"You Can't Bring Me Down" is a song by Suicidal Tendencies, released in 1990 on the '' Lights...Camera...Revolution!'' album. It delivered moderate commercial success, and aided in the band's transition from punk rock to

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

. Although the song never reached any of the major music charts, it was a successful single.

Content

The song begins with a hypnotic

whammy bar A vibrato system on a guitar is a mechanical device used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings. Instruments without a vibrato have other bridge and tailpiece systems. They add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the string ...

solo, then goes into a clean, almost acoustic sounding rhythm guitar part, and then a guitar solo is added over it. The solo continues for a while, featuring 8-finger tapping and shredding, then the tempo speeds up and the song breaks into the main riff, and the first verse of lyrics, and finally the chorus. This continues until around 3:40, when suddenly the rhythm guitar is clean again, the tempo slows down, and another solo comes in. Then finally towards the end of the song it goes back to the main riff, only this time with lead vocalist Mike Muir ranting and almost talking instead of singing. Then the song goes back to the chorus, the chorus extends (with yet another guitar solo), and finally ends (Muir's last lyrics being "Suicidal!" and then cackling). The song was written by Muir and lead guitarist Rocky George.

Music video

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was made for "You Can't Bring Me Down", which was a major hit on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's ''

Headbangers Ball ''Headbangers Ball'' is a music television program that consisted of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV and its global affiliates. The show began on MTV on April 18, 1987, playing heavy metal music videos from both well-known and more obs ...

''. The video seemed mostly to be about the band's ban from appearances in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

; in the beginning of the video a newspaper pops up with the head line "Suicidal Tendencies Banned In L.A." It showed Mike Muir being taken prisoner by a few unnamed authorities, who eventually executed him on the electric chair, despite heavy revolt from Muir's "gang" (perhaps representative of S.T.'s fans), who try to help him escape. When Muir is executed in the video you can see the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

flashing in the background, which is perhaps taking another stab at the PMRC, which the band believed limited the American constitutional right to freedom of speech. The song was also used in Danny Way's part in the skate video, ''The DC Video''.

Track listing

External links

* {{SuicidalTendencies 1990 singles Suicidal Tendencies songs Songs written by Mike Muir 1990 songs Epic Records singles Songs written by Rocky George