BORN TO CHOOSE.
THE PRO-CHOICE COMPILATION NO OTHER LABEL WOULD RELEASE.
RCD 10256
Considering the recent Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe V. Wade, it seems like a good time to publish an excerpt from Rykobook about Born To Choose, a compilation album Rykodisc released in 1993.
In the early ‘90s, there were lots of benefit albums, usually star-studded affairs. They’d certainly existed prior (No Nukes, etc.), but the Red Hot Organization’s AIDS benefit series launched in 1990 created a boom of similarly well-intentioned projects.
Craig Marks was the editor of CMJ, College Music Journal, an extremely important trade magazine for the exploding Alternative scene. They’d spun off a great convention in New York that all the majors used as launching pads for their “next big things.” In his role as CMJ’s editor, Craig had a direct line to artists. This was important because a lot of good ideas used to get quashed by management or the label before they ever reached the artist.
Craig’s project was a pro-choice benefit CD. Then, as now, this was a hot-button topic, which is why other labels were unwilling to take it on. They didn’t want to take heat from pro-life groups. It’s safe to say the Ryko staff was near-universally pro-choice. I’m not sure every single person agreed with the cause, but I never heard any objections to the project. We believed in women’s rights and were ready and willing to take on the project.
Lots of people outside of Rykodisc dedicated their time and services to pull the release together, including lawyer Michael Hafitz, designer Rudy VanderLans, and Hits magazine editor Karen Glauber among them. Barbara Longo, in our art department, had organized a pro-choice benefit in Boston with Uncle Tupelo, and she became (in her own words) the company “cheerleader” for the project.
We got great material from high-profile artists. REM instantly donated “Photograph,” an amazing track with Natalie Merchant. It would’ve been a hit single under other circumstances, but the artists’ parent labels wouldn’t allow us to release songs from the compilation as singles. Matthew Sweet, the Mekons, Tom Waits, Soundgarden, Pavement, NRBQ, The Cowboy Junkies, Lucinda Williams, NRBQ and Helmet all served up material. We got a Sugar song from Bob and added a John Trudell track that we COULD release to radio as a single since he was signed directly to Rykodisc.
There are tracks that were slated for the project that we couldn’t use. Some artists weren't willing to grant certain legal rights, which was understandable. They were supplying us with tracks for free, so they weren’t going to indemnify us if the bass player sued us later. This was a problem with metal bands in particular. It would’ve been great to do an all-metal Volume 2, especially because that world is perceived as such a boys club and there were very big names eager to participate.
The artist’s primary labels were generally pretty good about supporting the project. However, very few media outlets responded with advertising donations. This was no doubt partly because Red Hot was sucking all the air out of the room and garnered a lot of that free ad space. But also, it shows the very real resistance to openly supporting the issue of women's rights. We got a lot of vague commitments that never materialized. There was a feeling that certain people were unwilling to support the project.
The most galling fallout involved Sire, who refused to let us use a Madonna track. We’d had early discussions with her, and she was interested in coming on board. Those discussions ended with abrupt radio silence. A few months after our release Sire did a volume of their Just Say... series with a women's rights theme. Called Just Say Roe, it included an exclusive Madonna track. Sire was Madonna’s label. The Just Say… series was not created to generate money for a cause; it was a low-priced sampler to market Sire’s artists. I thought it was pretty weak of Sire to co-opt the issue without financially helping the organizations fighting for the cause. As far as I can tell, they didn't flow through any of the money to Planned Parenthood, etc. That said, Howie Klein, a notorious lefty, was head of the label, so perhaps they donated quietly, to avoid any ire.
To be fair, Sire was owned by Time Warner, a publicly owned company. Considering how quickly they folded to pressure regarding rap controversy (see Body Count), it's no surprise Sire maintained a "no-sides in the issue" policy. For us, the blowback wasn’t too bad.
Barbara Longo: “…We got one package containing a smashed David Bowie cassette with red paint splattered all over it saying something like we were doing something evil by releasing the pro-choice compilation. We expected more, quite honestly. I was asked to keep track of that type of stuff because of my ‘pro-choice contacts.’”
Proceeds were donated to NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League), BWARE (Brooklyn Women's Anti-Rape Exchange) and WHAM! (Women's Health Action and Mobilization).
In the end, Born To Choose had at least some effect on the pro-choice movement: it raised both awareness AND financial help for the cause. We wanted to do another, but it was hard to clear tracks and chase artists and managers who had other concerns besides reproductive rights. Like them, we never imagined we’d see Roe overturned.
"...even anti-abortionists will have a hard time denying the musical merit of this pro-choice collection. Drawing from a broad pool of talent, these performances are focused and effective..."
—Musician - 12/93, p.90
7 - Very Good - "...some of the US's most celebrated prime-movers in fine form...."
—NME (Magazine) - 11/20/93, p.35
“Granting the thematic animus of the Mekons' brazen "Born To Choose" and Soundgarden's ball-busting "HIV Baby," this charity comp has less in common with No Alternative than with A Very Special Christmas. The secret is consistency: quality artists (11 of the 12 have finished Pazz & Jop top 50, six top 10) doing quality material (perceptive enough to get involved, they cared enough to do it right).” A-
—Robert Christgau
