Talk:Phonetic reversal

Questionable and confusing statement
"This is because pronunciation in speech cause a reversed diphthong to sound different in either direction, or differently emphasize a consonant depending on where it lies in a word, hence creating an imperfect reversal." I have several issues with this statement, not least of which is the poor English ("...pronunciation... cause[s]... a reversed diphthong... [to?] emphasize[s?] a consonant..." and "...in either direction..." [=in the two directions]). The subordinate clause beginning "or differently emphasize" could be interpreted as attaching to either "because pronunciation in speech..." or "cause[s] a reversed diphthong to..."; hence the question marks. Worse, though, is the apparent claim that pronunciation causes all these things. No it doesn't: the intrinsic nature of sound causes these phenomena, pronunciation merely modifies the result. Finally, why is the resulting reversal "imperfect": surely, it merely is what it is? I will try to find a way of clarifying (and verifying) all of this. Jubilee♫ clipman 15:24, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Confusion with backmasking
Most of the examples are actually backmasking. Specifically, the "Number Nine"/"Turn me on dead man" and the various sung-backwards-and-then-played-backwards lyrics. These should be removed or moved over to backmasking. Jubilee♫ clipman 15:45, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

None of the following appear to be phonetic reversal:


 * The Paul is dead urban legend arose when DJ Russ Gibb broadcasted part of The 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
 * For the Radiohead 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.Victor Wooten - "Pretty Little Lady"
 * "Silly Boys", a song on Klaatu's 1978 Sir Army Suit album, was recorded entirely as phonetic reversal of the lyrics.
 * Jeroen Offerman memorized the vocals to "Stairway to Heaven" backwards and videotaped himself singing them in time to the reversed music in front of St. 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".
 * 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 (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 of Siouxsie & 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.
 * The BBC Radiophonic Workshop based the audio backing for a science fiction play on reversed voices.

The Instrumental reversal section is about backmasking:

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". 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. A few of the phonetic reversal examples above also employ reversed instrumentals.

Paul Simon also used a bass guitar solo looped in reverse in his song "You can call me Al".

All of these examples have been moved here for discussion. Even some of those left seem spurious. Jubilee♫ clipman 16:13, 17 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, I've reviewed the Instrumental reversal section and now realise that it goes further than mere backmasking. The method employed is related to phonic reversal but actually employs a musical technique called retrograde.  These examples belong there (though that article requires cleanup, too).  Jubilee♫ clipman  16:48, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

yak bak
I was reading through this article and those like it(phonetic palindrome, backmasking) and remembered playing with a yak bakwards several years ago. Looking at the yak bak article, it needs more links to it, so I figure this is a good page to start. Hoping jubilee has this page watched, because I don't have the greatest understanding of the differences between the related articles, and he/she seems to be taking care of this one. If you don't know what it is, it's a handheld device that records a few seconds of sound, and allows it to be played back, forwards or backwards. Lime in the Coconut  15:54, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Examples
The points listed under "Examples" are not examples but references. 178.197.216.149 (talk) 05:03, 27 June 2022 (UTC)