The Devil’s Music
3 April 2006 by Eve
From the files of Bible Study – all names have been changed to protect identities and poke fun, but most of all to hide the fact that I can’t remember them:
Mid-morning. Homeroom. A tiny Christian missionary school somewhere in the wilds of the Dominican Republic. All the class is in attendance; Mr. Crowley has announced the importance of this briefing, and we aren’t about to miss it.
“Rock music,” he announces, “is the Devil’s music.”
We all nod soberly; rumors of this grave danger to our souls have been circulating for a week now, and we’re all willing and eager to learn all we can about it – to defend our souls, of course. The only American music played on Dominican radio stations these days is disco and dance; the country is obsessed with Saturday Night Fever and Grease, so none of us has heard any of these satanic songs.
“It all began with the Beatles,” Mr. Crowley continues. “They invented ‘back masking,’ the recording of messages in songs that can only be heard when you play the record [grooved vinyl disks spun on a turntable under a needle; pre-pre-CD audio technology] backwards. Many rock musicians use this technique to record demonic messages in their songs.”
We hang on his every word, fascinated; he’s never captured our attention like this before.
“This first song I’m going to play for you, the right way first, is Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ It was voted the most popular rock song ever in history.” (It was? This is all news to me; I’ve heard of Led Zeppelin, but I’ve never heard any of their music, and I had no idea they were this influential a band.) He sets the needle to the groove and the first haunting strains of guitar float into the quiet classroom.
“There’s a lady who’s sure All that glitters is gold, And she’s buying a stairway to heaven…”
After a good introduction to the tune, Mr. Crowley stops the player and repositions the needle on the record. “Now if you listen to this part really carefully, you’ll hear a voice saying something like, ‘Obey Satan; he is your master.’” And I’m not sure how he does it because I can’t see the turntable very well from my seat, but he spins the platter backward.
And in the middle of the weird noises now emitting from the player, I sort of hear something that could be a very garbled voice saying something that might be a muttered “Satan…sweet Satan!”
Strangely, I don’t find this, my first experience with the occult, in the least bit scary or even creepy; in fact, it kind of seems – well – sort of cool, really. I find myself wondering what the rest of this “Devil’s music” sounds like – and how I can get my hands on it. During the rest of the class, Mr. Crowley only plays a couple more excerpts – “# 9” and “Hotel California” – but mentions many objectionable albums and bands, like Bat Out of Hell, Blue Oyster Cult, A Night at the Opera, and the Grateful Dead, among others.
Even after that Bible Study ends, we can’t stop talking about it. Even when a girl tells us that she knows someone who knows someone who heard of a girl who got possessed by a demon while listening to a KISS record, the only thing that occurs to us is wonder where we can find and listen to any KISS music. When my mom comes to pick me up after school, I tell her excitedly about the class, and how interesting the “forbidden” music actually sounds despite the cautionary sermon. A high school teenager in the ‘50s during the very first rock-‘n’-roll revolution, she still hoards her collection of 45s (small, single-song records) and keeps her portable player in tip-top working condition.
My mother snorts in derision. “I could have told him that all that class and warning you against that music was going to do was make you guys want to listen to it more,” she remarks. “They called it ‘devil music’ in my day and tried to forbid us to listen to it, and I collected and listened and danced to it anyway.”
I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Because of that particular Bible Study, I memorized my first satanic song:
“On a dark desert highway Cool wind in my hair Warm smell of ‘colitas’ Rising up through the air…”
If this is the music Satan plays in hell, I wanna be in the band.
5 April 2006, on 8:49 pm
An enjoyable journey, Eve.
I got “Hotel California” for my 12th birthday – it was the first album I owned. Later, I was heavily into Led Zeppelin. Now it all makes sense! Hotel California was my gateway music to Zeppelin and atheism!
6 April 2006, on 7:05 am
“play the record [grooved vinyl disks spun on a turntable under a needle; pre-pre-CD audio technology] backwards. ”
You know, some of us may be younger than some of you, but we do know what records are. My parents have tons. But most of them are bands I’ve never heard of. I mean, who the hell is Foghat?;)
6 April 2006, on 12:30 pm
Gateway music indeed, manxome!
Lya: I mean, who the hell is Foghat?;)
*launches into a mean air-guitar rendition of “Smoke on the Water* Oh, sorry, overlooked the wink; oh well, any chance to play air-guitar while at work is a chance I’ll gladly take!
6 April 2006, on 12:52 pm
Don’t be confusing Foghat with Deep Purple now, Eve!
Those kinds of demos were fun at church when I was in middle school because they played Judas Priest, Ozzy, Dio and Iron Maiden.
But thrash and death metal just kind of ruined the backmasking thing for the church since the satan was pretty damned obvious. Deicide has never been known for their sublety regarding satan.
6 April 2006, on 2:06 pm
You know, some of us may be younger than some of you, but we do know what records are.
Besides the fact that this is the medium DJs use in nightclubs. And they’re even easier to play backwards now on them DJ turntables!
6 April 2006, on 2:43 pm
“Besides the fact that this is the medium DJs use in nightclubs. And they’re even easier to play backwards now on them DJ turntables! ”
Prezactly. My bf is a Dj (how did my hardcore, heavy metal loving self end up with a rap, hh, beats and breaks dj?) – he’s got a million records at his place.
And I really don’t have any idea who/what Foghat is. I just saw my dad has a record of it. From way before me.
6 April 2006, on 2:55 pm
Lya,
Foghat is great windows-down driving music.
6 April 2006, on 3:59 pm
MightyLambchop, I *bow* to your superior rock knowledge; my very very bad…
That devil’s music class was really like an introduction to modern hard rock; I mean, come on: you play tasty tidbits from good musicians with hints of the subversive and then say, “Don’t listen”? Like my mom said, did they really think this would turn us off to the tunes?
My one regret is that Mr. Crowley mentioned but didn’t play anything from “Bat Out of Hell,” so it never really attracted my attention as much as the bands and albums I heard snippets from. When I finally heard the LP years later, I was mad as hell that I’d been denying myself Meat Loaf (and Jim Stein, of course) for so many years! It’s one of my all-time favorite albums now.
8 April 2006, on 12:12 pm
Good article. I heard the same story about devil’s music in catholic elementary shool.
By the Foghat is a band and their greatest hit is “Slow Ride”. You should be able to find an mp3 of it on some p2p network.
Also, I’m amazed that no one has mention on of Ozzy Osborne’s greatest tunes “Mr. Crowley” (which is about Alester Crowley), which would be so fitting for a story like this.
8 April 2006, on 10:13 pm
Hey, Eve. You mean Jim Steinman — the composer for Meatloaf. He also did the soundtrack for Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire. Great stuff. Both the movie and the soundtrack kind of flopped, but have developed fervent cult followings over the years.
10 April 2006, on 3:54 pm
Shawn: Foghat…“Slow Ride”
*Now* I remember: “Slow ride – *guitar* – take it easy – *more guitar*- Thanks, Shawn!
Shawn: Also, I’m amazed that no one has mention on of Ozzy Osborne’s greatest tunes “Mr. Crowley” (which is about Alester Crowley), which would be so fitting for a story like this.
I’m so glad someone noticed! “Mr. Crowley” was definitely *not* my Bible Study teacher’s name – hence the alias referencing Ozzy.
Sean: You mean Jim Steinman
You’re right, my bad again, and the “Streets of Fire” soundtrack (though not the movie) was a *huge* hit in the Dominican Republic. Almost every song Steinman’s composed has been a hit, even “Making Love Outta Nothin’ at All” for Air Supply.