Against Me I Was A Teenage Anarchist

Against Me I Was A Teenage Anarchist
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Laura Jane Grace's response to Rise Against 's "Architects"
"I Was a Teenage Anarchist" is a song by the Gainesville, Florida -based punk rock band Against Me! , released as the first single from their 2010 album White Crosses . The single was released as a four-track digital download through various online music stores on April 6, 2010, including the additional album track "Rapid Decompression" and two B-sides from the album's sessions, "One by One" and "Bitter Divisions". [2] A 7" single was released on April 17 in conjunction with Record Store Day , with an acoustic version of "I Was a Teenage Anarchist" featuring as the B-side. [3] [4]

The music video for the song features Laura Jane Grace in traditional punk clothing running through a park being chased by a police officer, who tackles and then starts beating her. After a while members of a crowd that had formed attack the officer, freeing Grace. However, these members are accosted by other officers. Grace begins to run away, only to be stopped by more police officers. At the end of the video Grace is shown being shoved into a police car, smiling after a few moments.
The video is shot in a single long take , entirely in slow motion.

All lyrics written by Laura Jane Grace, all music composed by Against Me!

I think that the song was misinterpreted by both Tim and a lot of people. I’m not asking myself the question “Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?” I’m asking the listener that question. I’m not saying that I’ve forgotten that feeling in any way. I guess I don’t really understand Rise Against’s politics or I don’t understand the statement that ‘The revolution was a lie’, seems to, for a lot of people, put them really up in arms. I always feel like asking the question ‘Well how the fuck wasn’t it?” Where’s the revolution man? What’s Rise Against’s revolution? What’s the revolution? Is there a revolution that, a bunch of people are gonna start coming out to their shows and make them really rich and a really big band? Because that’s been done a million fucking times before. Is the revolution that they’re gonna be poster boys for PETA while wearing Nike shoes ? ‘Cause I don’t fucking buy into it, man. I think PETA’s full of shit. I think a lot of their politics are kinda opportunistic and self-serving, personally. [5]

Lyrics from the song's hook, "Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?", drew controversy when fellow American punk rock band Rise Against released their song "Architects" in 2011, containing the lyrics "Don't you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire? Somewhere deep down, I know you do. Don't you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire? Well I still am, and I still do!" The lyrics were interpreted as specifically responding to and calling out Against Me!'s song. [6]

In an interview, Rise Against lead singer Tim McIlrath explained his reasoning behind the lyrical choice. "I felt like the Against Me! song was really dismissive of the fire in my belly, and fire in many of our fans' bellies. It was asking for, and deserved, a response... that line seemed to trivialize what many of us still hold on to unapologetically."

Grace responded to Rise Against's song in an interview, criticizing the band's politics and the ease at which the lyric "The revolution was a lie" angered McIlrath. [7] In 2016, Grace stated that, despite being close with Rise Against and having toured with them in the past, "At the time it just seemed like posturing, you know? Like, 'Okay, whatever, sure. You’re more revolutionary than me. You can have it.'" [8]

" I Was a Teenage Anarchist " (2010)

"I Was a Teenage Anarchist" (acoustic)

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I was a teenage anarchist
Looking for a revolution
I had the style, I had the ambition
Read all the authors, I knew the right slogans

There was no war but the class war
I was ready to set the world on fire
I was a teenage anarchist
Looking for a revolution

Do you remember
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?

Do you remember
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?

I was a teenage anarchist
But the politics were too convenient
In the depths of their humanity
All I saw was bloodless ideology
With freedom as the doctrine
Guess who was the new authority?
I was a teenage anarchist
But the politics were too convenient

Do you remember
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?

Do you remember
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?

I was a teenage anarchist
But then the scene got too rigid
It was a mob mentality
They set their rifle sights on me

Narrow visions of autonomy
You wanted me to surrender my identity
I was a teenage anarchist
The revolution was a lie

Do you remember
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?

Do you remember
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?
When you were young
And you wanted to set the world on fire?

I was a teenage anarchist
I was a teenage anarchist
I was a teenage anarchist
I was a teenage anarchist

Reel Big Fish - "Where Have You Been?" You called me up last night in tears and said you missed me after all these years
Well I’ve been waiting here so long, I’ve gotten over it since you've been gone
You called me late last night...
The Interrupters - "Take Back The Power" What's your plan for tomorrow?
Are you a leader or will you follow?
Are you a fighter or will you cower?
It's our time to take back the power Whatcha gonna do
When they show up in black suits
On your...
Alkaline Trio - "Minds Like Minefields" Once upon a time
When we both lost our minds
And our memories
Destroyed our common sense
And the letters sent
Suicidal tendencies
Deployed like a parachute
You had a hole in you
As we went tumbling...
Anti-Flag - "American Attraction" Yeah

There's no escaping the American attraction
A bait and switch that's gonna thrill you with distraction
It sounds so good, you can't resist the satisfaction
When it's all over you'll be crying,...
PUP - "Kids" Just like the kids
I've been navigating my way
Through the mind numbing reality of a godless existence
Which, at this point in my hollow and vapid life
Has erased what little ambition I've got left...

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This is the first single from the Florida punk rock band Against Me!'s fifth studio album, White Crosses . The disc was produced by Butch Vig , who also helmed their previous record, New Wave and is famous for his work with Nirvana and Garbage. When Songfacts interviewed Against Me! lead singer and primary songwriter Tom Gabel in 2010 (before his transition to Laura Jane Grace), she talked about working with Vig: "Butch is really methodical, in an OCD kind of way, which I can 100% appreciate and back. It's all about attention to detail. I feel like the experiences I've had working with him are the closest I'll ever come to going to college. I couldn't put a price on what I've learned. And I don't think I could ever repay how cool he's been to us. He's a genuine person, that's what makes him so great to work with. And he has great taste in wine."
Laura Jane Grace was, in fact, a teenage anarchist, and while her feelings about the anarchism movement have changed, there is much more to this song. She told Songfacts: "I knew pretty much from the get-go that this song was going to be vastly misinterpreted, with a lot of our older fan base taking it as some kind of denunciation of past political beliefs. I thought that was all pretty predictable. But it surprises me when I get asked questions in interviews that imply it's a nostalgic song, I didn't see that coming. I'm mean, I'm fine with the song making people feel nostalgic, but that's their nostalgia, not mine. I'm not asking myself the question of 'Do you remember when you where young and you wanted to set the world on fire?', I'm 29, I AM young, and I've never forgotten that I want to 'set the world on fire.' I started playing in this band when I was 17, I'm still going, and I've never had a question of commitment to pursuing my dream, traveling the world, playing music and writing songs hoping they'll change the world. I'm not sure I've reached that last goal, but I'm still trying. This record isn't us coming back from the brink of some self imposed exile where we stopped playing music, completely lost ourselves, ended up working as a short-order cook in some greasy spoon joint in a small Midwestern town, our past a mystery to all. I digress. I'm asking the listener the question, 'Do you remember when you where young and you wanted to set the world on fire?' Do you?"
Like several tracks on the album, this song details Laura Jane Grace's time spent kicking around suburban Florida as a teenage punk. "Writing this record, I spent a lot of time reflecting," she told MTV News. "I spent a lot of time thinking about people I used to know, places I used to hang out, things I used to do - I grew up in the anarcho-punk scene, and I had many experiences in that - so that almost couldn't help but show up on this record."
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