10 Worst Hard Rock Lyrics Of The ‘80s

10. I Want Action - Poison

Poison often gets singled out as the moment where the hair metal bands got ridiculous. Rather than adding a bit of pop flair to their riffs, these guys always just reeked of a boy band that just so happened to have guitars in their hands. Though the band had some classics like “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” “I Want Action” comes off as painfully dated on further inspection.

There doesn’t seem to be anything too bad with most of the track, with the song being about a night on the town with your buddies. However, things start to get a lot more uncomfortable once you reach the end of the second verse. Looking to get into some sexual hijinx with groupies, Bret Michaels declares that (after some alcoholic courage) “if I can’t have her, I’ll take her and make her.”

Everything there is phonetically correct, but the way he is so adamant about getting some love at the end of the night falls more into the realm of sexually aggressive behaviour than a fun party animal. After a few more years of these kinds of tracks, the entire rock world saw a change of the guard with grunge’s arrival. Poison may have fallen victim to hair metal’s death, but even on their best day, they weren’t always bulletproof.