the wrath of washington politicians and the parents music resource center or PMRC, but
Twisted Sister’s producer. The song almost never made it on the group’s 1984 record Stay Hungry.
Today, let’s explore the history behind Twisted Sister’s song “We're not gonna take it.” & how one
politician had to pay the band over a million dollars in damages over ripping off the song.
Twisted Sister hailed from New Jersey and cut their teeth as a cover band playing clubs in the
70’s. Even before landing a recording contract they gained a rabid following and were playing
huge venues. But it took the band almost 10 years to land a major recording contract. They would
end up being signed by Atlantic Records & their first release for the label had some success
in America charting at number 130 on the charts, but peaked the band had a warmer reception across
the pond in the UK where there peaked at number 14.When it came time to record their third album
and second for Atlantic Stay Hungry, the label's president Doug Morris personally called tom werman
to produce the record. Morris needed help breaking the band into the
American market & Werman’s resume included cheap trick, ted nugent and motley crue.
The collaboration would pay off, & Stay Hungry would be the biggest album of Twisted
Sister’s career producing two massive hits in We’re Not Gonna Take it and I wanna rock.
Frontman Dee Snider would tell NPR where inspiration for the song came
saying “I wanted to write an anthem," "I'm from the Alice Cooper school of 'School's Out,'
'I'm Eighteen,' you know? 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."
It wasn’t just Alice Cooper though who influenced the song, but in the book Nothin’ But a Good time
dee snider and his bandmates cited Quiet Riot as being responsible for band’s success in two ways:
But strangely enough there was another song that inspired the track
without Snider realizing as he revealed in this interview years after the song came out i was
driving in a car with a buddy of mine a musician and we were talking about songs that had borrowed
from other songs. We're going through songs that had borrowed from other songs liberally
and he said well of course we're not gonna take it is come all ye faithful.
I turned and i said what? And he said we're not gonna take it is come all ye faithful and i was
like what are you talking about. He's like dude you didn't know that? I was like thank you God
cause i sang in the church choir till i was 19 years old so it has kind of absorbed into my
system and so i do owe my Church Choir history the success of Twisted Sister, so kids go to church.
Snider would admit in a separate interview to boom 97.3 he had written the hook for the song in 1980
before the band had a major recording contract, but he had trouble finishing it
In the same interview he would reveal he was happy he didn’t release the song on their first
album as they were signed to an indie label and it likely wouldn’t have gotten noticed.
It wasn’t until they were writing material for Stay Hungry that the song came together.
But recording stay hungry was an uphill battle. Recalling in the same book Snider would claim
"Let it be known that when we were doing stay hungry i was in the studio fighting everyday
with tom werman to keep him from killing my band." Snyder would claim he had to beg the producer to
let the band record "We're Not Gonna Take It.". According to guitarist jay jay french who said in
the same book “Tom didn’t like some of the songs that dee wrote and wanted us to do saxon songs.
Werman however would push back against some of these claims in the book saying.
“I thought we’re not gonna take it. It was like a little bit like a nursery rhyme.
Dee had been working on the band for seven years and getting no where so finally im introduced
into the picture they have a huge hit and i get the credit. And he’s pissed. He’s like trump."
To promote Stay Hungry "We're Not Gonna Take It" would be released as the first single. “It would
be sent to radio stations across America about 2 weeks prior to the video premiering on MTV.
And according to Snider initlally about 145 radio stations added the song to their playlists
and it did get some airplay, but the video on MTV put them over the top.
The single would peak at number 20 on the hot 100 charts and be certified gold & Stay Hungry would
go triple platinum selling over 3 million copies Directing the music video would be Marty Callner
who at that point in this career had worked with HBO directing both their
musical and comedy specials. Callner would claim Atlantic records thought he’d be a perfect fit
for shooting the music video.While the music video was partially based on Dee
Snider's relationship with his father when he was younger Callner would tell the book I Want My MTV
“We’re not gonna take it” is based on the rebellious nature of road runner cartoons.
I wrote the spoken word part at the beginning and we cast Mark Metcalf who had just come from a hot
movie Animal House.”Snider would claim in the same book that him and his brothers who were huge fans
of animal house and were always quoting the movie. They were surprised to learn that for just $2,000
and a roundtrip bus ticket Metcalf would agree to do the video. Normally the band would send a PA to
pick him up, but Dee was a such a huge fan he went to the bus station and met him in person. When MTV
received the video for Were Not Gonna Take It they almost cut out the rant at the beginning
because according to executives there and i quote “this isn’t a rock video, it’s method acting.””
While the song would become a timeless classic, critics weren’t big fans of the song
with Snider telling NPR one review of the song simply read "What? From whom?"
"That was the review — what, from whom," "Aren't we so ironic and funny
and wonderful. But who has had the last laugh? I mean, 35, 40, whatever it was years later,
it's a folk song, for God's sake. And it made millions of dollars, so ha, ha, ha."
Of course then the song got singled out by the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC,
which was a well connected group of so called group of concerned parents who questioned the
impact music was having on America’s youth. They rallied against music that was perceived as
being violent, sexual or having drug themes. They would come up with a list known as the filthy 15,
which they saw as the most objectionable songs in popular music. One of those songs would be Twisted
Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It. They claimed the song’s video promoted violence against adults.
And on September 19 1985, representatives from both the PMRC and the music industry
including musicians Frank Zappa, John Denver and Dee Snider testified in front of the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Snyder would look back telling rolling stone “They
really wanted [Mötley Crüe singer] Vince Neil,” Snider tells Rolling Stone. “Vince is not very
articulate... They would have smacked him around, because he’s incapable of fighting at the level.
As far as going and having an intellectual debate on something, he’d be pretty defenseless.
While these types of hearings even to this day are formal affairs, Snyder didn’t abide by the
dress code showing up in a cutoff shirt and ripped jeans. Snider would admit to Rolling
Stone that he didn't have a suit in closet but he would also tell NPR in a separate interview.
"I knew I was going to blindside 'em," "There was an old TV show called Columbo , and it was this
bumbling detective who seemed like such a screw-up but he was actually brilliant. And I said,
'They're gonna look at me, and I'm gonna play right into this. I'm gonna have my speech that we
worked on for two weeks stuffed in the back pocket of my skinny jeans.' And I pulled it out like the
bad kid in class. During the same hearing there was another Twisted Sister song singled out by
the politicians in the room, which was "Under the Blade.".Here’s a highlight o what he said at the
hearings with Snyder. I have been the target of accusations from the presumably responsible PMRC.
I would like to use this occasion to speak on a more personal note & show just how unfair the
whole concept of lyrical interpretation and judgement can be and how many times this can
amount to little more than character assassination & I'm just tearing apart everything that they've
accused me of. Disproving without a shadow of a doubt that everything they've accused
me of has been wrong and false & they are scrambling, scrambling, scrambling.
They were saying that under the blade was about sadomascyism and bondage,
it was about my guitar player's throat operation. It would come out just last month that an
Australian politician who parodied the song would end up having to pay damages to Twisted
Sister. Australian politician Clive Palmer spoofed the into his campaign theme for himself titled
"Aussies Not Gonna Cop It.” It had turned out Palmer never got permission from Twisted Sister
and it’s label Universal music to use the song and as a result he had to pay up over 1 million US in
damages. The funniest part of this whole story is that Palmer claimed he never ripped off We’re Not
Gonna Take It claiming the band ripped off their song from the old hym “ Come All Ye Faithful.
A judge in Australia would disagree and awarded Twisted Sister damages. A spokeman for Palmer
claimed the band looked into licensing the song but it would have cost them $115,000 US
and they opted to instead pay ten times that amount several years later. Following the
announcement Snider would take to social meida to celebrate the news in late april of this year
writing HALLELUJAH!! Just found out that the copyright infringement of "We're Not Gonna Take
It" by "politician" Clive Palmer in Australia has been decided MAJORLY in favor of myself as
writer and Universal Music Group as publishers! WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ANY
MORE!! he'd write.That does it for today's video guys. Thanks for watching. Be sure
to hit the like button and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.