I Fought the Law

In the 1965 Bobby Fuller Four classic "I Fought The Law," he fights the law, and the law wins. In this Dead Kennedys variation, the song comes from the perspective of a cop who literally gets away with murder - he fought the law and he won. Lead singer Jello Biafra re-wrote the lyric to be about the 1978 murder of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and his aide Harvey Milk ("I blew George and Harvey's brains out with my six-gun") by the former police officer Dan White, who managed to get the charges of double murder down to voluntary manslaughter by using his depression to claim he wasn't thinking clearly.

The line, "Twinkies are the best friend I ever had" comes from the "Twinkie defense" Dan White's lawyer reportedly used at trial, claiming White went temporarily insane after eating too many Twinkies. The sugary snack food was mentioned in trail as part of White's diet, but was not the basis for his defense. It made a great headline though.

The Dead Kennedys had been playing this song live for a few years before it was first released on the 1986 sampler Play New Rose for Me. In 1987, it was included on the group's compilation album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death. At this time, Jello Biafra was on trial because their 1985 album Frankenchrist contained a poster that the Los Angeles District Attorney found worthy of prosecution. The case ended in a mistrial, but essentially broke up the band. When they regrouped in 2001, it was without Biafra, who was sued by his bandmates in 1998 in a dispute over royalties.