Post by rtbuck on Jan 6, 2008 11:06:48 GMT -5
Twisted Sister – The Video Years
Label : Rhino
Review by Bucky for Rock N Roll Universe
Back in the early 80’s in Buffalo, NY there was a local chain of record stores called Cavages located at each of the local malls. Each of the stores had a small import section where you could find some UK releases that weren’t officially released in the US. One record that always caught my eye in this section was Twisted Sister’s ‘Under the Blade’. I had always been a fan of Alice Cooper, Kiss, & I was finally discovering the NY Dolls but Twisted Sister just appeared to be a bit too strange for me (which makes no sense to me now!). In 1983 I was at a local club & they played a video of “You Can’t Stop Rock & Roll” & I thought it kicked ass. A few weeks later a friend & I noticed Twisted Sister was playing at a night club with another band I hadn’t heard of called Queensryche & we decided to check it out. Queensryche had just released an EP & opened the show that night & put on a phenomenal performance. I thought to myself no way could Twisted Sister ever upstage Queensryche…boy, was I wrong! They had a bright pink fence on both sides of the drum kit & from the explosive beginning of “What You Don’t Know” with Dee Snider shouting out “Good Evening…Welcome to the show!” I was now a S.M.F.
Rhino has just released Twisted Sister ‘The Video Years’ on DVD & the DVD is loaded with metal mayhem from the first video which is taken from there first ever TV broadcast from the UK through all there MTV video career. The opening video features the band performing an insane cover of the Stones “It’s Only Rock & Roll” where half way through the song as Snider starts getting frustrated by the lack of audience participation & questions the audience on his make-up to which he grabs some remover & wipes away his face paint. Finally, to win the crowd over Lemmy & Robbo from Motorhead are pulled up on stage to finish the 10 minute jam. All of the videos have introductions by the entire band telling there tales of the video shoots which are quite interesting. The one video that really stands out is “Be Crool to Your Scuel” that was actually banned from MTV because of its zombie flesh eating content. The band make a legitimate point by saying that it was okay for Michael Jackson to have a zombie video. This video also brought the legendary king of shock rock, Alice Cooper, back into the spotlight of hard rock performing a duet with Dee Snider on this song. All the bands video hits are here featuring “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “I Wanna Rock”, “The Price”, “Leader Of the Pack”(which the band felt was there biggest career killing mistake), & “Hot Love”(from there almost forgettable ‘Love Is For Suckers” album).
The DVD finishes up with an MTV concert in support of their ‘Stay Hungry’ album’ featuring 10 songs. The concert is mostly songs from the ‘Stay Hungry’ album but also features a few “twisted” oldies such as “The Kids Are Back”, “You Can’t Stop R & R”, & “Under the Blade”. On their hits “We’re Not Gonna Take It” & “You Can’t Stop R & R” the music videos for each of the songs are cleverly intertwined with the live footage.
This is a cool DVD overall & since buying this DVD, once again I have become a “S.M.F”!
Bucky