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Mr. ZAPPA. OK, let me tell you why I have drawn these conclusions.
First of all, they may say, we are not interested in legislation.
But there are others who do, and because of their project bad
things have happened in this country in the industry.
I believe there is actually some liability. Look at this. You have a
situation where, even if you go for the lyric printed thing in the
record, because of the tendency among Americans to be
You get a very bad situation in San Antonio, TX, right now
where they are trying to pass PMRC-type individual ratings and
attach them to live concerts, with the mayor down there trying to
make a national reputation by putting San Antonio on the map as
the first city in the United States to have these regulations, against
the suggestion of the city attorney, who says, I do not think this is
constitutional.
But you know, there is this fervor to get in and do even more
and even more.
And the other thing, the PMRC starts off talking about lyrics,
but when they take it over into other realms they start talking
about the videos. In fact, you misspoke yourself at the beginning in
your introduction when you were talking about the music does
this, the music does that. There is a distinct difference between
those notes and chords and the baseline [sic] and the rhythm that
support the words and the lyrics.
I do not know whether you really are talking about controlling
the type of music.
The CHAIRMAN. The lyrics.
Mr. ZAPPA. So specifically we are talking about lyrics. It began
with lyrics. But even lookng at the PMRC fundraising letter, in
the last paragraph at the bottom of the page it starts looking like
it is branching into other areas, when it says: "We realize that this
material has pervaded other aspects of society." And it is like what,
you are going to fix it all for me?
Senator GORE. No. I think the PMRC's acknowledging some of
the statements by some of their critics who say: Well, why single
out the music industry.
Do I understand that you do believe that there is a legitimate
concern here?
Mr. ZAPPA. But the legitimate concern is a matter of taste for the
individual parent and how much sexual information that parent
wants to give their child, at what age, at what time, in what quantity,
OK. And I think that, because there is a tendency in the
United States to hide sex, which I think is an unhealthy thing to
do, and many parents do not give their children good sexual education,
in spite of the fact that little books for kids are available, and
other parents demand that sexual education be taken out of school,
it makes the child vulnerable, because if you do not have something
rational to compare it to when you see or hear about something
that is aberrated you do not perceive it as an aberration.
Senator GORE. OK, I have run out of time.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. Senator Rockefeller.
Senator ROCKEFELLER. No questions, Mr. Chairman.
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