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Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles

Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Released: 1979

California Über Alles Lyrics

I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles
And never frowns
Soon I will be president

Carter power will soon go away
I will be FÁ¼hrer one day
I will command all of you
Your kids will meditate in school

California Á?ber Alles
Á?ber Alles California

Zen fascists will control you
A hundred percent natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face
Close your eyes, can't happen here
Big Bro' on white horse is near
The hippies won't come back you say
Mellow out or you will pay

California Á?ber Alles
Á?ber Alles California

Now it is 1984
Knock knock at your front door
It's the suede/denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece

Come quietly to the camp
You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp
Don't you worry, it's only a shower
For your clothes here's a pretty flowerâ?¦

Die on organic poison gas
Serpent's egg's already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown

California Á?ber Alles
Á?ber Alles California

Writer/s: JELLO BIAFRA, JOHN GREENWAY
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

California Über Alles

This is about then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, and is sung from his perspective. In the song, an imaginary President Brown outlines his hippie/zen/fascist vision of America.

"Über Alles" is a German phrase meaning "above all else." It was part of the German national anthem until the end of World War II, and is closely associated with the Nazis.

In 1984, the Dead Kennedys released a sequel to this song on their album In God We Trust, Inc., which is about then-president Ronald Reagan, who preceded Brown as Governor of California. This update - which is done in jazz/lounge style for most of the song - is called "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now."

In our interview with Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra , he said: "I realized I was wrong about my conspiracy theory about Jerry Brown. Sure, I'd made it up all by myself and it turned out not to be true, so it was updated with Reagan lyrics until 'We've Got A Bigger Problem Now,' and the jazz version we goofed off with at sound check wound up becoming a staple of that record and the live show."

This was the Dead Kennedys first single. The band formed in San Francisco in 1978, but took their cue from the anarchist punk that was coming out of England. (Lead singer Jello Biafra is from Boulder, a bucolic city in Colorado that seems an unlikely place for an uprising. He claims that he somehow got his hands on an import of the Sex Pistols single "Anarchy in the U.K.," which set him on his path.)

"California Über Alles" set the provocative tone that would become the group's prime directive: upsetting the establishment. They quickly built up a following with their chaotic live shows and shocking songs like "Kill The Poor" and "Holiday In Cambodia."

The group released this song on their own independent record label, Alternative Tentacles, in 1979. Bob Last, the head of a British label called Fast Product, head the group when he was vacationing in New York City, and signed a deal with the band to distribute "California Über Alles" in the UK. The song got the attention of the influential BBC DJ John Peel, who played the song on his show, boosting the band's fortunes considerably.

The group then signed a one-year deal with a large independent label called Cherry Red Records, which issued the Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables album in 1980. After the year, the band was back on their own, using Alternative Tentacles to peddle their goods.

Jello Biafra wrote this song with his friend John Greenway; they were in a band called The Healers at the time and performed this song with that group.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger took over as Governor of California, Jello Biafra couldn't resist a new update of this song. The result was "Kali-Fornia Über Alles 21st Century," which he recorded with the Melvins and released in 2005. He told us: "How can you drop a song that has lines like 'Steroids for the master race, So you all can have my face?'"

This looks like a good place to mention somebody else who had a dark view of California: Al Kooper in Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards says, "The New York sensibility has always regarded California with suspicion. If your system is geared to New York's nonstop adrenaline rush, the relaxed California life-style can seem as if you're playing a 45 RPM record at 33(1/3). Usually, if New Yorkers follow that slow a pace, they move to Florida."

Kooper also relates the experience of staying at a friend's house which was actually a disgusting bug-ridden crash pad, and visiting another friend who, although rich, was too stoned to notice that he was eating dog food. Together, these experiences gave him an impression that California is depressing.