Jay Jay French discussed Twisted Sister’s trick for preventing fans from heading to the restroom when the band played a new song live.
It’s an age-old problem for those who’ve become known as “legacy acts”: Their catalog is so well-loved that crowds want to hear the hits, regardless of how much the artists want to pursue their creative ambitions.
In a recent episode of Let There Be Talk, French explained how singer Dee Snider faced the challenge.
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“The truth is, when you come up with a new song, most people just get up and go to the bathroom,” the guitarist accepted. “We recorded a new song many years ago called ’30’ … we started playing it live.
“And Dee started saying, ‘OK, folks, tonight we’re going to be doing a new song. I’ll give you plenty of warning. … It’s the song that you’re gonna go out and get a drink or take a piss. We’re three songs away from the piss song … two songs away … .’
“And he would embarrass the people so much that they wouldn’t leave because now they don’t want to look like schmucks by getting up and leaving!”
Jay Jay French Says Bob Dylan Is ‘Indecipherably Bad’
French went on to cite the example of Bob Dylan as someone who refuses to accept the “play classics” rule and won’t even play the classics in their classic form.
Not a fan, he said, “Dylan is indecipherably bad … you don’t even understand it. But if you’re a deep Dylan guy, and [you think] Dylan’s so esoteric, you go, ‘He’s an interpretive artist – he does it the way he wants to.’
“The average person doesn’t give a shit. They want to hear ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ like ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’ They want to hear ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ [as the original] ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ They like to hear a song that sounds kind of like the record because that’s [what] they remember. … Dylan doesn’t do that game.”
You can hear the interview below.
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