Night of the Living Rednecks
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| “Night of the Living Rednecks” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Song by Dead Kennedys | ||
| Released | 1987 | |
| Format | CD | |
| Recorded | Unknown | |
| Genre | Spoken Word | |
| Length | 5 min 10 s | |
| Label | Alternative Tentacles | |
| Producer | Jello Biafra | |
Night of the Living Rednecks is a live improvisation featuring singer Jello Biafra, of the Dead Kennedys, recounting a story to the audience with a bebop style bass guitar and drum backing, as guitarist East Bay Ray fixes his "broken" guitar.
[edit] Plot
The song begins with the end of a live performance of the band's song "Chemical Warfare." At the end of the song, an abrupt cut-out comes from East Bay Ray's guitar, and Jello Biafra announces to the audience, "Ray's guitar broke!" The audience then tries to get them to play their version of the theme song to Rawhide, to which Jello responds "No, he won't play 'Rawhide,' won't play anything." He also humorously invites a member of the audience to be Dinah Shore for a performance of the theme tune from her show, asking them "whose alter ego is Dinah Shore?" while some members of the audience still try to cajole them into playing "Rawhide." Apparently unsatisfied by the audience's response, he then says "I notice the fists didn't go up so quickly this time." Drummer Ted then does a quick drum roll, which Jello appears to find unsatisfactory for the performance, as he then repeats the word "yawn." Klaus Flouride then begins a bebop style bass line while Ted begins drumming again, then Jello starts telling a story.
The story is about the last time that Jello was in Portland, the night before the band played at a club called The Long Goodbye. While Jello was walking the street at 10:30 PM, he was attacked by jocks in a bright blue pick-up truck (which Jello said looked like a "life-sized Hot Wheels car"), who shouted "hey faggot" at Biafra, and apparently "showered him with water." After the first time this happened, Biafra picked up a rock, and after they shouted "hey faggot" at him and squirted him again, he chucked the rock at the truck and put a decent size dent in it. They then charged after Jello with clubs, threatening to kill him, while he hid out in a phone booth in front of a Kentucky Fried Chicken. After a few seconds of the jocks trying to get into the booth and people saying he was crazy Jello, who thought that acting like he really was crazy would be his way out of the situation, decided to goad the Jocks into calling the cops, which they did—only to be sent home by the police after the incident was recorded. Jello reflects on the incident, saying "So this is Oregon. Tolerant Oregon," and then hassles East Bay Ray to finish fixing his guitar, because he's out of stories.
[edit] Trivia
- According to the liner notes for Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death, the person who recorded the song is unknown, as the track is listed as being recorded by "persons unknown".
- The original performance of this track is also available on video as part of a 1979 Portland, Oregon concert that is widely circulated as a bootleg.
