[net.music] New Order Rumor

djo@sdchema.UUCP (Denise O'jibway) (08/15/85)

Pardon the offensive language that follows.

I heard that Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys wrote a song
about New Order entitled "Nazi Punks Fuck Off and Die" or 
some statement to that effect.  Has anyone else heard this?
Has anyone heard the song (if it exists)?  What are the
poltics of New Order?  I liked Joy Division very much but
I must admit I haven't listened to New Order (yet).

So much music, so little time...

Denise
djo@CHEM.UCSD.ARPA

rosen@ucbvax.ARPA (Rob Rosen) (08/19/85)

In article <433@sdchema.sdchema.UUCP> djo@sdchema.UUCP (Denise O'jibway) writes:
>Pardon the offensive language that follows.
>
>I heard that Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys wrote a song
>about New Order entitled "Nazi Punks Fuck Off and Die" or 
>some statement to that effect.  Has anyone else heard this?
>Denise
>djo@CHEM.UCSD.ARPA

   The song's called "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" but from what I've heard, it's
   an attack on the Dead Kennedy's followers (who tend to be rather hard-core),
   not on New Order or any of the individuals who comprise New Order.
   I'm not sure about this since I'm not a real big DK's fan.

-- 
            "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste
	     (or intelligence) of the American public."

		  --H.L. Mencken


		       --Rob Rosen

		       ...ucbvax!rosen
		       rosen@ucb-vax.berkeley.edu

rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (08/20/85)

> Pardon the offensive language that follows.
> 
> I heard that Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys wrote a song
> about New Order entitled "Nazi Punks Fuck Off and Die" or 
> some statement to that effect.  Has anyone else heard this?
> Has anyone heard the song (if it exists)?  What are the
> poltics of New Order?  I liked Joy Division very much but
> I must admit I haven't listened to New Order (yet).
> 
> So much music, so little time...
> 
> Denise
> djo@CHEM.UCSD.ARPA

To my knowledge "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" had nothing to do with New
Order.  (I'm curious as to where you may have heard that.)  It DID
have a lot to do with the new breed of rightwing hardcore types
showing up at DK concerts and other punk events.  It was an
attempt by Biafra to dissociate himself from that substantial
wing of the hardcore movement, and to build a base of support
against Nazi punks in general.  It didn't work.  The same punks
who thought that shock value was and is everything who got off
on wearing swastikas and other Nazi regalia now stand side by
side with the real rightwing scum, and it's hard as hell to tell
the difference.

Odd, the man who re-wrote "California Uber Alles" in pure Ministry of
Truth fashion to cover the fact that he got us worried about the
wrong California politico, speaking out against fascism.
-- 
Popular consensus says that reality is based on popular consensus.
						Rich Rosen   pyuxd!rlr

allynh@ucbvax.ARPA (Allyn Hardyck) (08/20/85)

In article <9969@ucbvax.ARPA> rosen@ucbvax.UUCP (Rob Rosen) writes:
>>I heard that Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys wrote a song
>>about New Order entitled "Nazi Punks Fuck Off and Die" or 
>>some statement to that effect.  Has anyone else heard this?
>
>   The song's called "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" but from what I've heard, it's
>   an attack on the Dead Kennedy's followers (who tend to be rather hard-core),
>   not on New Order or any of the individuals who comprise New Order.

The song has nothing to do with New Order, and why should they alienate their
own fans?  The song has was especially written for the "Let Them Eat
Jellybeans" compilation, which was put together by Biafra as a sampler for
European audiences, as he was amazed when he was over there that there was
little or no knowledge of the American music underground.  The song (which
was written around 1981) concerns the then rise of the Oi movement in England,
many of whose members were involved in the ultraracist National Front. Of
course it could also be taken as a warning about the rise of a similar
movement here...

Some great stuff on the album - Bad Brains classic "Pay To Cum,"  the Feederz'
"Jesus Entering From the Rear," Black Flag's "Police Story", plus some
decided surprises:  Geza X's "Isotope Soap", and Voice Farm's "Sleep".

Now, about New Order.  They are not Nazis, nor have they ever been.  They have
been trading in various facets of Nazi imagery ever since their days as
Warsaw, true (the cover of the first Joy Division EP, recorded when they were
still Warsaw, features the famous photo of a stormtrooper holding a rifle at a
frightened Jewish boy), but I think basically the imagery is used in its sense
of the inherent cruelty of man towards (man, woman - cf. "Love Will Tear Us
Apart").  I doubt people would call Elvis Costello a Nazi, yet he used the same
sort of imagery in his works, especially "Armed Forces" (which was to be
originally titled "Emotional Fascism"), featuring songs like "Green Shirt" and
"Two Little Hitlers".

The Paul-Is-Dead-like clue-finding of New Order Nazism can get pretty
ludicrous.  Someone noticed on the label of the "Movement" LP, that the B in
Bemusic, their publishing company, was shaped like a digraph, which is used in
German in place of the letter combination "SS"...