albums warning about lyrics inspired by Lucifer, but the bill was defeated.
In retaliation, several of the accused bands recorded albums containing intentional, ridiculous backmasked lyrics. ELO fired back with an album called Secret Messages, containing the backmasked lyrics, “Thank you for listening,” “Look out, there’s danger ahead,“ and “You’re playing me backwards.” Styx took jabs their critics with the album Kilroy Was Here, whose lyrics parodied an imaginary group called “The Majority for Musical Morality,” which outlaws rock music.
Heavy metal song lyrics reeled from some of the hardest hits. In his 1988 trial, serial killer Richard Ramirez testified that the lyrics of “Night Prowler,” from AC/DC’s Highway to Hell album, drove him to commit murder. Judas Priest was sued in 1990 because two Nevada boys had made a suicide pact that was allegedly inspired by the subliminal lyrics, “Do it,” in the band’s song “Better By You, Better Than Me.” The case was dismissed for insufficient evidence that the lyrics played a role in the boys’ deaths.
Like inkblots and clouds, lyrics played backwards can be interpreted as anything if you concentrate long enough. Or, as comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic joked in the backmasked lyrics of “I Remember Larry,” “You must have an awful lot of free time on your hands!” Elcitra siht deyojne uoy epoh.
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