Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry is being reissued, the latest example of getting every piece of pop music every made back out there before the recorded-music industry goes tits-up, and the press release about the new version touts the fact that “We’re Not Gonna Take It” was a member of the Filthy Fifteen. That was a list of songs put together in 1985 by the Parents’ Music Resource Council, the group of moms who were pretty much the driving force behind the now-ubiquitous “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” stickers on albums deemed too hot for young ears; they put together a playlist of songs that in their mind glorified sex, drugs, and violence in such a way that one had to conclude that The Pop Music Was Killing Our Kids. Given that “We’re Not Gonna Take It” seems positively benign right now, I decided to remind myself of the list’s other contents. The artists whose songs were cited fall into two categories for the most part: Heavy metal bands and people who worked with Prince, including the man himself. All 15–complete with some filthy-in-85, safe-for-work now clips–after the jump! More »
Dee Snider is going to appear on the restaurant-makeover show Kitchen Nightmares tonight. Expect the “We’re Not Gonna Take It” jokes to fly even faster than Gordon Ramsay’s f-bombs! More »
Twisted Sister guitarist Jay French released his Obama-endorsing remake of “I Wanna Rock”–which, as you might expect, is called “I Want Barack”–just now, and it sounds like, um, a political Twisted Sister song: It’s got an anthemic chorus that’ll no doubt stir up any crowd it’s played to and some clunky lyrics. But then again, who listened to Twisted Sister for the poetic aspects? After the jump, an ad hoc version of a TS Obama tribute supplied by a mysterious YouTube user who had a copy of Twisted Sister: The Video Years, Windows Media Player, and a few minutes of free time on his hands. That should satisfy those of you who can’t hear the opening of “I Wanna Rock” without thinking about the plight of defenseless textbooks.
A moment of sincerity: VH1 Classic is showing AFTERMATH: The Station Fire Five Years Later this Sunday night. More »
Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” is now being used to shill for the birth control pill Yaz in a TV commercial that could have really used a cameo from Mark Metcalf. More »
Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” is now being used to shill for the birth control pill Yaz in a TV commercial that could have really used a cameo from Mark Metcalf. More »
Today’s New York Times looks at the phenomenon of older bands like Twisted Sister and Wang Chung heading back in the studio to re-record their biggest hits–and get a bigger piece of the music-licensing rewards in the process:
Under the typical record contract, money paid to license a song is split between the record label that owns the recording and the artist who performed it. But if a band remakes the song after it has ended its contract, it can retain ownership of the new version and license it itself without having to share the rewards with the record label. (Music executives typically insist on contract provisions that prohibit artists from re-recording their work for up to five years after their deal expires.)
Recently, a number of aging pop and rock stars has returned to the studio to recreate their signature tunes and pitch them to Madison Avenue and Hollywood. Attentive fans may notice remakes by bands including Twisted Sister, Foreigner and Simply Red in commercials, movie trailers and television programs.
