I have been a fan of the Dead Kennedys since I first heard them back in 1983 or 84. It’s no exaggeration to say the band is 100% responsible for me becoming interested in politics. In fact, one of my most vivid teenage memories is my parents confiscating all of my punk albums as punishment for whatever fuck-up I’d gotten myself into (lord knows there were plenty of those), and then later returning ONLY the Dead Kennedys records, “because they have social value.”
I never got a chance to see the Dead Kennedys live, although my old man and I went to see Jello Biafra (singer, primary lyricist, and face of the band) on a spoken word tour at the University of Rhode Island back in 1990 or so. He was good… although by the second half he sounded kind of paranoid.
Or so I thought. Fact is, a lot of what Jello predicted -in politics, in society, in our media, in our surveillance state- has come true, and then some. And for perhaps the first time I ever, when I think of the world I grew up in, I feel… old.
Consider this your early open thread for Saturday night. I’ll post two more videos/songs (not necessarily Dead Kennedys) in comments, and I hope you’ll do the same.
Halfway through my 4-mile Wednesday night run in West Philly, I became acutely aware that what i thought was gas was actually something a bit more solid. I was out at 57th and Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia which is not exactly replete with accessible restrooms. I only had two miles to go, so I pressed on valiantly -I had no choice- but during the last 3 blocks, things were… urgent.
As I dashed down Walnut Street toward our destination, Motorhead came on Spotify. The song: “999 Emergency”.
The perfect soundtrack (and yes, I made it just in time).
I am pretty sure the beginning of this:
…was lifted from this:
I know, I’m eclectic tonight!
Apparently I’m absolutely retarded when it comes to posting a youtube embed here, so I’ll just throw down some links instead. Political and the first two songs I think of after reading your post.
The Dead Kennedys
http://youtu.be/-KTsXHXMkJA
Tom Waits
http://youtu.be/W9mhsW5aWJM
Feel free to give advice on how to embed youtube vidoes. Everytime I try it either has too many parameters, or in the preview where the video embed should be, it is just blank white space, and there (still) isn’t an edit button.
Instead of using the short code that pops up in the box when you click “share”, click “embed”, scroll down a little, click the “show more” button and make sure the “use old embed code” box is checked. Then just copy and paste the longer code into your comment.
Ruth and the band make rock and roll before it got its name, and she doesn’t sound like she’s crying at all: