Stay Hungry

#1170: The Smaller the Better – Christmas 2024

RECORD STORE TALES #1170: The Smaller the Better – Christmas 2024

2024 was one of our smallest Christmas gatherings, both in budget and in population, but it was certainly one of my happiest.

Sometimes everything just feels right, and this year’s Christmas Eve was held back at the old family home once again.  It was the first Christmas Eve there in over a decade, but that’s my happy place at Christmas.  A place I can feel comfortable.  After all, it was my home for 29 years.  I settled in with my dad and watched Superman the Movie while Jen made cookies.  We awaited the arrival of my mom, Dr. Kathryn, and a few dogs.

Jen knit custom gifts for the dogs (shawls, mittens and hats).  She also knit custom shawls for the ladies, and toques for the men.  I love mine.

As an introvert, I do well in small groups.  Dinner was the traditional beef fondue (or chicken or schnitzel), with bonus vegan options.  I brought over some special flavoured salts and hot sauces to sample.

We did that Christmas “white elephant” game, or whatever you want to call it.  The “$10 gift game” is another name for it.  Initially, I won this cool set of chocolate “coffee bombs”.  I made it very clear how happy I was with it, and that I intended to make myself a coffee as soon as I got home.  I spotted one with little marshmallows and relished the idea of it.  Then my mom went next and stole it.  I stole it back when I had the chance, and then she stole it again at first opportunity.  The funny coda to this story is that after Jen and I got home, we put on a “Best of Saturday Night Live” show and there was a sketch featuring the exact same game.  One character was complaining that it was a mean-spirited game, because he had received the perfect gift for himself, and someone stole it.  I called my mom to laugh about that.  The story doesn’t end there.

Christmas day featured some sleeping in and some Marvel What If? on Disney+.  SPOILER this episode featured a Kiss song as an integral part of the story, and even had a line of dialogue from Howard the Duck explaining that the song was written by Kiss in 1979.

I won the $25 Amazon gift card at the “Christmas pickle” game.  I wasn’t even going to participate, but after seeing Jen and Dr. Kathryn getting nowhere, I entered the fray.  I quickly boxed Dr. Kathryn into a corner, where she was unable to see the front of the tree, where my mom had announced the pickle to be.  Once spotted, I used the pickle to order the new Van Halen For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge box set.  It’ll be here Saturday.

There were some really cool items in my grab bag this Christmas.

I had hoped someone would get me Brothers by Alex Van Halen, and Dr. Kathryn came to the rescue there.  It’s a beautiful looking book, and emotional too from what I have read while skipping through.

Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys has a new album out with standards new and old:  Longhauler: The Best of Bubbles and the Shitrockers.  If you need to ask, don’t.  I was surprised that the album was produced and engineered by Eddie Kramer!

Queen’s A Night at the Odeon (1975) is another album that came highly recommended.  I wishlisted it and it magically appeared in my stocking thanks to my parents.  It looks like a winner.

Finally, some anniversary editions from Jen:  Judas Priest’s Rocka Rolla, and Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry.  Rocka Rolla is probably the best album remix I have heard in my life.  Tom Allom pretty much just made the album sound like itself, but beefier.  As if you had always heard it distant and muffled, and now you can hear it fully for the first time.  As if you just got a new stereo and are hearing this music properly for the first time.  As for Twisted, I find it funny that I already own the 30th anniversary edition, with a very different set of bonus music.

Of interest:  this is probably the 3rd time I have received Rocka Rolla for Christmas.  It is my 2nd for Stay Hungry at Christmas time.

As usual, I received some treats and games, including two more editions of Uno to play at the cottage this summer.  My mom got me some Trailer Park Boys pickle flavoured chips, and who knew that such a thing existed?

As for my mom, she used to do this thing when we were kids, where she would take a larger box of candy and split it up into smaller gifts that could fit into stockings.  She did that for me this year…with her chocolate coffee bombs that she got the night before.  She gave me one of each flavour, since I had called about the Saturday Night Live sketch.  Thanks mom.  You win this time.

Hope everyone had as merry a Christmas as we did!

REVIEW: Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry (25th Anniversary Edition)

TS SH R_0003

My Twisted reviews: “We’re Not Gonna Take It” single, Under the Blade, Live at the Marquee

TWISTED SISTER – Stay Hungry (25th Anniversary Edition, Atlantic, 2009 originally 1984)

Fact:  When I was a kid, I used to think that Jay Jay French might in fact be blind; I never saw him without his dark shades!

25 years of Stay Hungry?  Actually 29 years at press time!  I don’t want to believe it.  Anyway, this reissue was a pretty big deal because Stay Hungry was out of print on CD.  For whatever reason (legal, contractual?) when Twisted issued their series of remasters with bonus tracks back in 1997, Stay Hungry was not one of them. Then in 2004, the reunited band recorded an album called Still Hungry, which was all of Stay Hungry re-recorded “the way they originally wanted it to sound” (cough). As a fan, I only enjoyed it for the new and unreleased bonus tracks. I was underwhelmed by the re-recording. It’s impossible to duplicate a specific recording, especially when the singer can no longer hit the high notes in “The Price”.  And it just didn’t sound good.

That was then, this is now, and Stay Hungry has finally been remastered and beefed up with a bonus disc of unreleased material and one brand new song! (None of these unreleased songs were even heard on Still Hungry, but a couple were remade by Dee on a solo album.) The album itself remains one of Sister’s best, although my preference is to You Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll.  The bonus disc sheds light on what else the band was writing at the time.

IMG_00000189_editThe remastering and liner notes are excellent. The album sounds like it should, the way a pristine vinyl copy would sound back then. Still Hungry was mastered way too loud; this is much better.  The liner notes reveal friction between the band and producer Tom Werman. Werman rejected a lot of what the band had written, which makes up disc two. However, he was also a big supporter of their heavier songs such as “Burn In Hell” and “Horror-Teria: The Beginning”, while disliking “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.  Dee Snider, in fact, wanted to save “Horror-Teria” for a rock opera he was composing, but Tom Werman wisely insisted it go on this album.

The special thing about the original Stay Hungry album was that there was not one bad song on it. From all three smash hit singles (“I Wanna Rock” and “The Price”), to album cuts like “Don’t Let Me Down” and “S.M.F.”, every song here is a classic. And only one ballad!

Twisted Sister appeared in the 1985 comedy, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

Highlights include the opener “Stay Hungry”, which smokes the speakers immediately.  “Burn In Hell” (seen performed by Twisted Sister in the 1985 film Pee Wee’s Big Adventure) turns up the scare factor with some unholy Snider vocals.  Snider’s epic “Horror Terria” is split into two parts.  “Captain Howdy” (later to become Snider’s character the film Strangeland) is a warning to stay away from the title character.  It’s ominous, Snider obviously hamming it up as Captain Howdy.  As a kid I never fully appreciated exactly what the song is depicting, unfortunately this kind of thing is now in the news on a weekly basis.  Part two is “Street Justice”, an angry song that inspired scenes in the film.

The man was caught, and brought before a judge,
who had just returned from a three-drink lunch.
His lawyer screamed, “You must set him free!”
And off he went, on a technicality.

Side two commenced with two of the big singles, “I Wanna Rock” and “The Price”, but equally good was “Don’t Let Me Down”.  This would have been another single as far as I’m concerned.  “The Beast” is evil and Sabbathy, but the album ends with the TNT blast of “S.M.F.”  At this point you are blown back into your seats.

TS SH R_0006The sound quality on the bonus disc varies from track to track, as is bound to happen with demos this old. Don’t let that spoil your enjoyment. These are some of the heavier songs that Twisted were writing, that Werman simply did not feel were strong enough. Perhaps with some fleshing out and proper studio time, tracks like “Death From Above” or “We’re Coming On” could have stood proud on the album as well. Clearly these demos are unfinished, most are very brief and unadorned. Some are a bit too similar to stronger songs that did make the album. Listening to the whole disc makes you wish that they had been fleshed out and released on B-sides or albums, as some are pretty good.

The highlight of this disc is the brand new Twisted Sister song, “30”. Finally, somebody has written an anthem for older rockers! It’s about time! And it’s a great tune, as well! “30 came and went a long long time ago,” sings Dee, with absolutely no shame, and rightfully so!

If you’re a new fan, or an old fan who has heard Stay Hungry a million times, this is a compulsory purchase. It renders the original release obselete. Still Hungry pales to this reissue. Well done, if only all reissues were put together with this much care and effort.

5/5 stars