Pull My Strings (lost footage from Dead Kennedys live performance; existence unconfirmed; 1980)

A photograph of the band taken on the night.

Status: Existence unconfirmed

The Bay Area Music awards, also known as the 'Bammies', was a yearly awards show held in San Francisco where well known bands from the city would perform, the winner would then be selected through viewer polls. For the 1980 Bay Area Music awards, the event was to open with the punk rock band Dead Kennedys who were scheduled to play their increasingly popular song, 'California Über Alles'

The band came on stage wearing white shirts with a black 'S' spray painted onto them and started to play the first few seconds of the song, where then lead singer, Jello Biafra, stopped them and said. "Hold it! We gotta prove we're adults now, we're not a punk rock band we're a new wave band" After this, the members each pulled a black necktie from behind their necks and brought it to the front to turn the "S" on their shirts into dollar symbols. They then began to play a new song called 'Pull My Strings' for the first and last time, aside from once more at a small gig later that week.

The songs lyrics insult the music industry in a satirical way, with the opening lines being: "I'm tired of self-respect, I can't afford a car, I wanna be a prefab superstar" and the chorus being "Is my cock big enough? Is my brain small enough? For you to make me a star. Give me a toot, I'll sell you my soul, pull my strings and I'll go far".[1] Other notable sections of the song include short portions of the song being a parody of the song 'My Sharona' by The Knack, a huge hit song at the time, where they play the chorus of this song and replace the words with "Drool, drool, drool, drool, drool, drool, my payola", payola being the illegal practice of record companies paying radio hosts to play specific songs and have them act like it is just a normal part of their broadcast.

The show was broadcast live to radio stations such as KMEL[2] and there is video footage of Huey Lewis and the News performing that night[5], proving there was video recording taking place but still no footage of the Dead Kennedys performance have ever surfaced. An audio recording of the event however was released on the bands compilation album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death (1987). In an interview with the bands bassist, Klaus Flouride, he said "Nobody's gotten in touch with us about the existence of the video, so I don't think it exists I don't think they did any video of it, it'd be something worth trying to look into". [3] This footage is considered extremely valuable to fans of the band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvbPsAva7qw (The song with lyrics but no intro) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q91D5blBdO8 (Interview with bassist Klaus Flouride) [2] [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUMT9OIaVvE (The version included on Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death, includes intro) [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzrYAYQwjk0 (Huey Lewis and the News on the night; proof that video recordings took place that night) [5]