Stairway to heaven backwards

system · May 7, 2006, 2:37pm

This guy memorized Stairway to Heaven, backwards. Then he recorded himself singing it. Then he reversed it.

looptvandfilm.com/blog/stair … irway.html

stairwaybackwardsguy:

“My parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses and so I had a very strict Christian upbringing. There was a suspicion of rock and pop music, and some music, Led Zeppelin in particular, was branded downright evil. The rumor was that if you played Stairway to Heaven in reverse you could hear messages that would urge you to follow the devil’s path. Supposedly even if you listened to the music in a normal manner you would subconsciously pick up these messages and act accordingly. In my early teens, I destroyed some music that I thought I shouldn’t listen to or have at home. Stairway to Heaven was a difficult one for my friends and me. We thought the song and the lyrics were so utterly beautiful and yet we couldn’t listen to it out of fear of what could happen to us if we did. That’s the tension I felt by listening to this record: a teenage attraction to something dangerously beautiful. I am still intrigued how these myths are created and the effect they can have. So I started to learn to sing the song and its lyrics in reverse. After three months the job was done. I went up to the steps outside Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London and performed it for an audience of confused passers-by, pigeons, and a video camera. Back home I reversed the tape and put a karaoke track underneath.”

Original site: krupsjustsayin.blogspot.com/2006 … mania.html

Also, check out the 56 versions here:

blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/05/s … to_he.html

system · May 7, 2006, 2:58pm

Yeah, I remember a friend of mine had an uncle who was a pretty strict Mormon, and he gave my friend a video caled “Hell’s Bells.” It showed how Rock and Roll was evil, and that all songs had secret references to Satan.

There was one in particular I liked: if you play “Another one bites the dust” by Queen backwards, it says “decided to smoke marijuana.” I’ve actually heard this one for myself, and it does kind of sound like it, though it’s so slurred you can barely make it out.

system · May 7, 2006, 4:32pm

I didn’t have many albums when I was younger but my cousins, who were pretty good musicians had many and I used to listen with them. My aunt, a very practicing catholic ( or like we say around here: More catholic than the Pope!), tormented them so much about the backwards crap that they ended up burning a whole pile of them. AC/DC’s Back in Black, For Those about to Rock and Highway to Hell, many Kiss albums including the solo collection, and of course Led Zeppelin, were among the vinyls that were burnt. I don’t think my cousins ever forgave their mom for this. I sure didn’t.

system · May 7, 2006, 4:37pm

When I was in Australia in 1993, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had just put out a special on Stairway to Heaven. They got a number of different artists to record it. My favourite was Rolf Harris, you know, the Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport guy.

system · May 7, 2006, 4:41pm

I would have like to hear the actual backwards track too. His timing was excellent so he must have put an incredible amount of work on this.

system · May 7, 2006, 4:49pm

Check the one calle Hard-Ons. Is that Eso’s band by any chance? Make sure you listen until the end.

system · May 9, 2006, 12:13pm

MR 1200 can pLAY anything bcakWARds. Check out Fire on high by ELO an you are on your way to finding the “b” note