Pictured is the fourth side of the two-disc vinyl version of Low’s Things We Lost in the Fire from 2001, an extreme example of a phenomenon that we might call inscribed vinyl.

Usually these inscribed vinyl messages are more discreet. Their size is limited to the “run-off” area after the end of a song, and so they are easily overlooked. According to my Google research, now spanning into its third day, a “matrix number” is usually inscribed here to identify the pressing before the paper label is applied. But sometimes there is a message directed at a wider audience. The earliest such message may have been a charming “Phil loves Ronnie” on one of producer Phil Spector’s early 45s from the 1960s. I don’t know which 45, if it was a Ronnettes 45, or anything more. (OK. This may just be a rumor, but Phil’s been in the news lately so I thought I’d mention it.)

I have more confidence in the following sightings: on the Grateful Dead’s album Anthem of the Sun there is an inscription that reads “The faster we go, the rounder we get,” on their Terrapin Station the question “Where do you keep your stereo, Jer?” and on John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy one can glean the message “one world one people.” (Where is John Lennon now that we really, really need him?)

These inscriptions are not to be confused with “backmasked” messages in the music itself. These are sonic vocal snippits which make no sense until the record is played in reverse and the hidden message is revealed. Some of these are the famously feared “satanic” messages of the 70s and 80s. Unlike inscribed messages, which have yet to be fully studied, these backmasked messages are neatly listed, for our convenience, on one page of the ever-growing and amazingly handy Wikipedia.

Click here, if you think you can handle them.