The College of Musical Knowledge

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1. John wrote:

   Jello Biafra.

   In the fall of 1979, while driving to a Pere Ubu concert, the drummer of the Dead Kennedys, Bruce Slesinger (also known as “Ted”) told their singer Jello Biafra (or as his parents called him, Eric Reed Boucher) that he should run for mayor of San Francisco. Suddenly inspired, Biafra decided that he would do just that. At the show, he started telling everyone of his plan and began drafting his platform on a cocktail napkin. His many ideas included banning cars from the city limits, legalizing squatting in tax delinquent vacant buildings, making police officers run for election to keep their jobs (with votes cast by citizens of the neighborhoods they patrolled), rehiring laid off city workers to panhandle in rich neighborhoods (with 50% of their take going back to the city), auctioning off all high city government positions, requiring businessmen to wear clown suits during working hours, establishing a Board of Bribery to standardize (and legalize) bribes for items such as liquor licenses and building code exemptions, tearing down Pier 39 (a popular tourist attraction), and erecting statues of Dan White (who had shot Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in late 1978) in the city so that people could relieve their frustrations by throwing eggs, rocks, and tomatoes at them (which would be sold by the Parks Department to generate revenue).

   In order to run for mayor of San Francisco, one had to either obtain the signatures of 1,500 people or pay $1 for every signature less than that. After executing a guerilla voter registration drive and holding a benefit to raise the balance of the money needed, Biafra got about 600 signatures and paid $900 or so to officially get on the ballot. After that, thanks to existing “equal time” regulations guaranteeing that all candidates would receive equal exposure in the media, Biafra’s campaign quickly evolved from an anarchist prank to a valid political endeavor. He was even given space in the official voter information pamphlet that was sent to all registered voters.

   As one might expect, Biafra ran a unique campaign, using the slogans “There’s always room for Jello” and “Jello Biafra: My Record Speaks for Itself.” His followers joined in, carrying signs reading “If He Doesn’t Win, I’ll Kill Myself” and “What If He Wins?!” In addition, Biafra tweaked the two “serious” contenders for mayor, Dianne Feinstein (the former president of the Board of Supervisors who had automatically became Mayor after Moscone was killed) and Quentin Kopp (a city Supervisor), by wearing an old “Quentin Kopp the Kosher Cowboy” campaign shirt to a media sponsored candidate roundtable, and also vacuuming in front of Feinstein’s townhouse to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping city streets as part of a pledge to “clean up downtown.”

   In the end, Biafra came in fourth out of a field of ten, gathering 6,591 votes (3.5% of the total votes cast) and helping to force a runoff between Feinstein and Kopp. Feinstein went on to win, and ultimately became a California State Senator…you probably saw her recently as the Master of Ceremonies for President Obama’s inauguration. Thanks to the strong showing of Biafra and another candidate, drag queen Sister Boom Boom, Kopp helped to pass a resolution stating that no candidate could run under any name other than their given name.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC0P7E4Daa4
   This is a local news clip from 1979 about Jello Biafra’s campaign for mayor.

   
   “Running for Mayor” (excerpt), Jello Biafra, 1991
   This is an except from a 21 minute monologue where Jello Biafra describes his campaign for mayor, outlining some of the points of his campaign platform

   
   “Die for Oil, Sucker” (45 version), Jello Biafra, 1991
   This is from Biafra’s 45 single, “Die for Oil, Sucker”, which was later expanded for the record “I Blow Minds for a Living”. This piece was written for the Gulf War in 1991, but certain parts still sound relevant today.

   
   “California Über Alles”, Dead Kennedys, 1980
   As you may have guessed already, Biafra likes to incorporate politcs into his material. This is one of his first political songs, targeted at the Governor of California (at the time), Jerry Brown.

   Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 11:08 pm | Permalink
2. Michael wrote:

   Cool site !
   Keep up the good work..

   Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 2:27 am | Permalink

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