people actually thought the dead kennedys were a racist band? DH Peligro was black
And it's people who have no idea who's in the band or who isn't or what they look like or what ethnicity they may or may not be.
Holiday in Cambodia was done before he was in the band (we've got a bigger problem now was not) and he didn't play on that recording. I don't think he joined the band until later in 80 or maybe 81?
I remember I read an interview with him where they asked him what he thought of the band before he joined and if he thought he'd get asked to join the band or make the audition or whatever it was. And he said something like ''I wasn't sure if they'd have me because I'm black''. He said something like that. He didn't elaborate, but I'm assuming he just meant something like demographically the punk scene doesn't have a lot of black guys and not that the punk scene doesn't accept blacks. I don't think he was into the punk scene before he joined that band. Or it's possible he heard that song and didn't understand the context.
Almost every Dead Kennedys song was written from the point of view of whoever they were mocking. Whether it was jocks and dumb frat boys, Ronald Reagan, Jerry Brown/or any other politician, businessmen, music executives and lame bands, child molesters. Only someone who didn't know the Dead Kennedys would think that.
I was shocked to hear of DH dying a few months back and that it was apparently from an accidental fall in his home. I think he was only like 62, but he looked way better and in much better shape than everybody else in the band. I saw a picture of him from a week before he died. He looked young, he had a great build. He's the last guy I would have guessed from that band that would have died from an accidental fall in his house. That had to be the most freak of freak accidents. I know he had some big drug problems back in the day, but from my understanding, I thought he was past that about 30 years ago.
He was in the Red Hot Chili Peppers before the current drummer, but they kicked him out because of his heroin problem. They had already had one guy in the band die of an OD and they had to kick him out and I don't think he was in the band for very long.