Secret Messages (Electric Light Orchestra) Easter Egg - Secret Messages

You'd better brace yourselves for one huge Easter Egg...

During 1982, Electric Light Orchestra recorded a double concept album which was to include various backwards and hidden messages in response to reports at the time of music carrying backwards messages of an evil nature. The album, 'Secret Messages', was released in 1983 as a single album because the record company felt it would be too expensive to fund a double record. Although I can not be sure of the secret messages in the original (and exceptionally rare) double album, here is a list of known hidden messages in the more common single album version:

Track 1- The intro is a reversed message which says "welcome to the show, come again"!

Track 2- There is a sample of a barking dog and breaking glass played backwards before the first chorus of this song.

Track 3- A sample is looped at the end of the song, and it sounds like somebody shouting the word "work"!

Track 4- No known messages for this song.

Track 5- Lots of reversed voices and noises- try and make sense of this, because I cure can't!

Track 6- There is a sample of a barking dog in this song (just after the first chorus). Also, the intro to this song has a conversation recorded in the studio by the band which goes something like this:

Person #1 - Is this on?
Person #2 - Kelly's not on! Where's he gone?
Person #1 - OK, after four... FOUR!

The conversation is between ELO members Jeff Lynne and Kelly Groucutt. The "where's he gone?" message is very ironic, because a few months after the release of this album Kelly Groucutt left the band, blaming internal differences for his decision.

Track 7- The noises at the start were recorded in a street in Holland outside the recording studio where the album was produced. If you play the intro backwards you can hear somebody saying "it's a classic, it's the truth".

Track 8- The intro is similar to the previous track, but with a few noises missing.

Track 9- No known messages for this song.

Track 10- No known messages for this song.

Track 11- At the beginning of the song is a quiet reversed voice saying "thank you for listening". The messages at the end are the same as those at the beginning of the album, only reversed.

The album artwork also carries many hidden messages. First of all, the house in the right side of the front cover has the four members of the band looking out of the windows. Also, the house number is 86- the same year that the band split up (co-incidence?)! The angel in the middle of the picture is holding the band's logo. As for the back cover, if you re-arrange the letters on the art labels you can make up the names of all four band members (Jeff Lynne, Kelly Groucutt, Richard Tandy and Bev Bevan). Additionally, earlier copies of this album also included a spoof warning sticker which includes the message "this recording contains secret backwards messages". In the inner page of the booklet there is a Morse Code message which reads ELO! According to the band, there was another message included on the album which went something like "plant a tree and have a happy year"! This message has not yet been found on the single version of the album, and it is likely that it was included on one of the songs that was taken from the double album. Finally, the song 'Hello My Old Friend' (a previously unreleased out-take from the album) includes several backwards messages. The only thing I can be sure of is that there is a reversed sample of some children singing nursery rhymes in the last part of the song. Also, the song 'Beatles Forever' (another previously unreleased out-take from the album) had lyrics made up from the lyrics of Beatles songs!

Now that's some Easter Egg, and the impressive thing is that nearly every ELO album had its own- collect the whole set!