This may sound a weird question to some. But I admit to reversing some of Prince's music using music editing programs.

This may sound weird, but I like some of Prince's music reversed. Prince himself was known for reversing his own songs to fit new tunes.

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

Prince himself was known for reversing his own songs to fit new tunes.

That's nonsense. Prince was known for being a prolific talent in the music industry, challenging record companies, an electric live performer, and an internet pioneer. No one would say, "Oh yeah, Prince is that guy who used to spin his own music backward and write new stuff over it."

Name any relevant examples that are "Oh yeah, that was awesome. People loved that!"

Nope. Not going to ruin any vinyl for that.

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I think the OP meant Prince used the practice in songs...which he did, but not very often...


"Girl" has a backward part that is called "boy" which is similar lyrics as "girl" and the end of "Darling Nikki" as well as backward bits on "Baby I'm a Star" and a segment played during the Purple Rain concerts (heard on the Syracuse show releases on DVD last year)


He also had a segment in the unreleased song "All My Dreams" in which we are instructed to play the record double speed... but most of the lyrics can be understood without.

[Edited 12/25/18 8:19am]

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

This may sound a weird question to some. But I admit to reversing some of Prince's music using music editing programs.

This may sound weird, but I like some of Prince's music reversed. Prince himself was known for reversing his own songs to fit new tunes.

i did when i was young, my aunt who had a stroke had a tape player that had all these extra functions like slow play, fast play, backwards play and I listened to the backwards masking stuff and i also listened to a lot of the other music and music by other artists, i liked it.

PeteSilas said:

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

This may sound a weird question to some. But I admit to reversing some of Prince's music using music editing programs.

This may sound weird, but I like some of Prince's music reversed. Prince himself was known for reversing his own songs to fit new tunes.

i did when i was young, my aunt who had a stroke had a tape player that had all these extra functions like slow play, fast play, backwards play and I listened to the backwards masking stuff and i also listened to a lot of the other music and music by other artists, i liked it.

I had a tape recorder that would record or play in fast-forward or rewind so I used that to play some things backward.

it was nice not to have to fuck around with trying to turn the record backwards and here things clearly. Prince had some brilliant backward masking on Purple Rain, I wonder how he did it, it doesn't sound easy. Not only on Darling Nikki but on baby i'm a star.

recently i reversed shortberry strawcake to hear what the vocals were. you cant really tell what he is singing but you can hear his melody, and the line he was using. nice to demystify some stuff, even if it was just backwards singing.

theres a site that reverses videos so anybody can do it(as long as its on youtube).

spoida said:

recently i reversed shortberry strawcake to hear what the vocals were. you cant really tell what he is singing but you can hear his melody, and the line he was using. nice to demystify some stuff, even if it was just backwards singing.

theres a site that reverses videos so anybody can do it(as long as its on youtube).

in this topic: http://prince.org/msg/7/374615

Efan said posted this:

"Yesterday, I had a dream
I had a dream that love you gave me
You're giving me these.... (Unsure on last word)
Leave me in a fever"

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

This may sound a weird question to some. But I admit to reversing some of Prince's music using music editing programs.

This may sound weird, but I like some of Prince's music reversed. Prince himself was known for reversing his own songs to fit new tunes.

I did it 4 Girl Baby I'm a Star and Shortberry Strawcake

The whole ATWIAD album sounds awesome when played backwards with Audacity.

[Edited 12/27/18 8:16am]

spoida said:

recently i reversed shortberry strawcake to hear what the vocals were. you cant really tell what he is singing but you can hear his melody, and the line he was using.

There have been threads on that here. I think a few folks deciphered a couple of lines, but nothing in full - which I wish we could figure out.

Where is SoftSkarlettLovisa???



I guess they chickened out knowing their claim was utter bullshit.

I have ONLY reversed the backward messages - in

Darling Nikki

Baby I'm A Star



More.. I was told, in the Prince-song Girl there is one as well..?

thedance said:

I have ONLY reversed the backward messages - in

Darling Nikki

Baby I'm A Star



More.. I was told, in the Prince-song Girl there is one as well..?

^ Oh already mentioned above.. ok... silly me..

databank said:

The whole ATWIAD album sounds awesome when played backwards with Audacity.

[Edited 12/27/18 8:16am]

I used to play that one and the Family album on fast

callimnate said:

One that always gets missed is the string outro in Purple Rain. The bit that’s played at the end of PR while the crowd cheers. Play it backwards from the end and you’ll see that it’s exactly the same as when played normally. Same notes, same sequence.

you're absolutely right, it's either the same or very close, i took the time to figure out all the chords, it cycles through a couple times. I've been working on purple rain for a couple years, i never seem to have the time to get it performance ready and i don't want to do a hachneyed version. also, i doubt if he composed that, i don't know who did.

[Edited 12/27/18 14:46pm]

PeteSilas said:

callimnate said:

PeteSilas said:

you're absolutely right, it's either the same or very close, i took the time to figure out all the chords, it cycles through a couple times. I've been working on purple rain for a couple years, i never seem to have the time to get it performance ready and i don't want to do a hachneyed version. also, i doubt if he composed that, i don't know who did.

[Edited 12/27/18 14:46pm]

I looked around once to see if it was the work of Clare Fisher but never found anything. Maybe it was P!?

he didn't start working with fischer until parade but i always figured maybe the actual musicians who played it just put in what they thought fit, novi novog i think was one of their names. It's possible Prince composed it but it's more likely it was a collaborative thing which he did a lot of for that project. Prince used certain chords and the chords aren't like what he usually composed.

databank said:

The whole ATWIAD album sounds awesome when played backwards with Audacity.

You've listen to the whole album backwards? or are you being sarcastic

FragileUndertow said:

databank said:

The whole ATWIAD album sounds awesome when played backwards with Audacity.

You've listen to the whole album backwards? or are you being sarcastic

Once I was really drunk and I listened to half of it backwards because of someone writing something on the Org, I can't remember what prtompted me to do it.

It made for an... interesting experimental music listening experience.

So I was kind of being sarcastic because I don't have a habit of listening to music backwards, but I really did it once, and enjoyed it when I did

databank said:

No, I haven't.

Which is odd - I've definitely mangled his stuff with pitchshifters, ring modulators and so on. I also enjoyed the "artsy" recording of "Let's Go Crazy" by that one guy on the Internet that had lit the original vinyl on fire and recorded the results.

Prince played around a lot with backwards stuff. The "crying" in the Purple Rain movie, the many backwards things, Girl, indeed. But he used "Paisley Park" for a long time. Take the opening of the long version and reverse it: "Love is here" (I don't understand how it works, but it is clearly there)

.

The song Paisley Park is also more or less written backwards, the melody can be reversed without it changing.

.

As to playing his music backwards... I think that after Lovesexy he may have felt it was of the devil or something silly like that, it seemed to have disappeared since then (somebody show me wrong please), but from the moment he had his own studio (end of the Prince era) he did a lot of playing around with stuff, including reversing things. The main era for that would be 1980-1988, which oddly seems to overlap with a somewhat popular era in his music...

mediumdry said:

Prince played around a lot with backwards stuff. The "crying" in the Purple Rain movie, the many backwards things, Girl, indeed. But he used "Paisley Park" for a long time. Take the opening of the long version and reverse it: "Love is here" (I don't understand how it works, but it is clearly there)

.

The song Paisley Park is also more or less written backwards, the melody can be reversed without it changing.

.

As to playing his music backwards... I think that after Lovesexy he may have felt it was of the devil or something silly like that, it seemed to have disappeared since then (somebody show me wrong please), but from the moment he had his own studio (end of the Prince era) he did a lot of playing around with stuff, including reversing things. The main era for that would be 1980-1988, which oddly seems to overlap with a somewhat popular era in his music...

Uhm, no. The basic melody line has the same notes going up and down, but it resolves in notes that aren't present in the first notes of the melody line. It can't be reversed.

I read that "irresistible bitch" has a little bit of it too. Just 4 or 5 words... and not all that easy to hear.