Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Posted on 27 June 2018 by Michael Stewart Foley

In 1978, San Francisco, a city that has seen than its share of trauma, plunged from a summer of political tension into an autumn cascade of malevolence that so eluded human comprehension it seemed almost demonic The battles over property taxes and a ballot initiative calling for a ban on homosexuals teaching in public schools gave way to the madness of the Jonestown massacre and the murders of Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk at the hands of their former colleague, Dan White.In the year that followed this season of insanity, it made sense that a band called Dead Kennedys played Mabuhay Gardens in North Beach, referring to Governor Jerry Brown as a zen fascist, calling for landlords to be lynched and yuppie gentrifiers to be sent to Cambodia to work for a bowl of rice a day, critiquing government welfare and defense policies, and, at a time when each week seemed to bring news of a new serial killer or child abduction, commenting on dead and dying children But it made sense only or primarily to those who were there, to those who experienced the heyday of the Mab Most histories of the 1970s and 1980s ignore youth politics and subcultures Drawing on Bay Area zines as well as new interviews with the band and many key figures from the early San Francisco punk scene, Michael Stewart Foley corrects that failing by treating Dead Kennedys first record, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, as a critical historical document, one that not only qualified as political expression but, whether experienced on vinyl or from the stage of the Mab, stimulated emotions and ideals that were, if you can believe it, utopian. New Download Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables [ By ] Michael Stewart Foley [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr For kids born in the late 1950s and beyond, who felt they had been robbed of the American Dream and abandoned by the people who last went to the culture barricades, Fresh Fruit actually offered hope.My first encounter with the Dead Kennedys was in a pulp rock magazine, probably Creem It wasn t a positive reaction The band s name was a turn off for someone born after the Kennedy assassination It was years later when I finally listened to the band Cleveland s WMMS was a world class rock statio For kids born in the late 1950s and beyond, who felt they had been robbed of the American Dream and abandoned by the people who last went to the culture barricades, Fresh Fruit actually offered hope.My first encounter with the Dead Kennedys was in a p...An account situating the best punk album ever my claim, not Foley s in the moment of American decline that gave it birth, and unravelling some of the bigger misconceptions around the band That name, for instance, which even some other punks found a bit much, was not just offence for offence s sake several of the band themselves had keen memories of how shocked they d been by JFK s murder And building on that, there s the importance of remembering that, in San Francisco at least, punks were An account situating the best punk album ever my claim, not Foley s in the moment of American decline that gave it birth, and unravelling some of the bigger misconceptions around the band That name, for instance, which even some other punks found a bit much, was not just offence for offence s sake several of the band t...There are only two things I know about Dead Kennedys They are one of the pioneering Californian punk bands and their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables is excellent Other than that I know nothing about this band Thankfully Michael Stewart Foley puts everything into perspective.As I have said before one of the best things about the 33 1 3 series is that each author has their unique way of approaching an album and in this case Foley eschews recording techniques well there s a coup There are only two thin...Absolutely fascinating and very difficult to put down Foley gives great historical and cultural context to a seminal punk album which most people myself included don t know the extent of I hope every other 33 1 3 book I own but have yet to read is as informative and engaging as this oneSolid entry in the series Covers SanFrancisco at large, the punk scene there, the band and the album in a brief but information filled 130 some pages. Fresh Fruit was my first proper taste of punk if you don t count The Toy Dolls I think I got a copy of it taped off a cooler kid at FE college before I d even filled my 30 tape briefcase style cassette rack At the time, my friends and I were a bit obsessed with rating any rock metal music on a scale of hardness , from Marillion at one end to things like Testament at the other Hearing the Dead Kennedys immediately broke that scale they didn t have the thi...Interesting but a little dry, and too many of his conclusions were that the DKs were smarter and better than any other political punk band and any critics were wrong I even kind of agree with the first part of that, but it doesn t make for compelling reading or arguments What I found most interesting actually was reading after Trump s election, since this delves into a period where anger at post Sixties complacency is driving young people toactive political engagement I feel some parall Interesting but a little dry, and too many of his conclusions were that the DKs were smarter and better than any other political punk band and any critics were wrong I even kind of agree with the first part of that, but it doesn t make for compelling reading or arguments What I found most interesting actually was reading after Trump s election, since this delves into a period where anger at post Sixties complacency is driving young people toactive poli...This is the first 33 1 3 book I have read, though my husband and a friend have been fans of the series for a while I don t have a basis of comparison with other 33 1 3 books, but I thought this one was very well written The historical perspective was especially valuable as an east coaster who has visited the Bay Area exactly one time in my life but a fan of Dead Kennedys for about the last 17 or so years, it offered a nice primer of some of the political issues facing the marginalized inhabi This is the first 33 1 3 book I have read, though my husband and a friend have been fans of the series for a while I don t have a basis of comparison with other 33 1 3 books, but I thought this one was very well...A superb entry in this amazing series of books, each focusing on a single album Foley is a historian of political and social movements, and he locates punk rock within these traditions as he should He gives 1978 and the album context by explicating the state of the world, ...Not just a clever and exhaustingly researched examination of Dead Kennedys timeless debut, but a fascinating look at the sociopolitical landscape of late 70s San Francisco and its attendant tragedies Jonestown,...

Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

27 June 2018

Michael Stewart Foley