BACK TO PUNK FLYERS

The flyer at left announced a concert the DEAD KENNEDYS played in Los Angeles on New Years Eve, 1984. The band had been singing about an encroaching authoritarianism for years and there were many references in their lyrics to the nightmarish vision of a future offered in 1984, the classic book penned by author George Orwell. I attended the chilling concert... it was a fitting way to celebrate 1984. Artist Winston Smith not only created this flyer, he also produced many of the brilliant album covers for the Dead Kennedys. Even the artist's pen name was lifted from Orwell's tale of a negative utopia. The flyer's haunting image portrays a man's disembodied head floating above an alleyway choked with the bodies of war victims. The floating man's smile is fixed in place by barbed wire, and in the background vultures gather for the feast. It's important to remember what was going on in the world at the time Winston Smith created this disturbing image. War was raging across Central America and Ronald Reagan's regime was deeply involved. The people of the US were largely complacent when it came to the mass slaughter taking place south of the border.... hence, the barbed wire smile.