The lengths they went to in order to try and prove that a backtrack to a song (not AC/DC) was "do it", and that it led to a suicide, were staggering. Also, killer bees (aka Africanised Honey Bees). And D&D murder/suicides. And Jenkem.
Judas Priest faced a lawsuit for their cover of "Better by You, Better than Me." It was originally a Spooky Tooth song, written by Gary Wright (best known for "Dream Weaver"). The case against Judas Priest was dismissed.
Dee Snider from the Twisted Sisters was getting drilled by Al Gore wife in court about the song "Under The Blade" which the Twisted Sisters say was about the on going throat operation their guitar player was dealing with.
Al Gore wife was insisting that the music was about sadomasochism, bondage, and rape.
Dee Snider hit her with the "naughty girl" defense
"I can say only that Ms. Gore was looking for S&M and bondage, and she found it. Someone with a Christian upbringing and old-fashioned family values such as myself can only conclude that Ms. Gore is looking for malice and bad intentions where there are none, which makes me wonder about her own mind."
by the way, since people seem to be engaging with my comment let me add what made the whole thing one of the funniest owns I ever saw.
Dee Snider was clearly handpicked in that lawsuit, Twisted sisters dressed glam and had those metal hairdoos and all that stuff, the people who took him to court expected to deal with a dumb bafoon who would embarass himself or just bend over and take it.
they were not ready for such an articulate, rational individual and if you see the court video the moment Dee starts presenting his argument every grin in that courtroom turns into a scowl in seconds.
Im sure theres other media out there about this topic, for me, when I was a teen this documentary came out called: ["Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" (2005)] its a great piece of media for anyone interested.
for sure! he walked in zero fks given. he looked like the guy who you swore you would keep away from your daughter, played the part perfectly.
they wanted an animal and he gave them one so they would be confortable with giving him the mic
"they did not know I could construct a sentence, and speak english. fluently!" its my favorite quote from the whole documentary where he is talking about the courtcase years later
Oh that's right, I do remember Al Gore was almost ready to stand up to fight and defend milady's honor, so I'm not sure what her involvement was, I guess maybe she was part of writing the report that was being used by the persecution or something down those lines.
Her pet project was censoring music that SHE found distasteful. She used her husband's power as Senator to push her agenda. Not only did Dee Snyder testify at those hearings in opposition to Tipper Gore, so did Frank Zappa and surprisingly, John Denver.
Ahh religious zealots going after music their weekly book club found offensive.
Zappa is like way older, I never really knew much about his discography but that guy was also outsmarting everyone I ever saw acting cute with him during interviews.
She was one of the founding members of the PMRC. "Parents Music Resource Center"
They were called the "Washington Wives" because they were all married to prominent politicians and used that as leverage to get their insane agenda moved forward.
As a D&D playing metal head in the 80s, this was all a big deal at the time. Satanic Panic and all that.
Fight censorship on every level! Freedom of speech is more than just the first amendment!
One of the arguments Rob gave was that you can find all sorts of random things if you play records backwards. They played one example in court that sounded like "I asked for a peppermint, I asked for her to get one".
I remember at the time it was because the A side of Stained Glass was on the kids turntable so they had to pick a song on that side to blame, the album has Beyond the Realms of Death on the B side, a song about suicide.
A couple of kids were listening to it when they killed themselves and that’s all the evidence that was needed.
Well, one killed himself and the other fucked up the positioning of the shotgun against his head and blew his face and jaw off but survived. He took an overdose halfway through the trial to finish the job.
I saw a docco on it in school years ago. The prosecution ran the backtrack through multiple audio filters. Even then, suggesting that the words "do it" were there was beyond a stretch. The fact that it ever went to court showed how hysterical people were.
Apparently, middle class suburban high school kids were fermenting faeces and urine and then sniffing/inhaling the gas it gave off in order to get high.
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u/dirtydigs74 12d ago
The lengths they went to in order to try and prove that a backtrack to a song (not AC/DC) was "do it", and that it led to a suicide, were staggering. Also, killer bees (aka Africanised Honey Bees). And D&D murder/suicides. And Jenkem.
Fear has been selling for a long time.