I just got word from Jonathan Scott that another song from the Doleful Lions’ “Filthy Fifteen” cover project is on the way. The first was a cover of Prince’s Darling Nikki. The next one will be “My House,” a cover of the Mary Jane Girls.
I got some other great news as well. Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil Out of Prison (already out on Bandcamp) is being remastered and will soon be released on the Kent, Ohio-based label Wild Kindness Records.
Filed under music
The first installment of the Doleful Lions vs. the PMRC, Jonathan Scott’s “Filthy 15” cover project, is now available for streaming and purchase – a cover of Prince’s “Darling Nikki” – very different from Prince’s original version. I interviewed Jonathan about his cover album project here. And I wrote more in depth about the PMRC here.
Filed under music
Americans who depend on the Internet are worried about censorship lately, and with good reason – SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House and Protect IP in the Senate will likely be serious threats to freedom of speech on the Internet if they pass. But these threats are nothing new.
Right now, the boogeyman the folks in charge and the companies that lobby them use to try to restrict the free flow of information is Internet piracy – It’s a real problem with real consequences, but the proposed solution is akin to curing the disease by killing the patient.
In the past, the boogeyman was obscenity. America has always had a tug of war between cultural conservatives and people who like to push boundaries through art and music.
In the 1960s, all it took was a few bad words to get you in trouble. Censorship wrecked the career of stand-up comedian/spoken word artist Lenny Bruce, who was arrested a number of times on obscenity charges. Most of the charges were defeated in court, but fighting them ruined him financially. TV and radio were heavily censored and musicians had to be careful to disguise themes such as sex and drugs in metaphor. There were others who paid a price as well.
After a period in the ‘70s when the culture lightened up about topics like sexuality and drugs, there was another crackdown in the ’80s as evangelical Christians and clergy suddenly found themselves with some serious political power and decided to throw their weight around. Tipper Gore and the PMRC went after heavy metal, punk rock and rap. In 1985, representatives of the PMRC, musicians Frank Zappa, John Denver and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, and Senators Paula Hawkins and Al Gore testified before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on the subject of record labeling and obscenity. (Check out the Wikipedia page. It’s a pretty good read.) Snider in particular shocked a lot of people by not being the dummy they expected and putting the moralizers on the defensive.
The push to censor and control the sale of music with explicit lyrics continued into the ’90s. Store clerks got arrested for selling the rap record “As Nasty As They Wanna Be.” A record store owner in Florida was put on trial and convicted (overturned on appeal) and the rappers themselves were put on trial for obscenity (acquitted). I bought a copy of 2 Live Crew’s album after I heard about the arrests – I wasn’t even into rap at the time, but I couldn’t abide that kind of censorship and I wanted to know what the fuss was about. Turned out to be nasty as you would expect and also damn funny.
It’s hard to even remember what the mindset was back then. Check out this excerpt from the TV show Quincy (which incidentally featured a performance from bona fide punk group Mayhem). It’s funny today, but it was dead serious at the time.
America has changed since then. Rap has become mainstream. Formerly scary rappers Ice Cube and Ice T have acting careers (Ice Cube has been in a kids’ movie and Ice T played a cop on TV). The country lost its fear of heavy metal, thanks in part to the parody “This is Spinal Tap.” Punk rockers grew up and went mainstream. Henry Rollins of Black Flag is working on a show for National Geographic. How mainstream is that? History tells us that sooner or later we’ll get another moral crusade, however.
Check out Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys taking on Tipper Gore on the Oprah Winfrey show in the ’80s. I think the PMRC folks thought they were getting a punk rock moron like Sid Vicious when they took on Jello, but he turned out to be anything but. He gives Tipper a pretty good shellacking in this clip.
Fear is a powerful tool, one that politicians can’t resist. Whenever anything new pops up in the culture that they find threatening (the Occupy Movement for example), the folks in power will appeal to our moral sensibilities to try and stop it. And it might actually work, for a while… But sooner or later change will come, whether they like it or not. Americans are very adaptable and I think the country will evolve into something better than what we have now — but that doesn’t mean the process will be painless.
I am just wrapping up a post about goth pop artist Jonathan Scott of the Doleful Lions, who was personally affected by the PMRC and is working on a fascinating musical project to remind people of that era.
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Just got an update to the update from Jonathan Scott of The Doleful Lions. The latest album, Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil Out of Prison, is available for download on Bandcamp starting today. (The recently-announced digital release arrangement with Jesus Warhol Records is off the table.) The price on Bandcamp is an appropriately macabre $6.66.
It’s very good music. Check it out and see if you don’t agree.
And send a little love Jonathan’s way. He could use it.
Jonathan is also shopping the album around for a physical CD release. Anyone with a record label who would like to put out the album can contact Jonathan via the Doleful Lions Facebook page.
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Last week I interviewed Jonathan Scott of the horror-infused lush pop group The Doleful Lions once again about his upcoming album, Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil Out of Prison. His plans have changed since the last time I interviewed him in March. At that time, he said the album was nearly finished and would soon be released on the Urbana, Illinois label Parasol Records.
Well… There’s been a change of plans. He just finished the album, but it won’t be coming out on Parasol. He and Parasol had a bit of a falling out, to put it mildly (there is talk of legal action and Jonathan’s brother Robert quit the band out of disappointment with the label) and it will now be released in digital format on the Jesus Warhol label. He still has the option to release a CD on another label and has been shopping it around. He’s got yet another album almost in the can.
Jonathan believes Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil Out of Prison is the best album of his career. I’ve heard it and I agree it is very very good.
The digital album will be available soon on JWR. I’ll post another update when it’s up.
Since mylast post about the Doleful Lions has been among my most popular – people keep clicking, probably to find out when the album will be out – I figure I owe people an update. And if you haven’t read that post yet, check it out. Jonathan gave me a hell of an interview.
MusicMissionary: So how do people get the digital album?
Jonathan Scott: They can go to http://www.jesuswarhol.com and it will be avaliable there really soon, Colin [Colin Lipe, who runs the label] wants to have a try at mastering it and we need to finalize the cover and stuff but it should be up in the next couple of weeks.
MM: Can you tell me about what happened with Parasol in the first place? When we left off it was good to go. You were just waiting to hear back.
JS: Oh yeah that blew up in a big way, I talked to them in january and kind of had it out with them, I just voiced my concerns with them and the guy I was talking to said and I quote, “you are being a cry baby bitch.” Also when I called there the guy that answered didn’t even know who the Doleful Lions were. Mind you I have put out 7 albums with them and been with them for 15 years.”
So I thought we left it good after the argument and we agreed that we would talk and keep in contact, so I e-mail them a couple of weeks later and nothing. Then more time passed and I was getting pissed that they weren’t talking to me. You have to understand about 8 years ago the guy that worked there at the time told me in your next bank statement you will be in the black and we will owe you some money, because of the iTunes and e-music sales, so 8 fucking years go by and no statement no contact practically. So when I started asking some questions, not even “Pay me!” or anything just asking if they were interested in putting out this record, I heard nothing.
On top of the fact that they had not sent me a bank statement in 8 years. I don’t even know how many records we have sold with them, really. I have no clue. So when I didnt hear back from them, I got mad and a little drunk one night and left some pretty angry messages on their Facebook wall. So then they blocked me from their Facebook and never talked to me again, until finally a guy that used to work there was trying to broker something between us. But Parasol basically told me in their last e-mail: you better get a lawyer.
MM: Have they had a personnel change?
JS: Yes massive personnel changes, the people I used to talk to there who I had a good relationship with left.
MM: So where are you now with the album and with the Doleful Lions? I assume you’re not giving up? You don’t seem like the type.
JS: No way haha. I will never give up, I mean I understand why my brother quit it is hard, it is hard to not really have good things happen when you work hard on a record for a year, but what else am I gonna do? I have been doing this for 15 years I already have the next record written I am not gonna let those people at Parasol make me quit, I am gonna get the rights back to my music from them and carry on. I am not stopping, I will probably be 65 and putting out the 20th Doleful Lions record on some unknown format not yet invented.As long as I can write music I will continue making music. I love it too much.
MM: Sounds like a good way to take it.
JS: Even with all this bad stuff, my favorite thing in the whole entire world is sitting down at my 4 track and coming up with stuff and listening back to it and thinking wow that is pretty all right, I still get freaked out when I come up with stuff. I wonder where it comes from. I still feel like that 5 year old kid listening to Kiss 45″ wishing I was Ace Frehley you know?
Update to the update: Jesus Warhol deal is also off. Jonathan just posted the album himself on Bandcamp. You can get the album here.
Filed under interview, music, Uncategorized
Doleful Lions Jonathan and Robert Scott
Make fun of old horror movies all you want, but if you saw one as a child, it stuck with you didn’t it? There is a lot of emotional power in those images — just as there is in a well-written pop song. Combine the two and you really get something special. Nothing demonstrates that better than the music of Doleful Lions. I’ve been fascinated by the group for years. The title track to The Rats are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! is a perennial secret weapon in my Halloween playlists.
Doleful Lions frontman Jonathan Scott lives in Plano, Ill., about 50 miles west of Chicago. The band started in Chicago in the mid-’90s and relocated to Chapel Hill, N.C. for several years. It includes Jonathan on guitar and vocals and his brother Robert on bass. The brothers will give their first Doleful Lions show in two years on April 22 at the Abbey in Chicago. They just completed a new album, Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil Out of Prison, which should be released soon — hopefully by summer. They are working on yet another album for the Jesus Warhol label and have numerous albums available on Parasol Records.
I spent several hours over the last couple of weeks visiting with Jonathan about his music, his influences and his outlook on life.
Zombies
“We are all zombies waiting to have an apocalypse,” said Jonathan, when asked about the significance of B horror references in his songs. Jonathan believes Americans are being distracted by trivialities from a creeping fascism — much like the future described in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World — and disaster is bound to be the result.
“I feel like everything is a horror show. I think that B-Movie horror is a good barometer for what is going on in the world. I think we are pretty much all programmed and I think that eventually that programming will destroy everyone. I mean people are actually entertained by Dancing With The Stars, which to me is a sign of being a zombie. Most people could care less about the government taking away your rights. They have a big screen TV so who cares? It is totally Brave New World.
“It’s by design. They want us to be all preoccupied with our jobs and our rent and paying for food they know that if we are worrying about that we won’t question them taking our freedoms. People’s lives are hard, ’cause that is what they want, so we don’t question anything. We watch Dancing with the Stars when we get off work cause we can’t be bothered with what is really going on.”
His lyrics are a way of expressing his horror at the world’s problems and dealing with his struggle with bipolar disorder. They also spring from a heartfelt love of old cinema and science fiction — and growing up with access to a damn good video store.
Musical Beginnings
MusicMissionary: “Would you mind telling me how you got into music?”
Jonathan Scott: “When I was 4 is when it started. My parents had an old Realistic stereo they never used and they had a few records and I discovered it and learned how to work it and started listening. I remember they had Abbey Road, Beatles 65, Beatles VI, some Barbra Streisand record and Creedence, but once I discovered the stereo I stopped going outside to play. At that time we were living in Memphis and Elvis was huge so I went to K-Mart and bought Elvis 45s and The Eagles, John Travolta, Shaun Cassidy – you know, the popular stuff in the mid-’70s.”
MM: “Osmonds…”
JS: “I didn’t have any Osmonds, but when I was in kindergarten Kiss was huge and I heard Kiss Alive II and the music scared me and Gene Simmons scared me, but I really loved it.”
MM: “I actually had a Donnie & Marie album. Don’t tell anyone.”
JS: “Oh, that’s okay, I don’t think you should have to be responsible for any record you owned until maybe when you reach high school. I had a lot of pretty lame shit, I had the John Travolta record and really loved it. This song called ‘Easy Evil’ – I loved that song. I read a few years ago that Jim Gordon played drums on that song.”
MM: “Only Travolta song I remember is ‘Gonna Let Her In.’”
JS: “Yeah, that was the big song from the record but I liked the B-Side. That was the A side. I don’t know I was 4. I thought it was good haha.”
Hardcore Punk
MM: “So what about playing music. When did that start?”
JS: “I got into hardcore when I was in high school and really wanted to play in a band ’cause my friends had started playing music. I didn’t play an instrument, but I could sing okay, so my first year of junior college at College Of DuPage I put an ad up looking for a band that plays in the style of Husker Du/Bad Religion or the Descendents and this guy Jason called me and we eventually started a band. We were really bad.”
MM: “What year would that have been, about?”
JS: “This was in 1990. There were a bunch of bands in suburban Chicago doing similar stuff and we eventually got in contact with a lot of people in bands.”
MM: “Did y’all make songs or do covers?”
JS: “We did all originals but we did do a Mudhoney song and a Minor Threat song. It was fun though.”
Cinco de Gatos
Jonathan Scott in his post-hardcore days with Cinco de Gatos
MM: “So anyway… You left off doing hardcore and singing but not playing. When did you start doing that? You play guitar, right? Anything else?”
JS: “Yeah well, when that first band broke up, I moved to Chicago and my roommate [Dan Panic] played drums for Screeching Weasel and Jason – the guy that was in my first band — lived like a block away, so we decided to start playing, even though I had only been playing guitar for like a month. We were called Cinco de Gatos and I had to learn to play pretty fast, but we spent most of that summer rehearsing and played our first show in January of 1995. At the time, we had this dude named Ryan who had played drums in this band called Gauge playing second guitar. We did our first show and we were so bad Ryan and Dan quit that night.”
MM: “You say you moved to Chicago. Where were you before that with your first band?”
JS: “In the suburbs. We were based in the Downers Grove area.”
JS: “There was a suburban hardcore scene out there. Tony Victory lived down the street in Downers and had shows at his house all the time and now he is Victory Records haha.”
MM: “What kind of music were you guys making?”
JS: “It was really influenced by Fugazi and the stuff on Dischord Records. Also the bands on Lookout and stuff like Jawbreaker. There were a lot of bands like that at the time.”
From post-hardcore to indie pop
MM: “When did you start to develop your current sound? I’m hearing Beatles, Beach Boys, some shoegaze maybe… Very different from the kind of music you’re describing.”
JS: “Well, at the time when I was playing in Cinco I was getting into stuff like Big Star, Teenage Fanclub, obviously the Beatles, the Byrds and then the UK stuff like My Bloody Valentine, Ride. I was way into Elvis Costello too, but by the end of that band I had completely lost interest in playing post-hardcore or emo or whatever you want to call it and I wanted to play stuff like what I was listening to. Plus Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices came out in ’94 and I got that and I said ‘Screw this band I am in.’ So I bought a 4-Track in 1995 and wrote a bunch of pop songs.”
MM: “Normal pop songs? As in, not about Satan or werewolves or sci fi?”
JS: “Oh no, these songs were love songs. You know, guitar pop stuff, and with Casio keyboards — real twee stuff. I played it for Jason in Cinco de Gatos and he hated it. So I knew I was onto something.
“I have to tell you this story: When my first album Motel Swim came out, DL’s played Chicago. I was living in Chapel Hill at this time, and I played the album for my childhood friend Kevin Smith. Kevin had come up with me and been into hardcore and stuff, and I played him Motel Swim and he said ‘Dude this is the most uncool record I have ever heard.’ I felt like I had accomplished something ’cause that is what I was going for. Haha.”
MM: “So, what was it about pop songs and being uncool that was cool to you?”
JS: “Well, I had been playing in punk rock bands or hardcore, emo whatever you want to call it. Power pop is uncool at least in my circles and I really wanted Doleful Lions to be completely different from the Chicago emo shit that was going on at the time. I felt no connection to that stuff at all.”
MM: “What was it about emo that you hated? Too whiny?”
JS: “No, I just didn’t really feel an emotional connection to it — which is weird considering it is called emo — it always seemed contrived to me. I didn’t feel that music at all, but I felt stuff like Beach Boys and Flamin’ Groovies. I mean I remember where I was the first time I heard ‘Shake Some Action’ but I can’t say the same about the first time I heard Fugazi.”
Horror Movies
MM: “The main thing that has fascinated me about your stuff has been the pairing of lush pop and B horror imagery. Can you explain why you like that combination and why you like B horror movies?”
JS: “I grew up loving B movies so much. My brother and I used to watch all that stuff all the time. There is a song on the new album called ‘Julie’s Video’ which is kinda a tribute to this video store my brother and I used to go to, it is what I know so I figured I would write about stuff I know, which is Lucio Fulci movies.”
MM: “Why B horror and not ‘art’ horror?”
JS: “Because I relate to stuff like Gates Of Hell and Dawn of The Dead more than some art house movie. I think it is probably because I am a suburban kid who had access to a really good video store.”
MM: “It seems like you have a thing about zigging when others are zagging if you know what i mean. Finding uncool things and making them cool…”
JS: “Yes, there is a song on the Rats Are Coming The Werewolves Are Here called ‘The Contrarian,’ which is about myself haha.”
MM: “The B horror movie thing is a perfect example.”
JS: “Yeah, taking horrible movies and putting them in a literary context… I mean The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! is a horrible movie! Almost unwatchable. But Andy Milligan’s movies are charming and I would much rather watch that than Inception or something.”
MM: “How did you get into that stuff and what made you want to make songs about it?”
JS: “Well, I have been into horror movies since I was a kid and never really grew out of it, and bands like the Misfits and the Cramps have done that sort of thing before, but not really a guitar pop band at least not at that time really.”
MM: “That’s what I found so striking about your music. Pretty sounding music, but the titles and lyrics are like Night of the Living Dead. I love juxtapositions like that.”
JS: “Yeah, I do too. The new record is even more pronounced with that type of thing. The lyrics on the new record are pretty hateful and violent.”
Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil Out Of Prison
The forthcoming Doleful Lions album has a rather controversial title, though not everyone will get the reference. (I had to look him up myself.) Indie musicians have a hard enough time getting attention that a bit of controversy probably won’t hurt, and it might help.
Beausoleil is doing hard time for the 1969 murder of music teacher and associate Gary Hinman. Beausoleil said he was trying to collect money from Hinman, who was said to owe money to Charles Manson (yes, THAT Charles Manson) for selling a bad batch of mescaline that had in turn been sold to some rather pissed off bikers.
Beausoleil was also a musician and aspiring actor who appeared in some B horror movies and wrote the soundtrack for a movie called Lucifer Rising that he would’ve starred in if he hadn’t gone to prison. Beausoleil wasn’t involved in the Manson Family’s “Helter Skelter” murders, but his affiliation with the Family has most likely kept him from getting paroled.
Jonathan doesn’t condone what Beausoleil did and thinks he deserves to pay for his crime. But he also thinks it unfair that the man’s cultural contributions are forgotten and that he seems to be paying for murders he didn’t commit.
“I think Bobby Beausoleil should pay for his crime, which was murder, but he should not be lumped in with the Manson family ’cause he was never a part of it. Vincent Bugliosi said that Bobby was a part of the Manson family but he wasn’t. He is what I would consider a genius musician and he deserves a fair parole hearing.”
The album title has already garnered a bit of attention.
“Actually I got a message from Bobby Beausoleil the other day about the record from his wife,” Jonathan said. “She was really appreciative. I wanted to let her know we are not planning on breaking him out of prison. We just wanted to acknowledge the musical influence he has had on us. And she told him about it. I guess he got a kick out of it.”
Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil is going to be a very dark album, as you might gather from the video of the title track, which contains scenes from the Kenneth Anger film, Lucifer Rising.
MM: “Tell me about your new album. You said it’s very dark.”
JS: “Yeah it is. I kinda gave up on everything last year. My girlfriend who I lived with I caught cheating on me. She was having an affair and I basically stopped caring about stuff. So the album is really dark and hateful.”
The song “Funeral Skies For Burst Patriot” is a good example of that darkness. Jonathan explained that the lyrics are about a fictitious assassination of right wing pundit Glen Beck. It is also inspired by Peter Gabriel’s “A Family Snapshot,” a song that tells a story from an assassin’s viewpoint.
“Like I said this is a pretty dark record,” he said. “I actually was a little hesitant to put the song on the album after the AZ congresswoman got shot.”
It’s a beautiful song, despite the subject matter:
Mental health issues
Jonathan said he has bipolar disorder. He describes himself as “crazy,” but he is functioning — earning money, paying the rent, making music. He isn’t taking medication right now and says smoking weed “does the trick” without the side effects prescribed drugs gave him.
MM: “Maybe the album [Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil Out of Prison] is a kind of exorcism.”
JS: “Well I am bipolar and it is a lot about me not dealing with being bipolar. I stopped taking my medicine last year. I got tired of being so asleep so with this record this is me totally nuts.”
MM: “Do you want me to edit that part?”
JS: “No, I want people to know how I am. Don’t edit it at all.”
MM: “OK. Totally your call. I know some people are private about that.”
JS: “I am not. I want people to know I am bipolar and I am doing okay.”
Jonathan has uploaded numerous Doleful Lions videos on YouTube. You should also check out the Doleful Lions’ Facebook and MySpace pages. And you’ll want to hear the Doleful Lions back catalog. Jonathan will start releasing those albums soon on Bandcamp. Check the Doleful Lions Facebook page for updates.
UPDATE: The deal with Parasol is off. The new album will come out in digital format on the Jesus Warhol label and Jonathan is shopping the album around to other labels for a CD release. Find out more about the planned release and the blowup that nixed the Parasol deal.
I thought it was pretty awesome when my last post about Halloween received a reply from a musician I really like. Jonathan Scott of The Doleful Lions dropped by to thank me for including his song “The Rats Are Coming the Werewolves Are Here” in my list of favorite songs for Halloween. The album was one of my favorite discoveries from the indie label Parasol Records. It was the only Doleful Lions album I ever bought, but that is definitely going to change.
I love the way the band, fronted by Jonathan and usually accompanied by his brother Robert, combines campy yet macabre lyrics with catchy pop melodies.
Jonathan informed me that the band will release a new album on Halloween called Let’s Break Bobby Beausoleil Out Of Prison. A free two-song EP called Halloween Is Coming can be downloaded for free. Stream it and see what you think:
And here is the song that grabbed my attention years ago and is still on my list of favorites:
Check out the band’s Facebook page and MySpace page.
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Peter Murphy is coming to get you.
I’ve loved Halloween ever since I can remember. I think I enjoy it even more than Christmas. There’s something about the creativity and imagination it inspires. I also get a kick out of that little chill that comes from being scared of something you don’t really have to be afraid of. It’s cathartic I think.
Thinking back on Halloween makes me feel like a kid again, when I guessed the number of pumpkin seeds in a jar and won a jack-o-lantern at school, went trick-or-treating dressed as a pirate, came home and ate candied apples, went through the haunted house and felt the dead man’s eyes and guts (grapes and macaroni). Plastic vampire teeth and those little wax harmonicas that used to drive my dad batty. Sitting in the dark with my best friend and a flashlight, telling ghost stories.
Now that I’ve grown up it isn’t quite the same of course. I don’t dress up as anything for Halloween (although last year, I put on skull make-up for El Dia De Los Muertes for a parade in Austin). I mainly just get in the mood by playing awesome songs, and maybe that’s what I like best about Halloween when you get down to it: There are a lot of really cool scary songs. It seems to bring out the best in so many musicians.
Here are some videos for Halloween, things I really like. No “Monster Mash” here. I like things a little darker than that.
And just for good measure, a list of Halloween favorites (Let’s see your list of scary songs):
The Legendary Pink Dots – “Hellsville,” “Needles (Version Sirius)” and many more…
Meat Beat Manifesto – “She’s Unreal,” “Oblivion/Humans.”
Doleful Lions – “The Rats are Coming, the Werewolves are Here”
Handsome Family – “When that Helicopter Comes,” “So Much Wine.”
Bauhaus – “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” “The Dog’s a Vapour.”
Concrete Blonde – “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song),” “Jonestown.”
Elysian Fields – “Hearts are Open Graves,” “Rope of Weeds,” “Queen of the Meadow,” and a lot more…
Tones on Tail – “Burning Skies,” “Movement of Fear.”
Peter Murphy – “Funtime”
The Shroud – “The Passion of Lovers is for Death” (Bauhaus cover–I like this version better)
NWA – “Natural Born Killaz”
The Cure – “Lullaby,” “Hanging Gardens,” “Other Voices.”
The Smithereens – “Blood and Roses”
Alan Parsons Project – “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and basically the entire Tales of Mystery and Imagination album
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I know this is silly, but it makes me smile and a lot of folks recognize it as my avatar.
The MusicMissionary 
Doleful Lions vs. the PMRC – cover song project takes on Tipper Gore and the ‘Filthy 15’
I love a good revenge story. Doleful Lions frontman Jonathan Scott will exact his revenge on moral crusader Tipper Gore and the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) throughout 2012.
The year-long project, Doleful Lions vs. the PMRC, will cover the so-called “Filthy 15” songs most harshly condemned by the PMRC during the 1980s.
The Doleful Lions will release up to one song a month throughout the year, with bonus tracks around the holidays. “I am already coming up with a lot of ideas for what I want to do. Some of the songs will be really straight and some won’t,” said Jonathan.
The Doleful Lions’ occult/gothic pop would likely be targeted by the PRMC if the organization was still active, but Jonathan’s motive is intensely personal. “I blame Tipper for fucking up part of my childhood so I guess I want revenge,” he said.
“In the mid-‘80s my mom read Tipper Gore’s book [Raising PG Kids in an X-rated Society] and came to the conclusion that the weird music I listened to played some part in my being bad in school and getting in trouble all the time. So she went through all my records and listened to the songs and wrote down all these lyrics that she said she objected to and wanted to know why I liked all this occult violent music — that is how she saw it anyway — and one day when I was at school she threw out all my records. My parents made some rule where I could only listen to music approved by them and all of it had to be from the 60s or something. It was a weird time.”
The Filthy 15 list was part of a Washington Post article in which the PMRC suggested (per Wikipedia) that the RIAA and the music industry “develop ‘guidelines and/or a rating system’ similar to the MPAA film rating system,” as well as “printing warnings and lyrics on album covers, forcing record stores to put albums with explicit covers under the counters, pressuring television stations not to broadcast explicit songs or videos, ‘reassess[ing]’ the contracts of musicians who performed violently or sexually in concert, and creating a panel to set industry standards.”
The article got rock music and magazines removed from from American stores including Walmart, J. C. Penney, Sears and Fred Meyer.
The moral crusade didn’t stop there. In September 1985, the Senate held a hearing on so-called “porn rock,” taking testimony from musicians Dee Snider, Frank Zappa, John Denver, as well as PMRC representatives and Senators Al Gore and Paula Hawkins. The Dead Kennedys were actually put on trial for violating obscenity laws (it ended in a mistrial).
It was a strange time to be alive.
Songs on the Filthy 15 (with their lyrical sins) include:
1 Prince “Darling Nikki” (Sex)
2 Sheena Easton “Sugar Walls” (Sex)
3 Judas Priest “Eat Me Alive” (Sex)
4 Vanity “Strap on Robbie Baby” (Sex)
5 Mötley Crüe “Bastard” (Violence)
6 AC/DC “Let Me Put My Love into You” (Sex)
7 Twisted Sister “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (Violence)
8 Madonna “Dress You Up” (Sex)
9 W.A.S.P. “Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)” (Sex/Language)
10 Def Leppard “High ‘n’ Dry (Saturday Night)” (Drug and alcohol use)
11 Mercyful Fate “Into the Coven” (Occult)
12 Black Sabbath “Trashed” (Drug and alcohol use)
13 Mary Jane Girls “In My House” (Sex)
14 Venom “Possessed” (Occult)
15 Cyndi Lauper “She Bop” (Sex)
“I am surprised no band has ever done these songs in this way before,” Jonathan said. “The Filthy 15… the whole concept was so ridiculous. I watched a couple of hours of the PMRC hearings on CSPAN the other night, it was really amazing to watch these Senators wasting time and money on such bullshit. I think the project will be pretty fun.”
Stay tuned. The first release will come out Jan. 30. Songs will appear on this page as they are released. In the meantime, check out the Doleful Lions’ other work. Their entire discography is now available through Bandcamp.
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Tagged as censorship, Doleful Lions, Filthy 15, Jonathan Scott, PMRC, Tipper Gore