Static Live Magazine October 2019

Fundies vs. Devil Rock
Oh Hell No!
The devil, to semi-borrow a phrase from
comedian Richard Pryor, was acting a
motherfreakin’ fool in the 1970s and early
’80s.
The Red-Skinned Dude with Horns and Tail was a
major rock star back in those days, making gueststar
appearances on albums by Led Zeppelin, Black
Sabbath, the Rolling Stones, Electric Light Orchestra,
Blue Oyster Cult, Black Oak Arkansas and – egads! –
even Styx.
Or so some Christian fundies claimed.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking: Satan would take
one look at Styx and say, “Me, waste my swag on
those pantywaists? Are you fuckin’ insane?”
Yet, according to a Christian minister dude named
Jacob Aranza and numerous other Church Lady folks,
these rockers and others were Knights in Satan’s
Service.
Aranza delivered the gory details in two books in the
early ’80s: “Backward Masking Unmasked:
Backward Satanic Messages of Rock and
Roll Exposed,” and “More Rock, Country &
Backward Masking Unmasked.”
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He wasn’t the only one. I was a student at the
University of Alabama in the early ’80s when a
crusading conservative Christian group held a rally on
campus to “expose” what the tricky devil was up to in
rock music.
Satan’s main trick, they claimed: Convince rockers to
record paeans to his glory, then reverse them and add
the backwards recordings to their songs. Innocent
kids will then hear such messages and subliminally
understand them, and will come away thinking: “Gee,
I really like this ‘Stairway to Heaven’ song, and for
some reason I now know that the devil is a really cool
dude!”
One backwards bit on “Stairway” supposedly says:
“There’s no escaping it. It’s my sweet Satan. The one
will be the path who makes me sad, whose power
is Satan.” Another allegedly says: “Oh I will sing
because I live with Satan.”
Yes, when I first heard these accusations, I plopped
Zep’s fourth album on my archaic, black boxy
stereo and dropped the needle with the turntable
power off, then I finger-powered the vinyl in a
reverse spin. I heard what sounded like a guy with
a grapefruit lodged in his throat mumbling weird,
incomprehensible shit while mentioning “Satten.” Sort
of.
Masking on the Black Oak Arkansas song “When
Electricity Came to Arkansas” supposedly says:
“Satan, Satan, Satan. He is God, he is God, he is
God.” Quiet Riot proclaimed “Serve beast for money”
on their “Mental Health” album. And what about Styx?
Play their song “Snowblind” backwards and you get
“Satan, move in our voices.”
The Rolling Stones, despite being above board with
their devil games – “Sympathy for the Devil” anyone?
-- went backwards on their “Tattoo You” album with “I
love you, said the devil.”
Or so the devil hunters said.
Of course, Black Sabbath and singer Ozzy Osbourne
during his solo career also possessed the cheek to
openly embrace satanic shenanigans. No secret
there.
These days it’s easy to look back at the satanic panic
and laugh. Ozzy, after all, went on to become one
of America’s most beloved goofball dads when “The
Osbournes” reality TV show aired on MTV in the early
2000s.
But I recall reading an interview of Led Zep vocalistlyricist
Robert Plant back when the fundamentalists
were sullying his music by dragging it across Satan’s
asshole, and his distress was palpable: “To me it’s
very sad, because ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was written
with every best intention, and as far as reversing
tapes and putting messages on the end, that’s not my
idea of making music. It’s really sad. The first time I
heard it . . . I was absolutely drained all day. I couldn’t
take people seriously who could come up with
sketches like that. There are a lot of people who are
making money there, and if that’s the way they need
to do it, then do it without my lyrics. I cherish them far
too much.”
So, which was really the work of the devil? Rockers
supposedly using “backward masking” to indoctrinate
fans with satanic platitudes? Or Christian fundies
defiling uplifting, good-time, even beautiful music
that brought joy and pleasure to millions of
people?
by Rick de Yampert 11