New Music

Palmer United Party issue statement calling for Dee Snider's visa to be rejected

Jan 7, 2019

4 min read

Jesus Christ. You just can't win when you have someone so out of touch and narrowminded like Clive Palmer and his Palmer United Party. Quick speedy reintroduction to the story:

Clive Palmer used a reworked version of Twisted Sister's song 'We're Not Gonna Take It' for their political ad campaign

Dee Snider and Jay Jay French of the band called him out

Clive threatened a bullshit counter-suing scare tactic

Dee Snider revealed Clive and co. had allegedly hit up Universal Music Group to use the song, but failed to pay the fee involved

From there, Dee informed his Facebook fans that UMG had issued a cease and desist letter for the Palmer United Party to stop using their song in their ads.

I’m glad Clive likes my song, but Twisted Sister’s ‘”We’re Not Gonna Take It” is a protected work and he has received a legal notice from Universal Music to cease and desist from any further use.

He added a few personal shots towards the Trump wannabe politician:

I shouldn’t be surprised by his failure to respond. From what I’ve seen Clive seems to have little understanding of either the truth or the law. It appears he has caused hundreds of great Australian workers to lose their jobs and benefits by running his nickel business into the ground and, allegedly, fraudulently converted its assets to bolster his flagging political endeavors. Shame on him.

I gather he compares himself to Donald Trump? Well at least Trump’s clothes are tailored to fit and his golf resorts and hotels are prestigious. None of them are mosquito infested, bankrupt rat havens.

Well on top of all of that the Palmer United Party have just issued their own statement on the matter, and he's trying to bring in the big ~~potatoes~~ guns it seems:

The United Australia Party is not going to cop Twisted Sister’s threatening tactics, calling the American heavy metal band out for swindling its hit song from a famous Christmas carol. Federal leader Clive Palmer said today ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ was not an original work by Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, rather a rip-off of the centuries-old ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’.

“The song ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ as an alleged musical work was not written by Dee Snider. The music was originally arranged as a cappella piece from the hymn ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ first composed in the mid 1700s,” Mr Palmer said.

“Others may have documented the instrumentation, but the melody was already present.

“As Twisted Sister never remunerated the original arranger, we do not understand how they have ever had any claim to its copyright.

“It seems Universal Music Group may have been misled at the time of paying the group’s front man Dee Snider money for something he never owned,’’ Mr Palmer said.

“Maybe Universal should consider commencement of proceedings against Dee Snider or seek a refund of any money they have paid to him,’’ he said.

Mr Palmer said the lyrics used by the United Australia Party in the advertisements were composed by him and he owned the copyright. He said the performance rights of the artist rested with the United Australian Party.

“We are concerned about defamation and threats made by Dee Snider and as such believe the minister for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton should reject his visa, given the current crackdown,’’

What. The. Fuck. This shit is getting out of hand. Meanwhile, we're going back for our 5th (or 6th) serving of popcorn.

Clive Palmer clearly does not understand copyright law; he thinks it’s the right to copy.

I’m glad Clive likes my...

Posted by Dee Snider on Monday, January 7, 2019

Dee Snider's Solo & Spoken Word Tour kicks off on January 31st via Hardline Media