No, We Didn't Take It

Twisted Sister, a band I was lucky enough to be a fan of right up until they achieved national success has just finished their farewell tour. Lead singer Dee Snider just released a solo album and here was the review of it that I posted on Amazon:

I am an old time SMF of Twisted Sister. For me, this is the album that should have been the Twisted album that would have helped the band evolve after Stay Hungry. The calcified museum piece that Twisted has been for years at various festivals was the road that would have best been not taken. Forget for a moment the personnel dramas the band had to deal with, the better thing for Twisted, and the fans, would have been to evolve. The best of the rock bands, whatever genre, become that way by, carefully, adding new influences and new directions to their music. Bowie, The Stones, Led Zep, were all bands that Twisted took from, and their multi-faceted careers should have been the example for Twisted to follow.

Twisted wasn't a heavy metal band, though they played heavy metal. They weren't a glam band, though they looked like it. They weren't punks, but they played like them, at least in the clubs. They meteoric success of Stay Hungry wound up being the end of the creative life of the band. If the band had the courage to branch out in new directions, who knows what greatness may have been achieved.

You may say that you must "give the people what they want". Pete Townshend predicted The Who would become a kind of lounge act, and to a large degree he proved precient. In a different realm, Steve Jobs said that you need to tell the people what they want. Apple's success proves that Jobs' insight is indisputable.

The fans will never push you forward. They will always clamor for "the greatest hits". Snider's "We Are the Ones" shows any erstwhile TS fans what might have been.