DO IT!

George Orwell claimed 1984 as the year totalitarianism would rear its ugly rat-trap-attached-to-your-face head. But after the PMRC was ready to come out of the oven, everyone was focused on the evils of music. Tina Turner was hanging out with David Bowie, Prince's crotch had his own entry in the DSM, the first wave of hardcore had dissipated, leaving a swathe of straight-edge kids to punch smoking girls, Dee Snider was scaring parents with spandex blood and Frank Zappa sat on the toilet. In a word: TURMOIL.

The insanity culminated with Judas Priest "defending the faith." In a lawsuit filed against the gods who gave rock and roll to us, a family claimed that their son had shot himself in the face as a result of backward-masked subliminal messages. The message? DO IT. Yes, that was the message. DO IT. Good thing Nike's non-subliminal ad campaign wasn't around back then. JUST DO IT. Yikes!

Any way, here's a trip down memory lane. Or, a trip down the time before time, when you were just a primordial bisque floating in the ether, awaiting Rob Halford's shrieking pipes to awaken your very being from its slumber: DO IT was actually a message to your parents, telling them to make you. Either way, DO IT! I mean, ENJOY!