Nazi Punks Fuck Off

"Nazi Punks Fuck Off!"
Single by Dead Kennedys
from the album 'In God We Trust, Inc.'
B-side	"Moral Majority"
Released	November 1981
Format	7"
Recorded	1981
Genre	Hardcore punk
Length	1:03
Label	Alternative Tentacles
Writer(s)	Jello Biafra
Dead Kennedys singles chronology
"Too Drunk to Fuck" (1981) "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" (1981) "Bleed for Me" (1982)

"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 are taken from the In God We Trust, Inc. EP, although the version of the title track on the EP is a different recording from the single version. British music newspaper Melody Maker reviewed the EP in its "Single of the Week" section and wrote: "And fuck off the Nazi punks surely will when they hear this being played at them!"

The single included a free armband with a crossed-out swastika. The design has since been adapted both as the Dead Kennedys' logo and as a symbol for the anti-racist punk movement.

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 for shock effect, and others adopted neo-Nazism in earnest. Some 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 harsh view of fascism, the Dead Kennedys 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.^[1] The Dead Kennedys used "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" to answer these audience members.

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 and Buzzcocks, among other artists.^[2] The comment was not intended to be taken seriously, as Hannett never worked with the Dead Kennedys.

Napalm Death cover

Nazi Punks Fuck Off
EP by Napalm Death
Released	1993
Genre	Death metal Grindcore
Length	10:43
Label	Earache
Napalm Death chronology
The Peel Sessions (1993) Nazi Punks Fuck Off (1993) Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994)

"Nazi Punks Fuck Off" was covered by the English Grindcore band Napalm Death for their 1993 EP of the same name. The EP consists of four tracks including the title track and a live version of "Aryanisms", a song off their 1992 album Utopia Banished; and a mix of "Contemptuous", off the same album. The title track, along with the band's staunch anti-fascist stance, resulted in several of the band's shows being attacked by neo-nazis in the United States.

References

1. ^ "Dead Kennedys "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" live"
2. ^ "Martin Hannett biography". martinhannett.co.uk. Retrieved on June 28, 2008.

External links

• Entry at Earache's discography