Timely "Dead Kennedys" Lyrics!!

I've been cleaning out an old storage locker, and came across some LPs I haven't seen in a while. Get a load of these DK lyrics, written in '85. Timely as always, Jello!


Potshot Heard 'Round the World

(Lyrics copyright Jello Biafra)

hey!
yo!
We're the united states marines!
We know you've all been killing each other
for at least two thousand years,
but we're here now
to protect the family
of christian heroin warlords most friendly to the west
so you knock off this fighting or we'll tell mom!
ever notice news is staged like tv wrestling shows
with reagans and khaddafis cast as cartoon villains and heroes
or those wildlife "documentaries" where a lion from a zoo
kills a deer tied down ahead of time at the perfect camera angle
when lemmings balk at dying for disney
they're just hurled off the cliff...
...we are gathered here today to take photos of the president
pretending to mourn these brave young me who came home from beirut
gift-wrapped in body bags- a truck bomb blew them to bits
we knew they were sitting ducks we sacrificed 'em, aztec style
so we could use their dead meat to cook up war fever back home
so make sure you take lots of pictures and slant your news our way
just like in wild kingdom we first tied down the prey
we want people boiling for revenge in their living rooms
so we can go play shoot-em-up anywhere we choose
and our backers can cash in without the public asking questions

Man, I love the Dead Kennedys!

Too bad the other guys in the band became so absurd and ended up getting embroiled in a lawsuit over the Levi's ad they wanted to do.

And to tour without Jello singing with them - well, hell, people, that is just WRONG.

This is an awesome song - thank you so much for sharing it again with me and with all of us!

<digging out Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables now...>

Was, is he, a prophet?
He and Leonard Cohen...
My daughter (16) has been listening to the DK's now for about
two years.
I knew him back in the eighties and took her to see him
do his spoken word show recently in Los Angeles.
Took her to meet him after the show and she was SO
impressed that I "knew" him.
Raising a teen is hard- so every little bit of respect helps...
Thanks Jello...
BHN

I remember listening to DK's "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables" cassette (the 80's) back in the day when I was a young navy recruit in California. "Holiday in Cambodia" was always a favorite.

Oh yeah...

I was discusted when I heard that on their tour, the DKs were pro war! Of course Jello was NOT touring with them. Has anyone else heard about this?

I think it would be cool to do a version of California Uber Alles with rewritten lyrics about the governer recall. There is a Jerry Brown version and a Reagan version already.

KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL THE POOR,
KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL THE POOR
TONIGHT!

Both Jello Biafra and Frank Zappa were great with political lyrics, and they both seem prescient today.

I think virtually all of his lyrics are timely.

Here's the song that goes through my head everytime I post here (and that's alot!)

Stars and Stripes of Corruption
Lyrics by Jello Biafra

Finally got to Washington in the middle of the night
I couldn't wait
I headed straight for the Capitol Mall
My heart began to pound
Yahoo! It really exists
The American International Pictures logo

I looked up at that Capitol Building
Couldn't help but wonder why
I felt like saying "Hello, old friend"

Walked up the hill to touch it
Then I unzipped my pants
And pissed on it when nobody was looking

Like a great eternal Klansman
With his two flashing red eyes
Turn around he's always watching
The Washington monument pricks the sky
With flags like pubic hair ringed 'round the bottom

The symbols of our heritage
Lit up proudly in the night
Somehow fits to see the homeless people
Passed out on the lawn

So this is where it happens
The power games and bribes
All lobbying for a piece of ass

Of the stars and stripes of corruption

Makes me feel so ashamed
To be an American
When we're too stuck up to learn from our mistakes
Trying to start another Viet Nam
Whilke fiddling while Rome burns at home
The Boss says, "You're laid off. Blame the Japanese"
"America's back," alright
At the game it plays the worst
Strip mining the world like a slave plantation

No wonder others hate us
And the Hitlers we handpick
To bleed their people dry
For our evil empire

The drug we're fed
To make us like it
Is God and country with a band

People we know who should know better
Howl, "America rules. Let's go to war!"
Business scams are what's worth dying for

Are the Soviets our worst enemy?
We're destroying ourselves instead
Who cares about our civil rights
As long as I get paid?

The blind Me-Generation
Doesn't care if life's a lie
so easily used, so proud to enforce

The stars and stripes of corruption

Let's bring it all down!
Tell me who's the real patriots
The Archie Bunker slobs waving flags?
Or the people with the guts to work
For some real change

Rednecks and bombs don't make us strong
We loot the world, yet we can't even feed ourselves
Our real test of strength is caring
Not the toys of war we sell the world

Just carry on, thankful to be farmed like worms
Old glory for a blanket
As you suck on your thumbs

Real freedom scares you
'Cos it means responsibility

So you chicken out and threaten me

Saying, "Love it or leave it"
I'll get beat up if I criticize it
You say you'll fight to the death
To save your worthless flag

If you want a banana republic that bad
Why don't you go move to one

But what can just one of us do?

Against all that money and power
Trying to crush us into roaches?

We don't destroy society in a day
Until we change ourselves first
From the inside out

We can start by not lying so much
And treating other people like dirt
It's easy not to base our lives
On how much we can scam

And you know
It feels good to lift that monkey off our backs

I'm thankful I live in a place
Where I can say the things I do
Without being taken out and shot
So I'm on guard against the goons
Trying to take my rights away
We've got to rise above the need for cops and laws

Let kids learn communication
Instead of schools pushing competition
How about more art and theater instead of sports?

People will always do drugs
Let's legalize them
Crime drops when the mob can't price them
Budget's in the red?
Let's tax religion

No one will do it for us
We'll just have to fix ourselves
Honesty ain't all that hard
Just put Rambo back inside your pants
Causing trouble for the system is much more fun

Thank you for the toilet paper
But your flag is meaningless to me
Look around, we're all people
Who needs countries anyway?

Our land, I love it too
I think I love it more than you
I care enough to fight

The stars and stripes of corruption
Let's bring it all down!
If we don't try
If we just lie
If we can't find
A way to do it better than this
Who will?