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Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It

Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Stay Hungry
Released: 1984

We're Not Gonna Take It Lyrics

Oh We're Not Gonna Take It
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore

We've got the right to choose it
There ain't no way we'll lost 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

Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore

Oh you're so condescending
Your gall 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

Oh Oh

We're right (yeah)
We're free (yeah)
We'll fight (yeah)
You'll see (yeah)

Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore

Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore

No way

Oh Oh

We're right (yeah)
We're free (yeah)
We'll fight (yeah)
You'll see (yeah)

Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore

Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh 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
Oh crinch pin

No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh you and your uniform
We're not gonna take it anymore

Writer/s: ROBINSON, JERRY / SNIDER, DANIEL DEE / NEVINS, JASON
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

We're Not Gonna Take It

This is the mighty anthem for anyone lashing out at an authority figure and ready to put up a fight. The song is short on specifics, so it can apply to just about any situation where "we" are battling "the powers that be." This all-purpose approach was intentional and gave the song a timeless quality. In our interview with Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider , he 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."

Twisted Sister wrote this song to the basic tune of "O Come All Ye Faithful." On their 2006 album A Twisted Christmas, they did a version of "O Come, All Ye Faithful" with using the traditional lyrics but set to the music of "We're Not Gonna Take It."

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. "In 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!"

With frequent airplay on the emerging MTV, Twisted Sister was exposed to a large and more youthful audience, and soon they were all over the media. What many didn't realize was that band had been around for over a decade by this time, and had already built a loyal following in the New York area. On the Stay Hungry tour, Snider would often commend the fans that were there when you couldn't catch them on MTV.

The video features Mark Metcalf, who played Neidermeyer in the 1978 movie Animal House. Before the song starts, Metcalf comes into the kid's room and berates him, ending his tirade by asking the now-famous phrase, "what are you want do with your life"? (answer: "I wanna rock!").

The dialogue was written by the video's director Marty Callner, who had directed several HBO specials but never a music video. He said in the book I Want My MTV: "Atlantic Records had signed a Long Island band they didn't know what to do with, Twisted Sister. They had a song, 'We're Not Gonna Take It,' and because of my comedy and music background, they seemed like the perfect hybrid for me."

Mark Metcalf ended by starring in the next Twisted Sister video as well: "I Wanna Rock." He was living in Pittsburgh and only took the gig because he got a free flight to LA where he had a girlfriend. Snider, a huge Animal House fan, picked him up at the airport and they instantly bonded.

In this song, not only are we not gonna take it, but we're going to turn the tables and let our oppressor know that his life is not only "trite and jaded" but also "boring and confiscated." Going on the attack was a Twisted Sister specialty: At their concerts, Dee Snider would go on tirades about various people and institutions, and would sometimes berate audience members who were killing the vibe.

Eddie Ojeda and Jay Jay French shared guitar duties with Twisted Sister. Ojeda played the solo on this one.

Mitt Romney's running mate Paul Ryan used the song during the 2012 Republican Party's presidential campaign, causing Dee Snider to air his disapproval. "I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan's use of my band Twisted Sister's song 'We're Not Gonna Take It' in any capacity," said the Twisted Sister frontman in a statement. "There is almost nothing he stands for that I agree with except the use of the [workout program] P90X."

Snider, however, had no problem with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump using the the tune as the "exit song" during the politician's 2015 campaign stops. "Donald Trump is a good friend and a great guy, and I support him turning the political system on its head," he told TMZ.com . "The song 'We're Not Gonna Take It' is a song about rebellion, and there's nothing more rebellious than what Donald Trump is doing right now. Although [Democratic presidential candidate] Bernie Sanders can use it as well; he's turning things upside down too."