Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables Songs Ranked
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 is the only Dead Kennedys album to feature drummer Bruce Slesinger and guitarist Carlos Cadona. The photo on the front cover, showing several police cars on fire, was taken during the 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 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. Here are all of Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables songs ranked.
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14. Stealing Peoples’ Mail
“The song is a great expression of the hobbies of bored disenfranchised teens, and the guitar break is one of the coolest things in punk history. This song cracks me up everytime I hear it. Hilarious! Makes me motivated every time I hear it!”
13. Drug Me
‘Good song, good lyrics, just not great. Good guitar riffs, but the song does tend to get old kinda quick…still great though! I just can’t get over how much “Drug Me” sounds like a death-metal song. that’s prolly ’cause I heard Sepultura’s rendition of it first.”
12. Ill in the Head
“The musical variation is less, but still works in some areas. “Ill in the Head” shines with complicated art-rock styled instrumental tangents. The Dead Kennedys are classic, controversial 80’s punk that accumulated their large cult classic status in the underground punk sceen by just being their carzy good-old rebellious selfves.”
11. Your Emotions
“The best song East Bay Ray ever wrote with the band…definite dance tune! If you are into punk at all, you should already have this album, but if you don’t, make sure it’s the next album you buy. It never gets old and you’ll listen to it countless times.”
10. Funland at the Beach
“Some people say this is the weakes track, I disagree…great guitar and lyrically morbid as hell but great! In a day and age when punk rock really is not punk rock anymore… sorry to say it but to the people who really know good punk music… it’s true meaning is dead.”
See more: Dead Kennedys Albums Ranked
9. When Ya Get Drafted
“A great song. The politics behind it are a bit similar to the ones the Hippies had about Vietnam (Jello ain’t no hippie, dont worry). Dead Kennedys’ debut album is an amazing record which contains some of the greatest punk/hardcore songs ever written.”
8. Let’s Lynch the Landlord
“”Let’s Lynch The Landlord” stands out as being the best song on the album. Great and stinging lyrics on this one. It gets me motivated to do crap everytime I hear it.”
7. Forward to Death
“Kick ass tune penned by 6025 the bands other original guitarist! One of the most important, influential hardcore punk albums of all time, it’s not hard to see why this album is as widely regarded as it is. First of all, the innovation is unignorable.”
6. Viva Las Vegas
“I love this one. Hilarious and one of the greatest cover songs of all time. This is a cover of the Elvis Presley song. Knowing the band, it’s more satirical but it’s still an awesome cover. I like it better than the original -“
5. I Kill Children
“”I Kill Children” has particularly bitter lyrics (“Ever wanted to die? Of course you have/But I won’t till I get my revenge/I’ve been butt-fxcked one too many ways/I don’t want to see people anymore”) and an absolutely vicious mid-section (which contains the preceding lyrics). Awesome stuff.”
See more: Dead Kennedys Songs Ranked
4. Kill the Poor
“Who knew that a song about poverty cleansing could sound so fun? The opening track is a very tongue and cheek dark humor track that is so fun to sing along with. Just don’t sing this in public.”
3. California Uber Alles
“This one can be updated to present times, do to Arnold being in office. Many people’s favorite, but I like “Holiday In Cambodia” better. Classic song, but not one of my favs, still great political message though!”
2. Chemical Warfare
“My absolute favorite song on this album! The satire shines through genious here! The part with the carnival music is frekin’ hilarious. The intro alone makes it deserve 2nd place.”
1. Holiday in Cambodia
“If anyone doesn’t know what happened, basically Jello Biafra(vocalist) got screwed over by the rest of the band when they wanted to use the song “Holiday In Cambodia” in a Levi’s Dockers commerical. Listen to this song, then come back and tell me you can’t see why Jello was outraged by this idea.”
