Swaggart, Meese attack rock

By JOHN SWENSON, UPI Pop Writer
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NEW YORK -- Rock 'n' roll has come under heavy fire recently from a coalition of political and religious figures bent on eliminating the music from the popular landscape in the United States.

Attorney General Edwin Meese and fundamentalist preachers, particularly Jimmy Swaggart, have attacked rock 'n' roll, labelling it pornography.

The recently published Meese commission report on pornography includes statements by commissioner James Dobson identifying heavy metal music as a form of pornography.

The Webster's dictionary definition of pornography is, 'Writings, pictures etc. intended primarily to arouse sexual desire.'

It is hard to imagine how Dobson could deduce that heavy metal arouses desire, unless his knowledge of it is limited to album covers. Anarchic thoughts, maybe. Sexual lust, no.

Jimmy Swaggart, the Baton Rouge, La., fundamentalist preacher who has capitalized over the years on the fact that he is a cousin of '50s rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, has waged a more far-reaching anti-rock campaign. Swaggart attacks not just the music, but also rock 'n' roll magazines, as pornographic.

In a sermon June 1, Swaggart chastised the giant discount chains Wal-Mart and K-Mart, which are heavily represented in the South, for selling rock 'n' roll publications.

'I've looked through quite a few of these magazines and as far as I am concerned they are pornography, pure and simple,' Swaggart said. 'They're more dangerous than Hustler and Playboy.'

His argues that they are more dangerous because they appeal to minors and 'demean every value in the family.'

K-Mart had no immediate response to Swaggert, but Wal-Mart did.

Wal-Mart proceeded to remove 32 popular music publications from its 800-store chain, including Rolling Stone, Circus, Creem, Hit Parader and Tiger Beat.

Wal-Mart spokesperson Stacy Duncan said Swaggart had nothing to do with the chain's decision to pull pop music publications from its shelves, calling the juxtaposition of sermon and ban 'unfortunate timing.' She compared the decision to the chain's refusal to sell see-through blouses.

Doubt was cast on this reasoning by the biggest music industry trade journal, Billboard magazine. Billboard reported that Philip Salvatore, vice president of Curtis Circulation, a magazine distributor, obtained access to an internal Wal-Mart memo attributing the ban to 'recent controversy.'

After reading the memo, Salvatore identified that controversy as the Swaggart sermon.

In Swaggart's words, 'Rock 'n' roll is one of the most destructive forces in the country and world today. Drug addiction, venereal disease, homosexuality, you name it. I think it denigrates every value. And rock stars are heroes to kids.'

Swaggart charged such middle-of-the-road pop stars as Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and the Police with corrupting youth.

'I don't listen to this music,' he said. 'But people in (my) organization do listen to it, for research, and they give me printouts, and it's mind-boggling what's going on under the guise of freedom of expression.'

Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone and Gerald Rothberg of Circus both declined much comment on Swaggart, but Dave DiMartino of Creem and Bob Guccione Jr. of Spin magazine have engaged the evangelist in public debate.

Guccione goes as far as labeling Swaggart 'a phony.'

'If he seriously thought rock 'n' roll was evil, I'd respect his views a little more,' Guccione said. 'But Swaggart is just reacting to the success he saw (Moral Majority leader Jerry) Falwell have opposing men's magazines. He's using the issue just to raise a lot of money for his church.

'This is nothing but packaged fire and brimstone, '86 style. I met him and I could see that this is a very clever man presenting the image of being a lunatic. He's cold and calculating. 'This is how I'm going to make my millions,' that's what he's saying to himself.

'What is significant,' Guccione concluded, 'is the calculated and avaricious plan behind all this. The danger is that people will mistake rock 'n' roll for one of the evils in society while ignoring the real issues, like drug addiction and too many guns on the street. If Swaggart thinks he can raise funds by doing it, he'll attack Broadway next.'

Dave DiMartino of Creem said he is 'shocked' by some of Swaggart's statements.

'I suppose the best way to counteract him,' DiMartino said, 'is to literally print what he's saying, which we did in our next issue. I offered him a page in our magazine if he wanted to reach our audience. He said he didn't think he wanted that kind of publicity. I told him I thought he wanted any publicity he could get.'

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