Comments on Reverse Cowboys

True story: When I was a kid, my Dad, a devout-but-not-moronic Christian, at the urging of a friend from church gave me a recording of a fundamentalist preacher named Marty Tinglehoff (no lie). Tinglehoff's specialty was analyzing the lyrics of popular music for subversive messages, with a side-light in warning of the perils of back-masking (as it was called in those days.) My Dad actually sat and listened to this guy's tape with me, and seemed as skeptical as I was about the backwards stuff. (He did aver that "Big Balls" was pretty crude, though.)

Listening to this had the exact opposite effect that Rev Tinglehoff was trying for, however, as it induced in me a lifetime obsession with lyrical double-meanings and subversive content, as well as sending me running to my turntable to reverse-spin every single album I could get my hands on that was purported to have backwards messages on it.

My conclusions? A: The bridge in Another One Bites the Dust may well be construed to say "It's fun to smoke marijuana" when played backwards. B:Hotel California really is about the Church of Satan, but only when played forwards. And C: The lyrics to Stairway to Heaven are equally incomprehensible no matter which direction you come at them from. Where concerned Christians hear "Here's to my sweet Satan" in Robert Plant's tortured backwards cries, I hear only "Echinacea!"

Now, of course, digital audio means you can perform these experiments without ruining your needle. It's a lot less fun, though.

Here's to my sweet Echinacea!

I ♥ Reverse Cowgirl.