Messages Hidden In The Grooves Of Records

By on April 14, 2010 in News 3

Decades ago, morality watchdogs feared that Satanic messages were hidden in the music and lyrics of rock records. In fact, they were hidden in the records’ matrices (the portion of the vinyl near the center) where nearly-invisible messages can be printed. The Public Collectors site does a nice overview of the hidden-matrice-message tradition:

Black Flag – “Damaged” (SST)
Side A: COMIN’ AT YA – THE NEOLITHIC GELATINOUS THINK
Side B: SIZZLED THAT NEO-ORTHODOXY RIGHT INTO MY UH, AAAH… WHAT THE HELL!

Led Zeppelin – III (Atlantic)
Side A: blank
Side B: Do what thou wilt

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  • radiac

    Good list. Who know Joy Division enjoyed chicken so much?

  • Anonymous

    errr… no. I used to be a DJ and LOADS of records had stuff scrawled in the matrices, some saying ‘skin up’ or along those lines… some saying ‘thanks’ to whoever… some with lyrics or samples. It’s not a big deal. And we all know that a lot of sixties bands were influenced by the Process Church and other satanic cults a la Manson’s Family – Zeppelin took it a bit far, actually, and Robert Plant still blames the death of his infant son on the band’s dabblings with the dark side… the Rolling Stones even dedicated a whole album to Satan for chrissakes! (‘Their Satanic Majesty’s Request’ (1967) – with ‘Like a Rainbow’ on it – great tune). BUT I NEVER saw any Satanic messages on any vinyl released in the last 20 years, I guess because cults became less ‘trendy’ among those loser hippies. You can put the satanic messages like ‘do what thou wilt’ (Crowley) down to trendy satanic furvour among acid-drenched hippies from Frisco predominantly in the sixties and seventies.

  • sidneee

    errr… no. I used to be a DJ and LOADS of records had stuff scrawled in the matrices, some saying 'skin up' or along those lines… some saying 'thanks' to whoever… some with lyrics or samples. It's not a big deal. And we all know that a lot of sixties bands were influenced by the Process Church and other satanic cults a la Manson's Family – Zeppelin took it a bit far, actually, and Robert Plant still blames the death of his infant son on the band's dabblings with the dark side… the Rolling Stones even dedicated a whole album to Satan for chrissakes! ('Their Satanic Majesty's Request' (1967) – with 'Like a Rainbow' on it – great tune). BUT I NEVER saw any Satanic messages on any vinyl released in the last 20 years, I guess because cults became less 'trendy' among those loser hippies. You can put the satanic messages like 'do what thou wilt' (Crowley) down to trendy satanic furvour among acid-drenched hippies from Frisco predominantly in the sixties and seventies.