Dee Snider-Never let the bastards wear you down, 2000

Hey, it's "Leftovers week" and here's the next helping of the week.



This is a different sort of rarities album. Most rarities album are a collection of older songs that didn't make the album. Well, here Dee Snider was given the chance by Koch records to go back re-record songs from his past projects that never made it to an album. So all the songs here (other than the cover) were written between about 1983 and 1990 yet they were all recorded at the same time in 2000. So here's the breakdown.



1-Hard core- Dee wrote this song about Lemmy of Motorhead and it was a consideration for Twisted Sister's "Love is for suckers". It's fast, heavy and the lyrics are fitting. The song allows Dee to really give a lot to his vocals as well.

2-Call my name- Originally written for Twisted Sister's "Stay Hungry" album and it shows. It's mid-tempo, but very up front. It's better than a couple of songs that made it onto that album. Again strong vocals here.

3-Our voice will be heard- Also written for Stay Hungry, but maybe has more in common with "You can't stop rock and roll" material. Good song, but not quite as good as the one above it.

4-Isn't it time- A song written for Dee's Desperado project. It takes a little while to get going, but it turns out well. However now that I have heard the Desperado album I can see how this song doesn't fit the overall style of that album.

5-Cry you a rainbow- Another track written for the Desperado album. It's a ridiculously sappy song that's extremely difficult to make it through. No wonder this didn't make it on the album.

6-The Wanderer- You think Dee would have learned his lesson about covering oldie rock songs. After all the cover of "Leader of the pack" was pretty much a coffin nail for Twisted Sister's career. Although not terrible, this version wasn't worth recording.

7-Uh huh huh- Dee said he wrote this to be like Led Zeppelin. Well, it doesn't sound like Zeppelin and it comes across like a big joke.

8-Desperado- Obviously written for the Desperado album. Extremely solid hard rock outing that could have been a single if it had been released around 89-90.

9-Sometimes you win-Also written for Desperado. Not nearly as awful as tracks 5-7, but not that good either. It's kind of lukewarm and out of character for Dee. Sounds like he's reaching for something and it's just not working.

10-Ride through the storm-Now this song actually was recorded for the Desperado album. I like the version on the Desperado album a little more than the one here, but this is good too.



Times were different for Dee when this was done in 2000. He was over a year away from the Twisted Sister reunion and six years away from finally seeing the Desperado album get released. So he may have thought Twisted Sister were a memory and that Desperado would never see the light of day. So you get six strong songs, one below average and three stinkers. Whether or not you want this probably depends on how much you like Dee Snider and how much you have to pay. I got it used for a few bucks and thought it was worth that as I have listened to the good songs numerous times recently.



***Leftovers Week continues on Tuesday. Likely I will spotlight some B-side material from some singles I own.