On July 7th, 2007 (07/07/07) concert locations for Live Earth will be taking place in and headliners have been announced for: USA bands at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, Wembley Stadium in London – Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys and more…, Shanghai, China, Antarctica, Johannesburg, South Africa, Sydney, Australia, Tokyo, Japan, Hamburg, Germany and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Other artists and bands scheduled to perform include at Live Earth locations around the world include: Pharrell, Foo Fighters, Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz, Bon Jovi, Paolo Nutini, Sheryl Crow, AFI, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Corinne Bailey Rae, Duran Duran, Snow Patrol, John Legend, Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Fall Out Boy, Mana, Keane, Kelly Clarkson, Korn, Faith Hill w/ Tim McGraw, and Bloc Party.

It will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds. When the story first broke a few days ago, I couldn’t imagine that Al Gore would be able to make this happen…but by looking at the names of everyone who so far has jumped on board this could very well be one of the biggest music events ever.

As great as all of this is, I’m sensing a particular irony here. Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but doesn’t anyone remember Tipper Gore’s (Al Gore’s wife) Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) which she co-founded back in the 80’s?

The PMRC claimed that popular music, especially rock music, was partially responsible for the contemporary increase in rape, teenage pregnancy, and teen suicide. This and other claims caused outrage and debate amongst bands regarding the PMRC’s commitment to censor music.

From Wikipedia:

As a method of combating this problem, the PMRC suggested a voluntary move by the RIAA and the music industry to develop “guidelines and/or a rating system” similar to the MPAA film rating system. Additional suggestions from the PMRC that appeared in an article in the Washington Post included: printing warnings and lyrics on album covers, forcing record stores to put albums with explicit covers under the counters, pressuring television stations not to broadcast explicit songs or videos, “reassess[ing]” the contracts of musicians who performed violently or sexually in concert, and creating a panel to set industry standards. This article led to the removal of rock music and magazines from American stores including Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Sears, and Fred Meyer.

The PMRC also released the “Filthy Fifteen”, a list of the fifteen songs they found most objectionable:

# Artist – Song title - Lyrical content
1 Prince “Darling Nikki” Sex/Masturbation
2 Sheena Easton “Sugar Walls” Sex
3 Judas Priest “Eat Me Alive” Sex
4 Vanity “Strap on Robbie Baby” Sex
5 Mötley Crüe “Bastard” Violence
6 AC/DC “Let Me Put My Love into You” Sex
7 Twisted Sister “We’re Not Gonna Take It” Violence
8 Madonna “Dress You Up” Sex
9 W.A.S.P. “Animal (F*** Like a Beast)” Sex/Language
10 Def Leppard “High ‘n’ Dry (Saturday Night)” Drug and Alcohol Use
11 Mercyful Fate “Into the Coven” Occult
12 Black Sabbath “Trashed” Drug and Alcohol Use
13 Mary Jane Girls “In My House” Sex
14 Venom “Possessed” Occult
15 Cyndi Lauper “She Bop” Sex/Masturbation

Bands and artists disgruntled with Tipper Gore’s censorship views who have mentioned her in their songs include:

“Hook In Mouth” by Megadeth and “Startin’ Up a Posse” by Anthrax accuses Gore of obstructing freedom of speech, “Porn Wars” by Frank Zappa, “Burn Down the Malls” by Mojo Nixon, “Shelter Me” by Cinderella, ‘IfwhiteAmericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart’ by Manic Street Preachers, “White America” by Eminem, P.M.R.C. by The Fad, ‘Sucks’ by KMFDM, ‘Lovely’ by Suicidal Tendencies (and is the subject of, but not directly refrenced in You Can’t Bring Me Down), ‘Stigmata (Live)’ by Ministry, as well as ‘Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock’ by Harry and the Potters. Warrant also have a track on their Cherry Pie album called Ode to Tipper Gore, which is just quotes she would most definitely oppose. Canadian alternative rockers Furnaceface penned the anti-Tipper ditty ironically entitled ‘We Love You, Tipper Gore’, in Ice T’s book he references her.

Will any of these active acts be invited? Does this rule out Madonna or Ozzy since they were on Tipper’s “Filthy Fifteen” at one point? Or have we all gotten over this, forgive and forget and all that.

If only Frank Zappa was here to witness this. What would he say?

http://downlode.org/Etext/zappa.html

By: Jenny May

On a lighter note, to celebrate Jimi Hendrix and his music, two videos: a very rare video of a press conference filmed in Harlem on September 3, 1969 two weeks after Woodstock and a video of “Villanova Junction Blues” courtesy of YouTube and two very cool Hendrix fans.