Kill the Poor
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{{Infobox Single | Name = Kill The Poor | [ Cover = ] | Artist = Dead Kennedys | [ from Album = Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables] | Released = October 1980 | Format = 7 inch | [ Recorded = 1980] | Genre = Hardcore punk | Length = mm:ss | Label =Alternative Tentacles | [ Writer = Jello Biafra] | Producer = | Chart position = | [ Reviews = ] * | Last single =Holiday In Cambodia | [ This single =Kill The Poor ] | Next single = Too Drunk To Fuck }}
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"Kill the Poor" (B-side "Insight") is a single by the hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys released in October of 1980. A different version of it was released on their debut album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. The song is from the point of view of government officials, who want to use the neutron bomb to rid the country of its poorest inhabitants. One could infer that the government officials in the song are conservatives, as the song's storyline mentions at one point that Jane Fonda "convinced the liberals it's okay", hinting that the officials are not liberals. When "Kill the Poor" got a surprising amount of play in some third world countries, the band wondered if the government took the song literally and were actively promoting it.
Musically, the song mixed the early hardcore punk aesthetic (hard, distorted chords and a basic musical assault) with post-Ramones rockabilly riffs and an outrageous and ingenius chorus (based around the Ramones "You're Gonna Kill that Girl," and probably meant as a parody of that song). "Kill the Poor" was the leadoff track to the 1980's classic Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables and is considered a classic of the early punk era and one of the Kennedys' best-known and most-loved songs.
"Kill the Poor" reached #49 in the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks on the chart.