Jello Biafra - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 21:53, 23 July 2026

2026-07-23T21:53:19Z

Spider of Destiny at 17:44, 22 May 2026

2026-05-22T17:44:55Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 21:52, 15 December 2021

2021-12-15T21:52:26Z

Duncan at 12:36, 7 December 2021

2021-12-07T12:36:53Z

Duncan at 13:42, 3 December 2021

2021-12-03T13:42:42Z

Duncan at 11:02, 3 December 2021

2021-12-03T11:02:14Z

Duncan at 10:02, 3 December 2021

2021-12-03T10:02:46Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 15:23, 2 December 2021

2021-12-02T15:23:06Z

Duncan at 15:07, 2 December 2021

2021-12-02T15:07:08Z

Duncan at 14:45, 2 December 2021

2021-12-02T14:45:58Z

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 In April 1986 Biafra, as head of the record company, was prosecuted for distributing harmful material to minors after including a poster by [[Wikipedia:H.R. Giger|H.R. Giger]] featuring penises and vulvae with the Dead Kennedys album [[wikipedia:Frankenchrist|Frankenchrist]].  The original painting had been show in art galleries in Europe and the USA. The album carried a sticker warning about the contents:
 <blockquote>''The inside foldout<ref>Biafra had wanted the image to be part of the gatefold sleeve for the album but the other band members disagreed and so it was included as a separate insert.</ref> to this record cover is a work of art by H. R. Giger that some people may find shocking, repulsive, or offensive. Life can sometimes be that way.''</blockquote>
-[[File:Jello Biafra and Zappa.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Jello Biafra and Frank Zappa, 1985.]]
+[[File:Jello Biafra and Zappa.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Jello Biafra and Frank Zappa, 1985.]]
 The album was released in October 1985, following the [[Parents Music Resource Center|PMRC hearings]] in August, and was seen as an opportunity to establish a legal precedent<ref>a spokesmen for the city attorney’s office said from the outset that they were not seeking jail terms. LA Times, August 28, 1987</ref> to ban what the PMRC considered 'Porn Rock'. As a small independent band and label they would not have sufficient funds to fight the case and the No More Censorship Defense Fund was established to raise money to defend the case.  Zappa offered advice to Biafra during his legal battle. Biafra later recalled:
@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 The band, increasingly disillusioned with the punk scene, disbanded at the end of 1987 to pursue solo projects before reforming in the early 2000s. Biafra recorded a spoken word album, [[wikipedia:High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales from the Trial|High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales from the Trial]] which included his view of the trial.<ref>Stream on [https://music.apple.com/album/tales-from-the-trial/275667263?i=275667305 Apple Music] and [https://open.spotify.com/track/1JV1YEcVfkh1WsaWoYMhWw?si=b7c98723102a4753 Spotify].</ref>
-In 1997, Jello got to write a tribute to Zappa in the official [[Awards|Grammy Awards program book]].
+In 1997, Biafra got to write a tribute to Zappa in the official [[Grammy Awards|Grammy Awards program book]].
 ==Notes==

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:44, 22 May 2026
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	[[Category:Celebrity Fans\|Biafra]]		[[Category:Celebrity Fans\|Biafra]]
	[[Category:Activists\|Biafra]]		[[Category:Activists\|Biafra]]
		+	[[Category:Songwriters\|Biafra]]
		+	[[Category:Record Producers\|Biafra]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:52, 15 December 2021
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	The band, increasingly disillusioned with the punk scene, disbanded at the end of 1987 to pursue solo projects before reforming in the early 2000s. Biafra recorded a spoken word album, [[wikipedia:High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales from the Trial\|High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales from the Trial]] which included his view of the trial.<ref>Stream on [https://music.apple.com/album/tales-from-the-trial/275667263?i=275667305 Apple Music] and [https://open.spotify.com/track/1JV1YEcVfkh1WsaWoYMhWw?si=b7c98723102a4753 Spotify].</ref>		The band, increasingly disillusioned with the punk scene, disbanded at the end of 1987 to pursue solo projects before reforming in the early 2000s. Biafra recorded a spoken word album, [[wikipedia:High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales from the Trial\|High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales from the Trial]] which included his view of the trial.<ref>Stream on [https://music.apple.com/album/tales-from-the-trial/275667263?i=275667305 Apple Music] and [https://open.spotify.com/track/1JV1YEcVfkh1WsaWoYMhWw?si=b7c98723102a4753 Spotify].</ref>
		+
		+	In 1997, Jello got to write a tribute to Zappa in the official [[Awards\|Grammy Awards program book]].

	==Notes==		==Notes==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Jello Biafra''' (June 17, 1958) is an American punk rock singer, spoken word artist and record company executive who became famous in the 1980s as the leader of the [[San Francisco]] band Dead Kennedys.
+'''Jello Biafra''' (Eric Reed Boucher June 17, 1958) is an American punk rock singer, spoken word artist and record company executive who became famous in the 1980s as the leader of the [[San Francisco]] band Dead Kennedys.
 [[image:DKPoster.jpeg|right|thumb|200px|The offending insert]]
-In April 1986 Biafra, as head of the record company, was prosecuted for distributing harmful matter to minors after the band included a poster by [[Wikipedia:H.R. Giger|H.R. Giger]] featuring penises and vulvae with their album [[wikipedia:Frankenchrist|Frankenchrist]].  The original painting had been show in art galleries in Europe and the USA. The album carried a sticker warning about the contents:
+In April 1986 Biafra, as head of the record company, was prosecuted for distributing harmful material to minors after including a poster by [[Wikipedia:H.R. Giger|H.R. Giger]] featuring penises and vulvae with the Dead Kennedys album [[wikipedia:Frankenchrist|Frankenchrist]].  The original painting had been show in art galleries in Europe and the USA. The album carried a sticker warning about the contents:
 <blockquote>''The inside foldout<ref>Biafra had wanted the image to be part of the gatefold sleeve for the album but the other band members disagreed and so it was included as a separate insert.</ref> to this record cover is a work of art by H. R. Giger that some people may find shocking, repulsive, or offensive. Life can sometimes be that way.''</blockquote>
 [[File:Jello Biafra and Zappa.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Jello Biafra and Frank Zappa, 1985.]]
 <blockquote>
 Meeting Frank Zappa was one of the few silver linings to come out of the trial. He got a hold of me and the helpers of the No More Censorship Defense Fund rather than us having to find him. He gave me some very valuable advice very early on; something that anybody subjected to that kind of harassment should remember: You are the victim. You have to constantly frame yourself that way in the mass media so you don't get branded some kind of outlaw simply because of your beliefs and the way you express your art. The outlaws are the police. I got to visit Frank two or three more times at his house in Los Angeles and those were very special times. He showed me a hilarious Christian aerobics video. The women were in their skintight leotards doing jumping jacks. 'One-two, two-two, three-two, praise the Lord!' And of course the bustiest one was in a striped spandex suit dead front center of the screen! <ref>Jello Biafra, Punk Politics, Alternative Tentacles, 2004.</ref></blockquote>
-==Quotes by Jello Biafra about Zappa==
+Guarino realised that he was being out manoeuvred, that the songs on the album promoted a positive anti-drug view, and he started to have doubts about his position:
-''"I don't think my generation has produced anybody the caliber of a Frank Zappa or [[Jim Morrison]] and part of the reason for that, per capita there weren't as many young people, it's post baby boom, also, it was the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] era. The best and the brightest of the young minds, instead of going into music or resistance leadership, go into making money. Nobody seems to ask themselves 'Will this wealth, this distribution, suddenly seeing my name in crappy mall record stores, make me happy?' If the Dead Kennedys had gotten one tenth the size of Nirvana, I would've jumped off the Golden Gate bridge from pressure alone. Any creative, hard working person can't be bled of their talents forever and not be given any love in return — or they turn into either suicides or monsters."'' — Jello Biafra, quoted from: [https://magazine.plazm.com/positive-cultural-terrorism-e6129cd86c7b#.qrnhvz370 Positive Cultural Terrorism], interview by Joshua Berger, Plazm #8, 1995.</div>
+The jury voted for an acquittal and the judge dismissed the case.  The trial was a personal turning point for Guarino who would leave office and become dean of a small law school in northern California. Guarino's son became an avid Dead Kennedys fan and Biafra would eventually forgive him for his part in the prosecution.<ref>Thius American Life, [https://www.thisamericanlife.org/285/know-your-enemy/act-two-0 Know Your Enemy]</ref>
-''"Humor can be very effective both to inspire, and as a weapon. Just ask Frank Zappa and Charlie Chaplin."'' (Quoted from ''[http://www.progressive.org/mag_intvbiafra Jello Biafra Interview]'' by Jodi Vander Molen, The Progressive, February 2002.)
+The band, increasingly disillusioned with the punk scene, disbanded at the end of 1987 to pursue solo projects before reforming in the early 2000s. Biafra recorded a spoken word album, [[wikipedia:High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales from the Trial|High Priest of Harmful Matter: Tales from the Trial]] which included his view of the trial.<ref>Stream on [https://music.apple.com/album/tales-from-the-trial/275667263?i=275667305 Apple Music] and [https://open.spotify.com/track/1JV1YEcVfkh1WsaWoYMhWw?si=b7c98723102a4753 Spotify].</ref>
 ==Notes==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Jello Biafra''' (June 17, 1958) is an American punk rock singer, spoken word artist and record company executive who became famous in the 1980s as the leader of the [[San Francisco]] band The Dead Kennedys.
+'''Jello Biafra''' (June 17, 1958) is an American punk rock singer, spoken word artist and record company executive who became famous in the 1980s as the leader of the [[San Francisco]] band Dead Kennedys.
 [[image:DKPoster.jpeg|right|thumb|200px|The offending insert]]
-In 1985 Biafra, as head of the record company, was prosecuted for distributing harmful matter to minors after they included a poster by [[Wikipedia:H.R. Giger|H.R. Giger]] featuring penises and vulvae with their album [[wikipedia:Frankenchrist|Frankenchrist]].  The original painting had been show in art galleries in Europe and the USA. The album carried a sticker warning about the contents:
+In April 1986 Biafra, as head of the record company, was prosecuted for distributing harmful matter to minors after the band included a poster by [[Wikipedia:H.R. Giger|H.R. Giger]] featuring penises and vulvae with their album [[wikipedia:Frankenchrist|Frankenchrist]].  The original painting had been show in art galleries in Europe and the USA. The album carried a sticker warning about the contents:
-<blockquote>''The inside foldout to this record cover is a work of art by H. R. Giger that some people may find shocking, repulsive, or offensive. Life can sometimes be that way.''</blockquote>
+<blockquote>''The inside foldout<ref>Biafra had wanted the image to be part of the gatefold sleeve for the album but the other band members disagreed and so it was included as a separate insert.</ref> to this record cover is a work of art by H. R. Giger that some people may find shocking, repulsive, or offensive. Life can sometimes be that way.''</blockquote>
 The prosecution had been initiated after 15 year-old Tammy Schwarth's mother found the poster in the record sleeve and complained to California’s Attorney General’s office.  She was surprised by the resulting legal case:
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 Her daughter commented: "I thought it was gross--it wasn’t harmful.”  <ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-21-mn-2358-story.html LA Times Aug. 21, 1987]</ref></blockquote>
 <blockquote>
 Meeting Frank Zappa was one of the few silver linings to come out of the trial. He got a hold of me and the helpers of the No More Censorship Defense Fund rather than us having to find him. He gave me some very valuable advice very early on; something that anybody subjected to that kind of harassment should remember: You are the victim. You have to constantly frame yourself that way in the mass media so you don't get branded some kind of outlaw simply because of your beliefs and the way you express your art. The outlaws are the police. I got to visit Frank two or three more times at his house in Los Angeles and those were very special times. He showed me a hilarious Christian aerobics video. The women were in their skintight leotards doing jumping jacks. 'One-two, two-two, three-two, praise the Lord!' And of course the bustiest one was in a striped spandex suit dead front center of the screen! <ref>Jello Biafra, Punk Politics, Alternative Tentacles, 2004.</ref></blockquote>

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:02, 3 December 2021
Line 12:		Line 12:
	==Quotes by Jello Biafra about Zappa==		==Quotes by Jello Biafra about Zappa==

−	''"Frank Zappa's first impact on me was in ninth grade. We'd go to a friend's house near school during lunch hour, and roll on the floor laughing at the [[Mothermania]] LP on Verve. The all-too-true satire in the grooves gave us strength--it wasn't just OK to be a mutant, it was damn good fun. Terrorizing normal classmates with my very existence was something to be proud of. In high school, I joined the radio club that broadcast music into the cafeteria during lunch hour. Crushed when people didn't dig the obscure sounds we were trying to turn them on to, we started playing music designed to make them mad. Big band records dug out of the store room got a reaction, but not as much as the jocks storming the barred studio windows over [[Brown Shoes Don't Make It]]. By then the Zappa fans (we all knew each other) had memorized every word on his albums. For drama class, I directed a stage adaptation of "[[Billy The Mountain]]." Due in no small part to Frank, my musical horizons expanded too: the avant-electronics on [[Freak Out!]], jazz and fusion on [[Hot Rats]] and [[Weasels Ripped My Flesh]], symphonic forays on [[Lumpy Gravy]] and [[Uncle Meat]], and seamless ventures into funk and progressive by the time of [[Roxy & Elsewhere]]. All crowned by Frank's fountain of humor. Those album covers! Those titles! When most rock trailblazers were running out of ideas, Frank had more and more. Without touching drugs, no less. In [[200 Motels]], he called his work "comedy music," but we knew better. I didn't truly grasp what a brilliant production wizard Frank was in the studio until Dead Kennedys' drummer D.H. Peligro played "[[Apostrophe']]" in the van late one night as we crossed the Canadian Rockies in a snowstorm. Here was Frank changing sound and atmospheres every 30 seconds and somehow making it all work-- [[Phil Spector]] one minute, Roy Thomas Baker the next. I was floored. When [[Tipper Gore]] and her Religious Right pals sat across from their husbands and lied at the '85 Senate anti-music hearings, I couldn't believe it. No one fought back. When Frank finally took them on with his wit and fire and intelligence, it truly showed how out-of-it and spineless the rest of the commercial music industry is to this day. Everything Frank predicted about half-hearted '60s idealists in "[[We're Only In It For The Money]]" had come true. People thought I was crazy when I said Tipper and the Washington Stepford Wives were a Trojan Horse for the religious right and were out to bust people. Within weeks, it happened to me. Frank called my house (not the other way around) offering friendship and some very valuable advice, 'Remember: You are the victim. When you fight back, do it with dignity.' About the only silver lining from Dead Kennedys' ''Frankenchrist'' album obscenity trial was getting to meet Frank and come to his--well, let's call it a lab. Straight from the "True [[Cheepnis]]" monster movies he loved, there were loose wires and bits of equipment in the den, creeping out from under the couch. The Xerox machine was in the shower. A piece of metal collage from the [[Burnt Weeny Sandwich]] cover hung from a wall. My generation has not produced anyone the caliber of Frank Zappa. I see no one on the horizon even interested in mastering rock, jazz, classical, studio production, and above all intelligence and humor the way Frank did. Unlike most entertainment icons, he wasn't afraid to keep growing. When [[Czechoslovakia]]'s Velvet Revolution came, Frank was energized. When he announced his candidacy for president to wake up our country, no one claimed it was to further his own career. Could he have been our [[Václav Havel]]? We need something like that in the worst kind of way. More likely it will take all of us, and a few thousand more, if we ever hope to fill Frank's shoes."'' (Quoted from: Jello Biafra in 1997, ''A Grammy Salute to Music Legends'', 2017, pp 184-5.)

	''"I don't think my generation has produced anybody the caliber of a Frank Zappa or [[Jim Morrison]] and part of the reason for that, per capita there weren't as many young people, it's post baby boom, also, it was the [[Ronald Reagan\|Reagan]] era. The best and the brightest of the young minds, instead of going into music or resistance leadership, go into making money. Nobody seems to ask themselves 'Will this wealth, this distribution, suddenly seeing my name in crappy mall record stores, make me happy?' If the Dead Kennedys had gotten one tenth the size of Nirvana, I would've jumped off the Golden Gate bridge from pressure alone. Any creative, hard working person can't be bled of their talents forever and not be given any love in return — or they turn into either suicides or monsters."'' — Jello Biafra, quoted from: [https://magazine.plazm.com/positive-cultural-terrorism-e6129cd86c7b#.qrnhvz370 Positive Cultural Terrorism], interview by Joshua Berger, Plazm #8, 1995.</div>		''"I don't think my generation has produced anybody the caliber of a Frank Zappa or [[Jim Morrison]] and part of the reason for that, per capita there weren't as many young people, it's post baby boom, also, it was the [[Ronald Reagan\|Reagan]] era. The best and the brightest of the young minds, instead of going into music or resistance leadership, go into making money. Nobody seems to ask themselves 'Will this wealth, this distribution, suddenly seeing my name in crappy mall record stores, make me happy?' If the Dead Kennedys had gotten one tenth the size of Nirvana, I would've jumped off the Golden Gate bridge from pressure alone. Any creative, hard working person can't be bled of their talents forever and not be given any love in return — or they turn into either suicides or monsters."'' — Jello Biafra, quoted from: [https://magazine.plazm.com/positive-cultural-terrorism-e6129cd86c7b#.qrnhvz370 Positive Cultural Terrorism], interview by Joshua Berger, Plazm #8, 1995.</div>

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:Jello Biafra and Zappa.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Jello Biafra and Frank Zappa, 1985.]]
-'''Jello Biafra''' (June 17, 1958) is an American singer and frontman of the group Dead Kennedys.
+'''Jello Biafra''' (June 17, 1958) is an American punk rock singer, spoken word artist and record company executive who became famous in the 1980s as the leader of the [[San Francisco]] band The Dead Kennedys.
 In 1985 members of Dead Kennedys were prosecuted for distributing harmful matter to minors after they included a poster by [[Wikipedia:H.R. Giger|H.R. Giger]] featuring penises and vulvae with their album [[wikipedia:Frankenchrist|Frankenchrist]].  Zappa offered advice to them during their legal battle.
@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 [[Category:Supporting Cast|Biafra]]
 [[Category:Rock Artists|Biafra]]
 [[Category:Singers|Biafra]]
 [[Category:Celebrity Fans|Biafra]]
 [[Category:Activists|Biafra]]