Prince: He’s Responsible for Cultural Controversies

Prince: He’s Responsible for the Parental Advisory Sticker on Your CDs

If you were a kid when “Purple Rain” was released, your parents may have tried to keep you away from the sexually explicit lyrics. One famous parent, who was outraged when she bought the album for her then-11-year-old daughter, took steps to make sure no other parents got the same shock – Tipper Gore, wife of then-Senator Al Gore.

“When we brought the album home, put it on our stereo, and listened to it together, we heard the words to … ‘Darling Nikki’” she wrote in her book, “Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society.” “The vulgar lyrics embarrassed both of us. At first, I was stunned, but then I got mad!”

Ms. Gore sprung into action, forming the Parents Music Resource Center which lobbied Congress and ultimately got the recording industry to agree to a labeling system warning consumers of explicit language and sexual content.

What’s so funny now is that the lyrics you hear on albums now makes what Prince was saying 40 years ago sound Rated PG…without the ’13’.