Nazi Punks Fuck Off!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
| “Nazi Punks Fuck Off!” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Single by Dead Kennedys from the album 'In God We Trust, Inc. EP |
|||||
| B-side | "Moral Majority" | ||||
| Released | November 1981 | ||||
| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | 1981 | ||||
| Genre | Hardcore punk | ||||
| Length | 2:58 | ||||
| Label | Alternative Tentacles | ||||
| Writer(s) | Jello Biafra | ||||
| Dead Kennedys singles chronology | |||||
|
|||||
"Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" was the fifth single by the Dead Kennedys. The record was released in 1981 on Alternative Tentacles with "Moral Majority" as the b-side. Both songs from this single are taken from the In God We Trust, Inc. EP, although the version of the title track on the EP is different from the version on the single.
The single included as a bonus an armband with a crossed-out swastika. The design has since become associated with the Dead Kennedys and anti-racist punks in general.
[edit] Inspiration
In the late 1970s, some members of the punk subculture on the West Coast of the United States began to use Nazi symbolism to shock outsiders, and others even adopted neo-Nazism in earnest. Some such listeners of the Dead Kennedys' earlier songs "Kill the Poor" and "California Über Alles" missed the satirical intent behind those pieces and took Biafra's lyrics at face value. Despite their dim view of fascism, the Dead Kennedys had found favor among the nascent Nazi punk movement as radical right wing polemicists. As a result, their shows began to attract an unwanted audience of neo-Nazis, in a situation similar to that faced by Joy Division. The Dead Kennedys addressed this segment of their audience with "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!"
[edit] Versions/covers
A version of the song different from both the album and single versions appears on the Let Them Eat Jellybeans compilation.
The grindcore band Napalm Death released a cover of the song on their EP Nazi Punks Fuck Off; it was also featured on Virus 100, a compilation of Dead Kennedys covers released by Alternative Tentacles in 1992. Napalm Death re-recorded "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" for their 5-track cover-EP Leaders not Followers in 2000.
Destroy 2 did a short cover of the song on their debut (and only) album, 1995's We Are Voice And Rhythm Only.
Vacuum (from the Netherlands) did a Dutch language cover version entitled "Nazipunx Rot Op".
Final Conflict covered it in the album Nazis Make Good Targets
Meg Lee Chin did a cover version of this song in 2004.
Eugene Chadbourne did an acoustic cover of this song.
Darkest Hour covered this song in 2007 for Kerrang!'s "Higher Voltage" CD, the second in a series of CDs featuring various artists performing exclusive covers.
[edit] Trivia
- Martin Hannett, who Biafra mentions in the opening of the In God We Trust, Inc. version of the song as having "overproduced" it, was a producer for Joy Division, among other artists.
- This song was the second consecutive Dead Kennedys single to contain "Fuck" in its title.
|
|||||||||||||||||
