VaultCurator said:

Hi Miitch,
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I can't remember which book I read it in (they all blur into one after a while), but I remember reading that Prince intended for that segment to be a response to the claims that satanic messages can be found by playing rock records backwards.
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There was a bit of a Satanic panic in the early 80s when it came to rock music. One of the most famous examples being the claim that if you play Led Zeppelins 'Stairway to Heaven' backwards the lyrics sound like "Here's to my sweet Satan". It wasn't a deliberate secret message as was Darling Nikki, but it the lyrics coincidently sounded like this. This inspired Prince to create a backwards message for God.

Christian rock band Petra did a similar thing a couple of years before Prince's effort. At the beginning of a track you hear just a garbled message. When you play it backwards, it says, "What are you looking for the devil for, when you oughta be looking for the Lord."

Pink Floyd fucked w/ fans when they buried a message that say fan mail or letters to Pink could be "sent to Pink, care of the funny farm...", but with no clear address after. I love that rock bands basically trolled every tele-evangelist and preacher who got on that bandwagon. Even the church I was raised in had a whole backwards masking thing, including extensive examination of "Stairway to Heaven" and "Black Dog." Some guy named Mike Donovan did the "talk." The church itself later did its own attack on rock music (blasting "DMSR" and "Let's Pretend We're Married" over the amazing sound system in the church) saying "notice the long beat at the beginning, it's the beat that gets them," passing around the sleeve of 1999, and even attacking folks like Amy Grant, Petra, and Stryper.

Satanic Panic is the perfect way to summarize it.

Miitch said:

Well, if you look at it one way, at least they played Prince for y'all.

Oh trust, I was on the back row loving it. The church had just replaced and upgraded the audio system in the church. It was fantastic. They put on "Let's Pretend We're Married" and "DMSR" and I was probably the only one in there bopping their head and singing along, when they were trying to edit out the word "ball" in LPWM. It was all just so insane back then.

VaultCurator said:

JorisE73 said:

You shouldn't assume.
I would guess the average Prince fan would have at least checked the Purple Rain lyrics sheet or CD booklet once when listening to the album. But I guess you didn't.
These 'lyrics' have been printed on the lyric sheet/CD booklet for Darling Nikki since 1984.

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A touch harsh. It is the age of streaming and digital media. Maybe Miitch hasn't got the CD booklet?

Get with the program. That's not how it works here. Someone asks a question or starts a debate then some super-fan, who relishes such moments, shoots them down.

dodger said: