March 08, 2004

Led Zeppelin - The Satanic Message in Stairway to Heaven. (Flash)

Not much here (they obviously weren't that satanic), but I thought it was a nice use of flash. And now I want to know if the satanic message clip is genuine.

posted by dng 20 years ago
  • Well, it's convinced me, that's for sure. *Burns all his CDs*
  • Dng (and anybody else listening to the clip for the first time): first, listen to the reversed clip without reading the accompanying "translation." Then listen to it again, this time reading the translation as you listen. Notice the difference in what you hear.
  • Oh yeah, I know that goetter - the power of suggestion is pretty damn strong...
  • Yeah, it's genuine - I remember turning my record player backwards (with my finger - natch) nearly 20 years ago and taping it - it's there but most of it is suggested by the listener. "here's to my sweet satan" is fairly uncanny, tho'. I've worked as a sound engineer for a long time, both live and in the recording studio - so I can tell you something about the technical aspects of this. It's very hard to come up with lyrics that say something forwards *and* backwards, and I truly doubt that Robert Plant or Jimmy Page deliberately did this, it would simply be too difficult, especially given Plant's, er, rather piss poor lyricism (and Led Zep are among my fave bands so don't hit me). It would be much more likely for them to record a message and lay it as an overdub backwards amid a pile of noise - like the Pink Floyd "secret message" in The Wall - rather than create something like this. In my opinion it is a remarkable piece of serendipity; it's not deliberate. They would be worthy of a great deal of technical admiration if it were deliberate, much more so than they get as musicians, imho. And I would have expected them to do it more than once. I mean, after all, how much of a satanist can you be, if you are talking about a toolshed? Besides, satan aint a bad guy. (on preview - what goetter said)
  • I'm time travelling.
  • Every time I play Led Zeppelin backwards, I get an irresistable urge to buy a Cadillac.
  • I think John Bonham is AWESOME!!! And what wendell said.
  • I remember playing this backwards on the record player and never hearing the satanic words. but reading along with the flash lyrics i could 'hear' it. now if i can only look into those posters of what look like static and see the ship or whatever was hidden in it.
  • The human tendency to pick out, say, faces from fairly random shapes (e.g. the Mars Face, the Mars Smiley Face, potatoes that look like Nixon, &c.) is called pareidolia. I wonder if finding Satanic messages in backwards music is some aural equivalent of pareidolia. Thankfully, we have good, clean songs about Sunday school. (Note: Flash)
  • birdherder: Maybe it would help if you got someone to trace out the shape with a marker pen first? allusion: That was one freaky-looking kid.
  • I like the lyric about the little toolshed. I found a site once that had all the "Paul is Dead" messages recorded backwards and in slow-motion so you could hear them. I should look that up again.
  • pareidolia is like sooo bitchin.
  • I was like 10 when I heard about the "Paul is Dead" thing. I played Revolution #9 backwards, heard "Turn me on, Dead Man" and couldn't sleep with the lights off for weeks.
  • Fun link, allusion. HUGE ZEP FAN. I tried listening to this song backwards many, many, many years ago, and I couldn't decipher a damn thing. All I knew was that I was deeply in love with Jimmy Page and I would DIE if I couldn't be with him. Thank God for small favors. He didn't age well. Anyway....uh...what were we talking about....oh yeah
  • Wow. I did as Goetter suggested and listened to the backwards clip a few times without reading the text and all I could make out was the first "Satan". When I read it and listened to the clip again it was hard to believe it was the same audio. Freaky.