10 Famous Songs Whose Meaning The Fans (And The Pundits) Got Wrong

Before JJ Abrams’ Star Trek reboot brought the song screaming back into modern mainstream attention, Sabotage was a defining track of the ‘90s, thanks mostly to the music video’s openly anti-authority feel.

But though fans have speculated that it’s anti-religious, or anti-paparazzi, or simply a raging outlet of anarchy, the real meaning behind the song is in fact less anti-authority and more humorously anti annoying producer.

In their audiobook memoir, the Beastie Boys finally revealed the full story. The iconic opening yell, “I can’t stand it. I know you planned it,” refers to their friend and producer Mario Caldato Jr., who was going crazy trying to get the band to finish a song. As Adam Horowitz, lead vocal, relates:

“We were totally indecisive about what, when, why and how to complete songs. Mario was getting frustrated. That’s a really calm way of saying that he would blow a fuse and get pissed off at us and scream that we just needed to finish something, anything, a song... I decided it would be funny to write a song about how Mario was holding us all down, how he was trying to mess it all up, sabotaging our great works of art.”

So, less middle-finger, more cocking about.