As far as flipping a massive middle finger to the music industry goes, The Dead Kennedys might have locked up best “fuck you” of all time during the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards. After being asked to play their underground single “California Über Alles” at the show, singer Jello Biafra and drummer Ted (flashy name right?) took it upon themselves to pen a tune railing against the shitty state of popular music at the turn of the decade. The result was the one-off “Pull My Strings” which drew plenty of laughs from the audience and instantly bared the Dead Kennedys from ever attending the show again, not such a high price considering how brilliant the song was. Each member of the band came onstage with a giant S painted on their shirts and, right after the aborted bassline of “California Über Alles,” whipped out a concealed tie creating huge $ signs plastered across their chests. Then they tore into a bitingly critical rant on the music industry’s prefab, boring artists with big cocks and no brains. There’s even a reference to “My Sharona” in the guitar line with the phrase “My Payola” (a payment by a record label to get radio stations to play their songs) substituted. This is classic Dead Kennedys, as much wit as menace and equal parts smarts and pure punk fury.
