Text by Bruce Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, March 25th, 2022)
Photo by: Stefan Brending (Lizenz: Creative Commons by-sa-3.0 de, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83319236)
California Über Alles by the Dead Kennedys
I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles and never frowns
Soon I will be president…
Carter power will soon go ‘way
I will be Führer one day
I will command all of you
Your kids will meditate in school
Your kids will meditate in school
California Über Alles
California Über Alles
Über Alles California
Über Alles California
Zen fascists will control you
Hundred percent natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face
Close your eyes, it 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
Mellow out or you will pay
California Über Alles
California Über Alles
Über Alles California
Über 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 flower
Die on organic poison gas
Serpent’s egg’s already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown
When you mess with President Brown
California Über Alles
California Über Alles
Über Alles California
Über Alles California
The 1980’s were an exciting time for serious & open-minded music listeners like myself and my friends. During that decade, the Downtown Scene erupted with dozens of great bands and Creative Musicians collaborating on many varied types of music.
Aside from Loft & Avant Jazz & many Downtown musicians, I was listening to a wealth of New Wave, No Wave, Hardcore Punk, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, Funk, World Music, Progressive & Canterbury Music, Modern Classical and any other creative music that I could find.
I wrote for Jersey Beat fanzine starting in the late seventies through the early 1990’s. Hence I discovered and befriended Jersey bands like the Feelies, the Bongos, Regressive Aid, Scornflakes, the Young Turks, Lunar Bear Ensemble, Machine Gun, Animation, Tiny Lights and many more. I booked gigs at the Underground Lounge in Elizabeth, NJ and organized several music fests at Modern Artists Studio in Rahway, NJ, where I still live.
I used to attend a weekly music show at WFMU when they were located at Seton Hall. The host of the show was Pat Duncan and they played 2-3 hours of Hardcore Punk music every week. I ended up becoming friends with many of those Jersey bands: AOD, Pleased Youth, Children in Adult Jails, Cyanamid, Scornflakes.
Although I had given up on quite a bit of rock music when I attended college (Glassboro State – 1972-1976), starting with Televison & Talking Heads in 1977, I jumped back into this music. I became a Hardcore Punk fan-addict during the mid-eighties, thanks to bands like Black Flag, the Dead Kennedy’s, Minutemen, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Band of Susans, ISM, etc.
Since I grew up listening to Protest Music in the 1960’s, I found much of the lyrics of hardcore punk bands to be another form of protest music which I still dig since the world is still unfair in many ways and those of us who feel angry or frustrated by current events, the sentiments still stir up our collective inner rage.
I always felt the the Dead Kennedy’s were the best of the bunch since they didn’t abide by the loud, fast formula and their lyrics seemed my well-informed and articulate. The above song captures this just right. The title is an alteration of “Deutschland uber alles”, a German nationalist slogan meaning “Germany above all else” which is associated with Nazism. Similar to the “America First” dog whistle that the Right Wing Fascists keep blowing in the faces of Informed Liberals like myself.
