“Here’s to my sweet, Satan.
The one whose little path would make me sad,
whose power is Satan.
He’ll give those with him 666,
there was a little toolshed
where made us suffer, sad Satan.”
Believe it or not, this is what an excerpt on “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin sounds like played backward. Hear it for yourself at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3nDCJBpmo&feature=related
Intentional or coincidental? The band testifies that the message was totally a coincidence. However, there is strong evidence that supports otherwise.
Jimmy Page, guitarist of the band, had fetish with Aleister Crowley and black magic. Aleister Crowley was a famous British satanist. Page collected artifacts of Crowley, in fact, Page even purchased a house of Crowley’s and one of his abbeys in Sicily. Page believed that studying magic was searching for truth, and that evil is an unignorable part of life. Jimmy even attended seances.
The influence of Crowley in Page’s music can be seen in some lyric lines. In the song “Dazed and Confused,” one line states, “Lots of people talk, and few of them know, the soul of a woman was created below.” In an interview Page was asked about his regard of women. Page responded, “Crowley didn’t have a very high opinion of women, and I don’t think he was wrong.” Page’s interactions with women showed that he viewed them more as sex objects than human beings. He had a child with a supermodel, while rampaging with groupies on tour. In short, Crowley did influence Page’s life considerably in his actions and his music.
So, was this satanic message created on purpose? Personally, I think no. The band said so themselves. The album engineer, Eddie Kramer, explained to the press that Led Zeppelin would never waste studio time on something “”so dumb.” Also, Robert Plant wrote the lyrics. Not Page. Plant was not as into black magic and the occult as Page was. In short, there is even stronger evidence that the satanic message was purely a coincidence.
The frightening, hidden irony of “Stairway to Heaven” gives me the chills. Attaching evilness to such a pure and transcendental song feels blasphemous. Maybe I don’t think the satanic message was deliberate because I simply don’t want to believe so.
This gave me chills a little bit, too! However, the words from the engineer make sense- it would be a huge waste of studio time to spend work, energy, and money on sending subliminal messages to listeners who are just looking for some good music. In addition, I think people get really paranoid these days and a lot of times hear what they want to hear in things. All in all, another great post!
I find it interesting how major bands like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles are accused of having “secret” messages in their songs. There’s another rumor that playing the end of The Beatles’ “Revolution 9” backwards spounds like, “turn me on, dead man” which ties into a whole hoax that Paul MacCartney had died. I agree with Richie in that people will hear what they want to hear, even if nothing is really there.
I think its funny that people think you can hear things when playing a song backward. You can hear whatever words you want to when hearing a bunch of mumbled sounds if you have you mind set on hearing them. Each post is so informational it sounds like a piece from an in-depth biography of the band.