Download Solocontutti on mobile or desktop completely complimentary of charge and begin jamming online:.
You can listen to my backmasked piano piece in full on my Spotify:.
Or watch it in full on the second channel:.
Backmasking is when audio is reversed. It is something that is truly rather easy to do nowadays however for years included tape machine hoax and some creative thinking! It's been utilized over the years for whatever from discovering brand-new and creative noises to hiding secret messages in songs.
SOURCES.
John Lennon interviews by Wanderer (1968 ):.
Blecha, Peter (2004 ). Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands and Censored Songs.
Vokey, John R.; Read, J. Don (November 1985). "Subliminal messages: Between the devil and the media". American Psychologist.
ELO and "skcollob":.
Radiohead and "Like Spinning Plates":.
And, an additional unique thanks goes to Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel's Patreon saints!.
ASSISTANCE ME ON PATREON:.
Click Here To Learn Piano or Keyboard
Download Solocontutti on mobile or desktop totally free of charge and start jamming online: https://www.solocontutti.com 🎵
80s’ Christian Rock band Petra put a backwards message at the beginning of their song “Judas’ Kiss” that played forwards says “Why are you looking for the Devil when you ought to be looking for the Lord?”
A great video, David, as always. But one small point: the Paul is Dead myth began with Sgt. Pepper’s reversed portrait of him on the inside of the sleeve and a supposedly hidden message on the play out groove.
the paul is dead started long before the pepper album.
@hifijohn I don’t know how old you are, but I was certainly around; Sgt. Pepper’s… came out in 1967; the pathetic “Paul is…” rumor was inflicted on the world in 1969.
Or perhaps, the phrasing of your assertion implies that you give creedence to this adolescent b.s.
The rumor began in 1969; then fans looked back into the previous years to find more “proof.”
That’s right, the Ontario Provincial Police badge on Paul’s shoulder depicted with the letters “OPP” was twisted in such a way to appear as “OPD” which in England means “Officially Pronounced Dead.”
@hifijohn Yeah, I’ve just read that it began in ’66 with deliberate secret messages by the boys on Rain/PBW and Revolver, although I wasn’t aware of this at the time.
“D’You Know What I Mean?” also features backmasked vocals from both brothers in its original 1997 release. I’m surprised you never mentioned that.
Oasis shouldn’t be mentioned in a video that talks of Beatles
@s p Because Oasis sound more like Slade than The Beatles and the comparison is lazy, I agree.
Is it not possible that some of these more recent examples of “backmasked” guitar solos are in fact being played through a reverse delay effect, rather than being recorded and played normally then essentially sampled backwards?
To this day I think the best use of backmasking has to be Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN album. Not only does it tie into the themes of the album, but it’s also two albums in one when you play the tracklist in reverse.
For me, Hendrix was the king of “backmasking”. He was using it on the first Experience album and throughout his career. Some of his solos sounded amazing, and they were actually backwards. The solo on Are You Experienced in particular was superb.
The reversed piano chord used in the opening of Yes’ Roundabout is another great example!
I was thinking of this one!
Yes! One an amazing production!
First one I thought about. I get why he didn’t mention it here (it’s only that one note, after all), but it’s still a definite part of why Roundabout sounds like it does. They did it that way because they liked how it sounds like the note is rushing at you.
The build up to “Breath” on Dark Side of The Moon is another reversed Piano chord – in fact the more you listen you realise reversed instruments are far more common…
That’s so great, just a plain C chord. I’d only heard it referred to as a Reverse Swell, never heard of backmasking!
I really love how in EDEN’s “Falling In Reverse,” the piano part in the beginning and end is backmasked. Really interesting stuff!
Again, absolutely loving the outro pieces. This one has vibes reminiscent of what Metallica did on the Master record. As well as Pyramid Song.
I think you’re referring to the song Damage Inc. That intro was actually recorded on bass guitar.
Two examples come to mind:
-Blackened by Metallica
-Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park
I came to the comments to make sure Blackened was mentioned.
When he started playing his song on piano I thought he was gonna start talking about Damage Inc. 😭
One of my favorite songs of all time, The Mind Electric by Miracle musical cuts the entire song in half, with the first half being entirely reversed, lyrics and all, while the latter unwinds it all like mirror. It’s truly a treat to listen to every time.
agree, mind electric is such a good song and the fact that the reverse part fits into the story of the album makes it even better. the writer joe hawley also released his solo album completely backwards and in a couple tally hall songs like ruler of everything they also used it.
Ogre Battle by Queen has some the most ingenious backmasking I’ve ever heard. The intro is the outro reversed, but it fades so naturally into the rest of the song that it’s hard to tell which parts are backmasked, just that there is something generally odd going on.
Very clever band, actually Underrated IMO
I read some where that George had the solo for “I’m Only Sleeping” planned out in the normal way. But when they decided to backmask it George had to relearn it in reverse order to record it, thus keeping the melody intact.
…well, yeah.
How else would you do it?
Not sure if anyone else mentioned it already, but the incredible “The Stone Roses” (who predate blur and oasis and the reason for both of those bands’ existence) have “Don’t Stop” which is the previous song “Waterfall” reversed with the reversed melody line reworked with forward lyrics. The brain-breaking part is that they can play the fucking song live…
Here’s them playing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQXS1G1nk6s
and here’s the record version which just uses “Waterfall” reversed in it’s entirety.
Good one! The stone roses are legendary
As I watched this video I couldn’t stop wondering if the Roses would get a mention.
The use of back masking here isn’t just clever, it is beautiful.
Came here to mention Don’t Stop
Another great ELO example would have been Fire On High, the creepy intro has a reversed voice that says “The music is reversible, but time is not! Turn Back!” This was done in direct response to the hysteria over Eldorado. Lynne would continue to hide little Secret Messages on various tracks, with the song/album secret messages being a little wink and nod in acknowledgement
My first band had a whole song in reverse. We called it “My Name: a Foot” because that’s what it sounded like I was singing when it was reversed. We learned the backwards version and performed it live.
Out of curiosity, what did the lyrics originally say?
that’s super awesome, props to you all
“Flawless” is a song I really like that has reversed vocals. The singer says “How can you be so flawless?” twice while the reversed vocals have a different message: “How could you be so heartless? How could you be so thoughtless?” I found a reversed version of the full song, and both versions slap.
T. Rex’s “Deboraarobed” for an early example. Also ELO’s “Fire On High” and Styx’s “Heavy Metal Poisoning” for deliberate spoken-word backmasking.
There was an Australian band called The Missing Links who beat the Beatles to the punch with a completely backwards song on their debut (and only) LP. They had done a cover of Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut and as the tape was being rewound they found they liked the way it sounded. It was even released as a single split over two sides of the disc.