{"id":3785,"date":"2026-01-29T10:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/?p=3785"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:11:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T12:11:01","slug":"the-dead-kennedys-obscenity-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/2026\/01\/29\/the-dead-kennedys-obscenity-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dead Kennedys Obscenity Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_code module_class=”custom-cat” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]
\t
\t\tMojo<\/pee>\t<\/div>\t
\t\tEyewitness<\/pee>\t<\/div><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The Dead Kennedys Obscenity Trial<\/h1>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Including a poster of HR Giger\u2019s risqu\u00e9 painting Penis Landscape<\/strong><\/span> with their Frankenchrist LP landed the San Fran punk satirists<\/strong><\/span> in court for violating the California Penal Code. How did free speech win out?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-main” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Interview by Pat Gilbert<\/span><\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-1046104826-scaled.jpg” alt=”Dead Kennedys circa 1983 in New York City.” title_text=”Dead Kennedys” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Plastic Surgery Disasters: The Dead Kennedys (l-r) D. H. Peligro, East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride and Jello Biafra<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”ss-custom-header” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Cabin|700|||||||” text_font_size=”35px” header_2_font=”Cabin|700|||||||” header_2_font_size=”35px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Part<\/span> 1:<\/span> Like America on parade<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

DKs voice and lyricist JELLO BIAFRA recalls taking on the moral censors, near-ruination and meeting art magus Giger.<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cThe reason I wanted to use [Work 219: Landscape XX, aka Penis Landscape] at all was the impact it had when it first hit me\u2026 it occurred to me, Hey wait a minute, we are in the middle of recording the Frankenchrist album, and this picture is like Reagan America on parade! That\u2019s what the album is about too\u2026 if I tweak a word here and there in all these different songs, it would be a concept album!<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

I\u2019m not sure I would have even flashed on that if I hadn\u2019t seen the Giger painting! So I thought, naturally this should be the front cover! Not everyone agreed. Ruth Schwartz at Mordam, our distributor at the time, said, \u2018Well, you realise no store will stock this if that is the front cover.\u2019 So we looked at having the super dark shrink wrap that Roxy Music used in Country Life and Pink Floyd used on Wish You Were Here. Then after initially saying the idea was OK, the other Dead Kennedys freaked out about the picture. After we had secured the rights and everything!<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

A big quarrel ensued and we finally agreed to put it on the inside, which took care of the stores, as an insert poster\u2026<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

We know the rest. There was a sticker saying that there was an insert by H.R. Giger \u201csome may find shocking or offensive. Life can sometimes be that way!\u201d This was right when Tipper Gore and her religious-right zealot friends launched their carefully planned attack on music. They need a pigeon. They needed someone they could actually charge with a crime. Little did I guess that it would wind up being me. The prosecutor, Michael Guarino, has even admitted that I was chosen as a \u2018cost effective way of sending a message.\u2019 In other words, they wouldn\u2019t have to pay the money to fight lawyers for Prince, Ozzy Osbourne, or Judas Priest or some of the other high profile targets\u2026 so Frankenchrist ended up becoming the first album in American history, prosecuted\u2026 the excuse was the Giger poster, but it was clear they were after me, Dead Kennedys, and my and the band\u2019s whole legacy.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

\u201cI thought, naturally this should be the front cover.\u201d<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Jello Biafra<\/span><\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-685173825-scaled.jpg” alt=”The Dead Kennedys (from left: Klaus Flouride, Jello Biafra, East Bay Ray (kneeling), and D. H. Peligro) pose in front of an oil refinery.” title_text=”Punk Rock Band The Dead Kennedys” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The jury deadlocked 7-5 in favour of acquittal, and when a jury in a criminal case deadlocks it means a mistrial. The prosecutor immediately filed for a new trial. The judge denied it on the grounds that there had been enough playing with the law for one case. Distribution of harmful matter had only recently come on the books and had never been used before in court and may never be used again.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Of course, no, I didn\u2019t go to jail, I didn\u2019t get fined, and I didn\u2019t get convicted, but in the marketplace it meant that Dead Kennedys and Alternative Tentacles were kicked out of a lot chain stores because the McCarthy-style chill factor that they wanted, actually happened! It also meant that the silver linings were getting to meet and hang out with Frank Zappa and my spoken-word shows being pole-vaulted from coffee house readings of alleged poetry to talking at universities about censorship, and I never looked back. And I got to know Hans Ruedi Giger!<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

I met Giger three times\u2026 [the second time was] when I did a spoken word show in Zurich, his sort of adopted nephew and my good friend to this day, Boris Bueller, took me over to Giger\u2019s house. It was agreed that since Giger wanted to check up on the progress anyway, we\u2019d all get in the van and go the two hours or whatever it was, to Gruy\u00e8res and check out the museum\u2026 he hadn\u2019t really hadn\u2019t been filled in all that much on the Frankenchrist legal case, the trial, what had happened and so I filled him in at length on that!<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Then into the museum and words cannot describe what those paintings look like when you are right there with them\u2026 as I went through the rooms, there was this morbid, almost Schoenbergish piano music going on.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

I thought, Wow, that\u2019s a great thing to be playing! This is kind of helping! Then I get to the top floor, and there is Giger himself at the piano. All alone, just enjoying playing some music. The minute he saw me watching him and listening, he stopped and that was the end of that.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-685175251-scaled.jpg” alt=”The members of the punk rock group The Dead Kennedys (from left: Jello Biafra, D. H. Peligro, East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride) stand in the doorway of a bathroom as Jello sticks his finger under the running water of the bathroom sink.” title_text=”The Dead Kennedys in a Bathroom” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”ss-custom-header” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Cabin|700|||||||” text_font_size=”35px” header_2_font=”Cabin|700|||||||” header_2_font_size=”35px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Part 2:<\/span> \u201cThe case was a set-up\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Alternative Tentacles employee Greg Werckman recalls the edge of destruction and other aftershocks.<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cI was working at a talent agency in New York and they gave me all the crazy people to look after \u2013 Hunter S Thompson, Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman \u2013 and Jello Biafra. I was a big Dead Kennedys fan, so we became friends and I started working with him at Alternative Tentacles.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The whole Frankenchrist court case was a set-up. I subscribe to Jello\u2019s theory that part of the political realm in America thought the band was an easy target; that they could quietly bring in censorship and then extend it throughout the music industry.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

It was scary \u2013 with a label like Alternative Tentacles, you think you\u2019re so underground no one would care, but Big Brother is keeping his eye on you.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

For me, the disappointing thing was how few mainstream or commercially successful artists came to Jello\u2019s side, as it potentially affected the whole art world. A handful did \u2013 Frank Zappa I expected but John Denver, of all people! There were so many people who could have written a cheque or publicised the fight.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

\u201c<\/strong>You think you\u2019re so underground no one would care, but Big Brother is keeping his eye on you.\u201d<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Greg Werckman<\/span><\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

During the trial the prosecution brought up lyrics to the songs to make their case, so it just wasn\u2019t about the art. They weren\u2019t enjoying the message the band was putting out.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The case costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend, and I was shocked that the Alternative Tentacles didn\u2019t go under. The only reason it didn\u2019t was because Jello put all his energy and his own financial resources into keeping it afloat. Every penny he had, all the money his parents had in accounts for him, he dumped it all in.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In fact, I think it was a huge factor in the band splitting up [the DKs only made one more album, 1986\u2019s Bedtime For Democracy], because I don\u2019t think all four members agreed with Jello that they needed to put up a fight, whereas Jello was more interested in the message.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The devastation that court case caused to the label was immense. The record wasn\u2019t banned, but several bigger chains and stores wouldn\u2019t carry it. By the time I came on board [in 1989], Alternative Tentacles was limping along and we couldn\u2019t pay our bills every month. But the one positive aspect was the fans. In the eight years I worked at the label, almost every day a donation cheque arrived in the post from some kid in a far-off place. There was a real community in the punk rock world.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The experience could have brought Jello down, but the random punk rockers he bumped into in the street who said he was doing a good job or that $10 from a kid\u2019s piggy bank in Canada, that energised him.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Because the legal action wasn\u2019t successful, it looked like Jello and the label had won but it didn\u2019t feel like a victory. But looking back it was important. The [Penis Landscape] poster is still available and Jello\u2019s still around spreading his message. They couldn\u2019t shut him down. It led directly to the growth of the PMRC [Parents Music Resource Centre] and warning labels on record sleeves \u2013 but then the \u201cexplicit lyrics contained\u201d sticker became a sales tool, like, \u2018That sounds cool!\u2019, so that\u2019s a little ironic.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Ultimately, it\u2019s Jello who has survived and thrived. Nothing will stop Jello.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

This article originally appeared in Issue 249 of MOJO<\/em><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Images: Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Including a poster of HR Giger\u2019s risqu\u00e9 painting Penis Landscape with their Frankenchrist LP landed the San Fran punk satirists in court for violating the California Penal Code. How did free speech win out?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3785"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3811,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions\/3811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}