Your Emotions

Album: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1980)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This frantic 1:20 punk rocker is part of the first Dead Kennedys album, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. Written by guitarist East Bay Ray, it's one of the few songs in their catalog that lead singer Jello Biafra didn't write or co-write.

    The lyric is a rapid-fire rant about a "planless and mindless" person who is also boring. In a Songfacts interview with East Bay Ray, he explained: "That was inspired by a person who was just very difficult to deal with. Their rational mind would leave the building, and you'd get these weird, angry emotions, so, 'Your emotions make you a monster.'

    And the thing is, it's not that they wanted to be that way, but it's how they were brought up – how their caregivers treated them. It's a psychological song, actually."
  • On later Dead Kennedys albums, Jello Biafra wrote all the lyrics, which went after specific people or types of people in no uncertain terms. This song is an example of one of their early ones with a different tone. The lyric is scathing but vague - we're not even sure if the subject is male or female.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

70s Music Quiz 1

70s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

The '70s gave us Muppets, disco and Van Halen, all which show up in this groovy quiz.

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Colbie Caillat

Colbie CaillatSongwriter Interviews

Since emerging from MySpace with her hit "Bubbly," Colbie has become a top songwriter, even crafting a hit with Taylor Swift.

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou HarrisSongwriter Interviews

She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.

Gary Louris of The Jayhawks

Gary Louris of The JayhawksSongwriter Interviews

The Jayhawks' song "Big Star" has special meaning to Gary, who explains how longevity and inspiration have trumped adulation.

Edie Brickell

Edie BrickellSongwriter Interviews

Edie Brickell on her collaborations with Paul Simon, Steve Martin and Willie Nelson, and her 2021 album with the New Bohemians.