[blondifan]

Originally Posted by Decadence

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I was probably most proud to be an FZ fan when he blasted the PMRC and the Senate Commerce Committee over the labeling of, and potential censoring of music. This came up in another thread recently, but you may recall Tipper Gore's group that had their knickers in a knot over what music, and lyrics, had become.. and took it on themselves to be crusaders over what America should be listening to.

Ever mindful of intrusive government, FZ, along with Dee Snider and John Denver put these people away. During the testimony, you can hear the gallery laughing and agreeing with his message. I loved the part where he explains to Sen. Al Gore the role of parents vs. government.

From 1985, the You Tube video of his testimony. It's about 30 minutes and it'll make you an even bigger fan.

As a side note: Not long after his appearance before the Senate Committee, FZ released his "Jazz From Hell" album. Amazingly (or not), it garnered one of the PMRC's warning labels about explicit lyrics.. even though there was not a spoken word on the entire album.

His stance on censorship and the PMRC was perfectly understandable..

An article in the local press describing Zappa as "the Movie King of Cucamonga" prompted the local police to suspect that he was making pornographic films. In March 1965, Zappa was approached by a vice squad undercover officer, and accepted an offer of $100 to produce a suggestive audio tape for an alleged stag party. Zappa and a female friend recorded a faked erotic episode. When Zappa was about to hand over the tape, he was arrested, and the police stripped the studio of all recorded material. The press was tipped off beforehand, and next day's The Daily Report wrote that "Vice Squad investigators stilled the tape recorders of a free-swinging, a-go-go film and recording studio here Friday and arrested a self-styled movie producer".

Zappa was charged with "conspiracy to commit pornography". This felony charge was reduced and he was sentenced to six months in jail on a misdemeanor, with all but ten days suspended. His brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was central to the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance. Zappa lost several recordings made at Studio Z in the process, as the police only returned 30 out of 80 hours of tape seized. Eventually, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted. Zappa managed to recover some of his possessions before the studio was torn down in 1966

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa