I'm really not interested in debating how we or anyone else "should" be discussing the death of Ronald Reagan. Having lost a grandfather to Alzheimer's, losing the person well before the body died, I can definitely sympathize with his family. On the other hand, I can't escape thinking about all the grief in families that lost loved ones throughout Central America or the Middle East in filthy little proxy genocides in which the Reagan administration was complicit, or to the burgeoning HIV epidemic which Reagan steadfastly ignored.
I cannot think of Ronald Reagan without also thinking about the Dead Kennedys. I never really got into punk music in general, but I still listen to the Dead Kennedys, and I don't think I'll ever forget how important they were to me in my adolescent years. I was living in a small town in rural Wisconsin after being transplanted from a city in the northwest, feeling very trapped and very out of place.
And then an acquaintance brought some Dead Kennedys back from a foray to Madison. I was, quite simply, electrified.
I've always taken Jello Biafra with a grain of salt, and he can certainly be shrill...but at the same time, he was referencing events and sordid little should-have-been-scandals that got no mention on TV news or in any of the papers I read. In those pre-internet days, the Dead Kennedys, and Jello Biafa himself in his spoken word pieces, were filling the same need that blogs now satisfy: calling attention to vital things which fell under the radar of mainstream reporting.
So...my condolences to Reagan's family, and here's one going out to Grandpa Caligula:
We've Got a Bigger Problem Now
Last call for alcohol
Last call for freedom of speech
Drink up
Happy hour is now enforced by law
Don't forget our house special
It's called "The Tricky Dicky Screwdriver"
It's got one part Jack Daniels
Two parts purple Kool-Aid
And a jigger of formaldehyde
From a jar with Hitler's brain
That we've got in the back storeroom
Happy trails to you
Happy trails to you
I am Emperor Ronald Reagan
Born again with fascist cravings
Still you made me president
Human rights will soon go 'way
I am now your Shah today
Now I command all of you
Now you're gonna pray in school
And I'll make sure they're Christian, too
California uber alles
California uber alles
Uber alles California
Uber alles California
Ku Klux Klan will control you
Still you think it's natural
Nigger-knockin' for the Master Race
Still you wear the happy face
You close your eyes
Can't happen here
Alexander Haig is near
Vietnam won't come back, you say
Join the army or you will pay
Join the army or you will pay
California uber alles
California uber alles
Uber alles California
Uber alles California
Ah, yeah, that's it, just relax
Have another drink
Few more pretzels
Little more MSG
Turn on those Dallas Cowboys on your TV
Lock your doors
Close your mind
It's time
For the two minute warning
Welcome to 1984
Are you ready for the Third World War?
You too will meet the secret police
They'll draft you and they'll jail your niece
You'll go quietly to boot camp
They'll shoot you dead, make you a man
Don't you worry, it's for a cause
Feeding global corporations' claws
Die on our brand-new poison gas
El Salvador, Afghanistan
Making money for President Reagan
Making money for President Reagan
And all the friends of President Reagan
California uber alles
California uber alles
Uber alles California
Uber alles California
Published by Decay Music (BMI)
(C) 1981/1982 Alternative Tentacles Records