In the early 1980s, Dee Snider, the frontman of an unknown East Coast glam-metal band named Twisted Sister, wrote the chorus for a hard rock anthem that he knew was destined to become a “monster”. Although it took Snider three years to perfect its chug-aboogie arrangement, We’re Not Gonna Take It did indeed become an irresistible, fistin-the-air anthem, despite numerous obstacles standing in its way. In the hands of a less determined mob than Twisted Sister it never would have happened.
The saga of how Twisted Sister hooked up with Atlantic Records, a label that had turned them down on numerous occasions, has been recounted many times. Their premier bête noire at Atlantic, Doug Morris (the MD who had slammed the group as “the worst piece of shit in the world”), hired Tom Werman to produce a make-or-break third album (which became Stay Hungry).
But despair turned to rage when Werman, who had experienced success with more commercial acts including Mötley Crüe, Cheap Trick and Molly Hatchet, proposed vetoing three of its key songs – the ones that became hits: We’re Not Gonna Take It, I Wanna Rock and the ballad The Price – and replacing them with covers.
“When Werman said he wanted to record Strong Arm Of The Law and Princess Of The Night, I replied: ‘Yeah, they’re great songs – I heard them last week when we did a show with Saxon,’” Dee Snider marvels. “He thought that because nobody in America knew them we could get away with it.”
Snider knew he’d written a smash hit in We’re Not Gonna Take It. “When it was finished I knew it had all of the pieces – everything about it was catchy,” he enthuses. “My mentors were Slade. Noddy [Holder] and Jim [Lea] had taught me that every part of a song should be a hook in itself, from the verse to the chorus and the bridge, and I had followed their guidance.”
Despite the issues with Werman, the album was completed. With MTV still engaged in a love affair with so-called ‘hair-metal’, Atlantic had the highly regarded Mary Callner shoot a slapstick-charged promo for We’re Not Gonna Take It. As the single climbed the charts, people began wondering what it was about.
“I very deliberately left it as vague as possible,” Snider explains now. “That led to a review in the Village Voice: ‘Take what from whom?’ What a smug idiot. The song’s whole point is for the listener to fill in the blanks. Voice your own personal grievance. For a teenager it was parents, a teacher or a boss. For me it was everything… including the rejection we had suffered from record companies.”
Added to the playlists of 145 radio stations even prior to its release, We’re Not Gonna Take It peaked just outside the US Top 20, with a million sales Stateside within six months of Stay Hungry (it now stands at six million). In the UK it was less successful, peaking at No.58. The band blamed Rob Dickins, then the head of Warner Music Group in Britain, for a lack of commitment to it.
“That’s Dickins – heavy on the ‘Dick’,” Snider sighs. “This was the guy that decided to save money by refusing to send out an advance mailshot to journalists and radio stations. That initial burst of exposure was what got you onto the charts, but he wouldn’t pay the postage. He just didn’t think the song would be a hit.”
“Dickins hated the song,” guitarist Jay Jay French says. “We’re Not Gonna Take It was never promoted correctly in England, and England was what created Twisted Sister. This guy shot us down.”
Despite their screen ubiquity, the cartoon-like promos from We’re Not Gonna Take It and follow-up I Wanna Rock presented a huge long-term problem.
“The videos were extremely comedic, but their sheer popularity caused people to overlook how hard we rocked,” Snider says. “Nobody got our work ethic because they were unaware of the history of how we had reached that point.”
“I was accused of controlling everything and, sure, it caused massive problems,” the singer comments. “The truth is that Stay Hungry was a victory lap for Twisted Sister. We were already coming apart at the start of Stay Hungry – the recording, photo sessions and touring.”
Two albums later, Twisted Sister ground to an ugly, bitter end, their swansong, 1987’s Love Is For Suckers, intended as a Dee Snider solo record. Fourteen years later the quintet reconvened as part of a benefit show for widows and orphans of emergency workers who died in the 9/11 attack. As a result, Twisted Sister began to perform again sporadically, culminating in a farewell tour dubbed Forty And Fuck It in 2016 which included Mike Portnoy due to the death of long-standing TS drummer AJ Pero.
During the band’s absence, the legend of We’re Not Gonna Take It had grown and grown. According to French, it is now the most licensed song in heavy-metal history. “That song has been in numerous TV shows, movies and commercials,” the guitarist reveals. “Forty major corporations have licensed We’re Not Gonna Take It or I Wanna Rock – think about that for a moment.”
“We’re Not Gonna Take It not only transcended the genre and the band, but also the era,” Snider concludes. “If I sing: ‘We’re not gonna take it’ anywhere in the world, I know that the response will be: ‘No, we ain’t gonna take it.’ There’s not a doubt in my mind that when I’m gone that song will live on forever.”
The expanded 40th-anniversary edition of Stay Hungry is out now via Rhino.
