Twisted Sister – We’re Not Gonna Take it

About The Song

“We’re Not Gonna Take It” is a song by American rock band Twisted Sister from their album Stay Hungry. It was first released as a single (with “You Can’t Stop Rock & Roll” as the B-side) in May 1984.The single reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, making it Twisted Sister’s only Top 40 single.
Written by Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider for the band’s 1984 album Stay Hungry, the chorus came to Snider fairly quickly but took three more years to flesh out the song lyrics before its release.

“I wanted to write an anthem,” said Dee Snider in a 2018 interview. “I’m from the Alice Cooper school of ‘School’s Out,’ ‘I’m Eighteen’… and Alice was very big on these anthemic songs. So I wanted to write an anthem for the audience to raise their fists in the air in righteous anger.”

In the 1980s, the mutiny of heavy metal began, when many songs came under direct attack by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), led by Al Gore’s then-wife Tipper Gore. Already disturbed by lyrics in songs by artists like Madonna and Prince, the group quickly attacked the hard rock genre, which eventually led to the RIAA agreeing to put “Parental Advisory” stickers on albums with what was deemed “explicit” content.

The PMRC also released a list of “Filthy 15” songs, which the group said contained sexually explicit lyrics or descriptions of alcohol use and intoxication, and included Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop,” Def Leppard’s “High ‘n’ Dry (Saturday Night),” and Sheena Easton’s “Sugar Walls.” Also on the list was Twisted Sister’s rock anthem.
On Sept. 19. 1985, Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Snider—donned ripped jeans and a cut-off shirt and his perfectly coifed mess of blonde curls—testified before the U.S. Senate in defense of their freedom of expression as artists and against censorship in music.
“The beauty of literature, poetry, and music is that they leave room for the audience to put its own imagination, experiences and dreams into the words,” said Snider in his testimony. “The examples I cited earlier showed clear evidence of Twisted Sister’s music being completely misinterpreted and unfairly judged by supposedly well-informed adults. We cannot allow this to continue.”

For nearly 40 years “We’re Not Gonna Take It” has been featured in film and television, including the 1986 films Gung Ho and Iron Eagle, Corky Romano and Max Keeble’s Big Move in 2001, and Ready Player One in 2018. The song was also used in the Broadway show Rock of Ages, and cover versions featured in the 2005 video games Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus in 2017.

Video

Lyrics

We’re not gonna take it
No, we ain’t gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it anymore
We’ve got the right to choose, and
There ain’t no way we’ll lose it
This is our life, this is our song
We’ll fight the powers that be, just
Don’t pick on our destiny, ’cause
You don’t know us, you don’t belong
We’re not gonna take it
No, we ain’t gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it anymore
Oh, you’re so condescending
Your call is never ending
We don’t want nothin’, not a thing from you
Your life is trite and jaded
Boring and confiscated
If that’s your best, your best won’t do
Woah-oh-oh
Woah-oh-oh
We’re right (yeah)
We’re free (yeah)
We’ll fight (yeah)
You’ll see (yeah)
Whoa-whoa, we’re not gonna take it
No, we ain’t gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it anymore
We’re not gonna take it
No, we ain’t gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it anymore
No way!
Woah-oh-oh
Woah-oh-oh
We’re right (yeah)
We’re free (yeah)
We’ll fight (yeah)
You’ll see (yeah)
We’re not gonna take it
No, we ain’t gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it anymore
We’re not gonna take it (no!)
No, we ain’t gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it anymore (just you try and make us)
We’re not gonna take it (come on!)
No, we ain’t gonna take it (you’re all worthless and weak)
We’re not gonna take it anymore (now drop and give me 20)
We’re not gonna take it (a pledge pin)
No, we ain’t gonna take it (on your uniform)
We’re not gonna take it anymore