# Stairway to Heaven Backwards



## trump (Dec 7, 2004)

my friend just sent me this site...found it rather cool

http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm 

I just can't figure out how they did that


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

Hey I have been toying with the same thing.

Check these two sections out - Van Halen Panama

Forwards < 700K but watch your volume setting, so you don't wake the house up!

and now, listen carefully as we hear it backwards....!?! 

Backwards

That is spooky!


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

This reminds me when I found a Christian oriented conspiracy theorist web site. It had pages of listings of songs that when played backwards revealed Satanic teachings. I found it a riot. We love our conspiracy theorists


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

> I just can't figure out how they did that


A great little program called Sound Studio for Mac OS X does the trick. The downloaded programs includes a 30 full working trial.

Load your song, or record your voice and then choose from the menu bar. Filter > Backwards and it is done.

--

P.S. The person that made the backwards site is Canadian from southern Alberta.
I could not determine if he uses a Mac or not.


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

If the question is how did Led Zeppelin write "forward" lyrics that successfully encoded their secret backwards message, I can think of a couple of ways:

- complete accident and coincidence. If the linked file is real, seems pretty unlikely.

- write the backwards message, sing or speak it normally, play the recording backwards. Write some ordinary English words that approximate the sounds in the backwards version, then record those words. When you then play the result backwards, you get your decoded message.

Seems like an awful lot of trouble for a band that a lot of parents probably though was Satanic minus any secret messages. At least they buried it in what is (frankly) a really awful song -- I can't believe how much we loved it back in the day.


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## MannyP Design (Jun 8, 2000)

Maybe Zep just wrote their love letter to Satan first, recorded it, and _then_ played it backwards to see what "safe" lyrics would emerge that they could use for Stairway to Heaven?

Or is that too much work to even bother?


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

That's exactly what I was suggesting they did, Manny. Thanks for putting it in an understandable form!


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

I saw Zeppelin live in the seventies. They seemed to be playing "forwards" to me.

And Robert Plant was DEFINITELY singing "forward" and not "backward". At least when his nose wasn't bleeding profusely from all the uncut up rocks in the crappy coke that he got backstage.

And Page was playing forwards....at least when he wasn't puking from...

Well, you get the picture. At least I hope you do.

Personally, I'd bet that these guys were too baked most of the time to try and purposely place any sort of satanic "message" into anything other than the nearest toilet bowl.

In fact, I'm surprised that their music was so darned good, given all of the chemical influences that must have been clouding their collective conciousness in those days.

I still like listening to it, tho.  

They are, after all, my all time favorite band.


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