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As we all know rock and roll is made by Satanists, intent on hiding subversive messages in their
devil music.
But what if I told you that all musicians are in fact colossal nerds, and all those
subversive messages are in Morse Code?
[Rush "YYZ" plays]
Morse Code was first developed in 1836, the creation of numerous minds beyond just namesake
and cool haircut Samuel Morse.
It's cemented its value during the Second World War as a method of radio communication,
and remained the maritime emergency distress standard until 1999.
[Abba "SOS" plays]
SOS, which to be clear is just a meaningless string of letters and not actually an acronym,
is the most recognizable piece of the code which mixes dots and dashes and can be understood
both audible and visually.
Like when Katy Perry used it to announce a new record.
[Katy Perry "Roar" plays]
Since its completion in 1956, the light at the top of LA's iconic Capitol Records building
has been blinking out "HOLLYWOOD."
["The light on the top was in Morse Code spelling out Hollywood. In fact I think Mrs. Morse
threw the switch. Originally I assumed the light was required for aircraft, and so they
decided, 'oh let's make it spell out Hollywood.'"]
But a month before the official announcement of Katy Perry's Prism it started blinking
out the album's title and release date.
No one noticed.
And that lead Carson Daly to call Katy Perry a "sneaky genius!"
[The Killers "Shot At The Night" plays]
The Killers pulled a similar stunt in order to promote their recent greatest hits collection
using Morse code in a tweet to promote the name of their new single, "Shot At The Night."
Not as committed as Katy Perry,
and way less committed than Rush, who converted an airport code into 5/4 time.
["They had tuned in the identifier for Toronto airport, which is YYZ, so it's that dah-dah-dah-dah-dah."]
[Rush "YYZ" plays]
["Neil and Ged were in the back and I said, 'That's a really cool rhythm in that identifier.'
And you could see YYZ on the radio tuned in. Uh, and that's how that whole beginning part
came about. To play the Morse code of YYZ, and it uh, it's always about coming home."]
Other artists have sought more subtle Morse integrations into their compositions.
Like Muse, who used the hand claps in "Starlight," a song about black holes to supposedly spell
out....
***.
[Muse "Starlight" plays]
That is unconfirmed, but believe wholeheartedly by many fans and included on their Wiki.
Here is one that is confirmed by the band.
"Dream Theatre" tapping out 'eat my *** and balls.'
[Muse "Dream Theatre" plays]
Mike Oldfield, who single-handedly turned *** Records into a profitable enterprise
with Tubular Bells in 1973, used Morse code to indicate his displeasure with his record
label in 1990.
[Mike Oldfield "Armorak" plays]
Buried 48 minutes into an album of continuous music, "*** off, R.B." - directed at ***
Records impresario Richard Branson
was creative a use of dots and dashes as any Dream Theatre ***-eating.
One of the most creative uses of Morse code in music comes maybe not surprisingly from
those loveable Germans Kraftwerk.
[Kraftwerk "Radioactivity" plays]
More than a curious rhythmic foundation, the use of Morse code in Radioactivity plays on
its central lyrical themes.
It's a song about the fear of nuclear fallout that uses the language most closely associated
with disaster.
[Kraftwerk "Radioactivity" plays]
While it's no longer a licensing requirement for captains or pilots or anyone
the open book secret and natural rhythms of Morse code means that we're probably going
to be hearing it in our record collections well into the future.
[Rush "YYZ" plays]
Have you guys ever used Morsecloud? There's a link in the description but basically it's
a website that let's you input text and then outputs the result in Morse code and uploads
it to Soundcloud.
So please mess around with it and share the results in the comments.
And let us know if you even think Morse code is going to be around in the next 10 years.
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button to hear Toto's "Africa" rendered in Morse code.