After a busy work week, I am happy to now be cruising through a long weekend. The latter half of my week was buoyed considerably by this next record.
Disc 1493 is…. Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Artist: The Dead Kennedys
Year of Release: 1987, featuring music from 1980-1987
What’s up with the Cover? A disembodied head floats above what appears to be a checkerboard of emaciated bodies or maybe garbage. A floor made bodies and garbage is sure to attract a bunch of hungry vultures, which is exactly what’s happened here. If this cover disturbs you that’s the intent. It could also be a sign you might not want to listen to the record, or maybe even read this review.
Still with me? OK – here we go…
How I Came To Know It: My friend and former roommate Greg put me onto this record, and the Dead Kennedys more generally. We didn’t agree on music all the time back then, but this was one of his records I liked a lot.
How It Stacks Up: “Give Me Convenience…” is a compilation record, so it doesn’t qualify for stacking or rating.
Ratings: I do not rate “best of” records but if I did this one would do well.
I took a wicked delight in blasting the Dead Kennedys out of my convertible Jaguar this week. It’s not the kind of music the typical Jag owner is going to be sharing at a traffic light. The Dead Kennedys are punk rock masters at the art of shocking people though, and would have either appreciated the juxtaposition, or failing that, that I don’t really care if they would have appreciated it.
That “go fuck yourself” attitude of the Dead Kennedys came at a time in my life exactly when I needed it. The Dead Kennedys gave a voice to my frustration when I was young, broke, and so uncertain of my future that it didn’t bear contemplating. Years later, life has worked out pretty well, but record remains as great as ever, and felt like a rush of tempestuous youth being injected into my veins.
A big part of this is the visceral energy the Kennedys bring to their music. Every song is the musical equivalent of a street fight, with the band swinging haymakers at you from the first note. In punk tradition they play with a sloppy abandon, but this is a surface illusion – underneath they are playing tight tunes with melodic structures that would work played in any number of other styles.
As you might expect from a band named after the untimely deaths of members of the Kennedy family, the songs are not silly little love songs. They are a mix of biting social and political commentary, with a side of substance abuse thrown in for good measure. Lead singer Jello Biafra tackles each of them like a snarling dog, clearly revelling in lyrics designed for maximum shock value. If you don’t like your art up in your face, then this band is not for you. Maybe stick to “The Water Lilies”.
“Police Truck” is about a crew of bad cops cruising the city looking for drunks to pummel and women to harass. “Too Drunk to Fuck” is about exactly what you imagine it is about, with plenty of very specific imagery to paint the scene in clear and present detail. Monet, it is not.
When the Kennedys go full political, no one escapes their wrath, and no topic or metaphor is taboo. On “Holiday in Cambodia” Biafra imagines wealthy western elites getting a wake-up call in the killing fields of Pol Pot. On “California Uber Alles” he compares then California governor Jerry Brown to Hitler, and west coast hippies as his stormtroopers. The song is a smorgasbord of hippy and fascist imagery being intertwined, such as:
“Zen fascists will control you
Hundred percent natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face”
And:
“Now it is 1984
Knock-knock at your front door
It's the suede denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece”
Highly inappropriate? Without question, and that’s the Dead Kennedys for you.
The album peters out a bit near the end, with a collection spoken word bits, live performances and experimental song snippets that make things drag on a bit. I suspect this is a deliberately decision. The clue is in the album title, “Give Me Convenience, or Give Me Death” being a nod to the annoying consumer aspect of a ‘greatest hits’ album in the first place. The Kennedys respond with most of what you want, and then a healthy dose of “go fuck yourself” to round out the collection. They give you convenience right enough, but they don’t want you to feel complacent about it.
This record reinvigorated my love of the Dead Kennedys and I investigated their full discography as a result. There was a lot of good stuff in there, which I’m now eager to add to my collection.
Best tracks: Police Truck, Too Drunk to Fuck, California Uber Alles, The Man With the Dogs, Life Sentence, Holiday in Cambodia, I Fought the Law, Pull My Strings, Kinky Sex (Makes the World Go Around)
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