Do NOT Listen to This Episode
How Rock, Rap, and John Denver Nearly Broke the Senate
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Show Notes
What do Frank Zappa, Dee Snider, and John Denver have in common? A fierce love of the First Amendment.
In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Blake and Scott unpack the strange, star-studded circus that was the 1985 PMRC Senate hearings, where musicians faced off against Tipper Gore and her crusade for warning labels on music.
Digging into the bizarre unity of avant-garde snark, glam metal fury, and folk-pop sincerity, the guys discuss how this unlikely free-speech dream team of artists spoke truth to power in front of a room full of very serious senators.
Who gets to decide what’s “appropriate,” and what happens when government, art, and fear collide? Featuring testimony that still echoes today in an algorithm-governed media landscape, it’s part courtroom drama, part culture war, and part rock ‘n’ roll roast