Dec 14

Twisted Sister

TWISTED SISTER
 
Twisted Sister  was an American heavy metal band originally from Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and later based in Long Island, New York.  Twisted Sister’s best-known songs include “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (featured in the movie Gung Ho) and “I Wanna Rock”, which had music videos noted for their sense of slapstick humor.  Although the band is sometimes regarded as glam metal due to its use of makeup, frontman Dee Snider considers the term to be inappropriate.  Twisted Sister is also ranked No. 73 in VH1’s 100 greatest artists of hard rock.  

(More from Wikipedia)

 
 

 

 

I am not really much of a lyrics guy; even on some of my very favorite albums, I probably couldn’t quote a single line.  Obviously that’s not true of my entire collection; the lyrics from Bob Dylan were a big attraction to me from the very beginning.  However, the most important thing to me about song lyrics is that they need to mean something to the singer, not that we as the audience necessarily need to know what is being said or even what it means.  Years ago, I once wrote about song lyrics, mentioning a Twisted Sister hit song from 1984:  “The point is, you can’t sing ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ angrily, but you can sing ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ with a bit of venom.” 

 

You might remember “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as a classic music video on MTV back in the day; as Wikipedia describes it:  “The song is notable for its popular music video directed by Marty Callner, with its emphasis on slapstick comedy, where a parent gets the worst of the band’s mischief.  Controversy arose when the depiction of the family in the video caused a public outcry long before the ‘explicit lyrics’ warning was placed on records, cassettes, and CD’s.  

This led to the formation of the Parents Music Resource Center, co-founded by Tipper Gore (who later became Second Lady of the United States).  Mark Metcalf, the actor portraying the father in the video, had previously played   Neidermeyer, the ROTC student commander in National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978).  In a reference to his role in the film, Metcalf says in the video, ‘A Twisted Sister pin? On your uniform?!’.  [Lead singer Dee] Snider himself can also be heard cursing and swearing the question ‘A pledge pin? On your uniform?’ at the end of the song.” 

 

U. S. Senate hearings were held in 1985 about supposedly offensive song lyrics, where Twisted Sister lead singer Dee Snider and Frank Zappa (among others) testified.  A somewhat tongue-in-cheek TV movie about the controversy called Warning: Parental Advisory came out in 2002; it was created by VH1 and was directed by Mark Waters.  In one scene, appearing as himself, Dee Snider clomps into the Senate chambers in full Twisted Sister regalia to testify. 

 

(June 2013/2)
 
*       *       *
 
 
 
It didn’t register right away, but eventually I noticed that Presidential candidate Donald Trump had the Twisted Sister song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” playing at a lot of his early rallies. Lead singer and songwriter Dee Snider personally gave Trump permission to use the song. I have written of their music video for this song before, featuring Animal House star Mark Metcalf and several lines of dialogue from the movie also. (Even the song has some of the dialogue in it).  
There was a follow-up song from Twisted Sister that is not so well known. “I Wanna Rock” also had Mark Metcalf in the video and an Animal House theme; and another actor from the movie, Stephen Furst had a cameo. In this one, a boy is accosted by his teacher (played by Metcalf) for putting a Twisted Sister logo on his textbook. After a booming taunt, “What do you wanna do with your life???”, the boy says: “I Wanna Rock!” 
Both songs come from the band’s third album, Stay Hungry; Twisted Sister has released 7 studio albums, 7 live albums, and 7 retrospective albums. The band has embarked on their farewell tour that is expected to end in mid-2016. 
(March 2016)
* * *
The infamous Filthy Fifteen, along with the reasons for their inclusion on the list, follow. Not only is Prince listed first on the list, he was also the songwriter for #2, “Sugar Walls”; and Vanity, at #4, is a one-time Prince protegé. 
1. Prince – “Darling Nikki” (sex, masturbation) 
2. Sheena Easton – “Sugar Walls” (sex) 
3. Judas Priest – “Eat Me Alive” (sex) 
4. Vanity – “Strap on Robbie Baby” (sex) 
5. Mötley Crüe – “Bastard” (violence) 
6. AC/DC – “Let Me Put My Love Into You” (sex) 
7. Twisted Sister – “We’re Not Gonna Take It”  (violence) 
8. Madonna – “Dress You Up” (sex) 
9. W.A.S.P. – “Animal (F--k Like A Beast)” (sex)
10. Def Leppard – “High ’n Dry” (drug and alcohol use) 
11. Mercyful Fate – “Into the Coven” (occult) 
12. Black Sabbath – “Trashed” (drug and alcohol use) 
13. Mary Jane Girls – “In My House” (sex) 
14. Venom – “Possessed” (occult) 
15. Cyndi Lauper – “She Bop”  (sex, masturbation)
 
* * *
Only a third of the songs on this list – “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “She Bop”, “Sugar Walls”, “Dress You Up”, and “In My House” – were hits, and only the Twisted Sister number is really a signature song. Most of the Filthy Fifteen are deep album cuts that, even at the time, were likely unfamiliar to many of the fans of these bands and artists. For me, the Prince song “Darling Nikki” does not ring a bell; and the same goes for those by Def Leppard, Black Sabbath, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, and AC/DC. If this was intended as a resource to help out parents instead of just a publicity stunt, adding the album names would have saved everyone a lot of time. 
* * *
Why “We’re Not Gonna Take It” showed up at all among the Filthy Fifteen is a real puzzler, but it brought out the ire of Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, who provided the most memorable testimony at the U. S. Senate hearing that he made even more effective by dressing up for the occasion. The other two musicians who testified were Frank Zappa – at least one of the F15 alumni praised him as running interference for the whole rock industry – and John Denver. This wide-ranging trio gives some indication as to how offended rock musicians were in turn about the whole offending-lyrics business.
 
As quoted in the Nick Gillespie post, Dee Snider told the U. S. Senate: "You will note from the lyrics before you that there is absolutely no violence of any type either sung about or implied anywhere in the song. Now, it strikes me that the PMRC may have confused our video presentation for this song . . . with the lyrics, with the meaning of the lyrics. It is no secret that the videos often depict story lines completely unrelated to the lyrics of the song they accompany. The video ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ was simply meant to be a cartoon with human actors playing variations on the Road Runner – Wile E. Coyote theme. Each stunt was selected from my extensive personal collection of cartoons.”
 
* * *
Rolling Stone’s article provides reflections from some of the rock artists involved in the PMRC controversy. Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider has this to say: “Everything I represented, stood for and said back then, I have lived and stand by today. . . . I practice self-censorship. When my own family got into Tenacious D, the first album [Tenacious D], including my little daughter who was only eight, I made a special tape for her without ‘F--k Her Gently’ on it ’cause she wasn’t ready for ‘F--k Her Gently’. But she clearly listened [to] ‘Wonderboy’ and the other songs her brothers were listening to. This is hands-on parenting and everything I stood for.”
 
(June 2016)
 
* * *
 
Since I am down to a quarterly schedule rather than a monthly schedule, my annual list is a lot shorter, so I will try listing all of the people that I have discussed in some depth rather than just the Under Appreciated Rock Band and the Story of the Month. They are all punk rock bands of one kind or another this year (2015-2016), and the most recent post includes my overview of the early rap/hip hop scene that an old friend, George Konstantinow challenged me to write – probably so long ago that he might have forgotten.
Last edited: March 22, 2021