Interesting article in today's WSJ.....(much more germain to MC than wether Morris Dancers should "semper-ubi-sub-ubi")
Edited for MC discussion:
Dow Jones
Page One-AJanuary 9, 2006
Behind the Music:
Sleuths Seek Messages In Lyrical Backspin
Reverse-Play Audio Software Uncovers Smoke, Satan;A Led Zeppelin Enigma
By DIONNE SEARCEY
When Jeff Milner installed software on his Web site that could play digital songs in reverse, he tested it with a snippet of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." The song, heard normally, refers to "a bustle in your hedgerow." Played backward, says Mr. Milner, the line sounds like: "Oh, here's to my sweet Satan."
Today, Mr. Milner's Web site plays parts of songs from the Eagles, John Lennon, Britney Spears, Eminem and others -- both normally and in reverse. Mr. Milner, a Canadian college student majoring in new media, offers interpretations of the reverse-plays. A line in Ms. Spears's "Baby One More Time," played backward, becomes "Sleep with me, I'm not too young," Mr. Milner claims. What sounds like mumbling in Pink Floyd's "Empty Spaces," Mr. Milner says, becomes more intelligible in reverse: "Congratulations, you have just discovered the secret message."
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. Mr. Milner says his site (jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm1) has attracted more than 3.5 million visitors.
GOING BACKWARDS
Listen to popular songs forward and reverse2, and read the possible reverse lyrics. Also, upload and reverse3 your own audio files.Some bands deny engaging in the practice, known as backmasking. Message-hunters have said "Another One Bites the Dust," the classic-rock hit by Queen, contains the backward message: "It's fun to smoke marijuana." Says a spokeswoman for Hollywood Records, the band's label: "It's not true."
The search for hidden messages in music first gained popularity decades ago after Michigan disc jockey Russ Gibb, prompted by a caller, put a Beatles song, "Revolution 9," on his turntable and spun it backward. He said he thought he heard: "Turn me on, dead man." His observation fed rumors that Paul McCartney was dead. Mr. McCartney eventually turned up very much alive, but that didn't stop music fans from finding all sorts of alleged backward messages when they spun their other records in reverse.
Talkbackwards.com4, one of the most popular, allows visitors to feed in audio files, then play them backward. Eric Borgos, the site's 36-year-old creator, said he wanted to find a way to bring the former fad to the Internet, and to make it easier for listeners to uncover messages on their own. His site, which he says gets about 2,000 hits a day, offers no interpretations of reversed lyrics. Instead, it invites users to share their own.
Mr. Borgos thinks most alleged messages are just coincidence. "Mathematically, if you listen long enough, eventually you'll find a pattern," he says.
Daniel Berger, who lives in New South Wales in Australia, was skeptical when a friend told him "Stairway to Heaven" contained backward satanic messages. "Naturally, I thought the person that told me this was absolutely insane," Mr. Berger said in an email message. He logged onto a Web site to find out for himself. "There indeed was a whole new song there when played backwards," he said.
During the first round of secret-message hunting more than three decades ago, some parents, social psychologists and other critics worried a diabolical effort was under way to corrupt children. Some religious groups feared satanic messages had been inserted. Musical satirist Weird Al Yankovic seemed to toy with the critics in his song "Nature Trail to Hell" which includes a clearly audible backward message: "Satan eats Cheez Whiz."
The revival of message hunting has spawned new critics. Joseph Wasmond, president of the Knoxville, Tenn.-based Freedom in Christ Ministries, says he is concerned about secret messages because it has become so easy to share music files over the Internet. "There is the potential for manipulating people's behavior based on subliminal and subconscious music," says Mr. Wasmond.
But James Walker, president of Watchman Fellowship, a Christian group that studies religious movements and subcultures, sees the hunt for messages as harmless. "You could take a Christian hymn, and if you played it backwards long enough at different speeds, you could make that hymn say anything you want to," he says.
Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm
(2) http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm
(3) http://www.Talkbackwards.com
(4) http://Talkbackwards.com
Sincerely,
Gargoyle