Hammond Music

Led Zeppelin's rock song “Stairway to Heaven” is one of the most controversial songs for its hidden verses – it is alleged a backmasked message is present in "Stairway to Heaven"." It happens in the middle part of the song: “If there's a bustle in your hedgerow….”.

A backmasked message means one that is hidden beyond the perception of regular consciousness – i.e. a subliminal message – so when you play the verse backwards you hear different words. Here is the stairway to heaven subliminal verse in full:

• Oh here’s to my sweet Satan.
• The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan.
• He will give those with him 666.
• There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.

The controversy all started when a Baptist preacher blasted the song on his radio show in 1982.

This brought on lots ofcontroversy and several people analyzed the song including the Consumer Protection and Toxic Materials Committee. William Yarroll, a self-identified neuroscientist, also supported the theory that the song contained messages when played in reverse.

Led Zep blanked the critics for a while - only ever releasing the statement "Our turntables only play in one direction—forwards". Sound engineer Eddie Kramer got angry at the critisicm, calling the claims "totally and utterly ridiculous". Why would they spend studio time doing something so dumb?" Led Zep Writer Robert Plant also got angry with all the accusations: "To me it's very sad, because it was written with good intentions, and as for reversing the music and putting messages in, that isn't my idea of making music.

Here is the video, so decide for yourself. Visit our blog for more subliminal songs.

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