California Über Alles - Redux

California - History Repeats Itself

You don't really get a video, you just get a picture of the cover of the Dead Kennedys' seminal 1980 album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, and the audio for  California Über Alles, the band's first single from the same album (the single was actually released 19 months before the album, and with a slower time signature; most fans consider the album version to be the "correct" one, and if you've ever heard the song, it was most likely the album version).  In an unexpected but splendid bit of random chance (or proof that the Flying Spaghetti Monster thinks history is fun and funny), the California electorate, in crisis mode, chose to re-elect career politician Jerry Brown as California's governor, about 30 years after he originally served in that office.  And despite some lyrical references to the time period when the song was written, does raw anger at politicians ever truly go out of style?  It was the first single by The Dead Kennedys, and it's steeped in anarchy, individual rights and an acute (and valid, in  my opinion) mistrust of anyone in authority.  It just happens, in this particular case, to be Jerry Brown.





You should also note that Jerry Brown has always been considered a Democrat.  Jello Biafra, the lead singer and primary lyricist of the Dead Kennedys, is considered by most people to be extremely leftist in his political views, and is a member of the Green Party.  Which, I think, shows just how important individual liberty is to Jello Biafra, considering that the song mocks Brown for being authoritarian, rather than solely for his political views, many of which Biafra would actually have in common with Brown.  The song also criticizes authoritarianism in general, and nazism, obviously.      

The coda to the story is that the Dead Kennedys released five studio albums, but eventually disbanded due to mounting legal costs from lawsuits and criminal obscenity charges over their lyrics, artwork, and album/song titles.  You know, the stuff we live in America for, the stuff we supposedly were granted by the First Amendment. I always find it odd when people say (and actually admit they believe) that it's okay to gut some Constitutional rights, if it makes some people feel safer or it ensures that people aren't offended.  These are usually the same mental giants who believe that democracy = majority rule.  Let me know when you figure out why our Congress includes the Senate, or why we have a Supreme Court, or most importantly, why the Bill of Rights is entirely about absolute rights of individuals, not groups.  There is no provision that if you name your band Gay Zombie Hookers, your neighbor can make you change it because it offends him.  But that's exactly what the PMRC did in 1986, when they complained about the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist, leading to obscenity charges and massive legal expenses for the band.  Biafra has released nine spoken word albums since the break-up, and last I checked, he and the others rarely talk to each other due to a nasty royalty dispute a few years ago.

Wiki PMRC if you really want to, but don't look at the pics - bad hair and bad clothes.  There really should be a law. And I should be in charge of determining the appropriateness of your clothes and hair. And what food you are eating.  And what car you drive.  And what religion you practice.  And whether you are popular enough to eat at certain places where I don't want you infringing on my right to be a narcissistic bastard.  (Now, though I can't believe I have to do it, but if I don't the hate mail will start ramping up, the DISCLAIMER:  I find I always have to write this bit, which seems odd since only illiterate people should by now not have gotten the point - the foregoing paragraph employed the use of  sarcasm and satire, EXTENSIVELY, to make a goddamn point).

If you don't feel like checking Wikipedia, or you already know, because you are cultured, smart and very good looking, that my summary will at least be funnier or more subversive than Wikipedia's, read on.  My limited understanding of the PMRC is that they were a totalitarian fascist spy organization that pretended to be crazy, fanatical religious freaks who wanted to end all music in the world for all time, but were clandestinely intent on spreading the seeds for a new worldwide totalitarian regime, mostly by associating themselves with the US Congress.  It's widely believed that many in Congress not only have never read the Constitution, but actually became spies with the PMRC.  It's not completely clear their origins, but most scholars believe the PMRC's leading spy organizers and recruiters, as well as some of their assassins and lunatics, came from North Korea, the Hanoi Hilton, Mainland China, The Soviet Union, and East Germany, as well as a few escaped nazis who had been hiding in South America.  Fortunately, though too late to help the Dead Kennedys, after some period of time they faded from the public eye as people started to realize that the PMRC was either the most anti-American organization in the world, or the dumbest group of spies they had ever seen.  Well, they were, after all, so stupid that they released their list of the 15 songs they considered the worst, thus guaranteeing that children had a single reference source they could use, and that sales of those songs would go up dramatically.  Also, many of the songs on the list, though I would not find them offensive for traditional obscenity reasons, I do find offensive for being simply bad songs.  So the PMRC not only stomped on the rights of artists, they also perpetuated the existence of some shitty music that should have been forgotten.  They predicted the Barbra Streisand Effect about 25 years early, and didn't even know (they were really stupid, after all).  Bully for them.

By the way, I absolutely refuse to buy any album that does not have an Explicit Lyrics sticker.  For those who might misunderstand, I DO NOT mean that the record company/artist has to have agreed to such warning stickers.  What I mean is that most albums without an Explicit Lyrics sticker (similar to songs by bands after they get clean and sober), by and large, suck.  So I try to only buy albums with the Explicit Lyrics sticker, as an indication of quality.   I'm still trying to get my money back for this terrible CD of Grammy nominees' songs that I bought a few years ago.  I was quite incensed to discover that it didn't have a "Crappy Edited and Censored Lyrics" sticker on it, to warn me of my impending descent into musical hell.

All I know for sure is that for 5-6 weeks during my freshman year in high school, I thought this band, this album and this song, were truly the best in the world.  Which, considering that I went to high school in Iowa, might tell you quite a bit.  I still wonder, from time to time, how many people within a few miles of my hometown, actually owned that record.  

The riffs and lyrics are incredible.