"Teen Age Riot" was the first single from Sonic Youth's 1988 album Daydream Nation. The album version of the song is long, clocking in at 6:57, and has two distinct parts. The first is hypnotically dreamlike, with Kim Gordon reciting childlike, stream-of-consciousness prose, such as "You're it, no you're it/ Say it, don't spray it/ Miss me, don't dismiss me/ Spirit desire/ We will fall." ("We will fall" is a reference to The Stooges' song of the same name.) After one minute and 21 seconds, the rest of the band kicks in with the luminous, caffeinated riff for which the song is renowned.
According to sonicyouth.com, the song's working title was "Rock And Roll For President"; the song was supposedly written about a fantasy world where J Mascis is president. The video for the song was Sonic Youth's fourth overall, excluding the low-budget Ciccone Youth videos; the band directed it themselves.
As with many Sonic Youth songs, the guitars are rather unconventionally tuned; in this case, Thurston Moore's tuning is GABDEG and Lee Ranaldo's tuning is GGDDGG.
In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Teen Age Riot" at number 69 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
Single tracklisting
All songs by Sonic Youth
"Teen Age Riot (Edit)" – 3:50
"Silver Rocket" – 3:47
"Kissability" – 3:08
"Candle" – 4:59
Other Songs With The Same Name
The Ataris put out a song named Teenage Riot about the struggles of a young unknown touring band completely unrelated to the Sonic Youth song
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