Nazi Punks Fuck Off!

Infobox Single
Name = Nazi Punks Fuck Off!


Artist = Dead Kennedys
from Album = "In God We Trust, Inc." EP
B-side = "Moral Majority"
Released = November 1981
Format = 7"
Recorded = 1981
Genre = Anarcho-punk
Hardcore punk
Thrashcore
Length = 2:58
Label = Alternative Tentacles
Writer = Jello Biafra
Producer =
Certification =
Chart position =
Last single = "Too Drunk to Fuck"
(1981)
This single = "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!"
(1981)
Next single = "Bleed for Me"
(1982)
Misc =

"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.

Background and 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. [" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o_nDEQV4Zg&feature=related Dead Kennedys "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" live] "] The Dead Kennedys addressed this segment of their audience with "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" 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. [" [http://www.martinhannett.co.uk/bio.htm Martin Hannett biography] ". martinhannett.co.uk. Retrieved on June 28, 2008.]

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 [ [http://www.napalmdeath.org/mediaplayer/videos.php?id=9 Napalm Death Mediaplayer ] ] 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".

*Goldfinger featured a short clip from this song for their tune "The End of the Day" on their 2000 album Stomping Ground.

*Final Conflict covered it in the album "Nazis Make Good Targets". [ [http://www.secondhandsongs.com/song/60976 Second Hand Songs - Song: Nazi Punks Fuck Off - Final Conflict ] ]

*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.

References

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE3LELgqFRk Documentary on Nazi punks in Leipzig, Germany] .
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uKxTxkGZCI&feature=related Live performance by Napalm Death] .