Dead Kennedys “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” 1980. Too young in 1980 for them to be on my radar, I started listening to DK around 1985-86 after they played a show in Green Bay* that I was not allowed to go to but many of my friends did.

Now this album is in our collection, but back in ‘85 I borrowed it from a friend to make a tape. She handed it off to me during a junior high musical (it was Nashville Jamboree) cast party at Happy Joe’s Pizza and Ice Cream parlor (picture lots of white and pink circus crap, clowns, old fashioned wrought iron ice cream parlor tables and chairs, etc.). It could not have been a more perfectly ironic location.

While I recorded it in my bedroom, my dad walked past and was horrified to see the band’s name on the album cover. I guess 1960’s era liberals were not down with that joke. I was delighted at his reaction, because what 14 year old doesn’t revel in making her parents feel out of touch with the day’s youth?

The album, of course, is a classic and a copy resides on my iPod for listening on-the-go. Driving or running to “Kill the Poor,” “Chemical Warfare” and “Holiday in Cambodia” never gets old.

*I’m guessing Green Bay and I’m not sure if it was 1985 or 1986. But I do remember a girl I COULD NOT STAND wore that damn concert t-shirt to school what seemed like every single day.