<
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/dee-snider-on-pmrc-hearing-i-was-a-public-enemy-71205/>
"Twisted Sister were riding high in 1985 when they got wind that a committee
calling itself the Parents Music Resource Center had singled them out, along
with a handful of other artists, for ostensibly making obscene music. The
previous year, the mascara’d headbangers had put out
Stay Hungry, an album
that had quickly gone double-platinum on the strength of anthems like “I Wanna
Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” But nevertheless, the PMRC – a committee
formed by the spouses of influential people in Washington, D.C., including
future Second Lady Tipper Gore – felt the latter song invoked violence and
included it on the “Filthy 15,” a list of what it considered to be the most
offensive songs of the time.
Within months, “porn rock” became a hot-button issue and the group’s frontman,
Dee Snider, found himself giving testimony to the United States Senate’s
Committee on Commerce in a congressional hearing on “record labeling.” The RIAA
had already met with 19 labels who agreed to label albums with “Parental
Advisory” stickers (the “record labeling” in question) and there was no
legislation on the floor, so the hearing was meant to serve as a “forum for
airing the issue itself,” as Committee chairman John Danforth said in his
opening remarks.
For Snider, it was a chance to show the world that he was not the dumb,
aggressive metalhead palooka he felt the PMRC thought he was. As footage of his
testimony shows, the senators present – including Al Gore – were not ready for
him. “They really wanted [Mötley Crüe singer] Vince Neil,” Snider tells
Rolling Stone. “Vince is not very articulate. He actually is a life-styler,
so he probably would have been half in the bag going in there. They would have
smacked him around, because he’s incapable of fighting at the level. As far as
going and having an intellectual debate on something, he’d be pretty
defenseless.” Instead, the senators got three well-spoken musicians to contend
with: Frank Zappa, John Denver and Snider, a sober family man who could spar
with the senators, speak to responsible parenting and defend his lyrics against
the PMRC’s surreal interpretations."
Via Esther Schindler, who wrote "Amazing interview."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
