So where do things stand with ELO and backmasking? This is the chronology of ELO’s albums:

1.  ELO, released December 1971 in the UK, and March 1972 in the U.S.

2.  ELO 2, released in January 1973 in the UK, and February 1973 in the U.S.

3.  On The Third Day, released in November 1973

4.  Eldorado, released September 1974

5.  Face The Music, released September 1975

Based on the discography, there was at most 12 months between the release of Eldorado in September 1974, and the release of Face the Music, which contained Fire on High, in September 1975. Now one will have to allow for the shipping of the albums, the point at which they get radio play, the amount of time it would have taken Evangelicals to actually search the albums for backmasking, and then, believing they found it, for them to start making allegations. Finally, those allegations would have to bounce around long enough for them to get back to ELO. And there is simply not enough time. What is more, this group of Fundamentalists has, as far as I can find, never been identified. And that makes me think that ELO’s story about Eldorado and Fire On High is questionable. Another point can be made. There was a song on the first album called Mr. Radio. There is a backwards-masked message:

Hello, Mr. Radio

That indicates that ELO had used the effect in 1971. There is also another backwards-masked message in a song on Face the Music…Down Home Town:

Face the mighty waterfall (2x)

This is from the song Waterfall, also on Face the Music. So why would ELO’s claim, given the fact that the message in Fire on High is obvious and totally harmless, claim that it was not intended as an effect, but rather as a reaction to allegations? I think the answer is that…the Crazy Religious Guys would insist that the band had not used backmasking simply as a sound effect. If it was known that the allegations against other bands were false, Zappa not being included, then the only other band, except for Pink Floyd, whose backwards message in Empty Spaces was a taunt directed at the Evangelicals and was released in 1979, who, in addition to the Beatles’ Rain, had used the effect was ELO. Remember that all the messages in other Beatles albums, which weren’t there, but even if you believed they were there, none of those fictional messages could be labeled cinataS. That might have led to a more intense scrutiny of ELO, thereby placing them at the heart of the controversy, as opposed to leaving them standing among the others who were falsely accused. So, a new chronology emerges:

1.  1966- Rain

2.  1968- Hot P***

3.  1971- Mr. Radio

4.  1974- Fire on High

5.  1974- Down Home Town

Like I said, the Evangelicals were late to find Rain, probably because it had no role in the Paul is Dead phenomenon, and they missed Frank Zappa altogether. And they weren’t interested in Rain because they had no deceptive means to label that song cinataS. That left ELO holding the bag…actually, 3 bags. Of course, that was also due to the fact that the Evangelicals missed the sixth bona fide use of backmasking. It is odd that one of the founding bands of 1970s hard rock, Deep Purple, did not to take a more prominent role in the Evangelicals’ hit-lists. One would suspect that being a distinctly heavy, Hard Rock band, the Cultural Terrorists would have made a thorough search of their songs. But they didn’t. That suggests that information originally came from people familiar with the music of the Beatles and ELO, but not Frank Zappa or Deep Purple. And what joins the two latter Rock acts together is the fact that Deep Purple specifically referred to Frank Zappa in the song Smoke On The Water:

We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn't have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground

This is, of course, a coincidence. But it is a fascinating one, given:

The album is Stormbringer, and Deep Purple released it in November 1974. And although they did appear one or two “bad guy lists,” they were less maligned by than other bands like Led Zeppelin, ELO, etc. Now there appears to be a bona fide case of backmasking at the beginning of the song Stormbringer. It is difficult to hear the entire message, but if you listen to the song forwards, you will hear unintelligible gibberish at the beginning. The message occurs after the keyboard part, and just ahead of the vocals. There is an upload in YouTube that brings out the message very well:

You cocksu****, mother fu****, Stormbringer!

It’s too bad that the Crazy Evangelicals didn’t find this! On the surface, it is a rather angry message. And it is worth noting that the two insults are in the second person singular, and I sure hope it’s not directed at the listener….me! Name-calling is not nice! It has been suggested that this intro to the album’s introductory track is meant to imitate something that Regan MacNeill says in the Exorcist. I know the line, and it is not what is found in Stormbringer:

Stick your co** up her ass you mother-fu**ing worthless co**-sucker!

I know a little girl who’s getting her potty-mouth washed out with soap! And at no point does Regan say…Stormbringer! I can’t say for sure why this angry backwards message appears in the song. I would merely point out that at the time, founding member Ritchie Blackmore (guitar) was falling out with newcomers David Coverdale (vocals; later with Whitesnake) and Glenn Hughes (bass; vocals), and would soon leave the band to form Rainbow. So, I wonder if Ritchie didn’t put the message at the front of the song as an expression of his anger. I’ll update the updated chronology:

1.  1966- Rain                                 The Beatles

2.  1968- Hot P***                          Frank Zappa       

3.  1971- Mr. Radio                         ELO

4.  1974- Fire on High                    ELO

5.  1974- Down Home Town           ELO

6.  1974- Stormbringer                  Deep Purple

Now, the Beatles technically have another example of backmasking. This is, and isn’t, consistent with what I’ve said all along. The reason for that is…the song in question…Free as a Bird, although Lennon recorded the demo in 1977, wasn’t released until 1995. The message appears at the end of the song, just like the message in Rain, and says:

Turned out nice again

But since the song wasn’t released until long after the Cultural Terrorists failed to carry out a Hitlerian purging of youth culture, it wasn’t, and isn’t, relevant here. Now I have a highly improbable theory about how ELO’s song Eldorado became the first song to, chronologically, from the perspective of the actual songs that would have Evangelical Evil Fingers pointed at them. As I just noted, Frank Zappa and Deep Purple flew under the radar screen, at least in the beginning. And apparently, ELO’s song titled Mr. Radio was missed, as was the second case of backmasking on the album Face the Music. The album Eldorado was attacked by the Biggest Lunatic and Dolt of them all  …Gary Greenwald:

 
He begins by giving us the same old baloney about a backwards message in the song. He also takes exception to the cover:

In particular, he doesn’t like the green fingers. What does the cover mean? Well, obviously…Satan is after the children. That’s odd, since Satan doesn’t appear anywhere in it.  He says that these are green-type witch-type hands. We then get his expert interpretation…the hand may belong to the Wicked Witch of the East from the Wizard of Oz. That’s very good, pastor Gary! Except you have the wrong witch. The slippers originally belonged to the Wicked Witch of the East. After she was taken out by Dorothy’s farmhouse, Dorothy gets the slippers. The Wicked Witch of the West then tries to steal them. So, I guess that the Wizard of Oz is Satanic too! Huh, Garry? Now I will point something out that is fascinating, although I’m not sure what to do with it right now, but I will figure it out soon. Still, I fear that I am putting bullets in another Gary Greenwald’s Gun! The following is the corresponding shot in the movie:

So, it would seem that ELO reversed the image!

The shot from the movie is on the left, and the cover of the album is on the right. Now it should be said that ELO is a British band, and the Wizard of Oz was an American movie. But I must state my opinion that the reversal of the image cannot be accidental. So, was there a backwards message in the song that was on an album with a backwards cover? No…that’s not the answer. I think the answer is…if you take a still shot from the movie, like I did above, and you hold it up in front of a mirror…you get the image as it appears on the cover of ELO’s album. So, either the shot has been reversed, or in looking at the album cover…we’re looking in a mirror. If so, then we see more than just the cover of the album in reverse…we also see ourselves. And looking at ourselves and contemplating who we are is a truly godly act. It makes me wonder if the backwards masking present in the next album is not an extension of the idea of reversal…the image with Eldorado, and the music with Face the Music. As ELO says in the message…the music is reversible, but time is not. Even the Cultural Terrorists would have to admit that is a fact. And since time is not reversible, it seems to me that looking at myself in a Metaphorical Mirror is something that I should do with all haste. If I don’t like what I see…well, I can take comfort in the words of an Anything But Satanic Song:

There’s still time to change the road you’re on

And if I realize that I’m on the wrong road, then I can take comfort in ELO’s message:

Turn back…turn back…turn back

I think I can see the right road over the Metaphorical Hill that now stands before me. I suppose it’s a good thing that I listen to ELO and Led Zeppelin. It’s not always easy to know where you belong...

Still, you might get a little help from friends you didn’t know you had.

And my most improbable of theories? The other day I decided to put Revolution #9 on a sound loop at work. I let it play…and play…and play. It is impossible to adequately describe what you hear. The track includes various vocal sub-tracts; some are easy to make out. Others are not. But I suddenly heard a Diabolical Message at 5:04:

Go to see Satan

You can’t imagine how disappointed I was to suddenly feel as though I would have to contact Gary Greenwald and say…you were right! But then I found a break-down of the track, and it really was this:

Go to see a Surgeon

Hey, Gary! You’re still wrong! And I was thrilled to find a Paul is Dead clue that no one else has! It’s at the end of the track. Yoko Ono says:

You become naked

That made think of Job 1:21-

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return

That’s an allusion to death! So you see, if you combine Yoko Ono’s bizarre statement with Job 1:21, then it is clear that Paul is Dead! Finding these clues is fun! But I suddenly heard something very clearly.

The Watusi…the Twist…Eldorado

Now you see my theory. Revolution #9 is everyone’s first choice to find Paul is Dead clues. Not to mention playing stuff backwards! And someone who was taking another look at Revolution #9 suddenly realized that ELO had a song called Eldorado. Sure, and there was only one thing to do! What is that? Obviously…play ELO’s song backwards! Then you think you hear:

He is the nasty one, Christ you’re infernal;
It is said we’re dead men, everyone who has the mark will live

Ok. Most of the fictional backwards messages are exceedingly stupid and totally incoherent. This one, at first glance, may seem not to be. If we are to understand 666 as the mark, then there is a problem. The band knew enough about the Book of Revelation to know about the mark of the beast, but not enough to know that those who bear the beast’s mark are destroyed? How can you be a dead man, and yet live? If Christ is infernal…well, so is Satan. Then you end up with both! Nasty One? I think that when Eldorado is played backwards, the Prime Mover of this round of Paul is Dead thought he heard…dead! The rest of the supposed message was constructed around the word dead. The reference to Eldorado in Revolution #9 is the reason why the Find Stupid Stuff Backwards Movement suddenly shifted to ELO’s song Eldorado. So! ELO’s earlier albums weren’t searched, and the backmasking in Mr. Radio was left undiscovered. And everyone knew about the backmasking at the beginning of Fire on High…which then gave credibility to the claims about Eldorado. And the introduction to Fire On High being the shiniest bauble lying on the floor of the Religious Play-pen, the Crazy Guys failed to find the other backwards message on the album. And how proud the Cultural Terrorists were that they found what was clear to everyone who heard the song Fire on High…and pride goeth before the fall! Of course, they failed to find anything Satanic in the message found in Fire On High. I will pose this question…if ELO placed an almost incoherent Satanic message in Eldorado, then why is the message they ‘found’ in Fire on High not only not Satanic, but actually may be making a very important point? My how inconsistent Not Devil Worshippers are in their attempts to recruit young people for the Prince of Darkness! It is interesting, though perhaps no more than that, that ELO don’t write the name as El Dorado. They wrote is as Eldorado. Is that important? Perhaps not. But I think of that short tale of how hard it can be to find what you’re looking for:

Gaily bedight, a gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow, had journeyed long,
Singing a song, in search of Eldorado.
But he grew old, this knight so bold,
And o’er his heart a shadow;
Fell as he found, no spot of ground,
That looked like Eldorado.
And as his strength failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow;
“Shadow,” said he,
“Where can it be…this land of Eldorado?”

A lifetime spent searching. And never finding. What did the Wicked Witch of the West seek to find? Seek to have? Dorothy’s magic slippers. And despite all she did, she would never get them. I wonder if the Pilgrim Shadow liked Rock music? I’ll bet he could find some pretty cool messages in Revolution #9. No, that’s not true. Perhaps the Pilgrim Shadow didn’t know how to find Eldorado any more than the Gallant Knight. Hey, Gary! I suppose that Edgar Allen Poe placed secret Satanic messages in his great poem! Give it look! I’m sure you could find something:

Who can forget the forgettable guys associated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network? I speak of Paul Crouch. Who was Paul Crouch? He and his wife founded TBN in 1973, and he was a television evangelist, and we all know what a perfect record of righteousness and godliness that the money-grubbing and Mammon-worshipping TV Evangelists have; not all..but enough. Paul Crouch settled a plagiarism case out of court in 2000. In 2004, a wrongful termination case was settled out of court. The person involved alleged a sexual relationship. Yes! I wondered how long it would take to get to the Evangelical Sex Dirt. In 2012, the personal spending of Mr. and Mrs. Evangelist Superstar, which was considerable, and allegations of “excess compensation” were made. Among others. Here he is:

And now for the Mrs:

And if that wasn’t disturbing enough…look at this:

Please…Lord! Tell me this isn’t some Children of God thing! The Crouches were aided and abetted by another Evangelical named Jacob Aranza, who appointed himself as a backmaking expert. He pointed his finger at the usual suspects…particularly Led Zeppelin. But he also made accusations against…and here I think we will confound more mainstream Christians:

Yes…Captain and Tennille! Who, or so Aranza thought, were putting pro-ecology messages into their songs. Still, I must admit…I always suspected that Muskrat Love was a Diabolical Song Promoting Some Horrible Thing Involving Muskrats! Singing about romance is not the same thing as singing about sex, although the two ultimately, in some cform or fashion, manage to arrive in the same place at the same time. Just don’t tell the Religious Extremists! But it is a long way to go from 1966 to 1982. Yes, the rise of Hypocritical TV Evangelists…some morally corrupt…some finding gimmicks to make a ton of money…and some simply insane…helped kick this into overdrive. Speaking of Captain and Tennille, who else was attacked by this Lunatic or that Lunatic as seeking to undermine Christian values and threatening to tear apart the Fervent Evangelical Dream-World and thereby giving Natas the final victory?

And:

Don’t forget:

You thought Black Sabbath was a threat!

Now for the Truly Diabolical:

And, I almost forgot:

I would point out something important to all those who find this whole thing crazy…you’re right! I would also say to all those who find this terrifying…you’re also right! But how do you go from ELO, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath to Karen Carpenter and Barry Manilow? I can think of only one answer…motivation. How many Black Sabbath fans listen to John Denver? You know the answer. How many Barry Manilow fans listen to Black Sabbath? You know the answer to that one too. Strange as it may seem, I like all of them. But herein lies the true goal of the Religious Extremists and Cultural Terrorists…they obviously want to tear apart youth culture, break it, purge it, burn away everything of which they disapprove, and replace it with a frightening youth culture of their own making. But the easy-listening music of the adults? They want to break, purge, burn, and replace that too. For so many…young, older, and old…music in some form lies at the heart of their own popular culture. It’s hard to think of life without music…nothing is more diverse, and nothing else expresses who we are, no matter who we are, than music. To establish a Diabolical Theocracy that controls everyone and everything…you must destroy the music first.  

In 1969, the Paul is Dead LSD-induced madness spread to an unlikely place. In August 1969, the Manson family carried out the Tate-Labianca murders. In 1968, Manson became obsessed with the White Album. He referred to his yellow house as the Yellow Submarine. Manson would go on to claim that the Beatles’ music, particularly the White Album, contained subliminal messages that could be made out by the human mind. It would seem that Manson simply co-opted the nonsense about Paul is Dead backwards messages on The White Album, and adapted it to his own ends. Particularly important for Manson and his group of kooks was the song Helter Skelter, which he believed was part of a secret Beatles’ prophecy of some imminent war between racist and non-racist whites. This would be followed by a war between the remaining whites and blacks. The blacks would win, and once they came to believe that all white people were dead, Manson and his group would appear from their underground hide-out to rule the ascendant black race. This sick delusion was called Helter Skelter. As an aside, Manson managed to choose the worst song the Beatles ever made. Manson did not claim that he had been deciphering backwards messages on the White Album. And I will have to admit that the song Revolution #9, much of which is simply noise, certainly was conducive to, if you dropped enough acid, the idea that something strange was happening in the song…if you can call it a song. There is a constant, and highly annoying, vocal track running through the piece that is exceedingly difficult to make out. It has the same kind of unappealing non-musical chaos and anarchy found in the music, if you can call it that, of…

Yoko Ono. Fortunately, John chose to dispense with the screaming and Banshee-like screeching of a woman who would have turned off Lilith. Still, it was custom-made for crazy people and acid heads to try to find all kinds of whatever in the track that, at least, managed to not be as bad as Helter Skelter. I find it hard to believe that anyone took Manson’s deranged claims about what the songs on the White Album were really about with any degree of seriousness. But claims about secret messages ran con-currently with the widely-covered stories about the Paul is Dead conspiracy, which made reference to, among other things, backwards messages on Beatles albums. But again, backwards messages and subliminal messages in the context of the Beatles’ music did not have an evil or Satanic character to them.

I suppose it should be said that “evil” is a subjective term. The Beatles were maligned in many ways, and the primary cause for this is something that will be discussed in another installment of this essay. But the Beatles were accused of promoting drug use. Of course, this makes them one of a much larger crowd of rock musicians, but the Beatles became a favorite target for those who levelled such accusations. One such leveler was the famous comedian…

Art Linkletter. Sometimes people handle tragedy by finding something else to blame…someone else to blame. On October 4, 1969…

Art’s daughter Diane Linkletter committed suicide by jumping out of a window. When someone loses a loved one in this manner, it’s perfectly normal to question why. The answer sought was to blame the tragedy on LSD. Art claimed that his daughter had been using LSD, and in particular, had taken the drug the night before she ended her life. The toxicology report indicated that no drugs were found in her system. But it went a step further…Art accused the Beatles of being the “leading missionaries of the acid society.” He went so far as to tell Congress that the matter should be decided in a debate that involved the Beatles on the one hand, and Richard Nixon on the other hand. I must say that the accusation is odd. The Beatles admitted to drug use, but it seems to me that the Hippie bands of, for example, Haight Ashbury, would be better targets. This would lead straight into the world of Psychedelia…Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Big Brother and Holding Company (Janis Joplin’s band), Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and perhaps the best illustration of the point…

Blue Cheer, whose name is believed to derive, not from…

but rather from a type of LSD made by Owsley Stanley, who was closely associated with the Grateful Dead. Haight Ashbury was where you would find the True Missionaries of the Acid Society. That said, Acid Society is an excellent name for an LSD-oriented Haight Ashbury band of 1969. The following is from 1969, and would horrify certain someones:

Ah, the 1960s! It’s just a coincidence, but you can imagine how disappointed Asag and myself were when, half-way through our recording session, we found that the name of our new song had also been the name of a weird porno film in 1969. Asag got rather angry. But before he could destroy the cosmos, I quickly changed the name to…Sex and the Acid Society. He liked that name better anyway. The Beatles’ role is, in my opinion, not nearly so significant as far as LSD missionaries go. But with albums like the Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine, and then of course, there was the White Album and all the nonsense that surrounded it, particularly Revolution Number 9…Number 9…Number 9, and depending upon who actually listens to what, the Beatles should have been the lowest common denominator in the equation of blame. And it should not go without mention that on July 15, 1969, less than three months before Diane’s tragic suicide, John Zweyer, husband of Dawn Linkletter, Art’s oldest daughter, committed suicide:

I’m not saying that the two suicides were connected, just pointing out how odd it is that the same family had two suicides within three months of one another, and in both cases, something else was blamed.

The apparently irresistible urge to insist that the Beatles were the Great Missionaries of the drug use that became rife within the Counter Culture proved irresistible among others too. And they went to crazy lengths and ended up saying the stupidest things in order to achieve the catharsis they needed. Perhaps it was easier to blame a FOREIGN band, rather than the home-grown bands of the San Francisco Sound. The Evangelist and purveyor of all manner of Rock Music Conspiracies may have been Michael Mills…