Dead Kennedys

Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Alternative Tentacles, 1980

After a short hiatus, this column was supposed to return with a snappy analysis of some obscure pop record. Apparently providence had other ideas, because I ended up revisiting the much more enjoyable pastime of getting drunk and listening to The Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables at an obnoxious volume. Oh well.

One of the defining records of punk rock, Fresh Fruit is a masterpiece of black humour. Jet-black humour. The Sex Pistols' 'God Save The Queen' was facetious, but 'Kill The Poor' made it look about as sharp as a pair of fluffy dice. "No more welfare tax to pay!" Jello Biafra screamed in a Republican persona, advocating the massacre of homeless people. "Jane Fonda on the screen today/ Convinced the liberals it's okay!"

When Biafra switched to singing in the underdog's voice, his world-view was even less romantic. On the second track of the Californian band's debut album, he belted out the chorus "This world brings me down/ I'm looking forward to death". It was followed by a cynical number called 'When Ya Get Drafted'. In Fresh Fruit's dystopia, the ruling class wanted deadbeats killed and the proles wanted to top themselves anyway. Listening to it is like watching a film about the horrors of the twentieth century set to a surf-rock score.

There are a few light-hearted moments as well, like when the band push their rebellion into the ridiculous. 'Stealing People's Mail' and 'Let's Lynch The Landlord', with its sunny, Beach Boys-esque guitar solo, make for good sing-alongs. Sample: "We ain't goin' to the party/ We ain't goin' to the game/ We're gonna cruise down main/ Stealin' people's mail!"

Fresh Fruit ends with two of the band's most famous tracks, the unsettling 'Holiday In Cambodia' and their cover of the American classic 'Viva Las Vegas'. Together, the two songs are the perfect account of The Dead Kennedys' take on the USA – a horrible, scathing attack on naive, left-wing trendies and a fat-bellied parody of the uneducated classes. Sometimes I wonder if there was anybody they liked at all. Probably not.