Most, if not all, people love puzzles to a certain extent.  People like the challenge and being able to boast that they had figured it all out when people couldn’t have.  Give somebody a riddle, and they would dare not walk away without an answer, whether they figured it out or whether they ask the person giving the riddle for the answer.

Looking back in the history of music, there have been a number of instances where people have put symbols and hidden messages behind people’s music whether it was the intention of the artist or not.  How many stories have you heard where if you play a certain record backwards at a certain point in a track you will hear some hidden message? People love it, the speculation, the guessing, just for the privilege of saying “I told you that’s what it was!”

One of the biggest hidden message stories had to do with the biggest band to date, “The Beatles.”

Is Paul McCartney dead?  That was the question.  Was he replaced with a body double by the name of William Campbell who won a Paul look-alike contest?  Fans and conspiracy-theorists alike have speculated over this for years, and have given the following as some of the “evidence:”

1. On “Strawberry Fields Forever,” John supposedly says “I buried Paul” near the end of the song.  (John says he said “Cranberry Sauce,” not “I buried Paul”)
2. Play “I’m So Tired” backwards, and you’ll hear John say “Paul is dead, miss him, miss him, miss him.”
3. Play “Revolution 9″ backwards, and the droning number 9′s, turn to “Turn me on dead man.”
4. The order in which The Beatles are walking in Abbey Road put Paul in position to be the one in the casket during funeral proceedings.  John, dressed in white is the preacher, Ringo is the pallbearer, Paul (who is smoking, barefoot, and out of step with everyone else) would be the corpse, and George is dressed like a grave digger.
5. A walrus is symbol of death in certain cultures, and coincidentally, Paul is the Walrus on the Magical Mystery Tour cover.  He’s also wearing a black rose instead of a red rose as the other three are wearing.

Now are these coincidences?  Or was it planned by The Beatles?  These are just a few of the many instances on music and on pictures and album covers that people have found and speculate that the Paul we have heard over the years since roughly around 1965 is the not the original Paul.

If this “Paul is Dead Hoax” stuff interests you, click here for a more detailed rundown of all the “hints.”

Of course, backmasking (the real term for using reverse-playing sounds on a forward playing track) has been the subject of notoriety when it comes to hidden messages.  Stuff by Ozzy Osbourne, Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, and others have been said to have evil messages when played backwards, though they have denied any evil doing.  More modern bands such as Slayer and Cradle of Filth have had their share of admittedly backmasking messages.  There have been good messages also, such as by the Christian band Petra, who asks why people look for the devil instead of seeking the Lord, and others who have made parodies by placing funny messages backwards just for people to play it and have a good laugh.

And with that, I embark on my fourth solo album, with all of that in mind.

Phase 4 – symboLYRICism

More to come soon!

-mnshyn