Dee Snyder Records Broadway Album

Discussion regarding other bands, movies, etc.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
chaos
Posts: 5024
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 7:23 pm
Location: Boston

Dee Snyder Records Broadway Album

#1 Post by chaos » Tue May 08, 2012 2:51 pm

This surprised me.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/c ... adway.html
May 7, 2012
DEE SNIDER DOES BROADWAY
Posted by Michael Schulman

Image
As the front man of Twisted Sister, Dee Snider brought mid-eighties America a particular brand of hard-living, high-glam joy. His golden tresses and garish makeup typified an outré conception of masculinity that was, indeed, twisted. In 1985, he went hair-to-hair with Tipper Gore, testifying in the Senate against a proposed warning system for offensive material, which he has continued to supply in spades.

Now Snider is turning his attention to another form of razzle-dazzle: Broadway show tunes. This week, in conjunction with his new memoir, “Shut Up and Give Me the Mic,” he releases “Dee Does Broadway,” with rocked-out versions of classic numbers like “Luck Be a Lady,” “Tonight,” and “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame.” (Scroll down to hear his rendition of “Cabaret.”) We talked to Snider (who made his Broadway début in 2010, in “Rock of Ages”) about what show tunes and heavy metal have in common, working with Patti LuPone, and his endorsement for President of the United States.

What inspired you to record a Broadway album?

I’m a dyed-in-the-wool hard rocker. Even before there was heavy metal, I gravitated to the heavier Beatles stuff and the heavier Stones. And when heavy metal was born, I was there with the first Black Sabbath, first Led Zeppelin. I was there smashing the Woodstock Nation to bits. I was not a fan of anything but hard rock. That said, singing in choir my whole life, growing up going to see musicals with my parents, having “Oklahoma!” and “Carousel” and “West Side Story” playing on a loop in my house, I was exposed to musicals. And certain songs—I heard the rock in them. I heard the edge in them.
Cut to 2010: my good buddy Alice Cooper and I were exchanging phone messages singing show tunes to each other. And I said, “Hey, man, we should do a record. ‘Alice and Dee Do Broadway,’ you know?” And we went into the studio and demoed “Luck Be a Lady” together. It came out great. But at the time I was busy doing this, he was busy doing that. By the end of that year, I’m in “Rock of Ages,” and I’m suddenly even more connected to the Broadway community. And I said, “I want to revisit this idea.” I called Alice, and Alice was like, “Hey, man, I’m doing ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ and this isn’t right for me.” I said, “All right, dude, I’m not waiting for you.”

How did you go about choosing songs?

When I contacted Bob Kulick and Brett Chassen, the producers, I said, “O.K., guys, here are the ground rules: They can’t be rock songs to begin with. That’s too easy. If I do ‘Superstar,’ ‘Hair,’ ‘Grease,’ ‘Rocky Horror,’ all you’re doing is turning up the guitars. That’s not a challenge. It’s got to be a real Broadway show tune and we’ve got to make it into a rock song.”
The other thing was that it had to speak to me in some fashion. Now, there are certain songs, like “Mack the Knife,” that I just always wanted to do. And I was so happy when I Googled it and found out it was from a musical! Then it was the lyrics, like on “Razzle Dazzle” and “Cabaret.” I connect so much with the idea of “Razzle Dazzle,” just having nothing left and going, O.K., we’ll just throw on a little more glitter and jump around, and nobody will notice that you can’t sing a note.

It’s amazing how many of these show tunes translate so well into hard rock. Do you think the two genres have more in common than people realize?

Well, going all the way back to my passion being a classically trained countertenor, I’ve said often that if Bach and Beethoven were alive today, they’d be in Slayer and Metallica. There are powerful musicians throughout history, and they’ve expressed that power and intensity with whatever was available to them musically. When electric guitars became available, there were other ways to express that power and that passion. So I think that it exists in the music already, and it was just a matter of finding it and highlighting it. Take “Tonight.” I think “Tonight” may be the first power ballad!
And for people who are stunned to see me doing Broadway, I say: Have you seen any of the pictures of my band? Did that give a hint that possibly I was into theatrics?

You have a lot of guest vocalists on the album, like Cyndi Lauper and Bebe Neuwirth and Patti LuPone. How did you approach them and match them with songs?

First of all, as you say the names I’m still sitting here going, Holy shit! I got them on the record! When I got to Broadway, one of the things that I so enjoyed was the sense of family and community. And I was working with Wesley Taylor, who was in “Rock of Ages” and had done a series of Internet videos called “Billy Green.” And I saw all the guest stars they had on, like Bebe Neuwirth. So I said, Wow, Wesley knows Bebe and she seems kind of cool. So he put me in touch with her. And I’m half closing my eyes: “What would you think of doing ‘Whatever Lola Wants’ with me?” And she’s like, “Love it!” And I’m like, “Holy shit!” So I’m in the studio with Bebe Neuwirth, and I go, “Wow, you really sing the hell out of ‘Lola.’ This was perfect for you!” And she says, “I played Lola on Broadway. I thought that’s why you called me.” I thought it was really good casting on my part! So I said, “Great minds think alike.”

And then once Bebe was in the door, I said, Well, I’m going for the gold: Patti LuPone. Come on, the Queen. Adam Hunter, the associate director of “Rock of Ages,” had worked with Patti, and he introduces us. I’m like, “What would you think about singing—?” She goes, “I’d love to.” I’m like, “Holy shit!” And so I’m in the studio going, That’s Patti LuPone in there, singing with me! Does she know who I am? Maybe nobody told her. Don’t tell her who I am!

Now that you’ve been in a Broadway musical, would you ever consider writing one?

I swear to you I didn’t just make this up: I’ve written a musical. It’s called “Twisted Christmas: The Musical.” We’re developing it right now. My original idea was a fictional story of a struggling heavy-metal band looking for fame and fortune and they find the magic of Christmas instead. It’s based on Twisted Sister music and our “Twisted Christmas” CD, where we took Christmas songs and made them rock. Adam Hunter is directing it, and we hope to have something somewhere by 2013 and then 2014 in New York. So, yes! I am going to do a musical.

Curveball question: What’s your take on Mitt Romney?

I think he’s going to be easy for Obama to take apart. He’s just too fallible, and it’s just too terrifying to have an actual Mormon in the White House. I know that they’re not ready for a Jew. They’re just as hell not ready for a Mormon. Politically, I’m neither left nor right. I’m a centrist, and I’ve voted all over the spectrum and I’m equally hailed and reviled by both sides. If you go online, it’s amazing. The liberals and conservatives alternately think I’m a supporter and an enemy of the state. Just to show you that I’m not like a droid: Bush, Sr., who I never was in favor of—he got a bad rap because he inherited Reaganomics. He did everything he could to try and fix it. They ousted him, and Clinton absolutely got glorified for the successes of Bush’s economic strategies. And the same thing will happen with Obama. He’s taken some dramatic steps. We’re seeing evidence that they’re starting to work. But it doesn’t work overnight. We’re just such an immediate-gratification society. “Fix it now!” Well, it took fucking eight years to get screwed up. We can’t fix it in two! So I think he deserves a chance to see his economic policies and his efforts actually play out, and I think that they will prove to be successful given a little more time.

Can I take that as your endorsement of Obama for a second term?

Yes, you can!

lollapaloser
Posts: 250
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:42 pm

Re: Dee Snyder Records Broadway Album

#2 Post by lollapaloser » Fri May 11, 2012 6:56 pm

I like Dee Snyder. I don't think I'd check this out, but I'm still a nonpracticing SMF.

User avatar
ant
Posts: 206
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 7:44 pm

Re: Dee Snyder Records Broadway Album

#3 Post by ant » Fri May 11, 2012 11:44 pm

that's not pleasant to my ears :no:

User avatar
Essence_Smith
Posts: 2224
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:52 pm

Re: Dee Snyder Records Broadway Album

#4 Post by Essence_Smith » Sat May 12, 2012 5:43 am

Hard to believe that's the same guy that's sang this...then again not really... :lol:

Post Reply