Tag Archives: Hidden messages in songs

The World Today: more backmasking

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One of my favorite songs of all time is World Today by Filter, from The Amalgamut album. The song starts off very dark and foreboding but with the lyrics “I like the world today”, like an unsuspecting faun being stalked by a lion. There are a lot of other sounds embedded in the background like Native American chanting; many sounds I can’t identify. It builds into a wall of sound. It sounds great cranked-up and on a good sound system. The lossy mp3 on this site doesn’t do it justice.

Filter – World Today

 

In this song are a couple of passages with backwards (backmasked) lyrics.

The first passage he (Richard Patrick) sings “what a hell of a price, what a hell of a price” (1:05), which is immediately followed by the backmasked version of the same thing. It’s almost as if he’s pointing to it and saying, “here’s what it sounds like in reverse”.

worldtodayexcerpt2

 

And here is the same passage in reverse:

worldtodayexcerpt2-reversed

 

It’s a little more clear at the end of the song:

worldtodayexcerpt3-reversed

 

The second passage is towards the end of the song and starts at the 4:00 point:

worldtodayexcerpt

 

And in reverse it is:

worldtodayexcerpt-reversed

 

“I like the world today”

There is nothing surprising in the passages with the reversed lyrics, but since it’s a favorite I thought it would be nice to at least know what they are. 🙂

Hidden message on Pink Floyd’s The Wall

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I was cleaning up my hard drive and I came across this excerpt of a message on Pink Floyd’s The Wall.

Old Pink

“Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Send your answer to Old Pink, care of The Funny Farm, Chalford, UK.” Roger Waters is interrupted by a man who says “Roger… Carolyn’s on the phone!”

Depending on where you look, the song is titled “Empty Spaces” (label on side 2 of record) or “What Shall We Do Now?” (liner notes). For whatever reasons, they don’t match.

When I was a kid, I had access to a reversible reel-to-reel tape recorder. I borrowed my friends copy of The Wall, recorded this song onto the tape, and played it a hundred times in reverse. I even ran the audio through a graphic equalizer trying to isolate the message.

“Old Pink” refers to Syd Barrett, who was allegedly committed to the “funny farm” for his mental issues.