#Senate watched Van Halen video during ‘porn rock’ hearings

The U.S. Senate once watched the late guitar god’s music video “Hot for Teacher” at a hearing about too much sex, violence and Satanism in rock music.

During the Sept. 19, 1985, meeting, the Senate Commerce Committee tuned into the mildly steamy footage — which showed a bespectacled student fantasizing about his teacher in a bathing suit as the rocker wailed.

Amusing footage of the so-called “porn rock” hearing recirculated online Tuesday after news broke of Eddie Van Halen’s death, tweeted out by C-SPAN Communications Director Howard Mortman.

“One criticism of the rock industry is the way it portrays values in rock videos which are viewed by the kids,” Sen. Paula Hawkins (R-Florida) said at the hearing. “I brought along two videos, which I believe are representative of the kind of presentation which has caused the furor. The first is by the group Van Halen.”

She then played the head-banging music video on a TV in the center of the room, followed by “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister.

At the hearing, Tipper Gore — wife of then-senator and soon-to-be vice president Al Gore — also presented a slide show of sadomasochistic and supposedly Satan-inspired album-cover art, the L.A. Times reported. Rockers Frank Zappa, John Denver and Dee Snider then spoke out against censorship.

But senators said the meeting was not held to pass legislation, but rather to “talk about” and “ventilate concerns” brought about by conservative group the Parents Music Resource Center.

“We’ve come a long way from ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’ to ‘I’m going to make you eat me at gunpoint,’ ” the group’s co-founder Susan Baker, also the wife of then-Treasury Secretary James Baker, told the hearing.

The PMRC’s campaign convinced the Recording Industry of America Association to put “Parental Advisory” stickers on records deemed potentially inappropriate for kids, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Van Halen, known for his dazzling and innovative guitar solos, died Tuesday after a battle with throat cancer. He was 65.