Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
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Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables is the debut album by the Dead Kennedys, released in 1980 through IRS Records (later by the DKs' own Alternative Tentacles label) in the US, and Cherry Red Records in the UK. The best selling and generally the most critically acclaimed album by the Dead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables has become a major staple of American punk, a starting point for political punk. Although musical categories are difficult to define, many music historians also believe this to be the first hardcore punk album.
Although the raw production and strident assault have dated slightly, Jello Biafra's strong leftist statements on songs such as "Kill the Poor" and "California Über Alles", launched the Dead Kennedys into the political arena. It has been widely reported that this caused right-wing Christians and politicians to consider the Dead Kennedys "the most dangerous band in the world".
Musically, Fresh Fruit laid the blueprint for future Kennedy's releases: loud, noisy, fast, but with a sense of dynamics and musical individualism. The surf and rockabilly-inspired riffs owe something to the Ramones' most influential recordings, drawing from early American AM pop and rehashing it in the immediate, aggressive context of punk rock. The lyrics lend a significant bite to the breakthrough of the already strident (yet surprisingly catchy) musical assault. On the original vinyl version Side A was tracks 1-7 and Side B was tracks 8-14.
Release variations
- The original back cover featured a found photograph of an old lounge band called The Sounds Of Sunshine on the back cover, with the DK's logo pasted onto the drum kit and skulls and crossbones spliced onto their instruments. The original photograph, as found by Biafra at a garage sale, had no identifying remarks on it whatsoever, and was used because the band thought it was "hilarious". Somehow, one Warner Wilder, the former vocalist of the defunct lounge band learned of the photo and threatened to sue the Dead KennedysGeorge Gimarc, Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock 1970-1982. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2005. ISBN 0879308486 The back cover was reprinted with the heads of the band members cut off, but this solution was found to be unsatisfactory to the lounge band, forcing an entirely different photo of four old ladies in a living room (with the Alternative Tentacles bat mascot pasted over a picture frame.Jello Biafra interview with Goldmine magazine, February 1989, [reproduced at AlternativeTentacles.com] When Cleopatra Records reissued Fresh Fruit in 2002 the original, unbeheaded lounge band picture reappearedDead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, Los Angeles/San Francisco/London: Cleopatra Records/Decay Music/Cherry Red Records, 2002. The 25th Anniversary "Deluxe Reissue" co-released by Cherry Red Records and Manifesto Records in 2005 used the old ladies photograph, but with the Dead Kennedys logo substituted for the Alternative Tentacles BatDead Kennnedys, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables: 25th Anniversary Edition Los Angeles: Manifesto Records, 2005.Neither the 2002 nor the 2005 editions of Fresh Fruit... were done with the connsent or participation of Jello Biafra; Various interviews and press releases issued by Biafra stated that the singer/songwriter did not receive royalties from the 2002 edition, possibly due to the legal battle between Biafra and the rest of the band.
- Early IRS pressings included had the cover tinted orange with black lettering. This cover variation was not authorized by the band. According to a late-80's interview with Goldmine magazine, IRS told the band they wanted to make the domestic version different from the Cherry Red import, to which Biafra claimed to have told IRS, "Yeah, inferior to the original - change it back!" Jello Biafra interview with Goldmine magazine, February 1989, [reproduced at AlternativeTentacles.com]
- Post-IRS, pre-Alternative Tentacles pressings on IRS's Faulty Products subsidiary added "Police Truck" to the middle of the Side A sequence, between "Let's Lynch The Landlord" and "Drug Me".Dead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, Los Angeles: Faulty Products, 1982.
- Some Cherry Red vinyl pressings added "Too Drunk to Fuck" to the end of Side A.Dead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, London: Cherry Red Records, ca. 1981-82.
- Pirate pressings of Fresh Fruit (as well as the next two Dead Kennedys releases, In God We Trust Inc. and Plastic Surgery Disasters) were manufactured in Italy, Spain and Portugal. According to Biafra, these pressings were manufactured by someone who retained the master parts from defunct Italian licensees and put out what Biafra described as "Clorox bottle-quality pressings". These pressings were sold by a cut-out distributor to record stores that, in Biafra's words, "(were) too snooty" to deal with the independent distributors that Alternative Tentacles dealt with. Jello Biafra interview with Goldmine magazine, February 1989, reproduced at [AlternativeTentacles.com]
- Some copies of the first American CD pressing of Fresh Fruit by Alternative Tentacles were accidentally mislabeled at the pressing plant with a Christian radio program, a mistake discovered the hard way when some Christian stations played the program without screening it.
Track listing
All songs written by Jello Biafra except when stated.
- "Kill the Poor" – 3:07
- "Forward to Death" – 1:23 (6025)
- "When Ya Get Drafted" – 1:23
- "Let's Lynch the Landlord" – 2:13
- "Drug Me" – 1:56
- "Your Emotions" – 1:20 (East Bay Ray)
- "Chemical Warfare" – 2:58
- "California Über Alles" – 3:03 (Jello Biafra and John Greenway)
- "I Kill Children" – 2:04
- "Stealing People's Mail" – 1:34
- "Funland at the Beach" – 1:49
- "Ill in the Head" – 2:46 (6025)
- "Holiday in Cambodia" – 4:37
- "Viva Las Vegas" – 2:42 (Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman)
Credits
- Jello Biafra - lead vocals, artwork
- East Bay Ray - guitar, producer
- Klaus Flouride - bass, backing vocals
- Ted - drums
- 6025 - second guitar on "Ill in the Head"
- Paul Roessler - keyboards
- Ninotchka - keyboards, backing vocals
- Dirk Dirksen - backing vocals
- Bobby Unrest - backing vocals
- Michael Synder - backing vocals
- Bruce Claderwood - backing vocals
- Barbara Hellbent - backing vocals
- HyJean - backing vocals
- Curt - backing vocals
- Chi Chi - backing vocals
- Norm - producer
- Oliver Dicicco - engineer, mixer
- Annie Horwood - artwork
- Winston Smith - artwork
References and footnotes
External links
- [Lyrics for all Dead Kennedys albums]
- [Lyrics for Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables]
- [IRS Dead Kennedys page]
| Dead Kennedys |
| Jello Biafra | East Bay Ray | Klaus Flouride | D.H. Peligro |
| Former members: Ted | 6025 | Brandon Cruz | Jeff Penalty |
| Discography |
| Albums and extended plays: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables | In God We Trust, Inc. | A Skateboard Party | Plastic Surgery Disasters | Frankenchrist | Bedtime for Democracy | Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death | Mutiny on the Bay | Live at the Deaf Club |
| Singles: "California Über Alles" | "Holiday in Cambodia" | "Kill the Poor" | "Too Drunk to Fuck" | "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" | "Bleed for Me" | "Halloween" |
| Related articles |
| Hardcore punk | Manifesto Records | Alternative Tentacles | Penis Landscape |
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