The Target is Rock

Your Calendar article stirred up vivid memories for me of listening to a lecture by Frank Zappa in 1985. He discussed pending legislation of record labeling prompted by a group called “The Washington Wives.” This group eventually gave birth to the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center). The lecture was intended to rally support and stir up local activism--which it accomplished. After the fervor died down, I thought we had heard the end of it. Who would have imagined five years ago that this issue would have mushroomed into a nationwide concern, gathering so many powerful allies along the way (i.e., the PTA and the FCC)?

This labeling issue--voluntary or mandatory--certainly does smack of censorship. And this is only the first step down a long road toward total media censorship. Considering the current changes in the world’s political climate, maybe in 10 years from now the Soviet Union will have freedom of expression, and the free thinkers in this country will be listening to “Radio Free America.”

Perhaps some of the people advocating record labeling should take a look at their own record collections and see how many albums they own that may warrant labeling. Albums by groups such as: the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Cream, Traffic, Jethro Tull (I could go on and on) They certainly seem to have survived their “corrupt youth” and are now (counter)productive members of our society. This is assuming of course that they haven’t burned their record collections--for fear their own children listening to some “Good Old Rock ‘n’ Roll” may discover their parents’ hypocrisy.

DEBBY SCHLESINGER

Granada Hills