Alice Cooper: Classic or Dud??

I value everything up to DaDa... but I don't expect anyone to beyond Nightmare...

contenderizer: get thee Billion Dollar Babies next, immediately.

yeah, that's what i'm thinking - has the best ratio of stuff i already know & love

really, i want everything, but this time i think i oughtta take it slow, make it last

"this is some of the best oddball hard rock i've ever heard, up there with BOC (who occasioned a similar revelation a couple years back)"

Ive always thought the BOC and Cooper comparison was dead on in a lot of ways, the primary one being that if you only go by the shit you hear on the radio, you are doing neither band justice.

Alice > BOC

No way.

Yes way, 's all a matter of opinion

There's a weird bootleg where they do this song "Nobody Loves Me." I really like that song. I think it was recorded in 1969, there's a bunch of Pretties songs on it, and a weird slowed down take of "Don't Blow Your Mind" that is called "Freak Out Song" on the cheapo cd of it I picked up at a used store. I like Pretties for you. I love Easy Action.

That's one of those CDs that's available with about a 1000 different titles and been repackaged about 10,000 times! Idea for a thread there?

Yes way, 's all a matter of opinion

― Sonny Uplands (Tom D.), Tuesday, December 8, 2009 10:05 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Fair enough

I know people don't really rate the late 80s/early 90s stuff, but Feed My Frankenstein (off "Hey Stoopid") is a staple for me. It has Joe Satriani and Steve Vai!

Yes, I remember that track!

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/alicecooper-golf.jpg

yeah contenderizer the same exact thing happened to me in the last couple years....those early records are just...fucking stunning...like expected them to be pretty neato hard rock etc, but it's like this fucked up brilliant show tunes gone caveman death rock jive...unreal.

like expected them to be pretty neato hard rock etc, but it's like this fucked up brilliant show tunes gone caveman death rock jive...unreal.

this, exactly this. i was prepared for tweaked hard rock, for "eighteen"/"under my wheels" type shit, some hairy chested detroit proto-metal. and i was prepared for the creepy-kooky showtunes, cuz that's what solo alice is best known for. but i wasn't prepared for how well those two things go together, or the jaw-dropping prog arrangements, or the pathos & wit, or the fanatical attention to sonic detail. jeez, and though there are a couple clunkers here and there, the songwriting is so fucking great. tunes for days.

Had the exact same experience as contenderizer a few years ago- knew the Greatest Hits, never realized how brilliant the early albums were. Got turned on by someone who grew up with them in the 70s. I don't know why these records didn't make it into the "deep cuts" cannon of classic rock, like Zep or Skynrd or the AC/DC. I'm not sure I've heard anything other than "Eighteen" and "Schools Out" on generic rock radio. Deep Purple probably has more songs in that limited playlist.

Maybe it's 'cause his song writing is not as riff-oriented as other 70s juggernauts. Come to think of it, that might explain the similarly diminished profile of my other 70s hard rock obsession, Mott the Hoople. Both bands were as subtle as they were loud.

Yes but why play Mott or Alice deep cuts when we could hear "More Than A Feeling" ONE MORE TIME !

^^^ this probably explains it. Alice's voice is very raspy, which is a vital aspect of his work, but works against him in the context of 70s radio. "More than a feeling" rocks but has more angelic singing. The 70s had a boner for angelic masculine frontvoices.

Alice did pretty good despite how conservative things were at the time.

alice is hands down my biggest musical discovery of the past five years, like the last thread bump post i sorta feel ashamed i didn't Recognize the Real when i comes to alice being one of the true genius of rock, like..ever.

so anyway i'm totally down with love it to death, killers, school's out, greatest hits...but today i bought easy action with well i'll be goddamned is fucking classic too! this guy is a hero.

like this record is like every kind of rock from twee british shit to gonzo hard rock to like totally freeform atonal psych freakout

yep.

The past few years I've been slowly building my Alice collection and have a question: Do I really need anything post DaDa? I have the box set and the last disc is pretty tough to get through.

congrats on getting into the r n' r hall of fame alice.

you were one of the greats

He (they?) got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?? Wow, they're gonna have to stop putting in guys I like, or Im gonna have to stop hating it!!!

Is it just him, or does it also include the Bruce/Tipton/Dunaway lineup? I assume its just him.

Somwhere, Clemenza is weeping.

Is it just him, or does it also include the Bruce/Tipton/Dunaway lineup? I assume its just him.

― Randy Moss' dog's personal chef (Bill Magill), Thursday, December 16, 2010 8:57 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not sure but if it's just alice that is BULLSHIT, the original band was so great

i think alice is being inducted for his stellar 80s and 90s work, so the rest of the band will probably not be invited.

not sure but if it's just alice that is BULLSHIT, the original band was so great

― in my world of Hmong ppl (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, December 16, 2010 4:22 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Totally agreed. phenomenal band. unlike the band in the 80s with the bodybuilder guitar player.

lol tyler

plus didn't the band write most of the music? i'm not totally certain what the credits were

wikipedia sez: "On December 15 2010, it was announced Cooper and his former band would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
which is good!

guess they got back together (briefly) too in 2006: "In December 2006 the original Alice Cooper band reunited to perform six classic Alice Cooper songs at Cooper's annual charity event in Phoenix, entitled "Christmas Pudding".[66]"
sounds like a good time.

Rock and Roll justice is served.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dtu8gNmkZ8

yeah the writing credits on the first handful of albums are spread pretty evenly throughout the band

bob ezrin should probably be inducted along with them too

plus didn't the band write most of the music? i'm not totally certain what the credits were

^from what I remember reading or hearing, Michael Bruce was the main composer of the Love it to Death through Muscle of Love era. In fact, when they put out Greatest Hits in '74, there was some controversy because Alice (the guy) was worried about getting a credit on at least half the songs. If you look at the credits on those albums, Bruce is on almost every song.

When I interviewed Cooper in '08, he was eager to shout out the band.

yeah I don't have the records in front of me but Bill's recollection jibes with my own

oh look wikipedia:

Side One

1. "Caught in a Dream" (Michael Bruce) – 3:10
2. "I'm Eighteen" (Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith) – 3:00
3. "Long Way to Go" (Bruce) – 3:04
4. "Black Juju" (Dunaway) – 9:09

[edit] Side Two

1. "Is It My Body" (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith) – 2:39
2. "Hallowed Be My Name" (Smith) – 2:29
3. "Second Coming" (Cooper) – 3:04
4. "Ballad of Dwight Fry" (Cooper, Bruce) – 6:33
5. "Sun Arise" (Harry Butler, Rolf Harris) – 3:50

2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

Bruce pretty much pwns

xpost

Fucking awesome the band is going in. I said "Tipton" up before, obviously I meant Buxton. RIP

yeah for a minute there I was like wait there was a guy who was in both Alice Cooper AND Judas Priest?! lol

Been listening to promos of this 66-74 box set. Most of it is pretty sketchy - lots of missable demos, snippets from the studio (how many times is anyone going to listen to tracking of the kids' chorus on School's Out?), radio ads – but there's a killer disc of a 72 live show: bootleg quality sound, really sloppy, sometimes you can barely hear the voice, but it outright rocks. A brutal Halo of Flies therein.

Am going to see him at the 100 Club tomorrow - couldn't be dragged to an arena, but excited about seeing him in a place where the back wall is 25ft from the stage. And hoping that if he's promoting the box, it's going to be a set of Killer/Love It To Death rather than hair metal.

shit had no idea about that 100 club show :-(

Great garage band show last night: 75 mins, no props apart from the boa. Johnny Depp played rhythm on Eighteen and School's Out. Mercifully light on hair metal, heavy on Brit invasion covers.

1. Train Kept A Rollin'
2. Under My Wheels
3. No More Mr. Nice Guy
4. Is It My Body ?
5. Brown Sugar
6. I'll Bite Your Face Off (new song: fitted in fine with the rest of the set)
7. Muscle Of Love
8. Cold Ethyl
9. Billion Dollar Babies
10. Back In The USSR
11. Poison
12. You Really Got Me
13. I'm Eighteen
14. Schools Out
15. Elected
16. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
17. Fire

Great set list!

Is that Hendrix's "Fire" or Arthur Brown's?

Hendrix.

Ah! The Arthur Brown one would be right up his street though.

In the book Billion Dollar Baby, Alice recounts how "Stand By Your Fire" (sic) was a staple in the early days (pre-Spiders/Nazz) version of the band.