The Dead Kennedys ‘Pull My Strings’

It’s kind of hard for a band to ‘stick it to the man’ these days unless they’re content with playing in workingman’s clubs to Jethro fans for the rest of their lives. You’ll find it hard to sell out; pretty much because, in theses foul two thousands, you’re born sold out. The man, he is everywhere, everything. But let’s not throw ourselves in to the Sarlacc’s pit that is the multinational global hegemony debate, it’ll devour us all. Instead, come with me on a stroll back to 1980 San Francisco, where one of the greatest Hardcore punk bands of all time, The Dead Kennedys, are about to take the stage at the preposterous Bay Area Music Awards.

The Dead Kennedys were part of the youthful US Hardcore scene of the late 70’s/early 80’s, but stood apart from their peers due to their thrash-surf guitar, acerbic wit, Bukowski-drawl and satirical politico-baiting songs. Tracks like ‘California Über Alles’, ‘Kill The Poor’, ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ and my personal childhood favourite ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’ were phenomenal slabs of brutalised sarcasm that would stoke the ire of the Regan Right Wing and attract the blind violence of the ‘Bombs and Jesus’ crowd for the remainder of their days.

But in 1980, the DK’s were still very much embryonic, with one underground hit to their name, the superb ‘California Über Alles’. It was the underground success of this track that brought the band to the attention of the Bay Area Music Awards’ (or Brammies, apparently) organisers, who wanted to include a ‘New Wave’ band on the bill to add some credibility to the show. When the Kennedys got wind of this, they decided that they would write a new song to play in place of the requested ‘California Über Alles’.

So, taking up their instruments in front of an auditorium packed with industry bigwigs, and decked out in white shirts with black ‘S’s embossed on the front in spray paint, they thundered out the intro to ‘California..’, before collapsing the song, swinging black ties from around their backs to create $ signs on their chests, and breaking in to one of the finest guerrilla attacks on the corporate music culture (and The Knack!) ever committed to tape. Luckily, someone was recording this one off performance. Listen below and sing along to the lyrics HERE