TIPPER’S TURN: Mary Elizabeth (Tipper) Gore may...

TIPPER’S TURN: Mary Elizabeth (Tipper) Gore may not like pop songs with explicit lyrics, but the 44-year-old wife of the Democratic vice presidential candidate insists that she is not a censor.

“I love music,” Gore told Pop Eye last week during a campaign stop in Atlanta. “I’ve been a major Grateful Dead fan since college and I love Garth Brooks. Al and I listen to rock regularly on the campaign bus when we’re crossing the country. This idea that I advocate censorship is the biggest misconception that people have about me. I never have and I never will. It’s absolutely untrue.”

Gore--a former anti-Vietnam War protester and drummer in an all-female rock band, the Wildcats, during her high school days--says she formed the Parents Music Resource Center after discovering that Prince’s “Purple Rain” album--which she bought for her 11-year-old daughter--contained lyrics about a girl masturbating in a hotel lobby.

“Calling what I did ‘rock censorship’ was a grave distortion of the truth,” says Gore, who maintains that her group is satisfied with the recording industry’s implementation of the voluntary labeling system. “I have never supported government legislation to mandate warning lyric labels. All we wanted was for the record business to monitor itself like other industries.”

However, the explicit lyrics warning sticker isn’t all that Gore’s organization is about--and that also worries some industry observers.

The organization--which lists such corporate contributors as Exxon and AT&T--raises; additional funds by selling copies of “Rising to the Challenge,” a videotape that explores potentially offensive themes in pop music performances, lyrics and album cover art.

The PMRC not only provides parents with free information on potentially offensive lyrics, but also furnishes law enforcement officials with “satanism information packets” that include articles, studies and excerpts from alleged occult-related lyrics by such metal groups as Slayer and Megadeth.

“Parents should be aware that there is a lot of glorification of violence in lyrics, particularly violence against women, and I think they should sit down and discuss it with their children,” Gore says. “Our group is not out to take away anybody’s rights.