Hippies vs. Punks: "California Über Alles" 1979

By 1979 the Hippies are finished as a vehicle for cultural change. They have become part of the status quo; hence, the Dead Kennedys' "California Über Alles." Released as a single in June of 1979, the source of the song's ire is Jerry Brown. Jerry Brown is the current Governor of California, and he was Governor of California from 1975 to 1983 when Jello Biafra wrote "California Über Alles." Brown's nickname, coined by Mike Royko, was Governor Moonbeam. But that nickname, like the target of "California Über Alles," speaks not of a Hippie per se but what became of the Hippies when they returned to the rat race and accepted the yoke of corporate domination and with it their own niche in consumer society. This is New Age.

Jerry Brown is a great politician. Biafra's disdain was misplaced and his prediction not altogether accurate. "Carter Power" did "go away," but it was ushered out not by Brown but another California governor, Ronald Reagan. Maybe if like the Dead Kennedys you lived in the Bay Area it might seem as if New Ageism could sweep the nation in 1980; but the opposite was the case. The country was lurching rapidly to the Right and had been for several years. 

No, Jerry Brown's days in the national spotlight in the 1980's were numbered. His time had already come and gone. His time was 1976; but that year he ran a diffident, inscrutable presidential primary campaign and Carter cleaned his clock. If only Brown had run stronger -- he didn't have to win; he just had to bloody Carter more -- the outcome of the general election very well could have been different.

My idea, one I've entertained for a long time, is that if Gerald Ford would have beat Carter and won four more years in the White House, which Ford very nearly did anyway, we never would have elected Reagan in 1980 and suffered the decade-plus devastation his presidency wrought. What we needed was an additional four years of Ford. Four more years with Rumsfeld and Cheney at the controls, assuming we could have avoided a nuclear conflagration, would have certainly meant victory for the Democratic presidential candidate in 1980. The country by this time would have been absolutely exhausted with 12 years of Republican misrule. Either Jerry Brown or Teddy Kennedy could have won a general election race against anyone the GOP nominated. Reagan would have been blocked. And the working class -- meaning most of us, the 99% -- would be much better off today.

So when you listen to "California Über Alles" think back to that time when the Hippie was in the Punk's crosshairs and Jerry Brown was soon to be President of the United States.

"California Über Alles"

I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles
And never frowns
Soon I will be president...

Carter Power will soon go away
I will be Fuhrer one day
I will command all of you
Your kids will meditate in school
Your kids will meditate in school!

[Chorus:]
California Uber Alles
California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California
Uber Alles California

Zen fascists will control you
100% natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face

Close your eyes, can't happen here
Big Bro' on white horse is near
The hippies won't come back you say
Mellow out or you will pay
Mellow out or you will pay!

[Chorus]

Now it is 1984
Knock-knock at your front door
It's the suede/denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece

Come quietly to the camp
You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp
Don't you worry, it's only a shower
For your clothes here's a pretty flower.

DIE on organic poison gas
Serpent's egg's already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown
When you mess with President Brown

[Chorus]