Talking Forwards

Alright, here's John Lennon's latest record that, when you play it backwards at slow speed you can hear a voice saying 'Dummy! You're playing it backwards at slow speed!'—George Carlin, 1970

What happens when you play a blues record backward? Your dog comes back, your wife treats you okay, but you don’t wake up in the morning.—Garrison Keillor and Paula Poundstone, A Prairie Home Companion

backmasking...end times films...toys of the devil (Pokemon cards included)....Maybe people need something to blame for the world's state of corruption...easier doing that than facing an individual's inner reality of greed and [selfishness] and unkindness..cloaked in good deeds and rousing sermons like white washed tombstones...hoping that each charitable act seen by everyone would buy him/her a step in the stairway to heaven...--Lady Luxie, commenting on the previous post.

William Yarroll, a man proclaiming to be a neurologist and head of a research institute, possessed dubious academic and medical credentials. The Institute for Applied Potential produced only one study that I can find, a thin 1983 book on the matter by Yarroll himself. As far as I know, Yarroll might have been the Institute's only member. 

Still, legitimate researchers note that there is such a thing as subliminal perception. This entails the awareness of a deliberate communication by someone on the unconscious level. As communication, however, it contains no more coercive force than a statement one can easily understand. Advertisers rely on subliminal messages not because they’re trying to convince you to buy a certain product (although they hope that you do). Rather, they are simply trying to make the reader aware of the product. The average person living in the industrial world sees approximately 2000 advertising messages a day. Subliminals can help make an ad stand out. But in order to convince the public to buy the goods or services promoted, one would have to rely on normal, everyday communication that’s easily understood, and well above the level of consciousness. As Dr. Philip Merikle (University of Waterloo) explained in the Encyclopedia of Psychology:

Other claims regarding the extraordinary efficacy of subliminal perception also lack substance. In the 1970s, Wilson Bryan Key wrote such books as Subliminal Seduction and Media Sexploitation in which he claimed subliminal sexual symbols or objects are often used to entice consumers to buy and use various products and services...Although Key's claims are widely known, there is no independent evidence indicating that embedded subliminal words, symbols, or objects are used to sell products. Furthermore, even if such embedded subliminal stimuli were used, there is no evidence to suggest this would be an effective method for influencing the choices that consumers make.

The backmasking argument presented by Yarroll and those citing him also fails to take into account something that’s quite clear. As a musician who’s spent a good deal of his life in recording studios, and who’s actually experimented with backmasking, I can tell you that it’s not nearly as easy as it might seem. For example, the letters ‘n’ and ‘i’ could very well sound like ‘t’ and ‘u’ when reversed. Then again, they might not. Two different singers pronouncing the same phrase might not produce the same backwards message because of differing accents and annunciations. In fact, the same singer could sing a phrase over and over with an intelligible reversed message occurring in only one instance. Furthermore, some backmasking effects aren’t caused by the human voice alone, but by reversed singing in conjunction with other instruments. 

In short, it’s extremely unpredictable. For someone to deliberately put in a backmasked message that’s undetectable in forward lyrics would require a painstaking effort of trial and error, which would make the cost of producing a commercial album prohibitive before the advent of digital recording technology. Thus, there are tons of seemingly coherent messages made by singers when reversed. These are extremely random, and occur everywhere. The vast majority of them seem innocuous. 

Figure 1. The Carpenters: “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” excerpt forward, backward, and slowed. \

 

 Forward lyrics: “You send a message, we declare world contact then…” (To see reversed lyrics, highlight the empty space below.)  

 

“That’s not the way, and video sends the message.”  

 

Okay, the Carpenters could never be confused with Iron Maiden, or even Mayden’s Voyage for that matter. So it’s not all that surprising that Karen doesn’t sing anything naughty, at least in this passage, when reversed. Can’t say the same thing for other wholesome artists and recordings.  

Figure 2. Captain and Tennille: “You Never Done It Like That” excerpt forward, backward and slowed. 

 

Forward lyrics: “I thought the flame was dead and gone.” (To see reversed lyrics, highlight the empty space below) “

I needs a man to fuck back.” 

 Figure 3. Jack Mercer: “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man” excerpt forward, backward and slowed.

 

Forward lyrics: “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man [chuckle]. Popeye the Sailor Man.” (To see reversed lyrics, highlight the empty space below.) 

“[Gibberish] Give me a fuck [chuckle]. Oh yes, Give me a fuck, now.” 

C’mon. Popeye? Do you really think Seymour Kneitel and the other Max Fleischer cartoonists managed to slip in a pedophilic plea that went unnoticed for seven decades and counting? Obviously, the so-called “hidden messages” are nothing more than sonic coincidences. Many of them aren’t even perceivable when played backwards, unless someone suggests a meaning beforehand. That would imply that the listener’s mindset might hold the key to what he or she hears rather than actual sound. Instances where artists actually insert backwards messages into their songs sound quite different from the previous examples. Upon hearing them forward, we can immediately recognize that there’s a backwards message in our conscious perception. When we reverse the recording, the meaning is clear and unambiguous.  

Figure 4. The Beatles: “Rain” introduction, forward and backward.

   

Forward lyrics: [Gibberish] (To see reversed lyrics, highlight the empty space below.) “

If the rain comes, they run and hide their heads.”

In the above example, we hear John Lennon singing a fairly innocent line. No pleas to Beelzebub, or anything like that. Mostly artists use backmasking for humorous effect. Knowing that predictably intrigued record buyers will play the record backwards upon hearing an obviously reversed message, they’ll says something like, “I caught you trying to get to the secret message! Ha-ha.” 

Figure 5. The B-52’s: “Detour Thru Your Mind” bridge, forward and backward.

   

Forward lyrics: [Gibberish] (To see reversed lyrics, highlight the empty space below.)  

”I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh, no! You’re playing the record backwards. Watch out! You might ruin your needle.”  

One artist really good at disguising his backmasking was, weirdly enough, Al Yankovic. In the song “Nature Trail to Hell,” there’s a passage layered into numerous tracks that when reversed says, “Satan eats Cheese Whiz.” Because of the texture, it’s difficult to perceive even when played backwards. In the song “I remember Larry,” the backmasked lyrics are slightly perceivable as such, due to the fact that Yankovic carefully followed the arc of the melody when inserting the hidden message.  

Figure 6. “I Remember Larry,” coda. 

 

Forward lyrics: “I remember Larry [and gibberish]’).” (To see reversed lyrics, highlight the empty space below.)

 “Boy, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands.” 

See what I mean? In effect, artists who deliberately include masked lyrics primarily laugh, because hey realize that if you believe in the power of secret hidden messages, the joke’s on you, the listener. Unfortunately, no one laughed on one night in the fall of 1969, when the general public first received a crash course in backmasking.