The first one was a song called "The Price" by Twisted Sister. It turns out that this song was some kind of a minor hit for them. Well, I never heard this song on the radio, but I did hear it when I saw Twisted Sister at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston. I don't remember the year, but it was in the 1980's. Parts of this song has been playing in my head ever since. Luckily a couple of months ago I finally found out the name of the song. You should pay attention to the vocals. Dee Snider is one of those heavy metal/hard rock singers who can actually sing. A cool song.
The other cool song is "Out of the Darkness" by Little Steven (Steven Van Zandt from Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band). In this case I actually re-discovered this song, because I bought this song on a 45. I also saw Little Steven play this song in Helsinki sometime in the -80's. Little Steven left the E-Street Band at the height of their career and started doing his own thing. A cool song.
Interesting piece of trivia about these two songs. Both Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister and Little Steven play Guild X-79 guitar on these videos. I don't think this fact alone made these songs cool, but it certainly didn't hurt either.
http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/guild/X79.php
Little Steven didn't just go solo; he also became the conscience of the rock world. In 1985
he organized the Artist United Against Apartheid project and recorded a song called "Sun City" (named after a "for whites only" resort in South Africa). By doing this he brought attention to the South African Apartheid problem in the 1980's when president Reagan refused to take action. As I already mentioned in my very first blog entry I was boycotting Mohegan Sun Casino for years after Apartheid had ended. Mohegan Sun is owned and operated by the same company that owned Sun City.
Here is the Artists United against Apartheid song.
