This week’s song looks back to 1984 and was the third and final single from Twisted Sister’s landmark album Stay Hungry. I talked about the album to help lead off my celebration of 1984’s 40th anniversary. The song has its origins in the album prior, 1983’s You Can’t Stop Rock n’ Roll, as we’ll soon get into.
The Price did not have the same singles success that the other two songs from Stay Hungry did – it would get to 19 on the Top Rock Tracks chart and 24 on the long defunct Radio and Records chart, but it did not crack the Billboard 100, only hitting 8 on the Bubbling Under chart. It was a different style and theme to the prior singles, with We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock being balls-out rockers. The band cites a lack of a radio mix from producer Tom Werner as a factor, Werner was not given enough heads up to do up a radio edit of the song the same way he did for the two other singles. Not necessarily related but worth noting is that Dee Snider has been critical of Werner’s production (and Werner has fired back at Snider and all of his various critics).
On our hands today is a ballad, and one with more lofty concerns than the typical love song. It is an existential question of whether or not it is worth it to carry on, as the powerful chorus asks. This song doesn’t answer the question – it’s up to the listener to come to their own conclusions. There’s nothing over the moon about the song’s music but the basic approach fits this one very well.
Dee Snider was inspired to write this one while away in Europe recording the previous album. He relays the story in this 2016 interview with Carl Wiser on Songfacts. Dee and the band were holed up recording their album with not even money to make phone calls back home. Jay Jay French’s sister-in-law called to the band to check on them and Dee relayed that he was missing his family, the reply was “I guess that’s the price you have to pay.” Dee gave the phone to Jay Jay, then went into the bathroom and began working on the song.
The Price really does raise those kinds of questions, and well beyond the specific scope of if it was worth it for Twisted Sister to be pushing for their career. The grind can be a tough one, trying to figure out how to “make it” or even how to just get by in life. This song resonates, sometimes as encouragement and sometimes as a point of reflection, on that journey.
While The Price wasn’t a hit in the same way the other singles from Stay Hungry were, this one did become a fan favorite. It’s the band’s sixth most-played song live and Dee frequently played the show on his long-running House of Hair radio show, speaking highly of the track that many fans have listens to in order to help them pull through. Especially in tough times like these, it doesn’t hurt to have some encouragement.
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Welcome to 2024, how exciting to now be close to halfway through this psychotic decade. This also does mark the 40th anniversary of 1984 and many of the world’s most brilliant albums being offered up, so I will be paying extra attention to that year as I go along through this one. I won’t be covering it every week but many of 1984’s great releases will come up this year. And what better way to kick things off than with the magnum opus of one of rock and metal’s more unique acts?
Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry
Released May 10, 1984 via Atlantic Records
My Favorite Tracks – I Wanna Rock, We’re Not Gonna Take It, The Price
By 1984, Twisted Sister had finally been releasing albums after a decade of busting their asses on the club circuit on the US East coast. Their first two albums had come and gone without a ton of fanfare, and the group were truly hungry to get a break. Between this collection of outstanding songs and some publicity assistance from politicans’ wives, Twisted Sister were about to have their break.
Twisted Sister would feature Dee Snider on vocals, the guitar tandem of Eddie Ojeda and Jay Jay French, Mark Mendoza on bass and A.J. Perro behind the drums. This was the band’s line-up through the first four studio albums, this one being the third. This would also be the band’s reunion line-up through the 2000’s until the death of Perro in 2015.
The album was produced by 1980’s rock maestro Tom Werman, who had a hand in many of the decade’s defining records. Dee Snider has been on record criticizing Werman’s tactics during the recording of Stay Hungry. Werman denies Snider’s accusations and states he only suggested the band consider a Saxon song as a cover for the record, not that there was any attempt to remove the two songs that became the band’s hit singles – I Wanna Rock and We’re Not Gonna Take It. This Blabbermouth article from last month gets into a lot of detail regarding what both Werner and Snider have said.
With all that, we’re left with an album of 9 prime rock cuts in a pretty lean 36 minutes. A huge deluxe reissue of this album features a whopping amount of bonus material and is certainly worth the purchase, though today I’ll confine discussion to the original album. There is also a re-recorded version the band did in 2004 called Still Hungry. Not a bad effort but in my eyes an unnecessary venture, as I generally agree with Werman that the album is fine as is.
Stay Hungry
The opener is also the title track and comes in hard and heavy. It is a simple and very effective message of keeping motivated and fighting on, pretty much the story of Twisted Sister at this time as they fought long and hard for the success that this very album would bring. This is a straight ahead roller of a song with some nice guitar work to keep it moving along.
We’re Not Gonna Take It
This was the album’s lead single and the vehicle that Twisted Sister drove to mainstream attention. The song insanely simple with a rhythm clearly borrowed from the Christmas hymn O Come, All Ye Faithful. This is, of course, a far more rocked-out version as it heads into the chorus and the song’s obvious point of being a rebellion anthem.
Aiding greatly in the song’s rise was the music video, which featured the band in a dark, clownish parody of glam, especially Dee Snider standing out as a nearly indescribable presence. The video starred actor Mark Metcalf, famous for his role as Niedermeyer in Animal House, as a cranky, overbearing father who gets his ass handed to him through the video.
This song would chart at 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, a career high for the band. It would also come under fire from the PMRC, the Tipper Gore-led group looking to use music as a scapegoat for society’s ills. This wound up on the list of the “Filthy Fifteen” due to “violence,” none of which can be found in the song and only a slapstick version with a trained actor seen in the video. Dee Snider would famously testify at the Congressional hearings and own the day, leaving the overly concerned senators with egg on their faces and Twisted Sister with their signature song and biggest hit that continues to resonate today.
Burn In Hell
This one comes in dark and hot with an intro that sounds like Alice Cooper is reading it, but alas he is not present. This one is about getting your shit together lest you burn in Hell, like Dee as the song’s soul-scarred narrator. It’s a very nice headbanger that keeps things going and differentiates TS from the more polished glam era that was arriving.
This song also got airtime in a movie, as the band performed it as part of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.
Horror-Teria (The Beginning)
Up next is a two-part story piece introducing the sadistic child killer Captain Howdy. The PMRC picked a fun song about nothing violent to complain about when there was a literal song about a serial killer just two songs down on the list, but what do I know …
The first part of the song is Captain Howdy, a killer who preys on children. It’s a nice and heavy piece, warning the listener to “stay away from Captain Howdy.” The second movement of the song is Street Justice, which is the response from people outraged over the Captain Howdy murders. Howdy was let off of his court case through a technicality, and the only real way to bring him to justice now is to form a posse and hunt him down. A story song seems ambitious on the surface for a band generally dealing in simpler concepts, but this works really well and isn’t a dull spot on the album.
Captain Howdy would make it to the silver screen years later as the antagonist in Dee Snider’s 1998 film Strangeland, played by Snider himself.
I Wanna Rock
The album’s second single would also become a defining song for the band. It is another defiant anthem, this time simply stating the desire to rock. Sometimes the best songs just spell out what they’re doing and it makes a hit.
This video would also feature Mark Metcalf’s acting, this time portraying a jerk of a teacher. Twisted Sister would often stretch this song out for an extended jam live, which sounds odd on the surface for a simple, short rock song but I’ve always enjoyed their live jams of it.
The Price
We are now to the ballad, though this one is not the cut-and-paste style of love ballad at all. This is an earnest, sad song about how tough it can be to “make it” in life and the doubt over whether it’s worth it or not at times. Snider reportedly wrote this after the band were abroad recording their prior album and he’d had very little contact with his own family. It is a very moving song that has a message that carries through to this day and, while this single did not generate a hit, is still an integral part of the Twisted Sister catalog.
Don’t Let Me Down
This one is a simple and effective rocker that sees Dee questioning why nothing he does or gives is enough. While not a standout track it’s still very nice listening on an album that doesn’t really have any “filler.”
The Beast
This is fairly standard type of “predator and prey” song that a lot of bands do. Here’s it’s executed in a slower paced yet very heavy metal presentation. Some very nice, soulful guitars on this one.
SMF
The album closes on what could be considered Twisted Sister’s theme song. SMF stands for “sick motherfucker,” of course, and this name would be given to Twisted Sister fans and even the fan club. It’s another TS classic and it’s also one that Snider had to explain in front of the congress hearings for the PMRC.
Stay Hungry would be the hit record Twisted Sister had been in hot pursuit of through the 1980’s. The album hit number 15 on the Billboard 200 and was certified triple platinum in the US, and has platinum certs in several other countries. The band was thrust into the spotlight with their singles and videos, and then propped up again with the press from the PMRC hearings. The success also lifted their prior album You Can’t Stop Rock n’ Roll to gold status, and caused a hunting frenzy for the out of print, independently released version of their debut Under The Blade.
Lasting success through the rest of the ’80’s proved elusive as the band’s next two albums were not well-received. But the band’s return during the resurgence of traditional metal in the 2000’s would see them tour far and wide, establishing their legacy without the need for new material.
Twisted Sister’s wild ride led to paydirt with Stay Hungry, and it remains a solid classic and a great representation of the music of 1984.
The Crooked Wanderer 