Nazi Punks Fuck Off!

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"Nazi Punks Fuck Off!"

Single by Dead Kennedys
from the album 'In God We Trust, Inc. EP
B-side(s)	"Moral Majority"
Released	November 1981
Format	7"
Genre	Hardcore punk
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 songs from this single are taken from the In God We Trust, Inc. EP, although the version of the title track on the EP is different from the version on the single.

The single included as a bonus an armband with a crossed-out swastika. The design has since become associated with the Dead Kennedys and anti-racist punks in general.

1 Inspiration
2 Effect
3 Versions/covers
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Inspiration

In the late 1970s, some members of the punk subculture on the West Coast of the United States began to use Nazi symbolism to shock outsiders, and others even adopted neo-Nazism in earnest. Some such 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 dim view of fascism, the Dead Kennedys had 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, in a situation similar to that faced by Joy Division. The Dead Kennedys addressed this segment of their audience with "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!"

[edit] Effect

An armband with a crossed out swastika similar to this was included in the 7" single version

"Nazi Punks Fuck Off!" became a rallying call for those who sought to eject Nazi punks from the punk subculture. Many punks had swastika tattoos either removed or turned into other images.

[edit] Versions/covers

A version of the song different from both the album and single versions appears on the Let Them Eat Jellybeans compilation.

The grindcore band Napalm Death released a cover of the song on their EP Nazi Punks Fuck Off, and on Virus 100, a compilation of Dead Kennedys covers released by Alternative Tentacles in 1992. Napalm Death re-recorded "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" for their 5-track cover-EP Leaders not Followers in 2000.

Destroy 2 did a short cover of the song on their debut (and only) album, We Are Voice And Rhythm Only.

[edit] Trivia

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, among other artists.