Baby-Punchers

Baby-Punchers is a song written and performed by the New-York born punk/ska/metal band Leftöver Crack. It is the ninth track (second on the band's portion) of the split album dubbed “Deadline”, collaboratively written with England's Citizen Fish and released on compact disc in March, 2007.
The song features punk-rock icon Jello Biafra, former front-man of the Dead Kennedys, whom includes his own “rant” as some may call it, towards the end of the song which for all intents and purposes uses a prose rather than lyrical structure to criticize many aspects of today's society such as American indifference, apathy, and greed. Greed is emphasized by the desire to own material possessions.
Personal References
The band's lyricist, Scott Sturgeon, in the process of writing this song has used the pronouns you and I which indicate a personal conflict between himself and another group of people who can be inferred as the “Baby-Punchers” themselves, although never actually called as such. This particular piece of information is quite interesting as the name of the song is never spoken throughout, however many synonyms are used to describe these people. Among others include: badge wavers (of course referring to the police), cash cravers, cop callers, and peace stallers.
Rant
Toward the end of the song, spoken word artist Jello Biafra includes his own rant along with the songs lyrics. The advantage of a free form, spoken word portion helps to elaborate upon the groups point. Also, the appearance of Jello Biafra in any work would help to spread the message, as he is overwhelmingly popular in this particular music genre.
The rant, beginning after the chorus of the second verse, begins with a decrescendo of the ambient music. As the guitars and drums begin to quiet, Jello Biafra begins his speech with the phrase “The New World Order reeks of dying empire odor...” using his traditional method of speaking with unnecessary upward inflections that easily attracts attention. This rant is the pivotal point of the song and most likely the most notable portion as well. At the end of the rant, Biafra begins to speak louder and more passionately, ordering the listener to cause disruption and chaos within society. This emphasizes Biafra's true roots as an anarchist.
Imagery
The image that is often associated with the song is one that depicts six youths standing around a crib which contains an infant holding a stick with a banner that beholds the American-currency dollar sign, whilst brandishing molotov cocktails, all in front of a burning city that one can infer was started by these particular individuals. Beneath the actual image is an inscription that states: “Baby-Punchers”: Contra Los Puercos , which translates from Spanish into English to be “Against the Pigs ”. Using Spanish in the titles of songs is a trend that the band has made quite common and one that has been embraced by the fans and this can be seen in this picture as well.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu