Videodrone #10: Be Chrool to Your Scuel

Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Be Chrool to Your Scuel (1985)

Live by the video, die by the video. Thanks to MTV, it didn't take long in the '80s to become a star and it took even less time to come back down to earth. By the end of 1985, Twisted Sister had been on that rollercoaster ride, punctuated by releasing a big budget video that was immediately banned by the same network that introduced the band to the world.

Formerly known as Silver Star, Twisted Sister was formed in 1973 in New Jersey as a glam band inspired by the New York Dolls. Guitarist John Segall, who later changed his name to Jay Jay French, was one of the first members of the group. Much like the Dolls, TS started out wearing women's clothing and makeup, although look eventually became more ragged and scary than feminine. The group had a rotating lineup over the next several years, adding singer Danny "Dee" Snider in 1976; the band played in the Tri-State area and its sound grew heavier as it built a strong local following. 

Twisted Sister released its first album, Under the Blade, in 1982 on a small British label called Secret Records. After appearing on the U.K. music program The Tube, the band was signed by Atlantic Records and released You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll in 1983. They got some recognition in heavy metal circles but still remained pretty underground. I remember hearing them on heavy metal radio shows in the Boston area in the early '80s. 

But everything changed in 1984 when the band released their third album Stay Hungry. Specifically, it was the video for "We're Not Gonna Take It" that blew up on MTV; it featured a guest appearance from Mark Metcalf (Niedermeyer from Animal House), who basically reprised his character as the strict father of a metal-loving teenager. The video became an MTV hit and the single went to #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The followup video, "I Wanna Rock," also featured Metcalf (and his Animal House co-star Stephen "Flounder" Furst) and the song reached #68 on the Hot 100. The album got to #15 on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum in its first year.

I saw them play as part of the first concert I ever attended in July 1984. TS was third on the bill below Cheap Trick and Ratt and above Lita Ford. "We're Not Gonna Take It" was a hit by this point, and the band came out and really impressed with their high-energy performance. Twisted Sister was not making technically proficient or complex music, but they played catchy three-chord rock bangers extremely heavy and extremely loud. Snider was a good frontman and knew how to work a crowd. Although I never bought Stay Hungry, I appreciated Twisted Sister as a live act and indeed, saw them again a few months later opening for Dio.

Twisted Sister also had a cameo in Pee-wee's Big Adventure, making a video for their song "Burn in Hell" on the Warner Bros. backlot that was interrupted by Pee-wee. And the band got more attention when they came under fire from the Parents Music Resource Center in 1985, which led to Snider joining John Denver and Frank Zappa in testifying before a highly publicized Senate committee that fall.

A few months later in November 1985, the band released its fourth album Come Out and Play. Hard rock and metal was at its commercial peak at this time, but Twisted Sister made a calculated decision to appeal to a wider audience. The first single was a cover of the Shangri-Las' 1964 hit "Leader of the Pack," complete with a video featuring a cameo from screechy comedian Bobcat Goldthwait and the band as members of a biker gang. But the song didn't appeal to the band's core audience of metalheads and the single only went to #53 on the Hot 100.

This put a lot of pressure on the second video, the unfortunately spelled "Be Chrool to Your Scuel," which began with quotes about music videos from Snider and Sen. Ernest Hollings taken from the PMRC hearings. The song featured co-lead vocals from Snider and Alice Cooper and had instrumental cameos from Brian Setzer on guitar, Clarence Clemons on sax and Billy Joel on piano. The video was directed by Marty Callner, who directed the band's big videos from its previous album as well as specials for Robin Williams, George Carlin, Diana Ross and Fleetwood Mac. Goldthwait appears in the extended intro as a weirdo teacher in front of his bored class, which featured a young Luke Perry among the students. He goes to the teachers' lounge and listens to Twisted Sister on his Walkman, turning him into Snider and four other teachers in the lounge into a member of Twisted Sister and the guy sitting next to him, legendary horror makeup artist Tom Savini (who did the makeup and SFX for the video), into Cooper. Setzer, Clemons and Joel did not appear in the video.

Turns out the entire school is full of zombies and there's plenty of gore, including zombies eating each other, another getting its neck sawed into and Snider taking a bite out a zombie's arm. When MTV executives reviewed the video, they banned it, no doubt with the PMRC controversy fresh in their minds. So "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" never aired on MTV, which didn't help the album's sagging performance on the charts. Come Out and Play only reached #53 on the Billboard 200 chart and achieved gold status (selling over 500,000 copies), which was a disappointment after the success of the previous album. (Side note on Goldthwait: He's had a successful second career as a writer and director, while still doing standup and working as a voice actor. He also was an opener for Nirvana on part of their final tour. I just saw him open last week for Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy's R.E.M. tribute band. He doesn't do the screeching thing anymore.)

The band's next album, 1987's Love is for Suckers, was originally intended as a Snider solo album but Atlantic wouldn't release it unless it was called a Twisted Sister album. It featured all of the classic-era band members except drummer A.J. Pero, who left the band in 1986 and was replaced by Joey Franco. Guitarist Reb Beach (later of Winger) played almost all the guitars on the album; producer Beau Hill said TS guitarists French and Eddie Ojeda also recorded parts. The band did away with the makeup and toured the album for one month. Two days later, Snider quit the group. The label then dropped the band and the official breakup was announced in January 1988.

The hiatus lasted for 10 years before the band recorded a song for the soundtrack of Snider's horror movie Strangeland. The group reunited for a 9/11 benefit show in November 2001 and since then has recorded two new albums: a re-recording of Stay Hungry called Still Hungry in 2004 and a Christmas album in 2006. Twisted Sister has toured several times since then. Last month, the band canceled their world tour because Snider's health wouldn't allow him to participate; a month later, they announced the tour was back on with former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach taking over for Snider.

Twisted Sister's time in the commercial limelight was brief, but they made a lasting impression. Even if you didn't like them, you still remember them. That's more than a lot of bands can say.