- Phonetic reversal
Phonetic reversal is the
process of reversing thephonemes of aword orphrase . When the reversal is identical to the original, the word or phrase is called aphonetic palindrome . Phonetic reversal is not entirely identical tobackmasking , which is specifically the reversal ofrecorded sound . This is becausepronunciation in speech cause a reversedvowel to sound different in either direction, or differently emphasize aconsonant depending on where it lies in a word, hence creating an imperfect reversal. Backmasking involves not only the reversal of the order of phonemes, but the reversal of the phonemes themselves, which means that the reversed sound of a phrase may be hard to predict.According to proponents of
reverse speech , phonetic reversal occurs unknowingly during normal speech.Examples
*In the 1984
American film "Amadeus", lead characterWolfgang Mozart claims toConstanze Weber that " [inSalzburg ] everything goes backwards." He then proceeds to deliver a series of phonetically reversed phrases, many of themvulgar , which she must guess by reversing them out loud.
*ThePaul is dead urban legend arose when DJRuss Gibb broadcasted part ofThe Beatles ' song "Revolution 9 " backwards, and heard what sounded like "Turn me on, dead man" [Andru J. Reeve. "Turn Me On, Dead Man: The Beatles and the "Paul is Dead" Hoax." AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781418482947]
*"Silly Boys ", a song onKlaatu 's 1978 "Sir Army Suit " album, was recorded entirely as phonetic reversal of the lyrics.
*For theRadiohead song "Like Spinning Plates", released on "Amnesiac ", singer Thom Yorke prepared by recording himself singing the lyrics normally, then played them backwards to learn how to sing them backwards. He recorded them backwards and reversed them for the final take of the song. The music playing behind "Like Spinning Plates" is the reversal of the instrumentals of another Radiohead song, "I Will", that was later released on their "Hail to the Thief " album.
*The Residents used the same technique in the late 1970s to record the "Eskimo" dialogue on the album "Eskimo".
*Victor Wooten employed phonetic reversal for the song "Pretty Little Lady", from "Yin-Yang." [ [http://www.victorwooten.com/yinyang/pretty.htm Victor Wooten - "Pretty Little Lady" ] ]
*In the television drama "Twin Peaks ", theMan from Another Place 's character's speech was phonetically reversed.The Simpsons then used the technique toparody that "Twin Peaks" episode in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two) ".
*Singer-Songwriter-Multi-instrumentalist Jim Ure is better known by his phonetically reversed name Midge.
*Jeroen Offerman memorized the vocals to "Stairway to Heaven " backwards and videotaped himself singing them in time to the reversed music in front ofSt. Paul's Cathedral . He then reversed the video, creating a warped rendition of the original song. The finished piece is entitled "The Stairway at St. Paul’s". [http://www.lff.org.uk/films_details.php?FilmID=237]
*Kate Bush used phonetic reversal in her songs "Watching You Without Me" (1985) and "Leave it Open" (1982).
*In 1982, John Wright ofNoMeansNo sung phonetically reversed lyrics on the backing vocal to the "Rich Guns" track on the band's first album, "Mama".
*In the early 1980s, bass player Bill Lanphier reversed a recording of the "Theme from New York, New York ", which he and other musicians mimicked and recorded, and then reversed that backwards recording to create a double-backwards recording: the music is oriented correctly, but the recording retains the aural quality of a backwards recording ( [http://www.lanphier.net/mp3/new_york.mp3 mp3 file] ).
*In 1999,They Might Be Giants released "Long Tall Weekend ". The track "On Earth my Nina" was recorded as a phonetic reversal of their song "Thunderbird", which was later released on "The Spine ". Their song "Dinner Bell", from "Apollo 18" in 1992, used a technique similar to Radiohead's for one of the verses.
*The instrumentals ofSiouxsie & the Banshees ' song "Peek-a-Boo" was produced by backmasking. The band learned to play the song backwards, then reversed the track when adding the vocals.
*TheBBC Radiophonic Workshop based the audio backing for a science fiction play on reversed voices. [cite web |last=Marsh |first=Peter |title=Experimental Review - Radiophonic Workshop |publisher=BBC |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/9xn8/ |accessdate=2007-03-17]Instrumental reversal
Although not strictly phonetic reversal, because it does not involve speech, playing instrumentals backwards is a similar process that can be used to create a backwards-sounding recording. Part of
David Bowie 's song "Move On" is an earlier song written by Bowie, "All The Young Dudes", played backwards. Bowie said, "I was playing through some old tapes of mine on a Revox and accidentally played one backwards and thought it was beautiful. Without listening to what it was originally we recorded it note for note backwards". [cite web |title= Encyclopaedia: A |work=The Ziggy Stardust Companion |url=http://www.5years.com/encya.htm |accessdate=2007-03-17] Similarly,Johnny Cash 's first number one hit, "I Walk the Line " (1956), was derived from a melody that resulted from an accidental tape reversal. [cite web |last=Menke |first=Steve |title=Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line |url=http://www.stevenmenke.com/I%20Walk%20The%20Line%20Page.htm |accessdate=2007-03-30] A few of the phonetic reversal examples above also employ reversed instrumentals.References
* [http://www.triplo.com/ev/reversal/ EV: Audio reversal in popular culture]
* [http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/amadeus.html Script for "Amadeus"]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.