What Is In A Lyric?

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9 months ago

This is a new series of articles where I explain what various terms, catch phrases, and various other confusing topics, and many secret government projects and agencies are and do. If there are any subjects that the reader is interested in learning about, please put them in the comment section.

The hidden messages in songs

Have you ever considered that your favorite songs might be more than just catchy melodies and compelling lyrics? Imagine discovering that hidden within these tracks are messages, some of which are only revealed when played in reverse. This phenomenon, known as backmasking, has fascinated music enthusiasts and sparked debates for decades. Whether these messages were intentionally hidden for fans to find, or simply the result of human pattern recognition, the allure of uncovering a secret within a beloved song is undeniable.

Conspiracy theorists often find ‘secret’ lyrics by playing records backwards. BBC Culture picks apart the myths to find the best subliminal meanings.

In 1878, a year after he created the phonograph, US inventor Thomas Edison noted that the cylinder could be rotated backwards to pleasing effect: “the song is still melodious in many cases, and some of the strains are sweet and novel, but altogether different from the song reproduced in the right way”. Since avant-garde musicians in the 1950s first experimented with tape recorders, editing together sound fragments in a style called ‘musique concrète’, messages have been inserted into songs that only become clear once they are played backwards. But which are the best, and which are just myths?

Death metal bands don’t hold the monopoly on hidden messages: one pop group has been at the centre of rumours for nearly five decades. The Beatles first stumbled across what is called ‘backmasking’ – recording a message backwards onto a track – when they were making their Rubber Soul album in 1965. Influenced by the techniques of musique concrète, they featured a backmasked line in Rain, a single released in 1966.

Featuring in the fade-out, the reversed vocal is the first line of the song. “On the end of Rain you hear me singing it backwards,” John Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine in 1968. “We’d done the main thing at EMI and the habit was then to take the songs home and see what you thought a little extra gimmick or what the guitar piece would be. So I got home about five in the morning, stoned out of my head, I staggered up to my tape recorder and I put it on, but it came out backwards, and I was in a trance in the earphones, what is it – what is it? It’s too much, you know, and I really wanted the whole song backwards almost, and that was it. So we tagged it on the end.”

After popularising backmasking, The Beatles became embroiled in one of pop’s stranger urban legends. In 1969, rumours began spreading among American college students that Paul McCartney had died in 1966 and had been replaced by a lookalike; they claimed that clues about his ‘death’ could be found in the group’s lyrics and album artwork.

In October 1969, a caller to a Detroit radio station argued that the phrase “turn me on, dead man” could be heard when the White Album’s Revolution 9 was played backwards. Other theories suggested that, when played backwards, ‘mumbling’ by John Lennon between the songs I’m So Tired and Blackbird sounds like “Paul is a dead man. Miss him.” The band’s press office rebutted the rumour on 21 October, calling it “a load of old rubbish”, and an interview with McCartney in LIFE magazine’s November edition – featuring the headline ‘Paul is still with us’ – helped to kill it off.

The group created a backmasked message for the 1995 recording of John Lennon’s 1977 demo Free as a Bird: released as a studio version 15 years after his death, it featured a clip of Lennon saying “turned out nice again” at the end of the song. McCartney told The Observer: “We even put one of those spoof backwards recordings on the end of the single for a laugh, to give all those Beatles nuts something to do.”

Accusations of demonic backmasking began in the early 1980s, perhaps inspired by a scene from the 1973 film The Exorcist, in which a tape of garbled speech by the possessed victim was found to be English when played in reverse. (Ozzy Osborne referenced a famous phrase from the film when he recorded the line ‘Your mother sells whelks in Hull’ backwards in his 1988 song Bloodbath in Paradise.) Fundamentalist Christians in America were joined by concerned parents after the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was formed in 1985; bands like Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest and even The Eagles were accused of spreading satanic messages subliminally.

After Christian fundamentalists claimed that a line in the title track of their 1974 album Eldorado sounded like “He is the nasty one – Christ you’re infernal” when reversed, the Electric Light Orchestra inserted a deliberately backmasked segment into their next album. Denying that Eldorado contained any subliminal messages, ELO went on to record Fire on High with an opening line that, when played backwards, says: “The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back.” They released an entire album full of reversed vocals in 1983, called Secret Messages: the final track contains the backmasked message “thank you for listening”.

Many apparently innocent pop songs – including hits by Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber – have been accused of peddling evil when played backwards: it has been suggested that Bieber sings ‘We’re going to bomb these banks/Satanic new world order/Soon, bro!’ The claims are foundless, and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic parodied backmasking hysteria with the reversed line “Satan eats Cheese Whiz” in his 1983 song Nature Trail to Hell.

Some hidden messages still make little sense once their words are clear. In Pink Floyd’s song Empty Spaces from their 1979 rock opera The Wall, Roger Waters can be heard saying “Congratulations. You’ve just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont…” A voice in the background shouts “Roger! Carolyne is on the phone!” before he can reveal the location. Some believe ‘Old Pink’ refers to the band’s former lead singer Syd Barrett, who suffered a breakdown in 1968.

In their 1991 song Christian Rock Concert, the UK group Half Man Half Biscuit included the vocal: “The body of Shane Fenton is in the laundry chute of the New Ambassadors Hotel near Euston Station”. Yet possibly the strangest reversed line came from King Crimson founder Robert Fripp, who featured part of Monty Python’s flying sheep sketch in his 1979 song Haaden Two. Played backwards, it reveals the following wisdom: “One thing is for sure – the sheep is not a creature of the air. Baaaaaaaah!”

I have included the lyrics by two popular musical groups below as examples of messages being present in songs.

On of the most famous in this category is “Hotel California” by the Eagles. Flip it, and you’re in for a surprise. “Satan he hears this. He had me believe.” So goes the whispered legend. A hidden message, stitched into the fabric of a rock anthem. But here’s the kicker: could the prince of darkness himself have a hand in its record-breaking success?

Now, let’s break it down. “Hotel California” isn’t just a song. It’s a cultural icon. Yet, rumors swirl about a sinister undercurrent. Played backwards, the lyrics allegedly reveal a chilling homage to Satan. Intriguing, right?

But wait, there’s more. This isn’t about fear. It’s about curiosity. What drove the Eagles to embed such a message? Was it a nod to the occult or a clever marketing ploy? The debate rages on.

Here is what the band members themselves have said about the song’s meaning:

The band members themselves have offered a variety of different explanations for the meaning of “Hotel California.” They’ve said it’s a socio-political statement. They’ve said it’s about darkness and light. And they’ve said it’s about the self-destruction that comes from greed and hedonism.

But of course, all of those things are hard to put your finger right on. And maybe that is why the song has been interpreted in so many different ways over the years. When art so perfectly reflects the experience of life, it can be about everything and one specific thing at the same time, depending on the consumer of the art. Like a sort of lyrical Rorschach test.

The song’s true meaning, like life itself, is elusive. And maybe that is exactly the point.

What does “Hotel California” have to say about modern times?

Even if the exact meaning of “Hotel California” is subject to some degree of individual interpretation, there are certain themes deeply imbued in the song. Chief among them is the danger of excess.

California. America. Rock and Roll. The 1960s. Even The Eagles themselves. All have suffered from excess in some way, whether it be drugs, wealth, success, and even a desire for change.

As it is today, we find ourselves locked in a time of extremes. No middle ground. No moderation.

If “Hotel California” has anything to tell us about modern times, maybe it’s that we need to take things down a notch. Don’t get too high and don’t get too low. Focus on the little things in life. The things that matter most.

Hotel California By The Eagles

The meaning of “Californication.”

“Californication” is a song about the underbelly of American society. There’s deceit, plasticity, and desperation under the gilded face of the American Dream. The Red Hot Chili Peppers saw that California represented these extremes—both the elaborate gilded nature of it all and the darkness underneath. In essence, it’s a song about the rot that lies just underneath the surface.

Putting pen to paper, The RHCP presents this message through a string of clever allusions and metaphors about the Dream of Californication.

Break It Down.

The song was written by band members Kiedis, Smith, Flea, and Frusciante and deserves a quick breakdown of verse to get the full picture of the song. The lyricism in this song, after all, is poetic in the sense that it shows the listener what is going on, rather than just telling them what is happening around them.

Jumping right in, the opening verse touches on the wide geographical reach that California holds. Both China and Sweden are mentioned in the first two lyrics:

Psychic spies from China try to steal your mind’s elation
And little girls from Sweden dream of silver-screen quotation.

While the first verse was taken from a personal encounter Kiedis had with a woman on the street, it also makes a subtle jab at the increasing amount of consumerism in America. The second verse, the reference to Swedish women attempting to make it big in Hollywood, makes a comment on the disappointment that many people face once arriving in California. And if you want these kind of dreams, it’s Californication.

Shortly after these lines, the second verse makes the point that Hollywood sells the idea of California. Hollywood capitalizes on the people believing that California is the pinnacle of western civilization, after all, it’s the edge of the world and all of Western civilization.

Then, arriving at the bridge of the song, the RHCP points out the incredible amounts of plastic surgery in California. People are never who they seem, even in appearance.

The third verse, then, comments on the glorification of sexual relationships without the realities of those very relationships. A teenage bride with a baby inside getting high on information, the band sings. In his autobiography, Kiedis explained this line in detail: “I had met a young mother at a meeting. She was living in a YWCA with her baby girl, trying to get sober but failing miserably. The beauty and sadness and tragedy and glory, all wrapped into one, of this mother/daughter relationship was evoked by the vibe of that music [‘Californication’].”

Following that, the fourth verse dives into some specific figures and phenomena in pop culture. Star Trek, Kurt Cobain, and Star Wars are all alluded to in this verse—see if you can find each one. Finally, the fifth and final verse points to the lasting presence of Californication. Earthquakes and tidal waves couldn’t save the world from Californication.

Californication By The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Resources

bbc.com, “The hidden messages in songs.” By Fiona Macdonald; creepybonfire.com, “In Reverse: Creepy Hidden Messages Behind Popular Songs.” By creepybonfire.com;

Appendices

Led Zeppelin – “Stairway to Heaven”

Curious about the secrets lurking in your playlist? Let’s talk about “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. A song wrapped in mystery and whispers of the supernatural. The rumor? It’s not just rock ‘n’ roll. There’s something more, hidden in reverse.

“Stairway to Heaven” holds a message that’s sparked debate. Played backwards, listeners find a chilling tribute: “Oh here’s to my sweet Satan.” Intrigued yet? The song continues, weaving a narrative that’s both captivating and unsettling. “The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan.”

But wait, there’s more. “He will give those with him 666.” A number that’s synonymous with darkness. And the tale deepens with, “There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.” It’s a passage that demands a keen ear and an open mind.

Skeptics and believers clash over the truth. Is it a hidden confession or a trick of the sound? The debate adds layers to Led Zeppelin’s legacy. A band already shrouded in legend is now linked to the occult.

Queen – “Another One Bites The Dust”

“Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen. A classic, right? Now, here’s where it gets trippy. Some fans swear that when you spin this track backwards, a hidden message emerges: “It’s fun to smoke marijuana.”

Let’s pause and think about that. Freddie Mercury, a musical genius, known for his flamboyant stage presence and powerful vocals. Did he really embed a pro-marijuana message in one of the band’s biggest hits? The technique, known as “backmasking,” has been a hot topic among music enthusiasts for decades.

But here’s the kicker: finding truth in backmasking is like chasing shadows. It’s intriguing, sure. The idea that a song could carry a secret message, only revealed when played in reverse, captures the imagination. Yet, skepticism remains. Is it intentional, or are our brains just wired to find patterns in chaos?

Beatles – “Revolution 9”

The Beatles, a band that needs no introduction, have been at the center of one of the most enduring conspiracy theories in music history. The claim? Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike. The supposed evidence? “Revolution 9” from the iconic White Album. Played backwards, it allegedly reveals the phrase “Turn me on, dead man.” A cryptic message, or a coincidence?

“Revolution 9,” known for its avant-garde style, becomes the center of intrigue when flipped. The phrase, evil to some, is interpreted as a clue to McCartney’s rumored demise. But how did such a theory take root?

Conspiracy theories thrive on mystery and the Beatles’ global influence provided fertile ground. The “Paul is dead” myth, fueled by backward messages and symbolic album covers, captivated fans and skeptics alike. Yet, it begs the question: How much truth lies in reverse?

Prince – “Darling Nikki”

Prince’s “Darling Nikki” didn’t just push boundaries; it leapt over them. Released at a time when rock music faced scrutiny, it became a focal point for controversy. Critics claimed rock was a gateway to corrupting youth, and Prince’s blend of sensuality and religious imagery only fanned those flames.

Enter Tipper Gore. Shocked by the song’s explicit content, she launched the Parents’ Music Resource Center. Her mission? Shield kids from mature themes in music. “Darling Nikki” was Exhibit A in her campaign.

But here’s the twist. The song hides a secret message. Play the choir’s outro in reverse, and a Christian prophecy emerges. “Hello, how are you? Fine, fine, ’cause I know that the Lord is coming soon.” It’s a stark contrast to the song’s overt themes, aligning with Prince’s apocalyptic curiosity, as seen in hits like “Purple Rain” and “1999.”

The meaning of “Californication.”

Break It Down.

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