#1 "Wake Up Little Susie," 1958

The Everly Brothers (from Brownie Kentucky)
Don Everly (b. 1937), Phil Everly (b. 1939)
Cadence Classics Their 20 Greatest Hits Rhino 5258 ©1985

Raised on the country music circuit by Midwestern stars, Ike and Margaret Everly, the Everly brothers began performing on the family radio show as young boys. After moving to Nashville in 1955, the brothers found work as songwriters and recorded their first songs in 1957. Hitting the international market that same year with "Bye Bye Love" (#2 US), the brothers began an incredible three-year run of hits when they averaged a #1 song every four months. Arguably the most influential duo in rock, the Everly Brothers’ close, understated, and expressive harmonies influenced the music of British Invasion bands, such as the Beattles and the Hollies and folk-oriented acts such as Simon and Garfunkel. Updating the clean country style with innocuous mass audience, teenage themes, the pair charted a course to the fusion of country and rock in hybrids like rockabilly. The Everly Brothers’ first #1 single and a staple of oldies radio stations to this day, "Wake Up Little Susie" raised parental eyebrows in the late 1950s. The opening guitar lines seem to capture much of the urgency and confusion of nascent sexuality. Banned by radio stations in Boston because of its supposedly lewd content, the song rocketed to the top of the charts spurred by the resultant publicity.

#2 "Eight Miles High," 1966

Performed by The Byrds, formed 1964 in Los Angeles
Written by Roger McGuinn and David Crosby (David Van Cortland)
The Original Singles 1965&emdash;1967 Columbia 37355 ©1981

Yet another group the modeled their name on the intentional misspelling of the Beetles, The Byrds, led by Roger McGuinn, were a folk- and country-rock pioneer fusing high harmonies and ringing guitars with an obsession for experiments in studio recording technique. Their sound influenced many bands, including the Eagles, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, and R.E.M.

The Byrds’ first hit was a cover version of Bob Dylan’s "Mr. Tambourine Man" which climbed to #6 in 1965. "Eight Miles High" hit #14 in 1966 and reveals the sonic signature of their "space rock" style with its thunderous bass line, free-form guitar playing, and unconventional harmonies. Many 1960s listeners associated this otherworldly, psychedelic sound with the use of drugs &endash; an interpretation encouraged by the song’s title and lyrics. While the Byrds denied this, claiming that the work was about McGuinn’s fear of airtravel, the song was banned from many radio stations. Consider however that the band’s first name was The Jet Set, apparently because of McGuinn’s fascination with airplanes. In his book, American Hit Radio, Thomas Ryan gives a more convincing interpretation of the song: "In reality, ‘Eight Miles High’ was abot flying to London (‘the gray town known for its sound’) while at the height of [the Byrds’] fame, only to "touch down" and have the British press tear them to shreds. ‘Eight Miles High’ is no more than a reference to the height at which jet planes fly." Nevertheless, the fact that the song was banned confirmed its rebellious anti-establishment theme in the ears of most listeners.

#3 "Kick Out the Jams," recorded 1968, released 1969 2:37

by MC5 [Motor City Five], formed 1965
Kick Out the Jams Elektra 9 60894-2 ©1996

With an anti-establishment stance, Detroit’s own MC5 prefigured much of 1970s punk rock. MC5 truly believed in the power of rock to change the world. Formed while its members were still in high school, MC5 attained notoriety as the house band for John Sinclair’s radical White Panther Party. They created a media sensation at some of their early concerts when they draped themselves in American flags and shouted revolutionary slogans and profanity. The title tune of their debut album, "Kick Out the Jams," opens with one of the singers screaming "motherfuckers." This use of profanity offended some retailers, in particular Detroit-based Hudsons. The band took out "Fuck Hudson’s" newspaper ads defending their actions and plastered the windows of the hometown department store with Elektra stationary printed with "Fuck You." Against the band’s wishes, Elektra eventually released a second version in which the words "brothers and sisters" substitute for the offending lyric. Despite their critically acclaimed album "Back in the USA," MC5 never recovered from the public relations problems with Hudsons. The band lost its recording contract and soon broke up.

#4 "Let’s Pretend We’re Married," 1982

Produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince
All music and voices by Prince
1999 Warner Bros. 9 23720-2 ©1982

According to Rocklists...

Rick Alley and his wife liked Prince’s "1999" so much that she went out and bought the album. As she and her husband listened to it in their Cincinnati home, they were ambushed by "Let’s Pretend We’re married," and had to rush to the stereo controls to prevent their kids from hearing it. So they went to the Delshire Elementary PTA and proposed that some type of warnings or ratings be placed on records. [Professor’s note: apparently the Alleys missed the phallus on the cover&endash;that’s not just a "1" in 1999.] From such small seed begin giant crises. At its June 1984 annual convention, the National PTA adopted a resolution calling for the record industry to rate and label material containing "profanity, sex, violence, or vulgarity." The record industry tried to laugh it off. The only substantive public comment coming from a Warner Brother’s spokesman who said, "The function of rock and roll is to annoy parents. This just proves that nothing changes." But the Alleys never stopped liking Prince, so that wasn’t the issue, and things were about to change in a big way. By September 1985, the major record companies had agreed to the demands of the PTA now in alliance with the Parent’s Music Resource Center (PMRC) to label their potentially "offensive" recordings, and three major record companies even agreed to sit down with the PTA itself. Although claiming to be represent "ordinary housewives," the PMRC had 15&emdash;20 members who just happened to be married to prominent government officials, especially senators. Tipper Gore was one of the leaders of the PMRC, and she wrote a book about labeling and other "child advocacy" issues entitled, Raising PG Kids in an X-rated Society.

#5 "Porn Wars," 1985 12:03

Frank Zappa (b. 1940, Baltimore, Md.; d. 1993, Los Angeles, Calif.)
Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention Ryodisc 10547 ©1985

When the PMRC succeeded in convening a special investigation by the Senate Commerce Committee (five of the committee’s members had spouses on the PMRC), Frank Zappa was called upon to testify. His testimony is included in coursepack two. "Porn Wars" is by far the longest song I’ve included on the tapes for MHM306, but it provides wonderful insight into the testimony for the Senate and shows one creative artist’s attempt to depict the confusion, irrationality, and misinformation he perceived to characterize the event. The title of his protest album response to the PMRC, Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, is a play on his own band’s name, "The Mothers of Invention." Invention is a key word here as Zappa has attacked the boundary between popular entertainment music and classical "art" music. Whether he was writing for The Mothers or for the London Symphony Orchestra, Zappa approached the compositional process from the same idealistic standpoint. Zappa saw music as an essentially political art; he not only advocated for artistic freedom, but he encouraged young fans to register to vote and even considered a Presidential candidacy. Try to describe the different sections of this piece, by noticing changes in texture (who is playing and how). How do each of these sections address the issue of censorship?

#6 "Cop Killer," 1992

Body Count
Body Count Sire/Warner Bros. 9 26878-2 ©1992

An election year, 1992 saw political posturing to appear "tough on crime." Ice-T’s satiric heavy metal project, Body Count, became a focus of this public relations maneuvering when a group of Texas police officers calling themselves CLEAT (I’m not kidding) instituted a national boycot of Time-Warner products. (Sire is owned by Time-Warner.) Led by opera diva Beverly Stills, the Time-Warner board of directors demanded Ice-T’s contract termination. Even then-President George Bush criticized the song. However, Ice-T did not leave Sire until 1993 when the label rejected the proposed cover art for Home Invasion. Warner’s decision to release Ice-T despite his 5 gold records is indicative of a general corporate fear of rap

Now, one of my closest relatives is a police officer and the last thing in the world I would want is for him to be killed in the line of duty. However, I can think of many responses to Body Count’s album that would been more productive. The many death threats sent to Sire, Time-Warner, and Ice-T seemed to reinforce rather than contradict the original album’s message. After footage of the 1992 Rodney King beating was broadcast around the globe, one cannot dismiss Ice-T’s social commentary as unfounded. In fact, it was likely the simple accuracy of his criticism that unleashed the wrath of many listeners. As we have discussed before, violence can be deployed as a cultural symbol in an attempt to grab people’s attention and as a vehicle for protest. Cop Killer traces its lineage to several earlier rap songs, especially F&endash;&endash; Tha Police," by N.W.A. (1989). According to Rocklists, a series of other rap tunes were never released because of the Cop Killer controversy: "Bullet" The Intelligent Hoodlum; "Shoot ‘Em Down," Boo-Yaa Tribe; "Justice for the Hood," Juvenile Committee; "Cop Hell," Mob Deep; and "Mr. Officer," Dr. Dre.

#7 "Freedom of Speech" 1989

by Ice-T (b. Tracy Marrow, ca. late 1950s in Newark, New Jersey)
Produced by Ice-T and Afrika Islam for Rhyme Syndicate Productions
Body Count Sire/Warner Bros. 9 45139-2 ©1992

In response to the "Cop Killer" controversy, Time-Warner pulled the album from the shelves and released a new verwion on which "Cop Killer" was replaced by this 1989 Ice-T song, "Freedom of Speech." While the artwork did not change, originally the Cop Killer title had been branded across the chest of the renegade figure on the cover. The new release replaced "Cop Killer" with "Body Count."

#8 "No Good Nigga," 1994

Schooly D (b. Jesse B. Weaver, 1966 in Philadelphia)
Welcome to America Ruffhouse/Columbia 57632 ©1994

One of the most striking lyrics in the previous example by Ice-T is the phrase: "The more you try to suppress us the larger we get." Certainly if we compare the lyrics of "No Good Nigga" to any of the first three censorship exmples on this tape, a pattern arises which seems to indicate an increase in expressive freedom, rather than a decrease. It’s as if the explicit lyric warning labels have become a shield protecting increasingly offensive lyrics from internal company censors. In fact, the explicit lyric label has become something of a marketing tool &endash; a marker of a rap album’s quality and honesty of expression. A rap album without a sticker might be interpreted as too soft. (Recently I even noticed a similarly styled warning label on radio controlled cars in a hobby shop. The "explicit speed" warnings seemed to be targeted toward attracting young buyers, rather than any type of parental caution.) With his eponymous debut album of 1986, Schooly D pioneered gangsta rap with his chilling, unsentimental descriptions of urban volence. Unlike his previous efforts, on the album Welcome to America he is backed by a band, including veteran session player and coproducer Mike Tyler and ex-Urge Overkill bassist Chuck Treece.

#9 "No Good Nigga (Radio Edit)," 1994

Schooly D
Welcome to America Ruffhouse/Columbia 57632 ©1994

Labeling also serves to warn radio stations and Djs not to give airplay to potentially offensive materials. What are the strategies employed on this "radio edit" version of "No Good Nigga" to clean up Schooly D’s music, thus allowing for radio distribution and the record sales this exposure generates. Listen for changes in the lyrics, obscured lyrics, euphemisms, deletions, etc. Do you think radio edits are a acceptable? Does it defeat the purpose of warning labels to allow radio edits to be made and played on air? In the final analysis, do you think that the "voluntary" use of warning labels constitutes censorship? One of the big issues here, has to do with economics. Many retail chains, especially large discount chains such as Kmart or Target, categorically exclude albums with warning labels from their shelves. (See the final 1-page article in coursepack two, for more discussion of the politics of labeling.) The radio edit is an attempt to skirt the economic disadvantages of labeling.