73
I do not know if it is morning or afternoon. I will say both. Good
morning and good afternoon.
My name is Dee Snider. That is S-n-i-d-e-r. I have been asked to
come here to present my views on "the subject of the content of
certain sound recordings and suggestions that recording packages
be labeled to provide a warning to prospective purchasers of sexually
explicit or other potentially offensive content."
Before I get into that, I would like to tell the committee a little
bit about myself. I am 30 years old, I am married, I have a 3-year-old
son. I was born and raised a Christian and I still adhere to
those principles. Believe it or not, I do not smoke, I do not drink,
and I do not do drugs.
I do play in and write the songs for a rock and roll band named
Twisted Sister that is classified as heavy metal, and I pride myself
on writing songs that are consistent with my above-mentioned beliefs.
There are many facets to this complex issue and time does not
permit me to address all of them. However, my feelings are
expressed for the most part by the August 5, 1985,
letter1 to the
Parents Music Resource Center from Mr. Stanley Gortikov, president
of the Recording Industry Association of America.
This letter was a formal response to the PMRC petition of the
RIAA. The only part of this document I do not support is Mr.
Gortikov's unnecessary and unfortunate decision to agree to a so-called
generic label on some selected records. In my opinion this should
be retracted.
Since I seem to be the only person addressing this committee
today who has been a direct target of accusations from the presumably
responsible PMRC, I would like to use this occasion to speak
on a more personal note and show just how unfair the whole
concept of lyrical interpretation and judgment can be and how many
times this can amount to little more than character assassination.
I have taken the liberty of distributing to you material and lyrics
pertaining to these accusations. There were three attacks in
particular which I would like to address.
Accusation No. 1. This attack was contained in an article written
by Tipper Gore, which was given the forum of a full page in my
hometown newspaper on Long Island. In this article Ms. Gore
claimed that one of my songs, "Under the Blade," had lyrics
encouraging sadomasochism, bondage, and rape.
The lyrics she quoted have absolutely nothing to do with these
topics. On the contrary, the words in question are about surgery
and the fear that it instills in people. Furthermore, the reader of
this article is led to believe that the three lines she quotes go
together in the song when, as you can see, from reading the lyrics,
the first two lines she cites are an edited phrase from the second
verse and the third line is a misquote of a line from the chorus.
That the writer could misquote me is curious, since we make it a
point to print all our lyrics on the inner sleeve of every album. As
the creator of "Under the Blade," I can say categorically that the
1
See p. 98.
|
previous | next | contents