Click here for more Klaatu stuff - lyrics, chords, TAB, etc...

The Sub-Rosa Subway Morse Code Message

The song Sub-Rosa Subway from Klaatu's debut album included a cryptic message in the coda. The message is in Morse code, and during the "Beatles Rumour" many differing interpretations of the content were offered.

The Morning Sun Spring, 1982 - Issue No. VII published the explanation:

The sample presented here has been heavily filtered to highlight the signal tone. The pitch is around Bb which is a semitone above the key centre of the song and stands out fairly well. The sequence pans across the stereo image twice so this sample has been converted into mono.

The message begins and ends with the separation mark:
dah dit dit dit dah
but includes no punctuation.
Also note that there is no space between each word. This is likely a result of the time compression which occured when the original recording of Dee's slow keying was sped up and added to the song.

Using audio editing software you can view the dit and dah symbols graphically.
Click here for a reference chart.

Clicking on the images will play the relevant audio segment. .mp3 ~40kb
These samples play at 75% of the original speed.

1