Chicken Farm

"Chicken Farm" is the fourth track on the Dead Kennedys' third album Frankenchrist. The lyrics and their subject matter are a departure away from Jello Biafra's traditional sarcastic tone, dealing with the dark, harsh realities of life in post-Vietnam War Southeast Asia. The song addresses the continued war (Cambodian-Vietnamese War and Sino-Vietnamese War) "Napalm rains no more, but the war goes on. Little brother died playing at the dump today...", the mass executions following the fall of the governments in South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos "Rifle shots ring out behind the crumbling buildings, executions have begun...", the effects of defoliant on the local population and ecosystem "How many more children will be killed or die at birth? Deformed by agent orange in our food chain forever more...", as well as the hardships faced by refugees who attempted to flee the choas, "We shiver on the deck and stiffen for the worst, if the pirates come around we might as well be dead... One foot in a land we can barely understand, can't speak the tongue of Yankee hospitality. Our kids at school get beat up to the tune of boat people, go home."
 
< Prev   Next >