'Honey, have you seen my Cyndi Lauper CD?' 'Umm, no' ... Al and Tipper Gore share a joke. Photograph: Rose M. Prouser/AP
Let's not poke fun at Live Earth. Well-meaning people gathered in a big stadium to hear artists who have arrived by private jet warn of the dangers of climate change (probably in the rain) might be too daft to laugh at, but it isn't something to get seriously steamed up about. However, the elevation of the Gore family to the status of cultural royalty is a much more worrying sight, especially for anyone who knows their history.
To be fair to Al, he has been banging on about the environment since 1988, when he published his first book, Earth in the Balance. The real peach of the family, though, is Tipper, Al's wife. She'll probably be by his side on Saturday, drinking in the applause. Twenty years ago the idea that the Gores could be described as Rock's First Political Family would have been laughable. Tipper, see, has also written a book: the prim and very, very proper Raising PG Kids In An X Rated Society.
This was published in 1987, two years after Mrs Gore and her friend Susan Baker formed the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center), the pressure group which claimed a link between violent or sexual rock lyrics and the breakdown of the nuclear family. The 15 songs listed as being especially dangerous included AC/DC's Let Me Put My Love into You and Cyndi Lauper's She Bop.
How strange it all seems now. Rock music in the 80s might not have stood for much, but it definitely stood against something - Tipper Gore. On Saturday at Wembley Stadium Metallica will play on the same stage as Madonna (whose - by her standards - innocuous Dress You Up was one of the "filthy 15" songs on the PRMC's hit list). But that's nothing. In 1985 the PMRC's Senate hearings in Washington DC brought together such disparate talents as the Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra, Frank Zappa (who asked the Washington wives: "Ladies, how dare you?") and John Denver. Yes, even the composer of Annie's Song was moved to protest against Tipper's mob.
You see, as well as having hair bigger than the bands they pilloried, the PMRC also had clout. They established the practice of stickering albums that were deemed offensive, which in turn led to chains such as Wal-Mart refusing to stock these albums. There is a word for what the PMRC achieved and that word is censorship.
Twenty years on and this is all ancient history. In its place we have rock bands that seem keen to cosy up to powerful establishment figures in order that we think better of them as people. But not that long ago the idea that the Gore family would have received rapture and adoration from rock and pop artists, as well as their audience, would have been ludicrous. It may not be the end of the world, but the fact that this has been forgotten is a real shame.
