High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial is the second spoken word album by Jello Biafra. Biafra summarizes the recent history of censorship in America, focusing on crusades to ban subjects such as evolution from school textbooks. He reveals that some court cases on the subject were made to appear local and as if brought by ordinary citizens (for example, Mozert v. Hawkins City Board of Education[2][3]), but were in fact spearheaded and funded by televangelists such as Pat Robertson. He also explains the part that Christian fundamentalist groups played in the creation of the Parents Music Resource Center. The second part of the record is devoted to Biafra's lively description of his own experience with the court system after complaints to law enforcement by the PMRC over the Dead Kennedys' Frankenchrist album.
| High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales From the Trial | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Spoken word | |||
| Length | 96:16 | |||
| Label | Alternative Tentacles | |||
| Producer | Jello Biafra | |||
| Jello Biafra chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
Track listing
edit- Disc 1
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Intro - Love American Death Squad Style" | 11:46 |
| 2. | "Talk on Censorship" | 44:06 |
| Total length: | 55:52 | |
- Disc 2
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 3. | "Tales From the Trial" | 43:24 |
| Total length: | 43:24 | |
Track 1 is a CD bonus track, taken from the compilation album Oops! Wrong Stereotype.
References
edit- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ Mozert v. Hawkins City Board of Education Archived 2009-05-05 at the Wayback Machine. Webpage found 2009-06-30.
- ^ Philadelphia Inquirer, February 7, 1993, "A call for sanity on what Johnny can read", webpage found 2009-06-30.