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 THE DEAD KENNEDYS 

The stars and stripes of corruption

Paroles : Jello Biafra,
musique : The Dead Kennedys.
Allez, un petit effort de lecture,
ça en vaut la peine et ça fera du bien à votre anglais !

    Finally got to Washington in the middle of the night
    I couln't wait
    I headed straight for the Capitol Mall

    My heart began to pound
    Yahoo ! it really exists
    The American International Pictures logo

    I looked up at that Capitol building
    Couldn't help but wonder why
    I felt like saying "Hello, old friend"

    Walked up the hill to touch it
    Then I unzipped my pants
    And pissed on it when nobody was looking

    Like a great eternal Klansman
    With his two flashing red eyes
    Turn around, he's always watching
    The Washington monument pricks the sky
    With flags for pubic hair ringed 'round the bottom

    The symbols of our heritage
    Lit up proudly in the night
    Somehow fits to see the homeless people
    Passed out on the lawn

    So this is where it all happens
    The power games and bribes
    All lobbying for a piece of ass

    Of the stars and stripes of corruption

    Makes me feel so ashamed
    To be an American
    When we're too stuck up to learn from our mistakes
    Trying to start another Viet Nam
    While fiddling while Rome burns at home
    The Boss says, "You're laid off. Blame the Japanese"

    "America's back", alright
    At the game it plays the worst
    Strip mining the world like a slave plantation

    No wonder others hate us
    And the Hitlers we handpick
    To bleed their people dry
    For our evil empire

    The drug we're fed
    To make us like it
    Is God and country with a bang

    People we know who should know better
    Howl, "America rules. Let's go to war !"
    Business scams are what's worth dying for

    Are the Soviets our worst enemy ?
    We're destroying ourselves instead
    Who cares about our civil rights
    As long as I get paid

    The blind Me Generation
    Doesn't care if life's a lie
    So easily used, so proud to enforce

    The stars and stripes of corruption
    Let's bring it all down!

    Tell me who's the real patriots
    The Archie Bunker slobs waving flags?
    Or the people with the guts to work
    For some real change

    Rednecks and bombs don't make us strong
    We loot the world, yet we can't even feed ourselves
    Our real test of strength is caring
    Not the toys of war we sell the world

    Just carry on, thankful to be farmed like worms
    Old glory for a blanket
    As you suck on your thumbs
    Real freedom scares you
    'Cos it means responsibility
    So you chicken out and threaten me

    Saying, "Love it or leave it"
    I'll get beat up if I criticize it
    You say you'll fight to the death
    To save your worthless flag
    If you want a Banana Republic that bad
    Why don't you go move to one

    But what can just one of us do?
    Against all that money and power
    Trying to crush us into roaches?

    We don't destroy society in a day
    Until we change ourselves first
    From the inside out

    We can start by not lying so much
    And treating other people like dirt
    It's easy not to base our lives
    On how much we can scam

    And you know
    It feels good to lift that monkey off our backs

    I'm thankful I live in a place
    Where I can say the things I do
    Without being taken out and shot
    So I'm guard against the goons
    Trying to take my rights away
    We've got to rise above the need for cops and laws

    Let kids learn communication
    Instead of schools pushing competition
    How about more art and theater instead of sports?

    People will always do drugs
    Let's legalize them
    Crime drops when the mob can't price them
    Budget's in the red?
    Let's tax religion

    No one will do it for us
    We'll just have to fix ourselves
    Honesty ain't all that hard
    Just put Rambo back inside your pants
    Causing trouble for the system is much more fun

    Thank you for the toilet paper
    But your flag is meaningless to me
    Look around, we're all people
    Who needs countries anyway?

    Our land I love it too
    I think I love it more than you
    I care enough to fight

    The stars and stripes of corruption
    Let's bring it all down!

    If we don't try
    If we just lie
    If we can't find
    A way to do it better than this

    Who will?

En 1973, l'artiste suisse H.R. Giger peint Lanscape XX. En 1985, les Dead Kennedys choisissent d'en inclure une représentation dans l'album "Frankenchrist". La censure américaine décide de l'interdire. C'est à partir de ce moment que Jello Biafra consacrera beaucoup de temps à lutter pour la libre expression et à organiser sa défense dans les procès qui lui tombent dessus ! De son vivant, Frank Zappa aida financièrement J. Biafra pendant cette période qui vit l'éclatement du groupe (on raconte que les autres musiciens réalisèrent soudain qu'ils accompagnaient depuis des années un chanteur engagé !).