Dead Kennedys

[babak]

Hey,

I've been lookin a lot, and I can't find anything specific about the meaning of Holiday in Cambodia. I have an idea of what it might be, but no confirmation. Any extra points are cool too.

[cosmosis]

Not sure, but I think it's about this rich kid that somehow ends up in the army and suddenly has to face reality. One of my DK favorites.

[MarcM]

Lyrics:

Holiday In Cambodia

So you been to school for a year or two

And you know you've seen it all

In daddy's car thinkin' you'll go far

Back east your type don't crawl

Play ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz

On your five grand stereo

Braggin that you know how the n*****s feel cold

And the slums got so much soul

It's time to taste what you most fear

Right Guard will not help you here

Brace yourself, my dear

It's a holiday in Cambodia

It's tough kid, but it's life

It's a holiday in Cambodia

Don't forget to pack a wife

Your a star-belly sneech you suck like a leech

You want everyone to act like you

Kiss ass while you bitch so you can get rich

But your boss gets richer on you

Well you'll work harder with a gun in your back

For a bowl of rice a day

Slave for soldiers til you starve

Then your head skewered on a stake

Now you can go where people are one

Now you can go where they get things done

What you need my son:

Is a holiday in Cambodia

Where people dress in black

A holiday in Cambodia

Where you'll kiss ass or crack

Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot [etc.]

And it's a holiday in Cambodia

Where you'll do what you're told

A holiday in Cambodia

Where the slums got so much soul

[XXX]

If you know the history of Cambodia of the 60s and 70s, you'd know how ironic a holiday there would sound like. You actually have to be scorted in certain parts of the jungles because the place is riddled with landmines, undetonated bombs that the US dropped, not to mention human remains from the genocide...