Dead Kennedys FRANKENCHRIST vinyl LP INC. POSTER + OIS 1st press in shrink-wrap
£
60
$
79
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Description
1st pressing of the Dead Kennedys' legendary LP, 'Frankenchrist', released in the UK in 1985.
Still in its shrink-wrap (only opened at the side to access the record), the record INCLUDES the H.R. Giger poster, as well as the original inner sleeve with lyrics (see photos).
The poster is entitled 'Landscape XX' or, alternatively, 'Penis Landscape'.
Vinyl is in EXCELLENT condition. Sleeve, inner and poster are NEAR MINT.
In case you didn't already know.....
.......lead singer Jello Biafra was subject to a criminal trial when in 1986 a 14-year-old girl bought a copy of the record as a birthday present for her 11-year-old brother, and her mother lodged a complaint with California's attorney general. Police officers raided Biafra’s home in San Francisco and the record label offices, seizing copies of the album and poster. Biafra was charged with 'distributing harmful material to a minor', which carried a possible one-year jail term.
The prosecution was supported by the "Parents' Music Resource Centre" (PMRC), a group led by the wives of Senators (led by Tipper Gore, wife of future Vice-President Al Gore) who sought to impose censorship on 'obscene' rock music. It was thought by the prosecutors to be cost effective to target a smaller band and record label as opposed to others on the PMRC hit-list, such as Prince and Madonna, who were on major labels and would have been better resourced to fight a case, and establish a precedent affecting all artists.
At the trial in August 1987, the prosecutor, Michael Guarino, called the poster “pornography”. The defense argued that Landscape XX had hung in Vienna’s Museum of Modern Art and the Bronx Museum, and was ugliness as social commentary - not obscenity.
The result was that the jury voted 7-5 in favor of acquittal. Years later, Guarino admitted he had been wrong to bring the case. He said: "About midway through the trial we realized that the lyrics of the album were in many ways socially responsible, very anti-drug and pro-individual. I felt I was on the wrong side of history."
Gratifyingly, influence of the PMRC went into decline and they disbanded completely in the 1990s.
Biafra had won an outstanding victory for freedom of artistic expression, although at a cost - as many stores refused to stock the album even after the trial and the band split up under the pressure.
https://qz.com/210900/the-obscenity-trial-that-made-h-r-giger-an-icon-for-punk-rock-and-free-speech/
Pressings of the album since the prosecution have not included the poster, so it is now pretty rare.
Tracklist
A1 Soup Is Good Food 4:14 A2 Hellnation 2:21 A3 This Could Be Anywhere (This Could Be Everywhere) 5:24 A4 A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch 5:50 A5 Chicken Farm 5:05 B1 Jock-O-Rama (Invasion Of The Beef Patrol) 4:04 B2 Goons Of Hazard 4:25 B3 MTV - Get Off The Air 3:36 B4 At My Job 3:40 B4 Stars And Stripes Of Corruption 6:19 price rating
