12 Computers

I first got the idea that their might be some backwards masking in Elliott Smith's music over a year ago, when the Basement Era Demos first initially leaked. A discussion had been brought up about this possibility on the official Elliott Smith board, and this spurred enough interest in me to go reverse a couple of Elliott's tunes, mostly for the sheer hell of it. Around this time people were still buzzing about the newly leaked demos, so the alternate version of Stickman, with backwards drums and all, was an obvious first choice.

Stickman: "Sit and spin the world on its flipside and I listen BACKWARDS for meanings."  At about 2:19 of the backwards playback, you can very clearly hear: "I was so selfish". I don't doubt the possibility that this could have been done intentionally, I mean he was getting pretty experimental towards the end, but either way, it's very errie to hear considering what happened, well what's BELIEVED to have happened, very little is known for sure yet.

Their is no other hidden backwards masking in the song, nothing even remotely as close to a word. That's why it's even more haunting, when admist all the inaudible backwards garble, comes trough this very clear message.

-gabe