ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT NATURAL
YOU WILL JOG FOR THE MASTER RACE
AND ALWAYS WEAR
THE HAPPY FACE
For This Above I Didn't Like The Original
Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
(stylized as Give me convenience OR give me death)
is a compilation album
by the American
punk band
Dead Kennedys
It was released in
June 1987
through front man
Jello Biafra's
record label
Alternative Tentacles.
The image on its album cover
is a composite of a
1950's Barbasol
shaving cream ad
and a 1946
famine in
Calcutta.
Overview
The album consists of songs
(or in some cases, different versions of songs)
that were not released
on the band's
studio albums.
The original vinyl version
had tracks 16 and 17
on an extra flexi disc.
The album was certified gold
by both BPI
and the
RIAA
in December 2007.
The title is a play
on the ultimatum by
Patrick Henry,
"Give me liberty or give me death!",
and is intended as a
commentary on
American consumerism.
Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
was the last
Dead Kennedys album
that Biafra approved
the production of,
and their last album
released through
Alternative Tentacles.
The album includes
"Pull My Strings",
the increasingly popular
"California Über Alles",
the song they were asked to play.
About 15 seconds into the song
Jello Biafra said,
"Hold it! We've gotta prove that we're adults now.
We're not a punk rock band,
we're a new wave band."
The band,
who all wore white shirts with a big,
black S
painted on the front,
pulled black ties
from around the backs of their necks
to form a dollar sign,
then started playing
"Pull My Strings",
a satirical attack
on the ethics of the
mainstream music industry.
The song also referenced
the Knack's biggest hit,
"My Sharona".
The song was never recorded
in the studio
but this performance,
the only time the song
was ever performed,
was included on the album
.Also included is
"Night of the Living Rednecks",
which was recorded during
a show in
Portland, Oregon
in 1979
when East Bay Ray
snapped a guitar string
as the band finished their song
"Chemical Warfare".
While the guitar string was
being replaced,
Biafra vamped for time
by telling a story,
backed by
Ted and Flouride
performing a jazz-style instrumental,
about how on the
last trip the band made
to Portland,
where he had a confrontation
with some
"dumb rich kids"
in a
"life-size Hot Wheels car"
that involved him
throwing a rock
at their vehicle
after they sprayed water
on him and
later trapping himself
in a telephone booth
when they retaliated
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