DEAD KENNEDYS – IN GOD WE TRUST, INC. (1981)
“There have been a few records
which have changed my life. The first
one was The Beatles’ greatest hits –
the Red and Blue albums. I learned
to play guitar to those records.
“But the really big one was the
Dead Kennedys’ In God We Trust,
Inc. [officially an eight-track EP].
I was 13 and I had just discovered
punk. My cousin Tracy had this
crazy collection of American and
international punk rock – stuff like
Discharge and GBH – but In God We
Trust, Inc. was the most exciting.
“It blew my mind because it
made me realise that anyone
could make music. It was fresh
and exciting and confrontational.
A few weeks later there
was a big Rock Against
Reagan concert in
Washington DC where
I lived and the Dead
Kennedys were
headlining. There
must have been
750,000 people
there. It was a
fuckin’ riot. There were punks
fighting with the cops and Jello
Biafra looking at the Washington
Monument, screaming: ‘The great
white Klansman in the sky!’ I’m
getting chills just thinking about it!
The best thing is that record sounds
fucking crazy. It’s pure punk rock.”