Subliminals and backward masking are legends worthy of Mythbusters...but still open to discussion because it can be done and COULD be true...
A long time ago in a decade far, far away, I took a vinyl copy (early pressing from the '70's) of Led Zeppelin IV ("ZOSO") containing Stairway to Heaven into the production room of the radio station where I was working at the time, and recorded the entire song onto an Otari reel-to-reel. Like all studio quality reel-to-reels, the Otari has a large pinch roller and you can re-thread the tape the opposite direction over the pinch roller and capstan. Both the feed and take-up reels have a clutch that spins them gently in opposite directions to keep the tape under constant tension. This means the tape can be recorded correctly and played perfectly forwards or backwards at the same speed it was recorded. It also has two speed options. You can record at one speed and playback at another to create a half-speed ("stoned"), same speed, or double-speed ("chipmunks") playback.
I spent a day on this...recording and playing back at half-speed, same speed and double speed. I brought co-workers into the production room to listen. And we all concluded the same thing. If there's something recorded backwards, it's barely intelligible, open to wide interpretation, and probably coincidental.
Keep in mind this was from an early vinyl copy of the album. As the legend grows, who's to say it hasn't been "enhanced" with subsequent releases of the song...or by "well-meaning" folks with web sites and a copy of ProTools. Today you can do exactly what I did with any digital audio program...a lot faster...just like the guy on that web site, Mikelle.
Don't underestimate the power of suggestion either. Reading someone else's alleged backwards lyrics doesn't mean it's really in the music. You've only allowed yourself to be influenced by someone else's ears. I might write something entirely different, and I'll bet you could do the same, and we might each convince the other that's what we're hearing.
Hell, half the time I can't understand Tom Waits or REM in real-time and I've been listening to both of them for at least 20 years.
tony b.
