"Youth Against Fascism" was the second single from Dirty. It was released in October 1992, around the transition between the North American and European legs of the Pretty Fucking Dirty tour, which wrapped up in mid-December. When live activity resumed in Australia in early 1993, it had been rechristened the Youth Against Fascism tour, perhaps the only known instance of a tour being named after a specific song (Flaming Telepaths aside). On certain summer days, Dirty could be my favorite Sonic Youth record, but I used to think "Fascism" was such an odd choice for a single. There are at least half a dozen other songs that strike me as more accessible, or more demonstrative of their talents (which perhaps is not always the recipe for radio). Not for the first time, dissecting a song has led to a new appreciation on my behalf.

I used to find it too simple in its structure, but now I see that's its secret weapon. In particular, Kim's super fuzzy 4-note bassline repeats throughout the entire song, with Steve providing a steady tom-pounding beatdown (until the final verse, when he starts bashing cymbals to support everyone's chords). Lee and Thurston provide the bulk of the chaos, both using a slide or drumstick to attack their guitar, though some melody is injected by each of them at key points. The repetitious nature of the verses and "it's the song I hate" refrain are actually quite effective, and the way the guitars drop out in the middle only to kick back in with turbo chordage, increasing in intensity until completion - beautiful! So it doesn't have a million different riff changes like "Chapel Hill" or "Orange Rolls", it's more of a one-note lyrical journey, and hey - maybe it was a good pick for a single. The video is pretty neat!

Like most of the Dirty material, it was premiered on the June/July mini warm-up tour. It's one of two songs MTV chose to include footage of in their July 4th Central Park special, with accompanying blurb by Thurston during a pre-show interview with the band (and the world premiere of the "100%" video!). A full version was aired on ABC's In Concert program, recorded August 8th at Endfest in Washington, part of a quick 3-date Pacific Northwest run before the real tour kicked off. It was played practically nightly on the North American and European legs of the Pretty Fucking Dirty tour, usually paired with tuning partner "Theresa's Sound-World". Though released as a single in October, it wasn't until November 21st that it began appearing as the second song of the encore, following the mighty "JC". They broke that chain a few times, but not often.

Oddly, on the early '93 Pacific Rim tour named after the song, it took its time to make an appearance. They didn't play it in the first four shows, some of which were festivals, and I don't have data for the next four. At a pair of shows in Sydney on February 5th and 6th, it returned to its middle of the encore position. Then we have more gaps, but at the next shows with known set lists, it had been shelved again. Unfortunately this is one of those tours that was not particularly well documented, with at least half the shows not widely circulating, if they exist at all. It made one lone appearance on the March west coast tour, on March 4th in Santa Cruz, which also happens to be its final performance. Curiously, Thurston dedicated it half-seriously to "that war pig Clinton", stating after the song: "In respect to that guy, we promise we'll never ever perform that song again. Until he fucks up. He might!" (You can be your own judge, but they never did play the song again.)

The song is particularly noteworthy for featuring one of very few "guest appearances" on a proper Sonic Youth album. Fugazi's Ian MacKaye visited the studio and added spontaneous feedback guitar while the track was still instrumental, and they faded it into the mix here and there. For a long time I was uncertain as to which guitar was Ian's (and apparently so was he, per the quotes below), but I think it's pretty clear that Lee is in the left speaker, Thurston is in the right, and Ian appears at various points panned randomly. I have no idea what guitar he used, what tuning he's in, and I've made no effect to transcribe his "part" aside from indicating where his guitar appears.

Lee: "Do you ever get asked about 'Youth Against Fascism' - your participation? We always get asked about it: 'How'd you get Ian on it?'"

Ian: "When I was on tour in Europe everyone was asking me about it - it had just, the news had just come out, and all the English papers were babbling on about it. But I've been on tour so no-one has anything to say to me about it. Actually most people were saying, most people had heard it before I did so I was sorta like, I was asked like - God, which guitar is you? I said I don't know, I have to hear it - then I heard it and I still can't tell!"

Lee: "I think it's the one that goes 'Whoodle whoodle whoodle', kinda like that..."

Ian: "Gotta be - that's me... It's kinda my thing, I guess... And I must say, I always tell them it was a pretty hilarious situation, a one track, one take - I'd never heard the song before... So that was kinda funny."

Before I talk about the single and the video and the song itself, I think it's worth identifying all the different versions available:

THE DEMO - They spent October '91 to January '92 refining the Dirty material at their Hoboken rehearsal space, making 8-track demos in preparation for the sessions with Vig. Most of these tracks weren't released until the delicious 2003 Dirty deluxe edition, though some were used on the Whores Moaning EP (technically a promotional release for the Youth Against Fascism tour). "Nic Fit" and "Crème Brûlée" also snuck their way onto the album itself. Unlike the Goo demos, the Dirty stuff is almost entirely instrumental, and most of the songs are not quite as finalized and polished as the Goo material was in its demo stage. Look no further than the bizarre take on "Youth Against Fascism" which caps off the 8-track demos on disc 2. Only Kim adheres to the song's skeleton, playing the same super distorted bassline which drives the album version. Steve is locked into a rock star drum solo, playing wild and free with Thurston and Lee, who are each making glorious noise (Lee on the left, Thurston on the right). Actually, it has a lot of the same spirit as the breakdown from "On the Strip". Around 90 seconds in, Steve begins a commanding snare roll which is held for 15 seconds, releasing into the big heavy chord sequence used in the outro of the finished song. Lee seems to be utilizing his delay more than a slide or drumstick. At the 2:30 mark, they just start to jam, with Kim switching to a different bassline that does not appear in the final version. Steve continues trying to guide things with a straight beat, leading back to the main riff around 3:30. It all dissolves into noise by the end, though Steve can be heard picking up the beat again, with Kim following along to fade. Really though, this is barely a demo, just them having fun with an idea, exploring as they go, and it's quite fascinating to hear, particularly given how restricted the final structure is. I suspect they may have had more concise takes available to include, but I'm glad they went with this chaotic version if so.

THE ALBUM VERSION - Recorded early '92 at Magic Shop in NYC. Butch Vig produced the album, which Andy Wallace mixed. Ian MacKaye from Fugazi contributed an improvised feedback attack while visiting the studio one day, probably before the song even had finished lyrics. It's mixed with Lee in the left, Thurston in the right, Kim down the center and Ian appearing from various corners, fading in and out at (semi) random. It is track 9 on the album, leading into "Nic Fit", a song by the Untouchables, featuring Ian's brother Alex.

THE CLEAN-EX VERSION - This is a new mix of the Dirty version, done by Butch Vig rather than Andy Wallace. It has a few lines containing profanity replaced, and was used for the single and the video. Specifically, they change "a fucking battle plan" to "a honky battle plan", "he's a war pig fuck" to "he's a war pig skunk", and "his shit is out of luck" to "i'm here to shoot him up", which strikes me as more objectionable! I think it's really cool to have two mixes of the same song, particularly done by two people. It gives a tiny hint as to what Dirty would have sounded like mixed by Butch Vig. Thurston's guitar during the second half of the song seems generously louder than the album version, which is fine by me! It would be interesting to hear any rough mixes done by Vig, though I wouldn't change a thing from Wallace's finished product.

THE BBC RADIO VERSION - On July 7th, 1992, they recorded four songs at the BBC for a Mark Goodier session, which was aired on July 20th. Only one song was officially released, an awesome acoustic/electric take on "Purr" (which appears on certain versions of the Youth Against Fascism single). However, they also recorded another version of "Crème Brûlée", "The Burning Spear", and "Youth Against Fascism". Curiously, this version uses different "clean" lines than the single, and the clean words are actually the words that are crossed out on the single's artwork! ("a funky battle plan" "yeah the president clucks" "he's a war pig duck" "his spit is out of luck") Otherwise, it's just a super noisy rendition of the song, using the live arrangement already established on the June/July tour.

THE LIVE VERSION - Well, they only released one official live version, from December 14th, 1992 in London, England. It was the second to last show on the European Dirty tour, and "Youth Against Fascism" appeared as the second song in the encore like most of the tour. Thurston introduced it as their "anti national white power song". During the drum/bass break, he dedicated it to Sinead, saying "I believe you" - this was likely a reference to the recent controversy around Sinead O'Connor, who tore up a picture of the Pope on SNL. This was a commonly bootlegged show, released in its entirety by the band on bandcamp in June 2020. Thurston's guitar (and voice!) are a tad loud in the mix compared to everything else, but it's still a hot take. This version doesn't use Thurston's trick of instructing "stay!" at the end of each repetition of "it's the song I hate" during the song's outro (ensuring nobody ends prematurely) but you can check it out on one more performance we should discuss...

THE CRAZY EUROPEAN TV VERSION - On November 27th, the band stuck around in Rome following the previous night's show to appear on a European variety show called Avanzi, where they performed current single "Youth Against Fascism". It's a joy to watch, particularly given the crowd's surreal energy (though I could not stop picturing their dance when subsequently listening to the more up-tempo live renditions, so be warned). Dig it!

As a broke kid who already owned the Sugar Kane CD EP, it was hard to justify purchasing the Youth Against Fascism single. "The Destroyed Room" and "Purr" both appear on the Sugar Kane disc, making the "clean-ex" version of "Youth Against Fascism" the only real draw for me, and I wasn't entirely sure what that meant - as I've mentioned, I'd been burned by "remixes" and "versions" on CD singles before. What really appealed to me were the lyrics, printed on the sleeve in full. Since Dirty was released with no lyric sheet, I tried to find an official source for the words whenever possible. I don't remember where I first ended up hearing the clean version, possibly when I received a muddy dub of the video when I started trading tapes online in the mid-late 90s. I'd catch some of the band's music videos on MuchMusic, but wouldn't always have the VCR ready to go for long term capture. When I started trading for full concerts, music videos, and late night performances on grainy generated VHS tapes, I was able to expand my knowledge of the band exponentially.

As mentioned, the single art features the lyrics (subtitled "HATE SONG"), typed out on a computer and printed, with some handmade adjustments (Thurston also had to scrawl in the last two lines). They aren't the album lyrics, but the lyrics used for the BBC recording in July, and the clean words have been crossed out ("clucks" has been hand-amended to "sucks", "spit" unhelpfully changed to "shit"!). The xerox nature of this sleeve always appealed to me, reminiscent of their early 80s work, complete with cross. It also reminds me of their Sonic Death newsletter, which was running at its hottest during the Dirty era. It's more apparent on the vinyl sleeve, but you can see a few stray words from the "Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit" lyric poking out on the left! It precedes "Fascism" on the album, perhaps this was taken from a master lyric sheet typed up but not published (some Dirty lyrics were available in the Italian Sonic Life book, and they were all later uploaded to sonicyouth.com circa 2002). There were many iterations of the single, some with all four songs (both mixes of "Fascism", "Purr" and "The Destroyed Room"), some without the LP version, some without "The Destroyed Room", etc. Collect em all!

Like "100%", the song had a pretty high budget music video, directed by Nick Egan who would also handle the third single, "Sugar Kane" (future Dirty filmmakers received a mere $500). The band was filmed playing in the LA River basins, interspersed with a bunch of motocross footage, which was treated with all sorts of visuals and graphics reminiscent of both the song and Dirty itself. As always, you can find it on the Corporate Ghost DVD with some insightful commentary by the band (Nick does not appear). They acknowledge that it's not necessarily the type of video they'd want to continue making, but that it served the song well. Slogans are a key element of the video, particularly found scrawled on Thurston's arm: "Out of Vogue" or Steve's kick drum head: "I Smell Bacon". Lee is playing his white Kent 820, previously seen strobed out in "Disappearer", this time receiving heavy drumstick abuse. Thurston forgoes any slide or stick, playing a "REJECT"-tagged Strat copy whose brand I still can't identify (any thoughts? Closest I could find was the Westminster brand, with the "West" peeled off - bit of a reach perhaps - also their "ELECTRIC GUITAR" text does not curve the way this one's does). For whatever reason, he included a photo of himself from this video shoot in the liners for his 2011 LP Demolished Thoughts. Kim is playing a Gibson Ripper with big ol' cheat notes stamped on the fretboard, an instrument I've otherwise never seen her use, suggesting it was probably borrowed or rented like many of her video basses. The promo VHS is dated October 5th, 1992, so that is likely around the time it started tearing up the airwaves.

On October 1st, 1992, Thurston sat in his hotel room in Davenport, Iowa, two weeks into the Pretty Fucking Dirty tour, and wrote a press piece to accompany the forthcoming single. It certainly answers any questions you might have about the topic of the lyric itself, which is the song's driving force, so please read it in full. He also had this to say in a Warhol interview blurb reprinted in I Dreamed Of Noise: "I was really intrigued by these kids who live in Washington, D.C., like the hardcore punk band Fugazi. They stand outside the White House and bang on pots and pans. That's their form of protest... They're just punk rockers, but they know what's right and wrong, and they see the administration as fascist. So 'Youth Against Fascism' is about these kids. It's not so explicit, but that's where it starts from. The song just puts what they would say into headline terms, like 'I believe Anita Hill' or 'the president sucks', and so it's a funny sort of song."

Speaking of "I Believe Anita Hill", a bumper sticker referencing that line was printed up as a promotional item, only the word "Fascism" was misspelled as "Facism" - the misprints were included as a bonus in all Sonic Death orders, while supplies last. They also adopted the slogan for a t-shirt, seen here.

THURSTON (Guitar World Nov. 92): "On a couple of songs, like "100%" and "Youth Against Fascism", I discovered it doesn't matter what tuning I'm playing in! It's based more on the way I'm attacking the strings with a slide and where on the guitar I'm playing. Those songs are very abstract with regard to which tuning I'm using, although in "Youth Against Fascism" I do play some chords."

There's not too much to say about how to play it, except have fun! I suspect that both Thurston and Lee used a slide on the studio version, rather than a drumstick, just based on early live footage and certain sounds. Lee relies much less on the slide for his part, where-as Thurston milks it for the entire first half, ditching it for the big heavy chords after the drum/bass break. I think they switched to drumsticks around the start of the fall Dirty tour, as they can be seen using a slide in both July and August clips above (though Lee returned to a slide for Avanzi). Kim uses very thick distortion on her bass, probably the Turbo Rat and maybe the Hendrix Octave Fuzz, and plays the same thing throughout with one presumed flub. And of course, there's Ian MacKaye - here, there, and everywhere - but I've made no attempt to transcribe the pitch of his "whoodle whoodle" as Lee says. Larsen and myself both contributed guitar/bass tabs way back in the day, and good ol' FDSwayze submitted one of their traditional full-guitar transcriptions, including Ian's part, but I don't think they were necessarily correct about who they attributed everything to. My new tab is certainly simpler, though I did still try to stick to Lee's part closely despite the heavy improvisation. Please let me know if you have any comments or corrections, and don't touch those tuning pegs!

A SECTION				00:00-01:40

Thurston enters when Kim hits the A note. He is running a slide (or drumstick) high up
the fretboard and just picking away. The album is probably a slide, but he switched to
a drumstick for the Dirty tour.

Lee uses a slide to fret some of the chords and his fingers for some of the finer notes.
The slide is also used for screeching skronk noise between chords, over the pickups.
 
Like Thurston, he enters on the A note. This is a rough transcription, but it's not
necessary to recreate his part exactly. During some live versions, he switched to using
a drumstick instead of a slide.

A---0-----\0----
A---0-----\0----
E---0-----\0----
E---0-----\0----
A---0-----\0----
A---0-----\0----

A--(0)------0\5-3\5--5-5-3-5--3~~--\5--\7--\12~~~~-- slide noise up over pickups
A--(0)------0\5-3\5--5-5-3-5--3~~--\5--\7--\12~~~~--
E--(0)------0\5-3\5--5-5-3-5--3~~----------\12~~~~--
E--(0)------0\5-3\5--5-5-3-5--3~~----------\12~~~~--
A--(0)------------------------3~~----------\12~~~~--
A--(0)------------------------3~~------------0------

A---10~~----\5~~~---\12---5--3--0-----12br-12^10-10^12~~---12-12-10-12---
A---10~~----\5~~~---\12---5--3--0-----12br-12^10-10^12~~---12-12-10-12---
E---10~~----\5~~~---\12--------------------------------------------------
E---10~~----\5~~~--------------------------------------------------------
A---10~~----\5~~~--------------------------------------------------------
A---10~~----\5~~~--------------------------------------------------------

A---10br----------------------------------------------------------0---------------------------------------
A---10br----------------------------------------------------------0----12-12--12-12-14b-14-14b-12-12-12---
E-----------------------------------------------------------------0---------------------------------------
E----------8-10-\12/10---8^10\12/10^8----8-10--10-10-8---8-8-10/--0---------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------------0---------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------------0---------------------------------------

A---10----12-12-10--------------------------------------------*12*------------------------12-12-12---
A---10----12-12-10--------------------------------------------*12*---12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12---
E---------------------10^12-12-12--10-12--12br-10---10b~~~r~-----------------------------------------
E---------------------10^12-12-12--10-12--12br-10---10b~~~r~-----------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A---10~~\12----20b---b20r-----3------5b-r5-3-5br-3--0----
A--------------19b---b19r-----3------5b-r5-3-5br-3--0----  big slide noise up fretboard til break
E-----------------------------3--------------------------
E-----------------------------3--------------------------
A-----------------------------3--------------------------
A-----------------------------3--------------------------

Kim plays the same riff for the entire song. Use heavy fuzz, with a bit of a staccato/muted attack:

G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------5--5-5--5-5--5-5-5-5--3--3-3--3-3--3-3-3-3--------------------------------------
E---3--3-3--3-3--3-3-3-3---------------------------------------------5--5-5--5-5--5-5--5--5-5--5-5--5-5---

Ian's guitar first fades in at 1:03 in the right speaker. It can be heard slightly at 1:17 too.

B SECTION				01:40-01:56

Thurston's guitar drops out during this section.

Lee stays silent during this part, but during live versions he would come in with a feedback
swell at the very end. He likely drops his stick or slide to play the end of the song with just his hands.

Ian's guitar fades in at 1:49, panned back and forth.

C SECTION				01:56-03:03

Thurston plays these chords with big distortion, listen for timing:

C----------------------------------------------
G#---------------------------------------------
G---7--------2---------0-----(15-15-15-15-12)--   i think that little run is him, he doesn't do it live
C---7--------2---------0-----------------------
C---7--------2---------0-----------------------
A---5------------------------------------------

C----------------------7b---
G#---------------------7b---
G---7-9-X-X-9--X-X-7-9-7b--- x 2
C---7-9-X-X-9--X-X-7-9------
C---7-9-X-X-9--X-X-7-9------
A---0-0---------------------

Lee plays these chords with big distortion, listen for timing:

A---10------5------3------0------
A---10------5------3------0------
E---10------5------3------0------	you can "freak out" on the open chord
E---10------5------3------0------
A---10------5------3------0------
A---10------5------3------0------

At 2:36, Kim accidentally hits an F note:

G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------------3---------------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------5--5-5--5-5--5-5-5-5-----3-3--3-3--3-3-3-3--------------------------------------
E---3--3-3--3-3--3-3-3-3---------------------------------------------5--5-5--5-5--5-5--5--5-5--5-5--5-5---

Ian's guitar fades back in around 2:10 and then again at 2:17. At this point his guitar starts moving 
between speakers, making waves of feedback. Sometimes it really blends into what the band is doing, 
sometimes it sticks out of the mix.

D SECTION				03:03-03:36

Thurston:

C----------------------7b---
G#---------------------7b---
G---7-9-X-X-9--X-X-7-9-7b--- x 10
C---7-9-X-X-9--X-X-7-9------
C---7-9-X-X-9--X-X-7-9------
A---0-0---------------------

The album has a sudden stop mid riff, live versions end on:

C-------
G#------
G---7---
C---7---
C---7---
A---5---

Lee has an overdub that comes in around 2:58, playing around the 10-12th fret on the high A string.

I've tabbed a bit but he basically just keeps going on the same motif, getting more frantic til the end.

His main guitar continues playing the chords, also getting more frantic, holding the open A chord
while making heavy slide noise up over the pick ups and high frets.

A---12b-b12r-10-12~~~---10-10-12-12-12-12-10-10~~~10-10-10^12-10-12-12-10-12b--r12-10-12~~---
A---12b-b12r-10-12~~~---10-10-12-12-12-12-10-10~~~10-10-10^12-10-12-12-10-12b--r12-10-12~~---
E--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A live version would end on:

A---10---
A---10---
E---10---
E---10---
A---10---
A---10---

Kim:

G-------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------- x 5
A-------------------------------------------------
E---5--5-5--5-5--5-5-5-5---5--5-5--5-5--5-5-5-5---

Around 3:10 Ian starts doing a consistent see-saw feedback/whammy type thing til the end.


text + tab by Chris Lawrence

w/ thanx to Larsen and FDSwayze