410. Dead Kennedys / Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. 1980. 4.5/5.

The originating punk and hardcore scene in both the UK and the US, along with other hotspots around the world, made the mid to late 1970’s an interesting place to be for the evolution of music. While in the US the Ramones and then the Misfits had both originated on the east coast, over in San Francisco another band came together in June 1978. Raymond Pepperell, better known as East Bay Ray, advertised locally for like-minded musicians to form a band. After several replies and some tryouts, Ray’s band was brought together, composed of – and for simplicity’s sake let's just go with the names that they came to be known by – Ray himself on lead guitar, Klaus Flouride on bass guitar, Ted on drums, 6025 on rhythm guitars, and Jello Biafra on lead vocals. It was this line up that recorded the first demoes of the band, and played their first gig on July 19, 1978. The name that was chosen for the band was “Dead Kennedys”, which did cause some problems when it came to booking gigs due to the inherent negative reactions to the name. They would at times have to play gigs under an assumed band name or pseudonym, some of those being "The DK's", "The Sharks", "The Creamsicles" and "The Pink Twinkies". There was an uproar in sections of the media about the name, though Ray in an interview many years later played down insinuations that the name was meant as an insult. “The assassinations were in much more poor taste than our band. We actually respect the Kennedy family. When JFK was assassinated, when Martin Luther King was assassinated, when RFK was assassinated, the American Dream was assassinated. Our name is actually homage to the American Dream".
6025 left the band in March 1979 under circumstances that never seemed to be addressed but was generally considered to be musical differences. In June 1979, the band released their first single, "California Über Alles", on Biafra and Ray's independent label, Alternative Tentacles. Going out on tour to the US East Coast to support the single, it was generally poorly attended, as you would probably expect of a new and fairly unknown band without a full album release.
In the autumn of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase, "There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan. At the time, in San Francisco, any individual could legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by 1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over time and eventually became a legal candidate. After a haphazard campaign that mixed unusual campaign policies alongside others that had some support, Biafra finished fourth out of a field of ten in the first round of voting, receiving 3.79 percent of the vote.
The band had more success with the release of their second single, “Holiday in Cambodia” in May 1980, which led into the recording of their first full album for the following few weeks. The front cover of the album, showing several police cars on fire, was taken during the White Night riots of May 21, 1979, that resulted from the light sentence given to former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White for the murder of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. One of Biafra’s policies when running for mayor had been for a statue to be erected to Dan White, and for eggs, tomatoes and stones to be available nearby for pelting it. The incendiary purpose behind the cover is the perfect entry point for the band’s debut studio album, the controversial yet thought provoking magnificence of “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”.

Classifying, interpreting, breaking down and systematically cleverly telling you about what each song is about on this album would be the kind of thing that Dead Kennedys would throw bile at me for. “Read the lyrics and work it out for yourself!” would be a more likely outcome in this regard. And certainly my intention is not to syphon through the track list here and tell you what was being insinuated in each song. Because I agree, it is far more effective if you listen to the songs themselves and take in what the lyrics are offering. Having said that, this episode would come up rather short if I didn’t offer you a few moments to discuss, so as with most openings I will ignore what I have just said and move forward.
Get stuck in from the outset! Because “Kill the Poor” kicks off with immediate tongue in cheek and satire commencing, the mid-tempo of the opening verse suddenly blown out of the water as the song increases in tempo and energy into the second verse and the fun singalong chorus of “Kill kill kill the poor”. We open this track with Jello’s vocals (in the main), allowing him to take centre stage from the start. On “Forward to Death”, written by 6025 before his departure from the band, opens with Ted’s halting rolling drum beat, giving him the opportunity to lead off a track in his own style, while lyrically it spews with the hatred of what is happening around the band, while allowing parents everywhere that it is condoning suicide. Ah, the innocence of not listening to the lyrics and taking what the true meaning is that abides. Just one of those classic examples. Then into “When Ya Get Drafted” we have the augmented bass tones from Klaus followed by Ray’s guitar riff opening the track, and the discussion on how the best way to kickstart the economy is to start a war, something certain countries have been making good use of for more than a century. And then it is Ray’s turn to start off a song, his easy strumming riff starting off “Let’s Lynch the Landlord”, the humorous and poetic tribute to the raising the rent whenever possible but avoiding providing the services that rent is supposed to pay for. The opening four tracks on the album cover a wide range of topics, and showcase each member of the band in their best light. “Drug Me” utilises keys to accentuate and highlight the strongest pints of the song, as well as chargig along at great speed such that it is hard to keep up with either the instruments or the lyrics being sprouted out. I particularly like the lines “Finally off of work, unwind and watch the ball game at the bar, another potato chip weekend is here at last”. Far too fast for me to say here without stumbling. Another great song where the meaning behind it is often confused by the title. “Your Emotions” has another great line, that being “They're all so concerned to make their thoughts into yours, Just a tape recorder mimicking of the bores, You're so boring, boring, boring, Always tape machine recording”. Just fantastic, great lyrics that offer great insights.
Musically, the best is yet to come. “Chemical Warfare” is fan-bloody-tastic, with brilliant guitar riff from Ray and bass line underneath throughout from Klaus, holding true to form even when Ray lets his guitar ring out, and Ted’s drumming is powerful and belligerent from start to finish. That fast tempo charges along, especially after the breakdown towards the end of the track where the chaos of instruments and vocal screams dies into silence, before returning for the final two lines at ferocity and velocity. Also, her is a song where the lyrics are closely tied to the title of the track, and with full impact. It closes out the first side of the album in perfect style.
Side Two then opens with the equally impressive and magnificent “California Uber Alles”, the wonderful opening of the track mixing Ted’s rolling drumbeat into Klaus’s bass riff, and then into Ray’s surf rock guitar riff. What a wonderfully executed opening, and then into the lyrics, spewing forth bile felt about then Governor of California Jerry Brown. The lyrics are sung from his perspective, as an imaginary version of Brown outlines a hippie-fascist vision of America. Both musically and lyrically this offers the best the band has to offer, the biting and stinging parody and satirical view executed under the powerfully brilliant music. Back into the band’s best punk hardcore music follows with “I Kill Children”, and yes another song that lyrically shocked those who aren’t able to glean the double meaning afforded through the words. This almost segues unnoticed into “Stealing People’s Mail”, with the song title nicely telling you exactly what the song is about. “Funland at the Beach” moves in the same direction. Ever wondered what might happen at an amusement park ifthe machinery failed spectacularly? Well now you don’t have to because Jello has it all sorted out for you! And then the first vestiges of mental health can be said to be examined here in “Ill in the Head”.
Arguably the band’s biggest hit and most well known song comes in the form of “Holiday in Cambodia”. The album version is a re-recorded version from the single release that came out a few months prior to the album’s release. Biting satire? Honest political commentary? A world view on events people were trying to ignore? There’s a little bit of all of that here. But more than anything else, it is just a great song, anchored by the guttural bass riff and the still surf rock tones of Ray’s guitar, and Jello’s just this side of cynical vocal delivery. An all time classic. The album then concludes with the Elvis Presley cover of “Viva Las Vegas”, though with suitably altered lyrics so as to drain every last drop of sarcasm out of the song and the album, giving it a finishing point that completely suits all that has come before it.

Back in high school at the end of Year 10, our year split into three and went on a week long end of year school camp. My friends and I chose the most basic of the three destinations and ended up at Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands. It was at that camp for a week that my whole journey in regard to the music I listened to changed forever. And a major part of that was something that became known amongst our group as ‘the Pommie Punk Tape’, a mixed cassette one of our friend's older brothers had put together for him of the best punk music that he listened to. And a part of that tape contained two songs from the Dead Kennedys debut album, “Kill the Poor” and “Forward to Death”. And once we had all gotten a copy of this cassette, all of the songs and bands on it became a part of our summer music experience, and beyond. On returning to school in February of 1986 I got a copy of the DK’s album recorded for me, and the beginning of another love affair blossomed as a result.
Oh to be a 16 year old male, and feeling rebellious by listening to a by then non-existent punk hardcore band and their tittering, laugh behind your hand, musical exploits, feeling so mirthful about tracks such as “Kill the Poor” and “Let’s Lynch the Landlord” and “I Kill Children” and “Holiday in Cambodia” and how just the titles would make adults bring coffee out their nose in disgust. And all the while knowing that the lyrics were satirising the world as we knew it, even if those same adults claimed that it was awful music and the subject matter just as awful. Aaaahhhhh... those were the days.
So yes, I didn’t come into the Dead Kennedys until their disbandment, but that didn’t stop me from listening to them. And it has always been this album in particular that has fascinated me. Yes, their other releases are good too, but this album contains such a powerful and energetic bubble about it. The songs were written before they were anyone, they weren’t trying to make an impression, they weren’t trying to build upon what they had already achieved. This album was the first, taking what they knew and what they enjoyed and creating a monolith with it. And lyrically it is till as important and poignant and relevant as it was when it was released 45 years ago, but musically it just seems to have grown stronger over time.
Listening to it again this week has been... just wonderful. It doesn’t matter how many times I have heard these songs, they are still just as enjoyable as they were when I first discovered the album. I still sing along to all of them - “Chemical Warfare”, “California Über Alles”, “Holiday in Cambodia”, one of the first songs I learned to play when I joined my first band at the age of 19. This whole album remains one of the keystones not only of the punk and hardcore scene, but of all of the sub genres that have grown from that over the time period since. It still draws me in every time I put it on to listen to, or turn up at one particular mates' house and hear it booming out of his garage. And there is every chance that this is more so because they released just four albums, and have resisted doing any more in the almost 40 years since their last release. It allows the band, and this album in particular, to reside in its little pocket of time, where the world was a different place, and yet the songs they wrote still resonate today. This is the hallmark of a great album, and “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” is most definitely a great album.