25TH ANNIVERSARY OF CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY
Congress Shall Make No Law…
On September 19th, 2010, Zappa Records released Congress Shall Make No Law . . . It is a CD containing Frank Zappa’s 1985 remarks against the censorship of free expression by artists. The hearings, influenced in no small part by the then newly-formed Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) headed by Susan Baker and Tipper Gore to promote a rating system for recorded music, in response to such Bills as H.R. 2911 concerning the collection of a blank tape tax to benefit the recording industry, were recorded on Capitol Hill and at Annapolis, MD.
Congress Shall Make No Law . . . features over 40 minutes of Frank Zappa’s uncut testimony. Zappa’s attorney, Larry Stein, who accompanied Zappa to the Senate hearing in 1985, contributed liner notes for the CD; artist Bill Miller designed the stunning album cover.
According to Gail Zappa, Congress Shall Make No Law . . . is released as an educational project, representing Zappa’s tireless commitment to the First Amendment which he felt his duty to protect by providing (in his words) “stimulating digital audio entertainment” in the form of “material which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress.”
