Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

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Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 2, 1980
RecordedMay–June 1980
GenreHardcore punk
Length33:03
LanguageEnglish
LabelCherry Red, Alternative Tentacles, Faulty Products
ProducerNorm, East Bay Ray
Dead Kennedys chronology
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
(1980)
In God We Trust, Inc.
(1981)

Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables is the first studio album by American hardcore punk band, Dead Kennedys. Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables was released on September 2, 1980.

The album featured the singles "California Über Alles", "Holiday in Cambodia", "Kill the Poor", and "Too Drunk to Fuck". The album has been the best selling and mainly the most critically acclaimed album by the band. Allmusic rated the album 5 out of 5 stars.[1]

Accomplishments[change | change source]

    • Spin (5/01, p. 112) ranked the album #46 on their list of "50 Most Essential Punk Records".[2]
    • Q (5/02 SE, p. 136) ranked the 4 out of 5 stars and included it in their "100 Best Punk Albums" list.
    • Uncut (p. 120) ranked it 4 out of 5 stars and said "Dead Kennedys could echo both the weirdness of Beefheart and the sort of spectral pop that came off Spector's production line. Still fresh. No rot."
    • Alternative Press (11/00, p. 144) included the album in their "10 Essential Political-Revolution Albums" and said "...Biafra takes on the monied classes and the government, and the songs become almost too intricate for punk. Massively influential."
    • Magnet (p. 90) said that "Dead Kennedys brought a horror-show vibe to punk that remains more unsettling than the Misfits' comic-book core and battier than My Chemical Romance's make-up."
    • Kerrang! (p. 52) called the album "[O]ne of the finest slabs of rant 'n' roll ever made."
    • Mojo (p. 114) rated the album 4 out of 5 stars and said "[T]he shrill, nervy majesty of FRUIT remains unblemished." They also ranked the album #9 in their "Top 50 Punk Albums" and said "Singer Jello Biafra's vitriolic, merciless verbal lambasting set to a musical backdrop of fervid punk." (3/03, p. 76)

Songs[change | change source]

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Kill the Poor"    
2. "Forward to Death"    
3. "When Ya Get Drafted"    
4. "Let's Lynch the Landlord"    
5. "Drug Me"    
6. "Your Emotions"    
7. "Chemical Warfare"    
Side two
No. Title Length
1. "California Über Alles"    
2. "I Kill Children"    
3. "Stealing People's Mail"    
4. "Funland at the Beach"    
5. "Ill in the Head"    
6. "Holiday in Cambodia"    
7. "Viva Las Vegas" (originally by Elvis Presley)  

References[change | change source]

  1. "Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables". Allmusic. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  2. "Spin: The 50 Most Essential Punk Records". Rocklist.net. Retrieved 2014-03-12.