Backwards Singing

In this video some guy, who calls himself One Man Sho, sings gibberish while performing various actions such as knocking over wooden blocks and drinking a glass of orange soda. Then the video plays in reverse to reveal that he was actually singing the national anthem backwards.

It would be possible to fake this. For instance, you could dub over the voice, though I imagine it would be a technical challenge to match the dubbed voice to the movement of his lips. Or you could sing gibberish and then dub over the reversed portion of the video. So I downloaded the video to check that the second half really is the first half played in reverse. It is.

So I'm concluding that the video is real. This guy actually memorized how to sing the national anthem backwards. An impressive, but odd talent.

Music Photos

Posted on Fri Feb 01, 2008



Comments

It's fun to do things like learn to say your name backwards, then reverse it and listen to it. It'll sound like you, but be off, in a creepy way.
Posted by Tommy  on  Fri Feb 01, 2008  at  10:14 AM
Uh, that's what he's doing, Tommy.

The second half is completely unintelligible noise to me, but then I don't know the American national anthem.
Posted by Mut  on  Fri Feb 01, 2008  at  11:14 AM
Actually you can record it normally then reverse it then memorize the reversed one. It is way easier that way.
Posted by AAB  on  Fri Feb 01, 2008  at  04:14 PM
Of course, he could also be using a reversed clock and singing it normally then putting the reversed part first to simulate singing backwards. I don't know how hard it would be to do, but it might be easier than memorizing the anthem backwards.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Fri Feb 01, 2008  at  04:53 PM
In the 70s there were two brothers constantly @ Brazilian TV, they appear talking to each other backwards
Posted by Jr  on  Fri Feb 01, 2008  at  05:15 PM
Seems like an awful lot of work to go through if he was gonna fake it... Besides, the forward version is querky enough be believable... I say without question, "it is real".
Posted by Christopher  on  Fri Feb 01, 2008  at  06:40 PM
When I was younger, the Dr. Demento Show played a recording of some loon who sang Frank Sinatra songs backwards and then reversed them. It was kinda interesting the first time I heard it.
Posted by Mark  on  Fri Feb 01, 2008  at  09:37 PM
There's a guy in Australia who can say (almost) any five word sentence backwards. I heard him on a science show. He can pronounce the syllables a few seconds after hearing the phrase. He couldn't do one phrase he heard, but then called back the next week with the correct backwards phrase. He had originally called to ask how he could do this, but there was no answer.
Posted by leshka  on  Fri Feb 01, 2008  at  10:56 PM
W. A. Mozart was known to be able to speak fluently backwards, and I have seen some people who can do it rather effortlessly.
So, I am not too surprised that anyone could sing the American anthem, or any song for that matters, backwards.
Posted by aristocles  on  Sat Feb 02, 2008  at  03:04 AM
This is my cousin. Doesn't she look almost exactly like Laura Palmer?
Posted by outeast  on  Mon Feb 04, 2008  at  01:54 AM
---
W. A. Mozart was known to be able to speak fluently backwards, and I have seen some people who can do it rather effortlessly.
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Investigation into the alleged 'backwards masking' of rock songs have shown that regular speech reversed phonetically "says" something completely different. That's how the Beatles singing "Number Nine" becomes "turn me on, dead man" and Queen's "another one bites the dust" becomes "its fun to smoke marijuana". Of course intentional backwards masking is BS.

So, I think Mozart may have been able to say words backwards (as depicted in 'Amadeus'), but speaking fluently backwards (as in it would sound correct forwards) would mean he'd be speaking gibberish as this guy is doing.

So I would say the video is legit. And alot of work to determine the gibberish that phonetically becomes understandable as the lyrics when reversed.
Posted by stopeatingmysesamecake  on  Wed Feb 06, 2008  at  10:31 AM
I remember seeing a video awhile back of a guy doing this with Stairway to Heaven. I wonder if it is the same guy.

Anyways, I knew a girl once who could say a sentence and then repeat it back immediately backwards. She said she's been practicing since she was a child.
Posted by Razela  on  Sat Feb 09, 2008  at  12:08 PM
It is way easier that way.
Posted by Sinatra  on  Wed Jun 18, 2008  at  08:04 AM
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