Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables is the debut studio album by the American punk rock band Dead Kennedys. It was first released on September 2, 1980 through Cherry Red Records in the United Kingdom and later issued by Jello Biafra's own Alternative Tentacles label in the United States. It has been certified gold by the BPI. The best selling and generally the most critically acclaimed album by Dead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables has become a major staple of American punk. It is the only Dead Kennedys album to feature drummer Ted and guitarist 6025.
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Lead vocalist Jello Biafra's strong political statements on songs such as "California Über Alles" and "When Ya Get Drafted" launched Dead Kennedys into the political arena.
Musically, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables laid the blueprint for future Dead Kennedys' releases; loud, noisy, fast, but with a sense of dynamics and musical individualism. The surf and rockabilly-inspired riffs owe something to Ramones' most influential recordings, drawing from early American AM pop and rehashing it in the immediate, aggressive context of punk rock. The lyrics lend a significant bite to the breakthrough of the already strident musical assault. On the original vinyl version Side A was tracks 1-7 and Side B was tracks 8-14. The songs on Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables were recorded with minimal overdubs limited to vocals and the addition of rhythm guitar in places.
The photo on the front cover, showing several police cars on fire, was taken during the White Night riots of 21 May 1979, that resulted from the light sentence given to former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White for the murder of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. When Biafra ran for mayor, one of his policies had been for a statue to be erected to Dan White, and for eggs, tomatoes and stones to be available nearby for pelting it.
In 2014 the album became the subject of a book, released in the UK, US, Brazil, Finland and Germany, written by author Alex Ogg.
Fruit Vegetables Video
Reception
In contemporary reviews, Trouser Press found that the style and content of the album derived from the group The Sex Pistols and "will sound dated to the trend-conscious." but the album "may be the only legitimate companion piece to the Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks. The review concluded that "The band works largely because of Jello Biafra, a distinctive and remarkable singer" who "thrives on extreme attitudes." The NME compared the album to music by the British punk group the UK Subs, stating that the Dead Kennedys "hardly come across as anything but smarter, both musically and intellectually ... Despite [the Dead Kennedys] grasp of dynamics and their highly-ordered arrangements, there's really only one track here which makes effective use of their mannerisms and devices, and that's 'Holiday In Cambodia', already available in single form, and probably the biggest (musical) reason for this album's presence in the charts." Robert Christgau of the Village Voice stated that he found vocalist Jello Biafra poor, comparing his vocals to Tiny Tim if he were an out of work actor.
Release variations
- The original back cover featured a found photograph of an old lounge band called Sounds of Sunshine, with Dead Kennedys' logo pasted onto the drum kit and skulls and crossbones spliced onto their instruments. The original photograph, as found by Flouride at a garage sale, had no identifying remarks on it whatsoever, and was used because the band thought it was "hilarious". Somehow Warner Wilder, the former vocalist of the defunct lounge band learned of the photo and threatened to sue Dead Kennedys. The back cover was reprinted with the heads of the band members cut off, but this solution was found to be unsatisfactory to Sounds of Sunshine, forcing an entirely different photo of four old people in a living room (with the Alternative Tentacles bat mascot pasted over a picture frame). When Cleopatra Records reissued Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables in 2002, the original unbeheaded lounge band picture reappeared. The 25th Anniversary "Deluxe Reissue" co-released by Cherry Red Records and Manifesto Records in 2005 used the old people photograph, but with Dead Kennedys' logo substituted for the Alternative Tentacles Bat
- Early IRS pressings featured the cover tinted orange with black lettering. This cover variation was not authorized by the band. According to a late-80s interview with Goldmine magazine, IRS told the band they wanted to make the domestic version different from the Cherry Red import, to which Biafra claimed to have told IRS, "Yeah, inferior to the original -- change it back!" During a 1981 performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., Biafra mentions, "Some of you stooped so low as to buy our wonderful album, even with the shitty Disneyland orange cover which was not our idea."
- Post-IRS, pre-Alternative Tentacles pressings on IRS's Faulty Products subsidiary added "Police Truck" to the middle of the Side A sequence, between "Let's Lynch the Landlord" and "Drug Me".
- Some Cherry Red vinyl pressings added "Too Drunk to Fuck" to the end of Side A.
- Pirate pressings of Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (as well as the next two Dead Kennedys releases, In God We Trust Inc. and Plastic Surgery Disasters) were manufactured in Italy, Spain and Portugal. According to Biafra, these pressings were manufactured by someone who retained the master parts from defunct Italian licensees and put out what Biafra described as "Clorox bottle-quality pressings". These pressings were sold by a cut-out distributor to record stores that were, in Biafra's words, "too snooty" to deal with the independent distributors that Alternative Tentacles dealt with.
- The run-out groove of the early Alternative Tentacles pressings as well as early Cherry Red pressings includes the text "Well?? Who are the Brain Police???" - a reference to the song "Who Are the Brain Police?" by The Mothers of Invention.
Track listing
All tracks written by Jello Biafra, except where noted.
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Eyeballs
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Eyeballs is the accompanying 55-minute documentary, directed by Eric S. Goodfield, that is included with the Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables 25th Anniversary Edition. It features a brief history of Dead Kennedys' early years up to their first UK tour, never before seen live performances, interviews with Klaus Flouride and East Bay Ray, comments by music journalists, and insights from the key people involved with the recording of Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. The video omits references to the origins of songs that would include a mention of Jello Biafra, although his 1979 run for mayor is highlighted.
Personnel
- Jello Biafra - lead vocals
- East Bay Ray - guitar
- Klaus Flouride - bass, backing vocals
- Ted - drums
Additional performers
- 6025 - rhythm guitar on "Ill in the Head"
- Paul Roessler - keyboards on "Drug Me" and "Stealing People's Mail"
- Ninotchka - keyboards on "Drug Me", backing vocals
- Dirk Dirksen - backing vocals
- Bobby Unrest - backing vocals
- Michael Synder - backing vocals
- Bruce Calderwood (Bruce Loose) - backing vocals
- Barbara Hellbent - backing vocals
- HyJean - backing vocals
- Curt - backing vocals
- Chi Chi - backing vocals
Production
- Norm - producer
- East Bay Ray - producer
- Oliver DiCicco and John Cuniberti - engineer, mixing
- Kevin Metcalfe; Paul Stubblebine - mastering
- Judith Calson - front cover photo
- Winston Smith - artwork
- Annie Horwood - artwork
- Jello Biafra - artwork
Charts
In 2010. It was awarded a diamond certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 250,000 copies throughout Europe.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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