I Hate My Generation

Album: The Golden Age (1996)
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Songfacts®:

  • According to David Lowery, who wrote this Ramones-like song with his Cracker bandmate Johnny Hickman, he doesn't really hate his generation, but it feels great to say it. "To me, it's a liberating song," he told Music Paper. "It's really fun to play and it's actually a happy song."

    Lowery does have some beef with his generation, however. He added: "I hate my generation for its self-loathing, negativity and its pointless anger. A lot of people who are my peers only seem to be able to define themselves negatively - by what they hate. They sort of delight in the failure of others rather than in their own successes - and I think that's kind of sick, actually."
  • Explaining how the song came together, Johnny Hickman said in his Songfacts interview: "We were just rehearsing and jamming away in a small rental space on tour in Ireland. I came up with that big simple guitar riff and David found chords to play under it. It sounded kinda Sex Pistols to me. As we kept playing it over and over, suddenly David was yelling something even before the microphones were set up. I walked over to hear what he was hollering and it was 'I hate my generation!' Perfect!"
  • Samuel Bayer directed the music video, a fitting choice as he also did Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

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