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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Joe Walsh sneaked hidden messages via Morse Code into a couple of his songs.

Joe Walsh is certainly one of the more interesting figures in rock ‘n’ roll.

In fact, he’s often referred to as the Clown Prince Of Rock.

One of his lesser known interests, though, is amateur radio. Walsh is involved with fostering amateur radio enthusiasm in schools, and helps out with the American Radio Relay League with charity auctions and such.

On two of his albums, Walsh actually used Morse code (a staple of the amateur radio set) to put hidden messages into two songs.

The first time came on his 1972 album, Barnstorm.

It was on the song “Register and Vote,” and that’s what the message was.

In 1980, Walsh had a joke campaign for the U.S. President (even though he was not yet 35 years of age) where one of his promises was that he’d make “Life’s Been Good to Me” the national anthem.

He continued the joke in 1992 (this time for the Vice-Presidency) and included a new song on his 1992 album Songs for a Dying Planet…

titled “Register and Vote For Me.”

Once again, he added a hidden message through Morse code – the same “Register and vote for me.”

The legend is..

STATUS: True

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future urban legends columns! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com