Album: Dirty
Year: 1992
. . .
One of the reasons Dirty is my favorite Sonic Youth album is that it was their most overtly political album. After all, in 1992, we were entering our 12th year of conservative misrule, and even though all of the political hardcore songs decrying the corruption and war and scandals that were natural outgrowths of that misrule hadn’t made any kind of difference, it didn’t mean that people would stop trying. Thus, “Youth Against Fascism,” a title that might have seemed a bit much in 1992, resonates even harder 30 years later.
Another can of worms
Another stomach turns
Yeah, your ghetto burns
It’s the song I hate
It’s the song I hateYou got a stupid man
You got a ku-klux-klan
Your fucking battle planIt’s the song I hate
It’s the song I hate
“Youth Against Fascism” opens up with a big burbling Kim Gordon bass dominating the proceedings, as Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo set their guitars to maximum stun as guest guitarist Ian MacKaye — Minor Threat & Fugazi, but you knew that — adds extra anger, underpinning — or really overpinning — Moore’s vocals.
A sieg heil-in’ squirt
You’re an impotent jerk
Yeah, a fascist twerp
It’s the song I hate
It’s the song I hateBlack robe and swill
I believe Anita Hill
Judge will rot in hell
It’s the song I hate
It’s the song I hate
Sadly enough, 30 years later, the prediction in this verse hasn’t come to pass, but it will at some point for both him and his treasonous wife. It’s almost like the roots of today’s minority rule fascism go back decades! Oh wait. It does. Because they’ve been waiting at least that long to re-outlaw not just abortion, but birth control, non-procreative sex and anybody who doesn’t fit their arbitrary standards of personhood.
Yeah a cross on fire
By a christian liar
A black attack on fire
It’s the song I hate
It’s the song I hate
There’s a bit of a respite here, as Moore takes a bit of a breather, but then all of the guitars start fusing together to make an even louder fuzzier noise — the whole band and their ringer in full throttle unison — as Moore continues to spew venom at someone who may not seem all that bad in retrospect, but absolutely help set the stage for the full-blown assholery that dominates the GOP now.
Yeah the president sucks
He’s a war pig fuck
His shit is out of luck
It’s the song I hate
It’s the song I hateWe’re banging pots and pans
To make you understand
We gonna bury you man
It’s the song I hate
It’s the song I hate
Originally, it was called “Hate Song,” but at some point, they changed it to the much more prescient “Youth Against Fascism,” and and even released it as the second single from Dirty, but it was all too much for radio programmers in 1992, and despite the first single from Dirty, “100%,” making it all the way to #4 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, the same folks just weren’t gonna play a song where somebody is yelling “I believe Anita Hill” and calling George H.W. Bush a “war pig fuck.” It just wasn’t going to happen in 1992, as the right declared a culture war against the rest of the country that they’ve waged ever since. Of course, Sonic Youth were right then, and it’s only gotten worse since.
“Youth Against Fascism” Official Music Video
“Youth Against Fascism” live on Italian TV, 1992 (muddy sound)
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