His testimony was one of the most scathing because they fully expected – he was such a mom’s, American pie, John Denver Christmas special, fresh-scrubbed guy – that he would be on the side of censorship. Snider recalled: “Gotta give John Denver credit. Frank Zappa said, “If it looks like censorship and it smells like censorship, it is censorship, no matter whose wife is talking about it.” Dee Snider, lead singer of heavy metal band Twisted Sister, argued that it was a straightforward infringement of civil liberties. The PMRC put forward their case and three musicians provided testimony. On September 19, 1985, the Senate’s Committee On Commerce, Science And Transportation held a hearing about the need to put warning labels on albums. Cyndi Lauper’s song “She Bop,” for example, had the PMRC’s knickers in a twist because of the “filthy” lyric about “picking up good vibration.” The PMRC even devised its own “porn rock” rating system, with an “X” for profane or sexually explicit lyrics “O” for occult references “D/A” for lyrics about drugs and alcohol and “V” for violent content.
By August 1985, 19 record companies had agreed to put “Parental Guidance: Explicit Lyrics” labels on certain albums. The PMRC lobbied hard and rallied support among PTAs in school. Together with three other prominent conservative housewives – Susan Baker (wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker), Pam Howar (wife of Raymond Howar, a real-estate developer who was active in the Republican Party) and Sally Nevius (whose husband, John, was appointed Washington City Council Chairman by President Nixon) – Tipper formed the Parents Music Resource Center ( PMRC) and they compiled the Filthy Fifteen: a list of songs they found most objectionable. At first, I was stunned, but then I got mad.” She described her ensuing outrage in her book Raising PG Kids In An X-Rated Society, describing what happened when mother and daughter listened to the track “Darling Nikki,” which includes a line about a “sex fiend masturbating with a magazine.” Gore wrote: “The vulgar lyrics embarrassed both of us.
Tipper Gore, wife of Senator Al Gore, bought a copy of the record for her 11-year-old daughter. Though the debate over what is acceptable in print was nothing new – Cole Porter jokes about writers who “only use four-letter words” in “Anything Goes” in 1934 – a national dispute over offensive lyrics started in 1984, when Prince released his groundbreaking album Purple Rain. The designation of a Filthy Fifteen was part of a backlash campaign that ended with the imposition of stickers on albums warning of “explicit lyrics.” Yet the controversy over these “dangerous” songs remains a cultural talking point and, as recently as May 2018, award-winning composer Nicole Lizée toured a show about the controversy, including a performance at London’s acclaimed Barbican Theatre. It has been decades since 15 songs – the so-called “Filthy Fifteen” – were declared obscene in America.
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