I turned on the TV and there he was. Dee Snider walked into the courtroom looking like a rock star. He wasn’t wearing his stage gear. Just jeans and a t-shirt, and a blue jean vest. But his hair was still huge. Even if he had worn a suit and tie, he would have attracted attention just being Dee. He sat down and introduced himself. Then he said he wanted the committee to know a little bit about himself.

He was 30 years old, was married and had a 3 year old son. He mentioned that he was a Christian, who didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs. Then he talked about how his lyrics were unfairly misinterpreted. Tipper Gore was claiming that one of his songs, “Under the Blade” had lyrics encouraging sadomasochism, bondage, and rape. He explained that the song was actually about how scary it can be to have to go in for surgery. But he thought it was interesting that Tipper would make that kind of association in the lyrics. She must have had a dirty mind to make that connection.

Then he mentioned accusation number 2. Their song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” was accused by the PMRC of being one of the 15 most offensive songs. They claimed it was violent when actually there was no violence in the lyrics at all. Were they confusing the lyrics with the video? Because the video did have scenes that could be considered violent. That is, if they weren’t so cartoonish. The scenes in the video were based on Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons. And just like in those cartoons, the villain would always appear totally unharmed in the following scene.

This has been an excerpt from the book:
In Search Of The Perfect Buzz: An 80s Metal Memoir
Please see the following links to read more.










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