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From: ned@scirtp.UUCP (Ned Robie)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Zappa, Snider, and Denver (!)
Message-ID: <474@scirtp.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Sep-85 19:34:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: scirtp.474
Posted: Fri Sep 27 19:34:36 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Sep-85 01:22:37 EDT
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Organization: SCI Systems, Research Triangle Park, NC
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This hearing was televised on CSPAN.
Some corrections...

> 
>      Here are some excerpts from this week's Broadcasting (23
> September 1985) concerning the Gore hearings in Congress this 
> week. . .
> 
>      According to Broadcasting, Zappa made a remark which prompted

During Zappa's opening statement he managed to get in some digs about
problems facing congress (e.g. tax plan, deficit) and how they are
using issues like this to divert attention from these "real" problems.
It was my impression that this is what insulted Gorton.

> Senator Slade Gorton (R-Washington) to say "I have found your
> statements to be boorish, insensitive, and insulting. You have
> destroyed any credibility with this body."
                                      ^^^^
                                      senator

>      "I was only 16/but that's no excuse/my sister was 32,
>       lovely and loose. My sister never made love to anyone
>       but me/Incest is everything it's said to be.. 
> 
>      {Editor's Note here - My local bullshit detector feels -
>       without hearing the song - that this is probably taken
>       out of context. Having not seen the whole lyrics, I'm
>       not sure, but it is possible ... }

These lyrics are from the song "Sister" on the album "Dirty Mind"
(in my opinion Prince's best album thus far).  They were not taken
out of context.  In the Musician Magazine interview Prince discusses
the family problems he had during his youth and remarks specifically
about his incestuous relationship with his sister.

>      Albert Gore (D-Tenn) and Snider also got into a very heated

It wasn't really heated.

> exchange about the Twisted Sister fan club name, SMFFTS. Snider
> simply told him the truth about what it stood for: "Sick mother
> fucking fans of Twisted Sister." Snider's Christianity was called
> into question on this and other points several times in the
> hearing. 

Snider's Christianity was never called into question.  Snider's the
one who brought up the fact that he's a Christian and that he didn't
think his music was sacrilegious.

>      In terms of actual legislation, I don't think anyone really
> cares.  Both houses of Congress are busy with other stuff, and 
> even things which are reporting out of committee right now 
> favourably are having trouble getting on the docket.  James Exon
> (D-Neb) also questioned having these media events in the first place. 

Not true.  While it is true that Exon questioned the hearing, he also
said that if the record business doesn't do something about the problem
that legislation would do it for them.  Other senators agreed.
This was the scariest thing to come out of this hearing by far!

> 
>      In the Charlotte Obscurer, I read an article about the PMRC
> wanting FOUR stickers : "explicit sexuality" "profanity", 
> "      " (can't remember) and "occult." Does anyone have any
> financial information on the machine-insertable sticker business?
> The sticker business is going to mushroom if every record which
> could be miscontrued as "occult" is going to get a sticker !
> 

The PMRC CLAIMS that they are after labeling OR printing lyrics
so customers know what they are buying.  They said over and over
that they do not want legislation.  Zappa said he is in favor of
printing lyrics but cautioned that it would make records more
expensive (!) because record companies would have to buy publishing
rights to the lyrics.  Zappa is against labeling because:
1) the artist would be labeled, not the product
2) too many records are produced to be fairly labeled
3) since the label would apply to an entire album, songs that
are not explicit on an "x" rated album could suffer in the market.

> David Anthony
> CDE
> DataSpan, Inc.

If you are interested in this issue, I would recommend that you watch
the hearing on CSPAN.  It's informative and unusually entertaining
(for CSPAN, anyway).

-- Ned Robie


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