"California Über Alles" was the first single by the Dead Kennedys. The record was released in June 1979 on Optional Music with "The Man with the Dogs" as the b-side. The title track was re-recorded for the band's first album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980), and the version that appeared on this single, as well as the single's b-side, are available on the rarities album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death (1987).
The lyrics were writte...
more
"California Über Alles" was the first single by the Dead Kennedys. The record was released in June 1979 on Optional Music with "The Man with the Dogs" as the b-side. The title track was re-recorded for the band's first album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980), and the version that appeared on this single, as well as the single's b-side, are available on the rarities album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death (1987).
The lyrics were written by Jello Biafra and John Greenway, and Biafra composed the music in one of his rare attempts at composing directly on guitar.
This song was featured in video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland and as a downloadable song in the Rock Band series.
The title is an allusion to the first stanza of the national anthem of Germany, which used to begin with the words "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles." The word-for-word translation of this line is "Germany, Germany above all," which the author intended to mean that a unified Germany was more...
less
