UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 01.04.2014.
Time to punk out a bit (punkin time & all). There are so many versions of this album, you can never get enough. Being the rotten vegetarian that I am, I need my constant supply of fresh fruit.
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables is the debut album by Dead Kennedys, released initially on Cherry Red Records in the UK in 1980, eventually through IRS/Faulty Products in the US, & later by the DK's own Alternative Tentacles label.
The photo on the front cover, showing several police cars on fire, was taken during the so-called ‘White Night Riots’ of May 21,1979 that resulted from the light sentence given to former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White for the murder of Mayor George Moscone & Supervisor Harvey Milk. The copy I own is an early IRS pressings with the cover tinted orange with black lettering. This cover variation was not authorized by the DKs.
It also features the original back cover with a found photograph of an old lounge band called The Sounds Of Sunshine, with the DK's logo pasted onto the drum kit, with skulls & crossbones on their instruments. The original photograph, as found by Biafra at a garage sale, had no identifying remarks on it whatsoever. It was used because the band thought it was ‘hilarious’. Somehow Warner Wilder, the former vocalist of the defunct lounge band learned of the photo & threatened to sue the Dead Kennedys, so the back cover was reprinted with the heads of the band members cut off. This solution was also deemed unsatisfactory to the Sounds of Sunshine, forcing an entirely different photo of four old ladies in a living room with the Alternative Tentacles bat mascot pasted over a picture frame.
On the original vinyl version Side 1 & Side 2 each contained seven songs. This post-IRS, pre-Alternative Tentacles pressing on IRS's Faulty Products subsidiary adds "Police Truck" to the middle of Side 1 between "Let's Lynch the Landlord" & "Drug Me".
Year of Release: 1981
Label: IRS Records SP 70014
Genre: Punk
Tracklist:
Side 1 -
Kill the Poor
Forward to Death
When Ya Get Drafted
Let’s Lynch the Landlord
Police Truck
Drug Me
Your Emotions
Chemical Warfare
Side 2 -
California Uber Alles
I Kill Children
Stealing People’s Mail
Funland at the Beach
Ill in the Head
Holiday in Cambodia
Viva las Vegas
Download: Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Download Size: 78.8MB (ripped from surprisingly crisp sounding vinyl at 320 Kbps)
decryption code in comments
15 comments:
Why thanks for this post - I bought this on vinyl in the late 80's / early 1900 and played it to death - Just got a deck set up again after a long while and was planning to convert this to mp3.
Guess you saved me some valuable listening time.
This has to be one om the best blogs out there - thanks for doing what you do.
Nik
Absolutely an essential record to own. I have this same IRS pressing as well.
Just had your blog recommended to me and I'm loving what I'm reading. I see a lot of records on here that I own and love as well. Can't wait to listen to some of your postings that I haven't heard.
I do a similar thing over at sapmusic.blogspot.com. Stop by some time.
DK - the sound from my High School life. I totally appreciate this gem - I was missing a handful of the songs! Keep up the good work.
Gods of punk!
To all,
This is indeed an essential chunk o' punk. Glad everyone is enjoying it. If you are looking for more great DKs, Michelle over at Salmagundi Syncopation has posted up the live 1982 DKs A Skateboard Party here. It is great live tunes & hilarious between-song banter from the loquacious Jello.
never gets old.
there is a track missing (funland at the beach) because you split i kill children in two tracks
Great post...somehow an eternal record for me...but:oops...what about the last seconds of "chemical warfare"? your rip stopped just too early... :)
..and "viva las vegas"? lost last chord...
In the thirty years since i first bought this, it's never stopped giving me that buzz! A true classic. Was very lucky that the local council where i grew up in the UK allowed them to play the council owned venue ('81 i think)- so got to see them. 21 tour dates, only 3 gigs happened!
Great blog! The memories! Fresh Fruit and Rotting Vegetables is a classic - no doubt about it! I have some pics to go along with the music. Same time frame.
http://www.eclypso.com/2011/11/dead-kennedys_25.html
Great! But the link is as dead as the kennedys. Would it be possible to repost?
Cheers!
to Henrique Valadares,
The link is fixed. thanks for letting us know. enjoy.
Reupload please.
Maybe MEGA has its detractors, but at least the links stay up longer than anywhere else. I have re-uploaded this once more, this time to MEGA.
MEGA decryption code
QpTUoiN13fLaitARjdsJY3hGlrt5j5iGsJd18d9PeuA
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