Friday, January 11, 2013

"We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister is the Greatest Rock Song of All Time

Well, maybe not.  The other strong contender is "I Want To Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles.  

I get strange looks, if not outright derisive laughter, when I talk about "We're Not Gonna Take It," but the song moves me like few others.  It's not really the music - the vocal style is good, and fits the song, the drums are mixed poorly, IMO, and the guitar solo is lame at best.  But I defy you to find a song that better epitomizes the true spirit of teenage angst.  It's viscerally effective on someone like me, who puts individual freedom as his primary life ideal.  I'm fully aware that I grew up a white, middle-class male, with little to really complain about, but that's irrelevant, isn't it? Despite the fact that nothing in this existence is universal, pretty much everyone I knew when I was a teenager HATED their parents, at least occasionally.  Hell, I hated them because they tried to love me, what's more typical than that?

Something with a similar feel would be "Killing in the Name of..." by Rage Against the Machine. It's hard not to like a repeated refrain of "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!"  But in my head, I often hear, "Fuck you, I won't tidy my bedroom!"  Y'know?  The song is effective, yet a little childish.  "But Cheech, it doesn't GET any more childish than 'We're Not Gonna Take It!'  It's the exact same as 'Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me,' isn't it?"  Sure, but I don't have a defense. And if I did, I don't think I'd present it.  There's never a more valid argument for a song's merit than "I love it!"

"I Want To Hold Your Hand" is the same song, except that it's about that desperate brand of hopeless, formless, hormone-induced lust that most of us have felt.  The heart-skipping, breath-stopping, choking certainty that you are going to DIE if she rejects you.

The song quite clearly resonates with the artists of today - Akon barely changed the words for this one.

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