People are always claiming to find hidden Easter eggs or subliminal messages in songs (in particular, songs within the rock and roll genre). But who knows if they’re actually real .
In any case, playing a song backwards or listening closely to a certain part might end up revealing some pretty strange sounds . And like the songs in this list, whether they’re intentional or just a case of us hearing what we want to hear, it’s still kind of disturbing.
“Stairway to Heaven” – Led Zeppelin
Rock music has always been viewed as “the devil’s music,” and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s definitely used that as a reason why “good” people should steer clear of the genre. In 1982, televangelist Paul Crouch Jr. claimed that “Stairway to Heaven” had Satanic messaging in it — if you played the song backwards.
True enough, you can hear what sounds like Satanic messaging in the song.
“Here’s to my sweet Satan. The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan. He will give those with him 666There was a little tool-shed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.”
Or, something like that. Led Zeppelin’s audio engineer has come out in the past to completely debunk the claims , and honestly it mostly sounds like gibberish anyway.
“Another One Bites the Dust” – Queen
Not even Queen was immune to religious nay-sayers accusing them of hiding evil messages in their music.
This time, during the bridge of the song, when played backwards you can hear what sounds like “It’s fun to smoke marijuana.” What might have freaked people out way back when just sounds like… something you’d hear in a modern pop song.
“Final Scream” – Grim Reaper
Unlike other songs in this list, where the “hidden” messages are mostly just unintentional creepy gibberish played backwards, “Final Scream” features a line that’s actually backwards in the original song. Play that in reverse, and you get “see you in Hell.”
“Stormbringer” – Deep Purple
The beginning of what would otherwise be a pretty innocuous rock song from the ’70s features some pretty interesting (and creepy) vocal gibberish. Many thought it sounded a lot like the backwards speak Linda Blair spoke in The Exorcist . And apparently, they were right .
“Hotel California” – The Eagles
Yet another song that proves that, if you play a song backwards, you’re going to hear some pretty creepy stuff. Reverse “Hotel California” and you might hear what sounds like “Yes, Satan organized his own religion.”
“Eunuch Provocateur” – Mars Volta
Playing sections of this song backwards gets you messages like, “Has mommy or daddy ever had to spank you?” In most cases, you can barely make out the phrase people claim to be back-masked in a song. But this one is, like, eerily clear.
“[Equation]” – Aphex Twin
There’s a hidden message in this song. But it isn’t one that you can hear . Instead, it’s one that you can see . The song uses spectrogram technology, which is more or less a visual representation of sound waves. It’s used a lot in science and linguistic fields.
It can also be used to deliberately create images.
Because different sound frequencies appear in different parts of the graph, you could essentially use different sounds to make an image. In the case of this Aphex Twin song, running it through a spectrogram gives you an image of a very creepy face.
It’s the face of Richard D. James, AKA the creative mind behind Aphex Twin. Skip to around 5:30 in the video to see it!
“Eldorado” – Electric Light Orchestra
Listen closely to one section of the ELO song played backwards and you’ll hear, “He is the nasty one. Christ you’re infernal. Though it is said we’re dead men, everyone who has the mark lives.” Or something.
Jeff Lynn, songwriter and composer for the band, was so baffled by the accusations, it prompted him to make an entire album of back-masked songs .
“Hell Awaits” – Slayer
From the song title alone, you can probably expect the devil to make an appearance. If you play the intro of “Hell Awaits” backwards, you’ll be treated to the phrase “join us” being chanted over and over again . Creepy for sure, but also kind of cool.
“Revolution Number 9” – The Beatles
Believe it or not, this isn’t the only Beatles song said to have hidden messages in reverse. But it is the one that sparked the very famous ” Paul is dead ” conspiracy (which, like the name implies, theorizes that Paul McCartney died in 1967 and was replaced with a lookalike).
Supposedly hidden in “Revolution Number 9” is the phrase “Turn me on, dead man.”
“Strawberry Fields Forever” – The Beatles
This next song holds another popular “clue” that believers of the conspiracy cite even today. Toward the end of the song, you can hear what sounds like “I buried Paul.” Apparently, it’s just “Cranberry sauce.”
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“I’m So Tired” – The Beatles
In one section of the song, when played backwards, you can hear “Paul is dead man. I miss him, miss him, miss him.” Well, you can at least hear what sounds like “miss him.”
“665” – Soundgarden
Play the song backwards and you’ll hear phrases like “I love you Santa baby!” and “Santa is my king!” This was done intentionally. Not because of some Christmas cult, though. The band was simply parodying pretty much any other back-masking accusation.
“Bloodbath in Paradise” – Ozzy Osbourne
In yet another case of intentional back-masking, Osbourne recorded the line ” Your mother sells whelks in Hull ” (toward the end of the video). It’s a deliberate and direct reference to a similar line from The Exorcist (which, funny enough, was featured earlier on in this list).
“Better by You, Better Than Me” – Judas Priest
CW for mention of suicide in this section.
Back in 1990, Judas Priest was at the center of a lawsuit. Two fans of the British band, who lived in Nevada, allegedly made a suicide pact under the influence of the music . One of the youths did commit suicide, while the other attempted but survived.
The mother of the survivor filed the lawsuit.
The legal team claimed that, if you play the song backwards, the phrase “do it” can be heard. Unsurprisingly, the courts ruled in favor of the band.
