Latest / Eye Opener Society / “The Day Dee Snider Faced the U.S. Senate: PMRC, Censorship & the Birth of Parental Advisory”

Transcript

“The Day Dee Snider Faced the U.S. Senate: PMRC, Censorship & the Birth of Parental Advisory” · Eye Opener Society

• 0:02
  Hey everyone welcome back to eye opener society
• 0:05
  thank you for tuning into this new episode with this
• 0:08
  new little format thing that i'm just kind of throwing out
• 0:11
  there for everybody uh we still have obviously our regular monday episodes uh
• 0:16
  we still have our wednesday night meditation episodes we still have the short
• 0:20
  attention span podcast uh but i'm doing this as a test run and a test run only
• 0:27
  just to see if it works out good because I'm trying to fill,
• 0:31
  you know, as much time as I can,
• 0:34
  getting ready for when I do retire and we turn Eye Opener Society into internet
• 0:39
  radio and I got to fill space.
• 0:41
  So I'm thinking about story time and I want to go completely outside of what
• 0:47
  Eye Opener Society is about with this.
• 0:49
  So we're not going to talk about spirituality or, you know, religion or,
• 0:53
  you know, meditation or anything like that.
• 0:56
  I'm just going to pick something kind of random and just sit back and do a story styled podcast for you.
• 1:05
  And if it catches on, then, you know, maybe the topics will change and whatnot.
• 1:11
  But the whole idea came because it is in that, you know, we're getting onto
• 1:15
  this season now with Thanksgiving, Christmas coming up.
• 1:20
  It's colder depending where you are. I guess some people are lucky they're not
• 1:23
  in a colder climate, but I'm in a colder climate.
• 1:26
  You want to get yourself more cozy. And that's what I thought about getting
• 1:29
  yourself cozy, sitting around and telling a story.
• 1:34
  And I don't mind telling personal stories. And this is kind of personal in a
• 1:39
  little strange way, but we'll get into it a little bit more.
• 1:43
  But I'm looking to do these things, like I said, for you, the audience,
• 1:47
  something different to listen to.
• 1:50
  If you just want to throw something on, you know, to occupy some time so you
• 1:54
  can relax. That's what this is going to be about.
• 1:57
  So without further ado, here is the storytelling time.
• 2:03
  So this goes back to my childhood, and it's kind of relating because I always
• 2:10
  was, and I still am a very big music fanatic,
• 2:18
  and I'm still into the old 80s, rock, glam rock,
• 2:23
  hard rock, heavy metal, always have been, and even more so now.
• 2:28
  And now I've just gone more hardcore and I listen to some very hardcore music,
• 2:33
  but I also change it up because if we remember, if you are in the age range that I am,
• 2:39
  when you're growing up in the 80s, you didn't really need a playlist that made any sense.
• 2:46
  You could be into the hardcore heavy metal stuff But you could still have country
• 2:52
  music in there And no one really judged you I think the gatekeeping was.
• 2:58
  Down very much back in the 80s. Unlike now, gatekeeping is prevailing everywhere.
• 3:05
  I know I did a podcast on it as far as spirituality and spiritual gatekeepers.
• 3:10
  But now, especially now, with the advent of social media and all,
• 3:15
  the amount of gatekeeping in music is completely sickening.
• 3:22
  And I think I stopped listening to a lot of
• 3:25
  newer music and I just stick to the older stuff
• 3:28
  you know there's still some new stuff that i do like and i really get
• 3:30
  into but yeah because of the gatekeeping and
• 3:34
  you're not a true heavy metal fan if you're listening to
• 3:36
  jazz you know and you know that's such nonsense because
• 3:39
  i do i listen to jazz i listen to
• 3:42
  uh you know meditation just music i
• 3:46
  get into all that stuff but yeah if i was to say you
• 3:50
  know if i was going to be stuck on some island somewhere now i want rock
• 3:53
  i want anything hardcore something that
• 3:56
  gets your blood boiling and moving that's the kind of stuff that I
• 3:59
  like and that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about but back
• 4:02
  in the 80s it was actually quite tame compared to
• 4:05
  what's going on today with music and I'm talking about lyrics and all that and
• 4:11
  as we all know here on this show there is zero censorship I don't care you know
• 4:15
  about foul language I think there's nothing wrong with it it's just the way we speak and.
• 4:23
  With music, it's now art. And I don't care.
• 4:27
  There are some songs and definitely certain types of music and certain genres
• 4:33
  that really do use profanity where it's just prevailing.
• 4:41
  And the thing is, there's an on-off button. There's a skip feature on any kind of player.
• 4:49
  Hit the off button. If you don't like it, you could just turn it off.
• 4:54
  And that's what I do. If I don't like a song, if I don't like a band, skip next one.
• 5:00
  Or I just, you know, you can mute it, you can fast forward it,
• 5:03
  whatever it is you have to do.
• 5:06
  And that's why I am so stuck and hung up on our freedom of speech because it's artistic.
• 5:15
  The way we create things are very words-
• 5:19
  our art their expression and when musicians use
• 5:23
  it it's even more so it's even more powerful so
• 5:26
  we really do lose a
• 5:29
  lot when we start censoring stuff and i've noticed now especially on youtube
• 5:34
  and all if you mentioned the word drugs death kill anything like that even in
• 5:39
  a context it's being censored out and it's that is so weird to me you know because
• 5:47
  we're using these keywords but,
• 5:49
  you know, it's still speech.
• 5:51
  And in context, if you're listening to it, it's not, you know, I don't know.
• 5:58
  I don't want to go into a whole tangent because I really want to get to the
• 6:01
  story, but so let's set it up. All right.
• 6:04
  I do have some notes, uh, just to keep this here story going.
• 6:09
  And of course my old brain don't remember too much, but this goes back to 1985.
• 6:15
  I was 15. that was
• 6:18
  a little revealing right there but yeah i was 15 years old
• 6:21
  now 14 15 years old middle school
• 6:24
  oh man heavy metal
• 6:27
  was the thing i mean we had judas priest iron
• 6:30
  maiden ozzy osborne uh you know twisted sister and speaking of twisted sister
• 6:35
  twisted sister had an album out the one that went mainstream and yet they had
• 6:41
  a couple of albums out prior to that that were actually really good But the
• 6:46
  mainstream one that made them famous The Stay Hungry album.
• 6:50
  And it was a lot of anthem rock And when I listen to that album now Oh,
• 6:57
  it's nothing There's really nothing on there Lyric-wise That would make you
• 7:02
  go, you know Clutching your pearls,
• 7:06
  There was one song on that album SMF You know, Sick Motherfucker might be what
• 7:12
  it was But, you know, in their wisdom, they said it's serious music fanatic.
• 7:19
  So you could use, you know, any analogy you want with that, but that was probably
• 7:25
  the strongest thing on there. And what is even in the words?
• 7:28
  There was no word saying sick motherfucker. It was just S M F.
• 7:33
  That was it. So really the, the album cover was really crazy.
• 7:38
  You know, it was Twisted Sister. I mean, Twisted Sister in there,
• 7:41
  whole transvestite type of getup.
• 7:43
  And he was sitting, you know, in this kind of, you know, concrete studio.
• 7:49
  Gnawing on this huge animal bone and over the top stuff like most imagery on album covers are.
• 7:58
  And of course me as a
• 8:01
  15 you know old kid made me
• 8:05
  want to go out and buy that because of that I was like
• 8:08
  wow this is something I want to listen to and yeah
• 8:12
  so I had that album and there was a lot of other albums out that
• 8:15
  were going through a lot of nonsense because this was 1985 85 uh
• 8:19
  we had some i don't
• 8:21
  know there was a the whole satanic panic
• 8:25
  and all that other nonsense basically kids just
• 8:28
  being stupid like they do now setting trends
• 8:31
  that are absolutely stupid you know uh
• 8:34
  but i think the over policing
• 8:38
  from especially from government stay
• 8:42
  the hell out of what we listen to it's just music just listen that's all that's
• 8:46
  all you know you listen to your music we listen to our music and we were kids
• 8:50
  man we were rocking out to this stuff you know it was nothing more than us just
• 8:54
  banging our heads listening to this cool music thinking we were the coolest
• 8:58
  people on the planet you know.
• 9:01
  And the whole thing was set up by this thing, the PMRC Hearings,
• 9:09
  which is the Parents Music Resource Center.
• 9:14
  This was founded in 1985.
• 9:17
  It was by Tipper Gore and some of the other political spouses.
• 9:21
  Tipper Gore, obviously married to Al Gore at that time.
• 9:25
  I don't know if they still are. Who knows?
• 9:28
  These people just got together and wanting to do something. And it's always
• 9:32
  in the name of safety. It's always in the name of help.
• 9:36
  But it doesn't. This is taking away freedoms.
• 9:40
  And what they wanted to propose was that on any record album that they deemed
• 9:46
  explicit, they were going to slap these ratings on them, these big stickers,
• 9:52
  warning, you know, explicit content.
• 9:55
  Obviously, you know the outcome of that because, you know, if we look at what's
• 9:58
  going on today, but we'll get to that.
• 10:00
  So yeah This is 1985 again They just and their whole idea They wanted to warn
• 10:06
  parents about explicit Music but you know what here's the thing,
• 10:09
  Parents were aware of the music I mean Christ I was blasting it 24 Hours in
• 10:14
  my apartment you know Everybody heard it everybody knew what the lyrics Were
• 10:18
  everybody knew what type of music It was so that's why It was so frustrating
• 10:23
  to have These people you know just Because they're you know politically connected And all that.
• 10:30
  They wanted to warn parents And honestly, if parents are being parents They
• 10:36
  don't need to be warned They already know what's going on So, Dee Snider, right?
• 10:43
  He's a lead vocalist of Twisted Sister Still active today Love him,
• 10:48
  hate him, whatever I know he's a little bit outspoken But the man is brilliant,
• 10:53
  You know, he really knows how to conduct himself business-wise And irregardless...
• 11:01
  Twisted Sister has always been that one band that they never used drugs and
• 11:07
  never used alcohol or anything like that.
• 11:09
  They were just people hardcore into the music that they had,
• 11:12
  trying to get it out there to the masses. And it took so long,
• 11:15
  and it got that one album out there. So that's Dee Snider.
• 11:18
  He came in here, and he wanted to come into this hearing.
• 11:26
  So the hearing starts, right?
• 11:29
  It's a whole hearing on this here.
• 11:32
  Ratings and warning parents and tip of gore and all these people wanted to talk
• 11:36
  out against this devil music, you know, whatever they wanted to call it.
• 11:41
  But in walks Dee Snider into this whole setup.
• 11:46
  Now, I think a lot of the people that were on the, you know,
• 11:51
  this here whole MPAA thing, I think they were looking to see if Dee Snider walked
• 11:58
  in in full Twisted Sister Regala, which he did not.
• 12:01
  He actually, he showed up, you know, with the cutoff denim jacket and all. He still fit the part.
• 12:08
  But what they were unprepared for was how eloquently he spoke and how eloquently
• 12:14
  speaking Dee Snider actually is.
• 12:16
  Because he is a businessman. And listen, music is business.
• 12:19
  And this was his business. So he really knew how to convey his message without being Dee Snider.
• 12:30
  And Dee Snider If you've ever gone to any of his concerts Yeah it's a lot of
• 12:34
  profanity Lace when he's up there Fucking rock on And that's fine,
• 12:40
  Most every musician In that genre at that time Is doing the same thing But not
• 12:46
  only they want to slap this.
• 12:48
  You know, sticker on the albums from the create, you know, that these artists create.
• 12:54
  But they, you know, wanted to fine or charge people, like criminally charged
• 12:59
  artists were getting up there and cursing in public.
• 13:02
  Well, listen, I'm paid money for my tickets. And if this is what I want to hear,
• 13:06
  this is what I want to hear.
• 13:07
  So the whole thing during that whole time, the 80s, the mid 80s, especially,
• 13:12
  it was just so much panic and so much nonsense set
• 13:15
  forth by this ridiculous typical gore character she was
• 13:18
  completely like i said maybe she was
• 13:21
  trying to do well but again i think most time
• 13:24
  politicians or family or spouses of
• 13:27
  politicians try to help they really fuck
• 13:30
  shit up and that's what i think um so
• 13:34
  d snider his whole thing he's he thought
• 13:37
  that the government or at least he feels the government has no business controlling
• 13:41
  art which is what it is music is art people create music they create this art
• 13:49
  and then they put it out there for people and the government should not be involved
• 13:54
  honestly i feel the exact same way.
• 13:57
  Um he also feels that parents not politicians should guide their kids and that's another,
• 14:04
  thing that i think we should focus on
• 14:07
  you know yeah parents are the ones that are responsible for the
• 14:10
  kids not police not the uh teachers not
• 14:13
  you know government agencies let parents decide
• 14:17
  what's right um so and
• 14:20
  d snyder he's married he has kids and again like
• 14:23
  i said d snyder set forth the rules in
• 14:26
  the whole band they don't drink no drugs uh you
• 14:30
  know the whole crazy rocker corrupting america thing you know he kind of shut
• 14:35
  that whole stereotype down yeah he was wild art wise you know album cover wise
• 14:41
  and all um but when it all started out and again before,
• 14:49
  twisted sister had that album out um.
• 14:53
  I'm sorry, yeah, that one I want to talk about, Stay Hungry,
• 14:56
  that's the one, Stay Hungry album.
• 14:58
  There was a song and an album where the song came from called Under the Blade.
• 15:02
  I love that song because I think that was one of Twisted Sister's hardest songs,
• 15:06
  and I really enjoyed that one.
• 15:09
  But the whole PMRC claimed that song was about sadomachicism, bondage, and rape.
• 15:18
  And it really threw DeSiniter for a loop on that one. And so he calmly said
• 15:23
  in the whole hearing, he was like, it's about my bandmate's throat surgery.
• 15:29
  The only set of machism and bondage is in the mind of the person who read it
• 15:36
  that way. That would be Tipper Gore.
• 15:39
  So that line completely destroyed their argument because Tipper Gore saying
• 15:43
  that this is about rape and, you know, machism. And, you know,
• 15:47
  and Dee Snider's like, well, if you're interpreting it that way,
• 15:50
  I think your mind is sicker than what you think my mind is.
• 15:54
  It was a great, great moment when, you know, he said that to shut down Tipa
• 16:01
  Gore because, uh, again, we don't, you know, everybody just,
• 16:04
  they, they read a lyric there.
• 16:06
  And this is a song title, just a title under the blade. Um, yeah.
• 16:12
  And that song, again, it was written based upon some surgery.
• 16:17
  One of the band members had it going on on their throat. So under the blade is the surgery.
• 16:22
  And he just wrote a song. And lyrically wise, you just get creative and you
• 16:26
  created a song out of that.
• 16:28
  So that was one of the best parts of that whole thing and just the way he spoke.
• 16:34
  And not only was Dee Snider involved in this, but we had Frank Zappa too.
• 16:42
  You know, Frank Zapp as well. He's a real out there artist as well.
• 16:47
  Another one thinks and he knows how to speak, even though most of his speak,
• 16:52
  you might have to read between lines and all. But he's really good.
• 16:55
  He went fully philosophical, you
• 16:59
  know, and he talked about the dangers of censorship, government overreach.
• 17:04
  You know, he called the PMRC's plan ill conceived and dangerous.
• 17:09
  And he also mentioned that intellectual Weight to the musician side You know
• 17:15
  this way supporting The musicians you know,
• 17:19
  calling out to not have these labels thrown on their, you know,
• 17:25
  their creations, their art.
• 17:27
  And the other big surprise too, which came in as a shock, I think,
• 17:32
  to the whole PMRC and John Denver, you know, when John Denver, this is Mr.
• 17:38
  Sunshine, you know, on my shoulders guy, God rest his soul, man.
• 17:43
  He came in and I think Tip of Gore and all the other people on that whole side
• 17:51
  was thinking, oh, this is great. This is John Denver.
• 17:54
  He's going to side with us because his music is not profanity laced.
• 17:58
  It's not devil music. So he's going to be on our side. Yay.
• 18:02
  Well, until John Denver started speaking and actually shut them down.
• 18:08
  You know, they really were expecting this
• 18:11
  clean cut guy to come in America's sweetheart and
• 18:15
  agree totally with them but what he actually
• 18:17
  said he fully opposed the pmrc uh
• 18:21
  he compared it uh to basically book burning
• 18:24
  uh and book banning that's what that's what
• 18:27
  he was comparing it to so that was a real shock to
• 18:30
  the whole tip gore uh side there
• 18:33
  um he warned that it was real slippery slope for
• 18:36
  artistic censorship uh and he
• 18:39
  brought up rocky mountain high being uh
• 18:42
  misinterpreted as a drug song
• 18:45
  uh and this and that's how he explained
• 18:48
  how easily misreading art uh can cause moral panic so just think about it if
• 18:55
  you're tip of gore and you know you see you're talking about all this and you
• 18:59
  got this whole committee going and you're having this hearing and you're thinking
• 19:03
  wow john denver's walking in now all of a sudden john denver just called me basically an idiot for,
• 19:09
  creating this whole thing and that was
• 19:13
  a fun fun moment because john denver really
• 19:16
  just just as well spoken as d snyder but d snyder has a different image and
• 19:22
  john denver has this you know yeah like you said the america sweetheart you
• 19:27
  know kind of a soft-spoken you know personality but yeah he was completely against
• 19:32
  it called it book burning really it's it's no different than the two.
• 19:38
  So of course we all know what the outcome is
• 19:41
  regardless of what was said regardless of
• 19:44
  how well d snyder had spoken regardless of
• 19:47
  what john denver frank zappa had said or anything like that they still passed
• 19:52
  this whole regulation that yeah oh albums got to be labeled we got to put these
• 19:57
  stickers on them you know um but in the end it was a win-win lose-lose kind
• 20:03
  of situation i I think for everybody. Um, um.
• 20:08
  What happened, what I don't think anybody in the whole, you know,
• 20:14
  Tip of Gore family there thought was going to happen.
• 20:18
  What resulted in having these stickers put on albums?
• 20:23
  Well, kids like me went out and they only purchased albums that had these stickers.
• 20:30
  So this was like your calling card.
• 20:33
  Like, oh man, all of a sudden artists are realizing,
• 20:37
  saying well if i got a sticker on here more people
• 20:40
  are buying them so they made sure they put
• 20:43
  something explicit in there somewhere and get
• 20:46
  a sticker and boom those albums sold a lot more
• 20:49
  so yeah it's just one of those things
• 20:51
  now like you know if a child you know or a
• 20:54
  teenager wants to go see something you know a movie at
• 20:57
  least back then the ratings were way different it was just
• 21:00
  you know g p g r and x
• 21:03
  and then your double x triple x whatever the case may
• 21:06
  be they changed all those ratings too to make them more ridiculous
• 21:09
  but yeah if you
• 21:12
  saw our rating on a movie more kids
• 21:15
  wanted to see it just because they figured it'll be more explicit
• 21:19
  and with uh maybe more action or you know old stuff basically you know just
• 21:27
  like these labels on these albums you know once they got it passed musicians
• 21:33
  did not really lose the argument they had their argument But again,
• 21:37
  these here were badges of honor now And people were buying these albums more
• 21:42
  than they would buy one that didn't have one of these stickers on there.
• 21:47
  So basically, this here story that I'm telling is basically from my time back in the 80s, man.
• 21:57
  80s music was so much more different music today like i said probably really should have,
• 22:03
  stickers on them because it's really they i
• 22:07
  think crossed the line but i still don't
• 22:10
  believe in it uh again you buy
• 22:13
  what you want to hear you listen
• 22:16
  to what you want to listen to and we
• 22:19
  shouldn't get all up in arms you know we should just watch our kids and see
• 22:22
  how it affects them some people you know some kids it actually
• 22:25
  affects them for some reasons i remember judas priest was on
• 22:29
  trial uh rob halford the lead singer of judas priest had to go in for a meeting
• 22:33
  because suicides that were done uh off of one of their albums and right away
• 22:39
  oh so the musician it had nothing to do with suicide at all but the musicians
• 22:46
  were taking a court over this,
• 22:49
  and you know people just interpret things
• 22:52
  differently we can't look at a sculpture and
• 22:55
  say oh it affects me this way and then
• 22:58
  somebody could say oh it affects me this way and if it's affecting me badly
• 23:03
  i just there's no reason we should go after the uh artist that sculpted that
• 23:09
  and this is how i feel about the second amendment as well you know without that
• 23:14
  second amendment we won't have free speech.
• 23:17
  That's basically what it boils down to. I'm not going into a whole political
• 23:20
  argument here, but we cannot sue.
• 23:24
  Gun makers just because
• 23:27
  somebody went out and did the unthinkable with a gun it
• 23:31
  doesn't work that way we need to go after the person with the sick
• 23:34
  mind that's what needs to be done and but
• 23:37
  that's what this basically matters what a
• 23:40
  story like this it shapes the way
• 23:43
  things change uh you know how social media moderation
• 23:46
  book bans who decides what's
• 23:49
  dangerous what is art you know uh but
• 23:53
  it's all about free expression intention not letting
• 23:57
  fear dictate creativity mindfulness around
• 24:01
  how we consume media uh so
• 24:06
  anyway this this day and age i mean d snyder's still
• 24:08
  around uh he talks he talks
• 24:11
  a lot like i say he's very outspoken love him
• 24:14
  hate him whatever he sometimes says things that really shouldn't
• 24:18
  matter but you know i think he feels that the
• 24:20
  music world didn't back him up as much
• 24:24
  during that time he was probably the only one out
• 24:26
  there doing it other than you know frank zappa you
• 24:30
  know mr john denver but yeah he felt he didn't get enough you know support from
• 24:36
  the music industry but again i think most of the music industry knew that if
• 24:42
  these labels were passed that they were just they're going to be badges of honor
• 24:45
  so there was no reason to you fight.
• 24:48
  But again, it's good to stand up and fight because, again, we shouldn't have people dictating.
• 24:55
  To us what art is and we really shouldn't
• 24:58
  um so that's my
• 25:01
  story uh like i said something completely off topic
• 25:04
  just something that i always remember i when i
• 25:07
  sit back sometimes and listen to music and if one of twisted sister songs come
• 25:11
  on i'm taken back to that moment in time it's just one of those things i remember
• 25:15
  as 15 years old going on in the news because i you know there's a lot of things
• 25:19
  going on in the 80s but that stood out to me and that's why i just wanted to share the story.
• 25:25
  Again, I'm going to try this out. This was just a test run anyway,
• 25:29
  and I'm going to see if I find some more storytelling things,
• 25:32
  you know, probably more personal, I think. I think that would be nice.
• 25:36
  I'm going to try and push Lizzie into doing some storytelling.
• 25:39
  I know she's got tons of stories too.
• 25:41
  Maybe we'll do some stories together. But like I said, I thank you for tuning in anyway.
• 25:46
  If it's not your cup of tea, not a problem. Like I said, I'm going to be trying
• 25:49
  this out anyway and see how long I go on with it.
• 25:51
  But thank you again for joining us. Don't forget, join us for our regular Monday
• 25:55
  episodes. So every Monday, Eye Opener Society, right here on eyeopenersociety.podbean.com
• 26:01
  or wherever you listen to your podcasts on.
• 26:04
  Also, if you want the video versions of these, you can find us on YouTube, BitChute and Rumble.
• 26:11
  And I chose BitChute and Rumble simply because they believe in free speech,
• 26:17
  which leads back to the story I just told.
• 26:20
  Free speech means a lot. I could talk about topics where other platforms will literally ban me on.
• 26:26
  So again, tune in whenever you like and I thank you again for tuning in today. Take care.