NO SERIOUSLY: “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” the “I Will Survive” for the Working Class Youth of the 1980’s
Part of the P.M.R.C.’s agenda, back in the 1980’s, consisted of a list of songs called “The Filthy Fifteen.” The purpose of that list was to cite the most offensive songs in popular music at the time, as judged by Tipper Gore and her band of Washington thug wives. One of those songs was one of the most important songs that ever passed into my ears, straight into my brain and deep into my heart and soul.
I first heard “We’re Not Gonna Take It” in the summer of 1984, the year of its release. I was fourteen and in my last year as a camper at a local daycamp. I was also somewhat of an athlete at the time, excelling in just about any sport, though I loved baseball the most. During a rainstorm, which shutdown all outdoor activites, forcing everyone to walk to Centennial Hall, a theatre that showed movies on rainy days, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see my friend, Jason, who was already extending the headphones of his Sony walkman for me to listen to whatever he had cued.
“Take a listen to this,” he said. “You’re going to freak.”
The first thing I heard was the drum intro. I couldn’t express this at the time but it was so perfectly produced. It was poppy, yet it still rocked. It was, and still is, the ultimate and most memorable introduction to any rock anthem ever. All I knew at that age though, was something was happening and life was never going to be the same again. I felt myself taken over by the music. The descending chords that act as a transition from the intro to the the first verse sucked me in and prepared me for the blow that was to be Dee Snider, lead singer for the group. With vocals reminiscent of Roger Daltrey, and hailing from the same island I grew up on (Long Island), he sang with the conviction of one standing in front of a firing squad, still prepared to defend their right to speak, “We’ve got the right to choose it. There ain’t no way we’ll lose it. This is our right. This our song.” What “I Will Survive” became for the feminist movement, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” became for the youth of the working class, a class that needed to constantly defend itself against all forms of authority, whether it be at work, on the streets or in the courtrooms.
“We’re Not Gonna Take It” is a proclamation of one’s right to do what one feels and having the ability to maintain that right regardless. It doesn’t get any more American than that. If anything, it restates the sentiments expressed in the First Amendment, that we have the right to express ourselves however we wish. And in retrospect, being a young person raised in the American school system and sold the ideas established in the Constitution of the United States, I now realize why I was so attracted to the song. Even at a young age, I staunchly believed in the rights of every American to speak their minds. “We’re Not Gonna Take It” expressed those ideals in a new, fresh and powerful way, one in which fourteen-year old kids would easily pick up on it and use it as their battlecry.
The P.M.R.C.’s claim was that this song promoted violence. How stupid. There is absolutely no mention of violence in the entire song. True, the word “fight” is used several times, but it is used metaphorically, as if Snider and the band are prepared to fight for their rights. There is no mention of guns, fists, brawls, battles, war, knives or anything else that may cause one bodily harm. Again, the P.M.R.C. used reacitonary interpretations in order to mislead the public into believing that rock music was harmful to their children.
At the start of the senate hearing, in which rock ‘n’ roll was put on trial by the P.M.R.C. and their pussywhipped husband senators, Paula Hawkins showed the video for “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” claiming it was extremely violent and unfit for children to watch. In the video, an overly aggressive parent chastises his son for being “worthless and weak.” Defending himself against this heartless assault, the young boy strikes a chord on his guitar and the father goes flying through the bedroom wall, landing on the front lawn of the house. The rest of the video is dedicated to the father attempting to regain his power over the boy but by this time the boy has morphed into Dee Snider and his siblings have turned into the other members of Twisted Sister. The father’s attempts are thwarted over and over again through several comic gags that leave him frazzled and defeated . It is a harmless, comic video, reminiscent of Looney Tune cartoons. The acts of self-defense used against the father are as innocent as Bugs Bunny hitting Elmer Fudd over the head with a mallet. It is cartoonish in its presentation and not worthy of the claim that it promotes violence. If we were to persecute Twisted Sister back then, than we most certainly would’ve had to persecute Bugs Bunny as well.
For those that voted for AL Gore in 2000, take note of the stupidity he and his wife instigated in the above essay.
Good game, Kevin
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
loading...
