When I'm in my car alone I'm listening to music. I usually listen to the 60s or 70s station on Sirius/XM. Sometimes I listen to a Spotify playlist. Other times, like today, I take along one of my favorite CDs. That CD is usually music from the 60s or 70s or maybe from the early to mid 1900s in the form of Schoenberg, Respighi, Bartok, or Bernstein.
Today I chose my favorite The Byrds' CD Free Flyte. When I listen to music I love, I not only enjoy the music itself, but I let it take me wherever it wants to take me. Free Flyte took me to somewhere I'd never been before.
When my son was about twelve years old I was telling him about 45 rpm records. I was explaining how, back in the day, I bought the record for one particular song, but that very often I liked the "flip side" as well or better. I explained that it was like a bonus to the song I bought. "The flip side?" "Yes, it's the song on the back side of the record. Just flip it over and play it." "Do you mean there was music on both sides of the record?" "Yes indeed there was."
During the late 60s, 70s and early 80s a huge controversy arose over the technique of "backmasking". Backmasking involved messages that were deliberately encoded into music. Although many bands experimented with backmasking, The Beatles were particularly adept at using this recording technique. When the music was played forward in a normal way these sounds were unintelligible. But when played backwards, a clear message could be heard. This was accomplished by disengaging the turntable and turning it backwards or playing a reel-to-reel tape backwards. The concern was that Satanic messages were being written into the music and that the subliminal messages, even when played forward, could be decoded by the human brain. These concerns were not only shared by Christian leaders, but found their way into several state legislatures as well. Although the backmasking was real and an intentional process, most believe that it was done for its entertainment value and was not an attempt to pollute young minds. With the advent of CDs the concerns about backmasking mostly went away.
But this afternoon I was thinking about the flip side and backmasking taken together. Back in the late 60s I bought the 45 rpm of The Byrds' "Turn, Turn, Turn". The flip side was"Eight Miles High", a song that was to become a favorite. On Free Flyte, the second track is "Turn, Turn, Turn" and the third is "Eight Miles High". So there they are back-to-back after all these years. But then I had the ah hah ! What if our brains can backmask our psyches and emotions? What if while one emotion is running forward, the flip side is running simultaneously? What if when we are experiencing a negative emotion, the positive emotion is running in the background and all we have to do is turn it on? We don't have to do anything to feel better but play the flip side. Don't bother to flip the record, it's already playing.
If we're feeling angry, the flip side is delight. We don't have to discard our anger and find the delight, the delight is readily available. When we're feeling fear, the flip side is courage. When we're feeling hate, the flip side is kindness. When we're wanting revenge, the flip side is forgiveness. There is no easy fix for depression, as it is extremely complex and difficult to manage. But still the flip side of depression is there. Though the depression is horrible and pervasive, recovery and hope are already available. Therapy and medication have a fighting chance of finding it. FST--Flip Side Therapy.
The fourth track of Free Flyte is "All I Really Want to Do." "I don't want to select you or dissect you or inspect you or reject you. All I really want to do is baby be friends with you." Then the fifth track, "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better," must be the fourth track played backwards, "After what you did I can't stay on. And I'll probably feel a whole lot better when you're gone."
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