Corona

They had gone to Mexico after playing one of their premiere performance art shows the night before. They had all shaved their heads and painted their skulls black to look like a matchbook. When they got to Mexico, they spent their day getting wasted on the beach and passed out - getting extremely sunburnt. When they awoke, there was a Mexican lady on the beach picking up their beer bottles for the deposit money. Southern California having once been Mexico and acquired due to some quick thinking by Jefferson while Napoleon was distracted by empirical madness lives in the lap of luxury while the rest of Mexico exists in poverty - the injustice of our greed. And - if you've ever visited Baja - it's a rather dirty, scarcely populated tribute to this "practice we inherit" as Americans.

supposablethumbs : take a chill pill, dude. What's white-guilt about observing the fact that your luxury comes at the expense of someone else? You've probably never looked a poor person in the eye while you paid them for a service from your fat wallet. At least you've probably never done that and actually thought about it or given a sh*t, or felt like you wished you could help them out. Don't have to be white to understand that your comfort is built on the suffering of others.

So open up a history book and shut the f**k up.

Better yet, get out more from your white-fear-world, loser.

blergh! it's an amazing song in it's own right.

the thing i love about the minutemen is that they're political but not in a really overtly preachy, rage against the machine way. it's more observational. apparently d.boon wrote it after a trip to mexico in 1982.

"the injustice of our greed" - sums it up completely.

I read somewhere that Mike and D wrote it after a trip to Mexico, so it's about their sadness at that country's problems and helpessness to solve them.

From Wikipedia: The song was inspired by a day trip the band members (Boon, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley) had taken to Mexico on the Fourth of July, 1982. (The same trip also inspired the Mike Watt composition "I Felt Like A Gringo" on Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat.) Moved by some of the more downtrodden elements of the area that he had seen, D. Boon set about writing a song in sympathy with the people of Mexico.

The "Jackass" theme song! I can't believe it wasn't up here already, although few know who wrote it. This is a really interesting song lyrically. I think it's about Southern culture.

Definitely my favorite song on the album, and I owned the album way before Jackass premiered. Double Nickels on the Dime is an alternative/punk rock masterpiece.

@ tidesoncrim...I nearly crapped when I stumbled upon Jackass and heard this on my TV... of all places to be reminded of The Minutemen after screaming along to them for 20 years (or so)...Best Album in My collection...

Wow, I had it totally backwards for 30 years. First, I heard it as "The injustice of our -breed-" and "...emptiness of ourselves". I pictured D being drunk on the beach and seeing a beautiful woman looking at him. But he can tell by the look in her eyes that he, by virtue of his upbringing ("breed") and hygiene ("dirt... of ourselves"), etc., is of a lower socioeconomic status and therefore doesn't stand a chance with her. In fact, his only value is the five cents that his empty bottle is worth.

I think psychologists would call my teenage interpretation "projection". Sounds like I got his helplessness part a little right, though, so there's that. I'm better now, thanks.

Now to go correct Lyric Genius, which has been looking at it through the Jackass lens.