Holiday In Cambodia

Annotation

The Dead Kennedys - a Hardcore Punk band formed in 1978, in San Francisco, California. The song "Holiday in Cambodia" (Optional Music # OPT-4), composed by Jello Biafra and John Greenway centred on the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, led by the Pol Pot. The lyrics criticised Western students, comparing their lifestyle with the Cambodia regime. The official video of the song contained images of the US Airforce dropping napalm bombs over eastern Cambodia, in Operation Menu (8 March 1969 to 26 May 1970), part of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Civil War - chemical weapon Napalm B - a jellied gasoline mixture, with polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Declared a war-crime since 1980, the US government extensively used this weapon during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973.123Sources1Napalm: An American Biography (Robert M. Neer, 2013)↩2Times Higher Education: Napalm an american biography by robert m neer↩3Napalm, An American Biography (book website)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Punk Songs

The Dead Kennedys - a Hardcore Punk band formed in 1978, in San Francisco, California. The song "Holiday in Cambodia" (Optional Music # OPT-4), composed by Jello Biafra and John Greenway centred on the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, led by the Pol Pot. The lyrics criticised Western students, comparing their lifestyle with the Cambodia regime. The official video of the song contained images of the US Airforce dropping napalm bombs over eastern Cambodia, in Operation Menu (8 March 1969 to 26 May 1970), part of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Civil War - chemical weapon Napalm B - a jellied gasoline mixture, with polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Declared a war-crime since 1980, the US government extensively used this weapon during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973.123 Sources1Napalm: An American Biography (Robert M. Neer, 2013)↩2Times Higher Education: Napalm an american biography by robert m neer↩3Napalm, An American Biography (book website)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: So, you've been to school for a year or two / And you know you've seen it all / In daddy's car, thinking you'll go far / Back east your type don't crawl / Playing ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz / On your five-grand stereo / Braggin' that you know, how the niggers feel cold / And the slums got so much soul / It's time to taste what you most fear / Right Guard will not help you here / Brace yourself, my dear / Brace yourself, my dear / It's a holiday in Cambodia / It's tough, kid, but it's life / It's a holiday in Cambodia / Don't forget to pack a wife / You're a star-belly snitch, you suck like a leech / You want everyone to act like you / Kiss ass while you bitch, so you can get rich / But your boss gets richer off you / Well, you'll work harder with a gun in your back / For a bowl of rice a day / Slave for soldiers till you starve / Then your head is skewered on a stake / Now you can go where people are one / Now you can go where they get things done / What you need, my son... / What you need, my son... / Is a holiday in Cambodia / Where people dress in black / A holiday in Cambodia / Where you'll kiss ass or crack / Pol Pot, Pol Pot

Notes

I.R.S. IR 9016, International Record Syndicate, Inc., ℗ 1980 I.R.S., Inc., single grey label carrying both sides: A "Police Truck" (Biafra, Ray), 2:24, IR-09016-A, and B "Holiday in Cambodia", 3:43, IR-09016-B, © 1980 Decay Music, BMI (Dead Kennedys). The picture sleeve shows a black-and-white news photograph of a crowd scene, with the title in red and "Dead Kennedys" running down the right edge. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

American punk band formed 1978 in San Francisco, California ('Holiday in Cambodia'). [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Air Force · Cambodia · Genocide · Guns · Khmer Rouge · Napalm

In collections

Punk Songs