ROCK WORLD RAPS REAGAN’S DRUG STANCE

POW!

If the music business adopted an official color this year, it would be black and blue.

First, Tipper Gore and the Washington Wives blasted the record industry for exposing kids to “explicit” lyrics.

BAM!

More recently, the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart dubbed rock “the new pornography.”

THUD!

Now President Reagan has blamed the music industry for contributing to widespread drug abuse, saying in a Newsweek interview last week that “musicians that young people like . . . make no secret of the fact that they are (drug) users.”

Reagan added that the music industry “made it sound as if it’s right there and the thing to do, and rock-and-roll concerts and so forth.”

The President didn’t mention any rock notables by name. So Calendar asked the White House press office if it could offer any evidence specifying which musicians made drugs seem like “the thing to do.”

“We’d prefer to leave it with what the President said in his remarks,” explained Peter Roussel, deputy White House press secretary. “We don’t have anything more to say. I’d just add that as far as drug users are concerned, that they know who they are.”

However, the response was immediate--and heated--from key record industry figures, who decried drug abuse, but seemed alarmed that rock was once again being made a convenient scapegoat for this pressing social problem.

“The President’s remarks were truly ridiculous and frightening,” said Geffen Records president Eddie Rosenblatt. “They had the air of a poorly disguised election-year political ploy. There certainly have been isolated instances where musicians have encouraged drug use. But we’ve been a very positive force in this country. The politicians have gotten a lot of media coverage for their efforts in sending hay to the drought-stricken farmers down South, yet this is something that has its origins in the music business’s Farm Aid and Live Aid fund-raising efforts. I’m really shocked to see Reagan pointing the finger at an entire industry, especially an industry that’s done so much good around the world.”

“I think the President’s charges are ludicrous and don’t really deserve a reaction,” said Tower Records chain owner Russ Solomon. “All these people--Reagan and the Washington Wives--are chasing phantoms, phantoms that they’ve invented when there’s nothing there. Rock is entertainment, not a negative social force. What are you supposed to do--not listen to music? That’s like telling someone not to read a book.”

“Reagan’s comments are nothing more than a cliche-ridden and totally uninformed slander on rock musicians and the record business,” complained Danny Goldberg, head of Gold Mountain Records and one of the organizers of the pro-rock pressure group, the Musical Majority. “There are Jackie Collins novels sold in every corner book store that glorify drug use far more explicitly than anything in pop music. What are the records that Reagan is talking about? There have probably been more anti-drug messages from pop music than from any other segment of society. One of the biggest pop hits in recent months was Bob Seger’s ‘American Storm,’ which offered a passionate anti-drug message.

“Since rock ‘n’ roll’s inception, it’s been blamed for nearly every sin in the land, from drinking and drugs to juvenile delinquency,” said Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento), a noted pop historian and radio broadcaster. “You can go back to the days when Gene Krupa had drug problems and Bix Beiderbecke drank himself to death--it’s always been a part of musicians’ life styles. There’s nothing new about booze and cocaine. They’ve been around a long time. I just think that rock stars are more frank about drug use today, just as they’re more open about their sexuality. However, drugs have been a part of our society for a lot of reasons totally unrelated to rock ‘n’ roll. I think it just scares people more today because it’s more out in the open.”

“Rock ‘n’ roll’s always been an easy target,” said Joe Smith, former chairman of Elektra Records and a 30-year industry veteran. “I remember testifying before a Nixon Administration commission on rock lyrics 15 years ago. But I think the onslaught was actually more dangerous back then, when the government was actually run by people who really detested rock. Now we have people in power who grew up on rock. If the President can barely get his $100-million Contra military aid package through Congress, I can’t see him getting a bill through that would advocate any rock censorship. This is just something that’s on the President’s desk today. There’ll be something else tomorrow. So let him talk. The music’s not going to go away.”