Alice Cooper: Classic or Dud??

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

Whenever I get on a kick of listening to those Alice Cooper albums from 1971-1974, I always find myself thinking that it was a shame that a band that good didn't get back together after a temporary break. I often wonder how many great albums they had in them, and whether Muscle of Love (as much as I love the highlights of that record) would have been just a temporary dip.

Alice's dip into addiction and Bernie Taupin might've just meant we got the same albums with a better backing band

Hmm. I guess the lyrics could have had some of the same themes but musically they would have been very different, definitely. I couldn't imagine Bruce/Buxton/Dunaway/Smith going for some of the disco/funk type of tracks that ended up on Goes To Hell and I definitely can't imagine the original band going "new wave" as Alice did in the early '80s. There may have been some wet ballads, but on the whole I think the LP's would have rocked and had interesting musical passages.

I love a good alternate universe thought experiment, too, but how many hard rock bands made it past '74 without succumbing to some dumb fads or attempts at commercial accessibility?

Well yeah, I'm sure you could look at the discographies of various hard rock bands and point to a moment or two where they attempted to have a go at then-popular styles, it's just that I find it difficult to imagine the original band attempting to play funk or making an album like, say, Moving Pictures.

I think '75 and '76 were great years for hard rock, myself. '78 an underrated year, too.

The Strand has a pile of signed copies of Dennis Dunaway's book.

My piece about the reunion show went up today at Noisey:

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/surprise-alice-cooper-reunion

Man!

Listening to 'Dead Babies' right now and thinking "christ, how goth/post-punk is that bassline?"

That song always strikes me as pretty Beatle-esque. Something about the harmonies.

Yeah that song is so goth. Tied with Black Sabbath's "Born Again" for gothest songs by heavy rockers.