Tipper Gore

Mary "Tipper" Gore (b. 19 August 1948, Arlington, Virginia) is an American social activist and publicist, former wife of Tennessee Senator and 45th U.S. Vice President Al Gore (married from 1970 to 2010). She co-founded the infamous Parents Music Resource Center public committee in May 1985, which successfully pressured RIAA into adopting "parental advisory" warnings for music albums (similar to MPAA "audience suitability" ratings in the film industry). Even though she resigned from PMRC in 1993, shortly after becoming Second Lady, Gore earned a life-long "persona non grata" status in popular music with unprecedented amounts of ridicule, humiliation, and downright hatred from many prolific artists. Besides Frank Zappa and the Twisted Sister's frontman, Dee Snider, who participated in the widely publicized U.S. Senate hearings in September 1985, one of the most fervent critics of the "Parental Advisory" initiative was rapper Ice-T. He ruthlessly bashed Tipper in his 1989 track "Freedom of Speech," with verses like: "Think I give a fuck about some silly bitch named Gore? {…} Yo Tip, what's the matter? You ain't gettin' no dick? You're bitchin' about rock'n'roll, that's censorship, dumb bitch." The rapper further pointed out the contradictory nature of PG warnings, as instantly recognizable B&W stickers indicated the album must be "spicy enough," attracting listeners rather than deterring them: "Hey PMRC, you stupid fuckin' assholes. The sticker on the record is what makes 'em sell gold. Can't you see, you alcoholic idiots, The more you try to suppress us, the larger we get." The song featured Jello Biafra, frontman and founder of Dead Kennedys, who faced a lengthy 1.5-year legal battle after the release of 16584 album, that featured HR Giger's controversial "Landscape #XX" painting inside; even though the August 1987 hearings resulted in a mistrial with charges dismissed, the lawsuit nearly bankrupted Biafra and his label, Alternative Tentacles. In 1991, Ice-T concluded his 107621 album on Sire/Warner Bros. Records with a spoken word outro, "You Shoulda Killed Me Last Year," featuring a "special shout-out:" Fuck the police, fuck the FBI, fuck the DEA, fuck the CIA, fuck Tipper Gore, Bush and his cripple bitch!" In his 1994 book 803836, the musician further stated: "Tipper Gore is the only woman I ever directly called a bitch on any of my records, and I meant that in the most negative sense of the word." Notable examples of Tipper Gore's reprimand 📀 1988: Alice Donut's debut album 56372 on Alternative Tentacles ends with the song "Tipper Gore," which mockingly praised Gore for her "crusade" 📀 1989: The Aerosmith song 536810, explicitly about sex, featured a line: "Even Tipper thinks I'm alright." Two years later, during his acceptance speech at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards, Steven Tyler thanked Tipper Gore and Jesse Helmes (1921—2008) for ensuring that if "an album has a few dirty words, it'll sell another million copies" 📀 1990: Suicidal Tendencies referenced Gore in their song "Lovely" from 18733 CD/LP on Epic: "Tipper, babe, don't you remember me // Now I'm kinder, gentler, and so happy" 📀 1990: The bonus track on Warrant's 1990 album 94305, titled "Ode to Tipper Gore," was a 54-sec montage of expletives and obscenities edited from the band's live performances 📀 1990: Kid Rock's debut album 146000 had a song "Pimp of the Nation" with the line: "Tipper Gore is my highest paid whore" 📀 1990: Cinderella sang in "Shelter Me" off the band's 81348 album: "Tipper led the war against the record industry, she said she saw the devil on her MTV" 📀 1991: Furnaceface mentioned a "little sticker" that only whets my appetite […] only makes us want to hear it that much more in the song "We Love You, Tipper Gore" from their debut album 622381 📻 1991: Todd Rundgren's non-album track Jesse, which he occasionally performed live on tours, featured a verse: "I wanna fuck you, Tipper, 'cause you showed me that // Things are still the same, Everybody's parents turn out lame, I wanna say 'fuck you,' Tipper Gore" 📀 1992: Ramones addressed their song Censorshit, which also mentions Frank Zappa and Ozzy Osbourne, to Tipper Gore 📀 1993: KMFDM's song 8765 featured the lyrics: "Our records have stickers with a warning from Tipper. 'Cause they're no good for kids; if we'd get her, we'd strip her" 📀 1997: Canadian punk band Reset had a song "Go Away" on their debut album 798977, with the verse: "Tipper, won't you understand the message that I want to say. It's kind of rude but here it goes: it's ‘fuck you!’ I don't like what you do, and I don't like you" 📀 2002: Eminem rapped in "White America," the opening track on 12344 album: "To burn the {flag} and replace it with a Parental Advisory sticker. To spit liquor in the faces of this democracy of hypocrisy. Fuck you, Ms. Cheney; Fuck you, Tipper Gore"