If you’ve been following Classic Rock on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ClassicRockMag) you might have noticed the following mysterious entry: ‘We are still brooding over that incident the other week when we accused Melanie Safka of being a Satanist…’

The comment even caught the eye of those evil death metal journos on Terrorizer magazine, who demanded to know more.

Well, now the truth can be told.

When Classic Rock’s Geoff Barton recently interviewed Melanie (of Brand New Key fame) to promote her appearance at this August’s Memories Of Woodstock Festival, the conversation took a bizarre turn.

Basically, Barton completely lost the plot, as the following exchange proves:

Barton: We write a lot about heavy metal and hard rock here on Classic Rock magazine. Your song Alexander Beetle was probably the first example of backwards masking, wasn’t it? You know, people go on about there being backwards-masked messages on certain albums…

Melanie: Ha-ha!

Barton: …Making kids kill people. Alexander Beetle was a bit of a pioneer in that respect, wasn’t it? Not in the Satanic element, obviously, but in the technique.

Melanie: I had no idea.

Barton: When the beetle-y sound happens at the beginning of your song, it’s obviously the tape being wound backwards. At least it sounds like it to me.

Melanie: It sounds like what?

Barton: You know, when the song kicks off…

Melanie: Right…

Barton: …And there’s this sort of chirruping beetle sound…

Melanie: Right…

Barton: …That sounds like the tape is being rewound.

Melanie: Oh, no. That’s me.

Barton: Oh, it is you.

Melanie: Yeah… [Makes chirruping beetle sound:] zzee-nabbadoo-nabby-de-zzee-nubbidy-zzee-nabbadoo-zee-nubbidy-zzee! It’s me. Ha-ha! Maybe I have the ability to speak backwards.

Barton: That was amazing, to do the beetle impersonation. That was fantastic.

Melanie: Well, I still do it sometimes.

(Unsurprisingly, the interview ended shortly afterwards.)

* Melanie plays three nights at London’s Jazz Cafe on 29th/30th May and 1st June. For tickets: 08700 603 777 or go to www.seetickets.com