“Police Truck” by Dead Kennedys

"Police Truck" first surfaced in May 1980 on the flip side of Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia" single, and it's a nasty piece of satire told from the wrong side of the badge: the song speaks in the first person as the authorities themselves, two police officers whose conduct is the target. It grew out of a real incident in Oakland and widens into a broadside against police corruption.

The music rides a surf rock beat from the "Pipeline" school, with East Bay Ray's guitar leads soaked in echo and a chorus that comes tumbling down the scale. It's the Dead Kennedys trick in miniature, a disturbing scene played out through a grin, and it caught on early, years before it opened the 1987 compilation Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.