"I Prefer Their Old Stuff"

Jello Biafra with D.O.A. – Full Metal Jackoff

“Ollie for President! He’ll Get. Things. Done!”
“Ollie for President! He’ll Get. Things. Done!”

So far up to now my choices for this challenge have been pretty mainstream and accessible, this is the first category in which I present a slightly more obscure choice. If you don’t know him, Jello Biafra (real name Eric Boucher) was the lead singer with seminal California punk band Dead Kennedys until their split in 1986, from then until now he has concentrated on his spoken word projects and releasing various albums as co-operations with other bands, Nomeansno, Mojo Nixon, Melvins and here, D.O.A.

D.O.A. are a Canadian punk band from Vancouver and their collaboration with Biafra, “Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors” came out in 1989. Full Metal Jackoff is the last track on the 6 track, 30 minute mini-album and is, unsurprisingly if you know Biafra at all, a furious political rant dealing with issues of the time, Willie Horton, the Iran-Contra affair, Oliver North and the perceived crack epidemic at the time.

It is a near fourteen minute epic, fusing punk riffs with almost krautrock-sounding repetetive beats and sections, closing on the repeated chant above, the Ollie in question being the aforementioned Col. Oliver North.

The event that this song reminds me of is Reading Festival 1995, specifically me and my mate Steve sitting around the campfire late at night after returning to the tent, can of beer in one hand, spliff in the other, nodding along to this which became the song of the festival for our little group. It was played almost as a primer before going to see bands and then later as a wind-down sitting outside the tent! Ah, good times, smelly, but good!