10 Greatest Final Rock Albums Of The 1980s
9. Bedtime For Democracy - Dead Kennedys
With all the subtlety of a rocket-propelled sledgehammer, Dead Kennedys helped pioneer the punk movement in the late 70s and early 80s by taking political figures or topics of the day and completely skewering them.
For their third album, 1985's Frankenchrist, the band including an insert of a painting by H. R. Giger called Landscape #XX, which was a drawing of a bunch of naked penises. As this was the mid-80s, aka the height of Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), this didn't go down well.
By the time the group's fourth record, Bedtime for Democracy, had come out, the group were involved in an indecency trial that would add to their increasing burnout with the music business. Before Bedtime was even released, they had agreed to break up.
At least they went out on a banger; a collection of fast and furious tracks taking on everything from the PMRC to hardcore punk to Ronald Reagan.
Bedtime for Democracy rounded off an extraordinary musical career to an abrupt, but fantastic end; one that was, unbelievably, brought about in part by a drawing of the male genitalia.