As Accept prepared to go into the studio to record their third album Breaker, they brought with them what they considered to be the best material they had written to date. They also brought with them apprehension, mistrust, and even some degree of righteous anger. The target was their record label.
There had been funny vibes between Accept and their label ever since the first album. “What every musician dreams of turned into a reality for us now that we had a record deal,” said vocalist Udo Dirkschneider in the 2005 liner notes for their self-titled first album Accept (1979). “Naturally it was very exciting for us the first time we entered a recording studio, but also disappointing at the same time. We expected that the song we recorded would be the same as the song we had written. It was a fight for us to push our ideas into the foreground. I believe that they wanted to make a pop band out of us, but in the end, we got our way.”
Things did not improve for the second album I’m A Rebel (1980, titled ‘Accept’ in the United States where the first album hadn’t been released). Dirkschneider continues: “When I think back on the development of I’m A Rebel, only one thought comes to mind: too many people involved trying to manipulate the band, just like on the first album.”
Although the early albums/songs are far from bad, they often point in two different directions. This would manifest itself in a number of odd ways, like the disco drums that run through the otherwise kick-ass rock’n’roll title track I’m A Rebel. Is it a rocker or a dance song? Some unusual things were clearly going on here and there.
With outer influences clearly being at work, the decisions made were not always a true representation of what the band wanted to do – something the band members have more than confirmed in hindsight.
In addition to Dirkschneider, the band consisted of Jörg Fischer (guitars), Wolf Hoffman (guitars), Peter Baltes (bass) and Stefan Kaufmann (drums). When the time came for them to record their third album Breaker, they were all in agreement that the album would be made fully on their own terms or not at all. Simply speaking, Accept had decided not to allow any outside people to influence the band and their sound.
The album would once again be recorded at Delta-Studio in Wilster with Dirk Steffens producing, as the case had been for I’m A Rebel. Crucially, it would be the first Accept album engineered by Michael Wagener, who had been one of their early guitarists in the 1970s. Since then he had transitioned into mixing, production, and engineer work. He would have this role for several of Accept’s classic albums of the 1980s and would be an important ally for the band.
In a band bio on a previous version of the Accept homepage, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann remembers: “This was the first Accept album to be engineered by the now legendary Michael Wagener. It was the middle of an incredibly cold winter when we recorded this album. I remember it was snowing very hard the last night we were there. In the morning, we had to dig my little French Renault out from under the snow to get it started. I can still see Peter standing over the hood with a hair dryer trying to defrost it!”
Pulling together in the midst of the very cold winter, the band members concentrated on making the album they themselves wanted to make. Udo Dirkschneider remembers: “Following our experiences with I’m A Rebel we made it our goal not to be influenced musically by anyone outside of the band this time.”
Wolf Hoffmann concurs: “Maybe we knew that the old approach from the record before didn’t work very well. So we were saying ‘fuck it, let’s just do what we think is right. Let’s not try to be somebody else, let’s not try to have a radio hit anymore.'”
One record company suggestion that the band actually agreed to – probably because it had nothing to do with the actual music – was to shoot some new pictures of the band. Hoffmann remembers: “They dragged us out into the cold for the shots. It was freezing, we were all miserable, no one was in the mood and we looked like shit! These pictures would follow us for years.”
As the attempts to make the band’s music more commercial on the first two albums had failed, it was actually easier for the band to get their way this time. The only thing the prior levels of manipulation had achieved was to anger the band.
That anger and overall defiant attitude had seeped into much of the material they had, which was written to be much more aggressive both musically and lyrically. It was material that would be hard to tone down, both musically and lyrically.
No song on the album was more angry or defiant than the profanity-laced Son of A Bitch.
Credited to all band members, like the entire album, the song was directly inspired by all the broken promises, disappointments, and lies they had been told. The song is simply glorious in capturing a lot of the lies and throwing all of those words back at those who said them.
You make the stars, illusions and dreams
You’re what you are d’you know what I mean
I hear you clear, see in your eyes
Lying to please, it pleases to lie
You say it’s your way…
You say we’ll make it right to the top
Your bullshit gets me, what have you got
I don’t believe a word you say
You make me laugh, get outta my way
You say it’s your way…
Now listen to what I think of you
Son of a bitch, kiss my ass
Son of a bitch
Son of a bitch, you asshole
Son of a bitch
It was almost too easy for the casual observer to think of this as yet another attempt at controversy for controversy’s sake. Back in the 1980s, metal bands would write offensive songs to create a buzz, appear cool, or to cause notoriety to get attention from music magazines and the press.
However, Son of a Bitch feels different. It comes across as genuinely angry. The band is trying to say something and make some points here. They are angry, serious, upset. How they feel about the people who lied to them and made choices that nearly ruined their careers was no joke to them.
At the same time, the song is so over-the-top that you can’t help but laugh. It is simply speaking incredibly funny, especially a bit removed from the frustrations it was born out of. Their deadpan delivery here always reminded me a bit of Spinal Tap, with their straight-faced and slightly pompous interviews about ridiculous songs like Sex Farm or Big Bottom, as well as performing said songs like serious musos although you knew they were taking the piss. It is hard not to feel similarly about Son of a Bitch, which is totally over the top in all its vitriol.
One example is the start of the second verse. Having called the unfortunate people at the label sons of bitches, and showing the world the extent of their lies and dishonesty is simply not enough. They want to give them a knee to the groin. That is exactly what happens in the second verse:
Cocksucking motherfucker, I was right!
Take this!
[sounds of painful moaning]
Is it even possible to take this seriously? I have always laughed at that section. Not at the band or how they felt, but at their excessive, exaggerated portrayal of things. It is important, though, that I have never felt the band did anything in the song purely for comedy (although the knee to the groin comes close). By not doing that, or at least not coming across like that, it actually becomes that much funnier than if I had felt it was all about trying to be funny.
While the band’s feelings may have been genuine, their attempts to make the song extensively offensive may have had a softening effect as well. Their own keenness to make the song be as harsh and vengeful as possible, may – inadvertently or not – have helped push the song into the over-the-top ridiculous. Hoffmann says, ”I do remember that we used to talk to our American friends and bands and ask them of the meanest combinations of words they knew. SOB was pretty much the result.”
Today the song has long since taken on a life on its own, to such an extent that its creators are no longer sure who specifically it was written about.
Vocalist Udo Dirkschneider, who wrote a lot of the lyrics back in those days, describes the song’s lyrics as “absolutely anti record company” with no further details. Guitarist Wolf Hoffmann was not able to be more specific either, saying “I don’t recall if Son of a Bitch was written about a particular person.” Who knows if they would have wanted to name anyone specific after all these years even if they could, but it could also definitely be the case that the song was written about the people at the label in a more general sense rather than aiming it at someone specific. They were likely victims of decisions by committee.
While the label did not push for musical changes this time, they did ask the band to make a toned down version of the song for specific markets where a title like Son of a Bitch wouldn’t fly. The band must have had a feeling this request would come, and even understood it, as an alternate version of the song was whipped up with no fuss. The less offensive version was re-titled Born To Be Whipped. It had the same exact music with new vocal tracks singing partially new lyrics on top. The toned down lyrics really do take a lot of the punch out of the song. Hoffmann explains: “We had to change it because the British were so uptight about this kind of stuff that you couldn’t possibly release the record over there with a song called Son of a Bitch.”
Born To Be Whipped ended up being used on a few initial pressings of the album, plus the 1983 US release Midnight Highway. It was also added to re-releases much later on as a bonus track.
Given the need to provide a softer version of the track, the band already had some idea that the song could cause a bit of a stir. The album would include a lyric sheet for all the songs, and the band themselves opted not to include the lyrics to Son of a Bitch there. Wolf Hoffmann explains: “On the initial release we thought it would be a good idea to just put ‘Censored’ on the liner notes for the song to avoid any controversy. Well, it turns out it caused MORE controversy that way with everyone wanting to know who censored it.”
The album cover would have to live up to the music on it. A young woman with barbed wires coming out of her ears was deemed suitable, symbolizing the hard music found on the album.
There was also a follow-up idea that the band’s Flying V guitars would be tied together with barbed wire on the back, with the wires going around to the edge and matching up with the woman on the front.
Hoffmann recalls with some horror: “They had Jorg and I send our guitars to the photographers in Hamburg. Apparently, these guys have never heard of fake barbed wire. They used the real thing and must have tightened it all with pliers! The neck of my guitar bears the scars to this day!”
Udo Dirkschneider is still proud of Breaker, ranking it among Accept’s best albums. The album title later gave name to Udo’s own record company Breaker Records. He says, “I would say that this album is the result of pure anger. I destroyed 3 microphones during the production! Following our experiences with I’m A Rebel we made it our goal not to be influenced musically by anyone outside of the band this time. One example are the lyrics of Son of a Bitch.”
Breaker was released on 16 March 1981. Son of a Bitch was naturally never proposed as a single from this album, but has always been a very popular song. Thanks to the song’s defiant nature, its push-back against authority… and, well, its humorous use of profanity, metalheads around the world would flock to it. The track would be blasted from many teenage rooms and car stereos for years after its release.
The track has frequently been found in the band’s live set over the years, and they continue to perform it to this day.
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