Solution to Evan Birnholz’s August 15 Post Magazine crossword, “Backtrack”

This puzzle started from the simpler concept of just spelling a random assortment of popular songs backward in longer phrases. Then I remembered that there are some rock songs that supposedly featured hidden messages when you play them backward; as I learned while writing the puzzle, this is a technique known as “backmasking.” I think “TURN ME ON, DEAD MAN” is just a misinterpreted series of random sounds rather than something the Beatles intended, but it’s fascinating how that phrase sparked a widespread rumor that’s had real staying power in pop culture memory. Either way, I thought it made for a neat meta-adjacent answer since it contains the word “turn,” a classic signal in puzzles to spell words in reverse.