"Kill All Hippies" is a song by Scottish rock band Primal Scream, released on 20 March 2000 as the second single from their sixth studio album, XTRMNTR. The song has an aggressive, electronically processed sound, with prominent use of sampled drum loops and distorted guitars. Its title is a quote from the 1980 film Out of the Blue, and begins with a sample of the line and other quotes from the film spoken by actress Linda Manz. Upon release, the song debuted and peaked at number 24 on the UK Singles Chart and spent one more week in the top 100 before dropping out.
Reception
Reviewing a live show from the XTRMNTR tour, Guardian critic Dave Simpson compared the song to the work of D.A.F.[2]
Music video
A video for the song was directed by Julian Gibbs and Julian House, inspired by House's cover art for the album. It features fragmented footage of approaching war, aggression and combat, such as riot police, vintage military aircraft and hockey players, superimposed on backgrounds of intense blue and orange colour washes, with no faces visible. Several versions were made for different mixes of the album.[3]
^Simpson, Dave (10 March 2000). "A Dose of Castor Oil". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2016. Snatches of lyrics…struggle to be heard amid an aural cacophony, complete with wailing saxophones, guitars like electric drills and PiL-esque soundscapes like walls of sheet metal clattering from a tower block. It comes to something when the jazz terrorism of If They Move, Kill 'Em (from their previous album) comes as light relief…only the DAF-prototype electronic funk singles, Swastika Eyes and Kill All Hippies, escape a sonic mauling.
^"Our Work: Kill All Hippies video". Intro UK. Retrieved 12 January 2016. For the release of their single Kill All Hippies, the band were reluctant to make another live action video that would probably never be shown on TV. Instead they suggested animating the album cover artwork. Moving library footage from dozens of film libraries was painstakingly assembled – newsreels of a Kamikaze tea party dated 1932, Red Arrows footage, black and white film footage of motorcycle cops from early 50s TV, and jet fighter footage from the 70s. The helicopter shots were from a Vietnam documentary.
