Censored Sound

       Tipper Gore. A name that still brings shivers to an entire generation. If you didn't happen to be alive in the 80's, Gore co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The PMRC's goal was to censor music that was deemed unsanitary by them. During a Senate hearing in 1985 on the PMRC's proposal to censor undesirable music, Frank Zappa, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and... um, John Denver eloquently spoke out against the righteous PMRC.

Pictured: PMRC

       Frank Zappa in particular may have spoken just a little bit too eloquently. In his argument, he compared the PMRC to a "sinister kind of 'toilet training program' to house-break all composers." He went on to peacefully state his opinion, commenting on how the PMRC acquired a Senate inquiry: "a couple of blow jobs here and there and bingo, you get a hearing!" 

      Shortly after the inquiry, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), began labeling certain albums with "Parental Advisory" stickers at the PMRC's behest. Rather unsurprisingly, Frank Zappa's newest album at the time, the Grammy winning Jazz from Hell, was bannered with one such sticker. What was surprising though, is that the album is entirely instrumental. 

That guitar sounds... naughty.

      Whether the album was label because of it's devastatingly evil song titles, such as G-spot Tornado, or just because the PMRC held a grudge, is unknown. But I'm gonna go out on a limb and lean towards the latter.