10 Creepy Myths Surrounding Popular Songs
4. Judas Priest's "Subliminal Messages"
The history of rock and roll is full of legal battles between hard-hitting guitar bands and concerned parent activist groups. If it’s not sex, drugs and swearing, it’s the idea that music could somehow convince young people to take a life getting people riled up. It was the latter controversy that saw Birmingham metallers Judas Priest landed in hot water.
Specifically, their song ‘Better By You, Better Than Me’ was linked to the 1985 suicide attempts of James Vance and Ray Belknap. The 19 year old Belknap died of a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head, while 20 year old Vance survived similar wounds, only to die three years later from a follow up attempt.
Vance’s parents accused Judas Priest of including subliminal messages in the song, specifically the words “do it”, and they blamed the band for commanding their son to attempt suicide.
The case was eventually dismissed due to its inherent ridiculousness – the court struggled to find any such messages (if you reverse the song, it’s possible to hear something that sounds a little like “do it”, but it’s purely coincidental) or link the song to the boys’ suicide attempts.
Besides, if just saying “do it” sans context was enough to incite suicide, Shia LaBeouf would be the most prolific serial killer in the world.