Alice Cooper: Classic or Dud??

Wow, what a stroke of luck that was, managed to find a copy! Looking forward to finally getting around to reading it!

So yeah, finally got around to reading the Bob Greene book and man, was that an eye-opening read. I can totally see why Alice Cooper (the band) ended up splitting up. The impression that I get from reading the book is that they should have taken a much longer break after the Billion Dollar Babies tour to recharge their batteries, rather than pretty much jumping straight into the Muscle Of Love album and tour which by the looks of it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

In summary: Alice is already a huge alcoholic at this point, never without either a beer or some whisky, but remarkably seems to be still quite functional with it all. As the focal point of a band that are succeeding in causing outrage, he naturally has his bodyguard with him at all times. During the tour for Muscle of Love he seems to be getting bored with the stage show (which is near enough the same as the stage show for the Billion Dollar Babies tour), and seems increasingly unenthusiastic about his status as a "shock rocker", although he's still very much into the theatrics. Also, even though he's drinking like there's no tomorrow, he expresses discomfort about his road crew smoking marijuana and during a moment where they're all watching the movie Deep Throat comments "even I think that's obscene, this should be illegal, whatever happened to the meaningful relationship?".

On the other hand, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith are getting sick of the theatrics and are beginning to resent Alice being the focal point of the band and are beginning to feel that the theatrics are beginning to overshadow the music and that Alice himself is beginning to overshadow the rest of the band. There's a moment in the book which captures Bruce and Smith having a discussion where they're clearly fed up of doing the theatrical stage show and want to take it back to basics. Smith also goes postal on a chauffeur for asking him to move to another car so Alice can use the car he's sitting in, and later on Smith gets absolutely hammered and trashes a hotel.

Glen Buxton at this point is barely able to function, and the band seem incredibly tired of his presence and clearly want to fire him. He doesn't socialise with the rest of the band and stays out the way doing drugs in his hotel room.

The only member of the band that comes out of it looking any good is Dennis Dunaway, who seems to be calm in the face of all the madness that's going on around him.

Man i gotta get a copy of that

I saw the recent "Super Dooper Alice Cooper" film which was pretty good. The only weird thing is that even though it spends a vast majority on the AC Band years, Michael Bruce is not mentioned once. The guy only wrote all the goddamn songs, it made no sense.

Yeah, that's true! Like you said, it makes absolutely no sense because he was responsible for a large amount of Alice Cooper classics. Incidentally, I read an old interview with Neal Smith where he complains about people calling the band "The Alice Cooper Group" or "The Alice Cooper Band"... there seems to be this bitterness that still exists over Alice Cooper being the name of the band, a name which was subsequently hijacked by the lead vocalist changing his name to Alice Cooper, dumping the group and going solo.

The thing is, there's nothing more that I'd love to refer to the band solely as "Alice Cooper", but it would make talking to people who are unaware of the difference between Alice Cooper "the band" and Alice Cooper "the solo artist" a total ballache. I feel sorry for the other members of the band, to be honest.

wait isn't he Furnier credited as "Alice Cooper" on those early record sleeves

like I thought that name change happened before he dumped the band

Yeah. He didn't change his name until 1972.

Incidentally, I read an old interview with Neal Smith where he complains about people calling the band "The Alice Cooper Group" or "The Alice Cooper Band"... there seems to be this bitterness that still exists over Alice Cooper being the name of the band, a name which was subsequently hijacked by the lead vocalist changing his name to Alice Cooper, dumping the group and going solo.

^Dickie Betts always had the same problem with the name "Allman Brothers Band". I guess he was originally for it, but after Duane died it kind of made Gregg de facto leader even though Dickie was the musical force of the band.

Dave Gilmour should've changed his name to Pink Floyd

around 1980 or so

Yeah, it's true that Mr. Furnier was credited as "Alice Cooper" on the sleeves of the albums well before the band disintegrated, but Vincent Furnier was still his legal name. He had his name legally changed to Alice Cooper in 1974 (the same year the band disintegrated), so Alice Cooper has actually been his legal, official name since then.

So yeah, I mean, even though he was known as Alice Cooper, the lead singer of the five-piece rock band Alice Cooper, he didn't have his name legally changed to his stage name until some point after Muscle of Love and before his first solo album Welcome To My Nightmare. I guess in a way this could be seen as him legally hijacking the name of the band, even though he was already known by that name.

^Dickie Betts always had the same problem with the name "Allman Brothers Band". I guess he was originally for it, but after Duane died it kind of made Gregg de facto leader even though Dickie was the musical force of the band.

― Prince Kajuku (Bill Magill), Thursday, December 18, 2014 9:21 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah... I mean, Michael Bruce obviously had a large hand in writing a lot of Cooper classics, and I think most fans recognise this. Hell, he deserves all the acclaim in the world for writing the music to 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' alone! Let's not forget though, the contributions of the other guys: before Glen Buxton started getting too fucked up to play, he wrote the main riff to 'School's Out'! 'Billion Dollar Babies' (the song) wouldn't have existed if Neal Smith hadn't come up with that main drum part first, and Dennis Dunaway single-handedly came up with 'Black Juju'. That band had such an underrated rhythm section too: Smith's drumming on 'Billion Dollar Babies' and Dunaway's bass playing in general, but particularly on 'Gutter Cat vs. The Jets'. Sure, Furnier may have had a large hand in lyrics/concepts/the visual side, and producer Bob Ezrin more than played his part too as an arranger, but musically that band were definitely a unit, and it's such a shame that when people hear the name Alice Cooper, they think of one person and not the incredibly talented, incredibly classic five-piece band.

And sure, Furnier may have struck it lucky with Welcome To My Nightmare, and I still believe DaDa to be an incredibly underrated and classic record (both records driven by Bob Ezrin and Dick Wagner as much as Furnier), but when you go to see him live, large portions of his set are songs from when he was the lead singer of the band and not a solo artist.

I guess in a way this could be seen as him legally hijacking the name of the band, even though he was already known by that name.

it's p obvious as a legal move - at the same time, I would say the groundwork for that was pretty clearly laid by appearing publicly as "Alice Cooper" as part of a band that also happens to be called "Alice Cooper". Inviting that kind of confusion was clearly to his personal advantage.

Oh yeah, there's a laugh-out-loud funny moment in the Bob Greene book. He's sitting with Glen Buxton in his hotel room, and Buxton is showing Greene some the poems and writings and stuff in his notebook, and suddenly Buxton says something along the lines of "oh, some of the messages I write in there are in code, so if says 'buy Cocaine' it means I need to pick up the groceries" (!!!)

This conversation takes place near the end of the tour, and it says a lot that Buxton actually has no idea that Greene has been on the whole tour, such is his disconnect from the rest of the band and the situation in general.

man that book must be rare. we have a great library system in minneapolis, they do have a copy but it's listed a "library use only" meaning you can read it there but you can't check it out

found a couple of shady download links...but there is this:

it's a site where you can download stuff if you get a paid membership, but there is in-browser reader that you can make full screen and read the whole thing it looks like, not the most fun way to read but i checked and it goes $60 and up online

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/62794170/BILLION-DOLLAR-BABIES-by-Bob-Greene-an-Alice-Cooper-biography-BILLION-DOLLAR-BABIES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVHUyDxmi_Q&list=RDJVHUyDxmi_Q

VH1 Classic showed Super Duper Alice Cooper last night. It's a pretty great documentary, especially if you dig the Alice Cooper (the band, not the man) period.

Dang, looks like it was showing again at 7:00PM tonight, don't know if they will show it again, don't see it on the schedule.

Definitely dig the band and think they were undersung. Always think the same thing about Elton John's classic lineup. Obviously that is a much different situation in terms of who was doing the songwriter, but in terms of a band that played well together and made great records, well..

Complete Warner Bros. Studio Albums Box: http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Albums-1969-1983-CAB-15/dp/B00ZGVMKU6/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1436212419&sr=1-1&keywords=alice+cooper+box+set

damn it. I don't have the later stuff but I don't need to replace the early stuff either. Grr.

Looks like this is the 2011 Japanese remasters, at least for all the stuff through the 70s. Ugh. No money.

Found some money. Box set arrived today.

So our own EZ Snappin there was a little bit of history tonight...

https://twitter.com/EZSnappin/status/651598763157381120

https://twitter.com/EZSnappin/status/651599309297709057

https://twitter.com/EZSnappin/status/651606411059707904

And some more:

https://twitter.com/RobertWilonsky/status/651599023820832768

https://twitter.com/RobertWilonsky/status/651604977136177153

AT a little bit of history, but sure he's a little bit of history now too!

This was amazing. Don't know what else to say.

What'd they play?

Erik, you lucky bastard! Jealousy doesn't even cover it... what did they play!?

Alice Cooper = one of the best bands of the '70s, full stop.

Wooooooooah

So is Glen Buxton still alive?

No ;_;

Setlist:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/alice-cooper/2015/good-records-dallas-tx-73f40e01.html

Report:

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/alice-cooper-band-reunion/

And a Periscope:

https://www.periscope.tv/w/1DXGywbpWMkxM

And another report:

http://www.dallasobserver.com/music/alice-cooper-played-a-surprise-reunion-with-his-original-band-at-good-records-7663648

Apparently they've done this at the Cooperstown restaurant in recent years

Interesting. Michael, Neal and Dennis told the crowd it was the first time the three of them had all been together since the Hall of Fame induction.

who's the lead guitarist?

Apparently they've done this at the Cooperstown restaurant in recent years

― Comme Si, Kamasi (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, October 7, 2015 2:44 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That was 16 years ago!

23rd October 1999: CoopersTown, Phoenix
16th December 2010: Dodge Theatre, Phoenix
14th March 2011: Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame
11th May 2011: Battersea Power Station, London
6th October 2015: Dallas, Texas

11th May 2011: Battersea Power Station, London

That wasn't a proper gig but some kind of "hologram" live broadcast.

who's the lead guitarist?

Ryan Roxie from the current Alice Cooper lineup.

makes sense. must have been a thrill for him.

have you got the time to tell me did they play "is it my body?"

They did. It was awesome.

Looks like they joined Alice for his set tonight opening for Motley Crue. I would totally go if they toured.

omg
did they do the extended "goin' to the graveyard" part or the album version?

I think it was just the shorter version.

Set list:

Caught in a Dream (sung by Michael)

Alice then joined them:

Be My Lover
I'm Eighteen
Is It My Body
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Under My Wheels
School's Out

Encore:

Elected

shut up

elected!!

Which he ended by urging us all to vote as long as it wasn't for him.

Full set is up. A little rocky, especially at the start, but once Alice comes out it's a lot of fun.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sQuYnldPlqY