Backmasking (also known as backward masking) is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. Backmasking is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.

The Beatles are credited with the first usage of backmasking in popular music when John Lennon and producer George Martin crafted a backwards sequence of John Lennon’s vocal for the song Rain during the final verse. When the direction of play is reversed in this ending section of the song, we hear John singing When the sun shines, and then Rain, and then when the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. All of these lines are, of course, sung by John, in the correct forward direction, elsewhere in the recording. From this point forward, The Beatles were known to occasionally add a few sneaky little bits of studio trickery in their music, not only with backmasking, but other techniques manifested as hidden messages, etc. and this was just one of the more well-known examples.

A lesser known example of a backmasking instance occurs on John Lennon’s Mind Games LP, described below:

Mind Games LP - John Lennon, 1973

This example of backmasking shows up in the last song on the Mind Games LP called Meat City and I bet if you were not aware of this before, that if you listen to the song now, knowing that there is backwards stuff in it somewhere, that you will be able to identify where, just by listening. So, if you like, go ahead and listen to the song here now and see if you can spot it, and then read on for the answers. Besides, it’s a fun song to listen to anyway.

So, I expect most of you have heard this before a time or two, but it may have been awhile. Some of you may not have heard it at all, but now you have. Do you think you were able to spot the backwards part? Well, about 30 seconds in, at the conclusion of the first verse, the backing abruptly stops and there is a voice that sounds like someone has been sucking some helium too fast and for just a couple seconds he says something unintelligible. This is actually a reversed recording of John’s sound engineer Roy Cicala saying fuck a pig. Don’t believe me? I’ve brought proof. The following sound file is this excerpt of the song first played forwards (just like above where the words are unintelligible), then played again where the specific few seconds of Roy’s voice is reversed (so you can hear what he really says). Listen closely because it plays slightly fast.

So, there you have it. A lesser known backmasking example. But that’s not the end of the story. The title song from Mind Games was also released as a single and the B-side chosen was, you guessed it, Meat City.

Mind Games single, picture sleeve, 1973

I guess since singles are made with the idea of radio airplay in mind, John decided to replace Roy’s off-color message with another backwards tape loop, that says check the album (so that you’ll know what the real message is, I guess). You can hear it here, first forwards, and then reversed so you can understand it.

B-side of Mind Games single, 1973

I hope your life will seem more complete now that you know about this.

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