Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take it - Meaning of the song
Dee Snider started writing this song in 1980, two years before Twisted Sister released their first album, Under the Blade. He had the hook, but couldn't come up with a verse melody. After Def Leppard released their Pyromania album in 1983, Snider came up with a plan.
"I was studying some of Mutt Lange's work with Def Leppard, I saw that a number of their songs were using variations on the chorus as a verse," he told us. "That gave me the information I needed to come up with the rest of 'We're Not Gonna Take It.'"
The song was finished in time for Twisted Sister's third album, Stay Hungry, which was their breakthrough, taking them out of the clubs and into arenas. "We're Not Gonna Take It," released as the first single, led the charge thanks to the innovative video with cartoonish violence featuring a young kid that turns into Snider, telling his father he's "Not gonna take it!"
Dee Snider explained:
"With 'We're Not Gonna Take It,' whether I was singing about my parents, my teachers, my bosses, my peers, people around me, I felt it was important not to define it by actually naming names and singing, 'Dad, you're so trite and jaded, I hate my teachers, too.' And thus, the song has had a life in sporting events, at political rallies, at protests, pretty much anybody who's not taking something from somebody else, they're going to break into 'We're Not Gonna Take It' all over the world."
We're Not Gonna Take it - 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 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 gall is never ending
We don't want nothing, not a thing, from you
Your life is trite and jaded, boring and confiscated
If that's your best, your best won't do
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, we ain't gonna take it
We're not gonna take it anymore
No way!
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 twenty)
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
Commentaires