Harry’s mention “below”:https://crookedtimber.org/2008/01/25/look-and-learn/ of finding a comic strip from his youth on the internets made me think about the cultural ephemera that the Internet does and doesn’t preserve. Lots of stuff out there that people have scanned or Youtubed that I was delighted to find again decades after first seeing it. Lots of stuff, however, that isn’t available at all. Two of my favourite things that seem to have slipped down the memory hole (if I’m wrong, of course I would love to be told so, and more to the point, given the URLs).
(1) The famous ‘mothers of prevention’ confrontation between Jello Biafra and Tipper Gore when the latter was on her rampage against naughty rock lyrics and bad thoughts in teenagers. I remember this as having been a gloriously entertaining demolition job by Biafra (but the best part of two decades afterwards, my memory may be faulty or my standards of judgment may have shifted).
(2) Kevin McAleer’s sketches about the old days. These were broadcast on the comedy show ‘Nighthawks,’ which used to be on late at night on RTE, Ireland’s national TV station in the early 1990s. I suspect that you’d have to be Irish to really have gotten the humour – but the soft accent, the gentle, pixillated stare with which he’d not-quite-fix the camera, and the rapid degeneration of anecdotes purveying rural nostalgia into the most demented surrealism were pretty wonderful.
Neither seem to be available (although there are indications that the Biafra-Gore match was once to be found). Further suggestions of pieces of popular culture that ought to be, but aren’t preserved on the nets are welcome in comments, of course.
{ 39 comments }
notsneaky 01.28.08 at 4:11 am
“The famous ‘mothers of prevention’ confrontation between Jello Biafra and Tipper Gore”
Wasn’t Dee Snider on that episode of Donahue, or whatever it was, also, tag-teaming with Jello?
notsneaky 01.28.08 at 4:19 am
Here’s the audio for that show (it was Oprah actually):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW1NHUhJmwQ&feature=related
(the user made graphics are not family safe or whatever the heck)
P O'Neill 01.28.08 at 4:28 am
This is only for the Irish crowd but it also illustrates the difficulties with getting the older stuff up on the Intertubes: it wasn’t digital when it was broadcast so it doesn’t look that great now. But anyway, maybe not pop culture but cultural lore nonetheless, Padraig Flynn’s self-immolation on the Late Late Show, via Gavin.
Righteous Bubba 01.28.08 at 4:31 am
When I was a kid I read books in which ubiquitous computers held all knowledge. It was a kind of utopia except for the aliens killing everyone. The aliens turned out to be lawyers and the death-rays lawsuits, but wow what prescience.
Anyway, there’s some audio of Jello out there.
Righteous Bubba 01.28.08 at 4:32 am
I am slow, but others may have noticed that.
notsneaky 01.28.08 at 4:32 am
And while we’re on the subject, I’m immensely glad that the internets preserved this piece of most awesome nostalgia:
Warren Terra 01.28.08 at 6:06 am
It isn’t the same Jello Biafra incident, but >This American Life had a pretty good story on a Jello Biafra obscenity trial, at the URL: http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=285
(I’d hyperlink it but this new modified use of the ‘a href’ tag has me quite baffled; If I include that ‘title’ modifier the URL is wrecked, and if I don’t it’s missing.)
bemused 01.28.08 at 6:32 am
Pretty strange description of Tipper Gore’s efforts. She wanted rating of music CDs, which doesn’t seem like such a subject for scorn to me. Jello Biafra seemed to think it was a First Amendment issue to give parents information about the content of CDs their kids were buying.
I vividly remember a KQED Forum radio show where Biafra was the guest. All the single male callers defended the rights of kids to bring home rape lyrics on their CDs, in the face of the fascist instincts of their over-protective moms.
Alan Bostick 01.28.08 at 7:16 am
Ah, yes, the “content too terrible to be heard” argument. The Godwin’s Law clock for this thread is now at 11:57 PM — three minutes to Hitler.
Righteous Bubba 01.28.08 at 7:18 am
She wanted rating of music CDs, which doesn’t seem like such a subject for scorn to me.
There was much more to it than that. They were scolds about cartoonish violence in Twisted Sister videos, concerned with songs about drinking, worried about Satan, afeared of backwards lyrics…in short, they were a bunch of ninnies. They likely increased sales for a number of bands.
Here’s Frank Zappa on Crossfire for you nostalgia freaks. Quicktime required.
'As You Know' Bob 01.28.08 at 7:33 am
There was a glorious moment of televison when Twisted Sister testified before Congress, and patiently explained to the Solons that (paraphrasing from my decades-old memory of the scene) “parenthood is hard work, and parents shouldn’t reasonably expect legislation to do their job for them.”
It really was a Great Moment in Civics.
(Haven’t searched for it, though.)
SG 01.28.08 at 7:44 am
I like that in the 80s many of the great moments in civics were delivered by heavy metal bands.
But I do recall buying a jello biafra album and finding lots of strange lyrics about space junk falling on us – he literally believed the sky was going to fall on his head at some part of his career. He could be a bit wierd at times, but I can forgive him almost anything in exchange for “full metal jackoff”.
Hitler 01.28.08 at 7:45 am
Sorry I’m late, Alan. I was busy watching Beyonce videos on YouTube.
notsneaky 01.28.08 at 8:40 am
It was a strange decade for sure.
leinad 01.28.08 at 10:03 am
afaict, Biafra thought that Reagan’s Star Wars was was a cover for some elaborate mass prole-killing superweapon. In the intro to a live version of ‘Kill the Poor’ he hinted that it was behind the Challenger explosion at least.
novakant 01.28.08 at 11:38 am
Twisted Sister, oh boy. I remember when I was 14 how I had to break it to my best friend who had lived too long in countryside, that he would never get a girlfriend unless he immediately destroyed his Twisted Sister albums or at least hid them on the bottom of his cupboard and refrained from mentioning their name in public. After a month of incessant taunting and pleading he finally gave in and was a happier man for it.
Maurice Meilleur 01.28.08 at 1:27 pm
I agree with #10 that one of the problems with Tipper’s crusade was that it was puritanistic and just a little bit nutty. But the three larger problems with the crusade to put ratings on albums were:
(1) that the proposed system, at least as I remember hearing about it, made no distinctions between context; naughty language was naughty, whether it was 2 Live Crew singing about ‘the fuck shop’ or NWA singing ‘fuck tha police’; and
(2) that, as the above examples suggest, there was not a little cloaked racism in this paranoia, since Tipper’s main concerns about oral turpitude involved–again if I recall correctly–not Jello Biafra, but black rap and hip-hop artists. It wasn’t black or brown faces cringing in moral panic that Tipper imagined when she thought of the families besieged by the evils of Hollywood; and
(3) that the ratings system would if instituted (as it partially was) make recorded music compatible with the decisionmaking processes of corporate entertainment outlets. Much according to the same dynamic that makes an NC-17 rating for movies in the states a financial death sentence, because very few commercial theater owners or managers are willing to show NC-17 films regardless of content, corporate music purchasers (distributors and large chains) were more likely to buy music that had been rated–and rated acceptable–because it was safer for profits and PR, and less likely to buy music that wasn’t rated or was rated ‘naughty’. The safe would squeeze the uncertain and the risky out of the market, and make it harder for artists who made the latter to make a living from their work.
That the explosion of digital media distribution changed this dynamic and made ratings in music less effective doesn’t let Tipper and her allies off the hook.
Maurice Meilleur 01.28.08 at 1:31 pm
Whoops, I made a Freudian slip for Tipper. That should read ‘moral turpitude’. Tipper may also have been concerned about the oral variety, but I can’t say for sure.
Righteous Bubba 01.28.08 at 3:44 pm
(2) that, as the above examples suggest, there was not a little cloaked racism in this paranoia, since Tipper’s main concerns about oral turpitude involved—again if I recall correctly—not Jello Biafra, but black rap and hip-hop artists.
The Washington Wives, as the PMRC’s prime movers were called, were also pretty white, so when they assembled their Filthy Fifteen it was more white than black and mainly focused on metal.
ixnaythemetier 01.28.08 at 4:03 pm
Once we’ve got the music rating system up and running, the next obvious step is a book rating system. Someone might pick up a lute or something and set some words to music. Think of the children.
notsneaky 01.28.08 at 5:11 pm
Novakant, your friend sold out! And you convinced him to sell out! Besides, I don’t think listening to Twisted Sister was much of a liability in the gf getting department as long as you didn’t dress like them.
terence 01.28.08 at 7:26 pm
but I can forgive him almost anything in exchange for “full metal jackoffâ€.
I’m with you on that one.
The song’s on you tube in two parts:
(1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z0Fu6HN4TQ
(2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnk5ZNWH80g&feature=related
Note: this can’t be the original video though. And I haven’t watched it all…so anything could happen.
terence 01.28.08 at 7:31 pm
so anything could happen
and it just did. The video makes mention of Boehmian Groves and secret groups ruling the world….it’s getting worse
So I just posted links to conspiracy nuttery. Doh! maybe just listen to the music.
Righteous Bubba 01.28.08 at 8:05 pm
Vision On (UK kiddie show intended to play to the deaf and hearing alike):
Fledermaus 01.28.08 at 8:41 pm
debate between Jello Biafra and Tipper Gore
Jello also ran for Mayor against none other than Speaker Pelosi back in the day under the Slogan “There’s always room for Jello”
notsneaky 01.28.08 at 9:02 pm
Wasn’t one of the points on his platform the requirement that downtown SF businessmen must dress up in clown suits one day a week?
astrongmaybe 01.28.08 at 10:50 pm
What ever happened to Kevin McAleer? Haven’t heard anything about him in a long time.
Jeet Heer 01.28.08 at 11:51 pm
Rightous Buba: thank you for that Frank Zappa clip; it’s really great. It’s amazing how much more sensible Zappa is than any of the Washington talking heads. And “the left” position is represented by Tom Braden, formerly of the CIA. That’s political debate in America for you.
thompsaj 01.29.08 at 1:08 am
Bubba, that zappa link is great! What struck me was that, while somewhat uncomfortable on TV, Zappa played the format perfectly – sticking to one part of the debate (“it’s about words”) and not getting sidetracked into defending specific “obscene” lyrics – especially with two hostile interlocutors and one who was supposed to take his side but didn’t. Also, I noticed he didn’t accept Novak’s characterization of his as an “absolutist” position when they didn’t begin to get into hate speech or fire-in-a-theater or anything.
thompsaj 01.29.08 at 1:09 am
didn’t see 26, but megadittoes! (psych!)
Matt 01.29.08 at 2:05 am
_”Jello also ran for Mayor against none other than Speaker Pelosi”_
No- it was against Diane Feinstein (now senator). I’m pretty sure Pelosi was never Mayor of San Francisco, and I’m sure this was against Feinstein. (On an old Dead Kennedys video tape I had there was a section with Jello “cleaning up” Feinstein’s neighborhood with a shop vac.)
bemused 01.29.08 at 2:37 am
“(2) that, as the above examples suggest, there was not a little cloaked racism in this paranoia, since Tipper’s main concerns about oral turpitude involved—again if I recall correctly—not Jello Biafra, but black rap and hip-hop artists. It wasn’t black or brown faces cringing in moral panic that Tipper imagined when she thought of the families besieged by the evils of Hollywood…”
Interesting psychic powers you’ve got there, Maurice. What evidence do you have that Tipper Gore is a racist? And the issue wasnt Hollywood but the stalwart defenders of the Constitution in the RIAA.
It seems that the adolescent males that called in to defend against the upstart mothers on that long-ago radio talk show with Biafra have graduated into the academic hoi polloi of today.
Walt 01.29.08 at 4:16 am
bemused, obsession with the “academic hoi polloi”, as you put it, is a little pathetic.
Jim Flannery 01.29.08 at 4:47 am
sg, the Biafra lyrics about space junk are a reference to the Skylab crash (which shortly followed a Russian satellite crash in Saskatchewan). You’re a young one, aren’t you?
novakant 01.29.08 at 11:39 am
notsneaky, it was seeing this that convinced me that urgent action needed to be taken; I mean, I was a Bowie fan and a child of the 80s, so thus used to all sort of crimes against fashion and good taste, but there are limits ;)
Mike 01.29.08 at 7:16 pm
I can’t believe the editor of the Washington Times told Frank Zappa “you ought to get out more” like this guy knows more about music than Frank Zappa. Worse, that “getting out more” would increase the number of pro-incest songs you here. Where’s this guy hang out, anyway?
Jon 01.30.08 at 9:01 pm
Last weekend I looked around for video of Robert Frost reciting “The Gift Outright” at JFK’s inauguration, but didn’t see anything on video sharing sites or the Library of Congress. Thought it was surprising, since the moment is referred to pretty commonly and Kennedy’s speech itself is easy to find online.
dan k 01.30.08 at 11:19 pm
Anyone from Boston should remember the Leonard Nimoy introduction to the Mugar Omni Theater: “Who put the bop in the bop sha-bop a ram a lam a ding dong?”
“He grew up a few blocks from here!”
——————————————-
John Williams “A hymn to New England” is out there, but not the entire intro (including the first person camera shots of driving on the old SE expressway).
kate 02.03.08 at 5:06 am
More club buggery on youtube would be good to see.
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