The Dead Kennedys

[docgoblin]

This is something that has played on my brain for almost 30 years. I seem to remember WLIR on Long Island (a popular punk/new wave station from the late 70s to the early 90s) playing a Dead Kennedys song called "Gray Matter In The Streets Of Dallas." It had to have been around 1978 or so (probably when the band first formed). I think they played it once and it was immediately banned. I've never heard the song since, nor is there any reference to it in any DK blogs, bios, books or message boards. It doesn't appear in any discographies. I can't imagine a song being banned from existence like that, especially from a band like The Dead Kennedys, who've recorded dozens of "offensive" tracks. Does anyone else ever remember hearing this song, or am I just crazy and it never existed and I made it up in my sick, twisted mind?

[TheMojoPin]

This is something that has played on my brain for almost 30 years. I seem to remember WLIR on Long Island (a popular punk/new wave station from the late 70s to the early 90s) playing a Dead Kennedys song called "Gray Matter In The Streets Of Dallas." It had to have been around 1978 or so (probably when the band first formed). I think they played it once and it was immediately banned. I've never heard the song since, nor is there any reference to it in any DK blogs, bios, books or message boards. It doesn't appear in any discographies. I can't imagine a song being banned from existence like that, especially from a band like The Dead Kennedys, who've recorded dozens of "offensive" tracks. Does anyone else ever remember hearing this song, or am I just crazy and it never existed and I made it up in my sick, twisted mind?

It's gotta be something some nobody band did back in the day and you've just remembered it as the DK's due to the title.

[A.J.]

Joseph P. Kennedy
Rose Kennedy
Joe Jr.
JFK
Rosemary
Kathleen
Patricia
RFK

Ted -- not yet.

[docgoblin]

It's gotta be something some nobody band did back in the day and you've just remembered it as the DK's due to the title.

Nobody bands very rarely got on the radio in 1978/79.

The problem is, the way i'm remembering it, the station premiered the song as the debut song from a new band; "The Dead Kennedys." Like I said, it was around 1978 or 79. Then I remember them playing it once and getting immediate hate calls about it, so they decided to never play it again. I even thought it was officially banned from any kind of airplay. Over the years I thought I may have had the song title wrong and that the line may have just been part of the lyrics of a different song. Unfortunately a Google search of the phrase brings up nothing. I just seem to remember so vividly the moment I heard them play it. I even hear the chorus in my head and it sounds like The Dead Kennedys... But now I'm afraid I may just be completely nuts. :wacko:

[TheMojoPin]

Nobody bands very rarely got on the radio in 1978/79.

The problem is, the way i'm remembering it, the station premiered the song as the debut song from a new band; "The Dead Kennedys." Like I said, it was around 1978 or 79. Then I remember them playing it once and getting immediate hate calls about it, so they decided to never play it again. I even thought it was officially banned from any kind of airplay. Over the years I thought I may have had the song title wrong and that the line may have just been part of the lyrics of a different song. Unfortunately a Google search of the phrase brings up nothing. I just seem to remember so vividly the moment I heard them play it. I even hear the chorus in my head and it sounds like The Dead Kennedys... But now I'm afraid I may just be completely nuts. :wacko:

Sounds like it.

This station never played local punk bands?

[sailor]

Nobody bands very rarely got on the radio in 1978/79.

The problem is, the way i'm remembering it, the station premiered the song as the debut song from a new band; "The Dead Kennedys."

if it was their debut, wouldn't they have been a "nobody band" at that point?

[KnoxHarrington]

I'm fairly certain that was not an actual Dead Kennedys song. I'm wondering if it was some sort of radio stunt gone horribly wrong.

Their first single was "California Uber Alles" in June 1979.

[TheMojoPin]

I'm not really a Dead Kennedys superfan, but did they ever actually do Kennedy-themed songs?

[KnoxHarrington]

I'm not really a Dead Kennedys superfan, but did they ever actually do Kennedy-themed songs?

No, and the name itself isn't really a reference to the Kennedy family (though it was good for shock effect.) It was more a general statement about how that sort of notion of the New Frontier and unlimited American potential supposedly embodied in "Camelot" was dead.

[docgoblin]

Sounds like it.

This station never played local punk bands?

They really didn't at that time. They did push up-and-coming bands like the Ramones, Talking Heads, etc... Later into the 80s they started to play some homegrown bands. The rock station WBAB was much bigger at promoting local Long Island talent.

I guess I've been out of my mind all this time, but I really remember the song and the furor it caused quite vividly. I know The Dead Kennedys did not take the name specifically because of the deaths of JFK and RFK, but there was an obvious attempt to be shocking in choosing such a name... Now imagine a band with that name debuting with a song called 'Gray Matter In The Streets of Dallas'... People wouldn't be able to forget the name of that band... But I guess I dreamed up the entire thing... Man, what an imagination I've got!

[docgoblin]

BTW here is a link to the news story when WLIR lost it's frequency, 92.7. They ended up moving to the east end of Long Island but they may as well have been in Thailand. A new alternative station took over the frequency but it was never the same. A friend and I were answering phones for WLIR for about a year up until they signed off...

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[SatCam]

Was Bob Marrone the only guy who used his real name?

[Recyclerz]

Was Bob Marrone the only guy who used his real name?

Actually, he was the only one who wasn't.

[docgoblin]

Was Bob Marrone the only guy who used his real name?

Larry the Duck is not a real name?

[Sarge]

It wasn't "Bullet", by the Misfits was it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVfeLavkFso

[paracetamol flanders]

OK, assuming it is not The Misfits, I have tried to follow up on some chains of inquiry. First, here is a list of Dead Kennedys 1978 demos. I do not have recordings of these, but it is possible that one of the mystery items is the track.

http://ocstwosway.blogspot.com/2007/07/dead-kennedys-1978-demos.html

I also checked the online Flex Hardcore discography which includes some bootlegs and other non-standard releases by the Dead Kennedys and turned up nothing with that title. A song search (using Gray Matter, Grey Matter, Streets Of Dallas, In The Streets, On The Streets, and Dallas as search critera) turned up no US punk bands with that title. The Flex discography includes a lot of "Killed By Death" obscure punk stuff, so it is a pretty good yard stick for US stuff from 1975 to now.

I then checked popsike.com to see if any rare DKs or other records had been sold on eBay over the past 4 years that were listed under or included the title. I found none.

It could just be a line in a song (have tried lyric searches with no luck) or what an old song was first known as. It could even be that California Uber Alles was solicited to the radio station under that false title as a sort of punk prank.

Here is a list of songs relating to the JFK assassination (some of them list the date of the CD release, but the track is actually from much earlier, as in the Destroy All Monsters track)

http://www.turnmeondeadman.net/JFK/JFKSongs.php

Good luck!