I'd never checked out any early Alice Cooper until Friday afternoon, when I picked up a copy of Teenage Lament 74 on a whim, took it home, played it, FREAKED OUT, set the needle back and played it again about 15 times in a row. Why have I not heard this all over the radio since I was a kid?! This is all-time top 10 solid gold nugget greatest song ever material! And apparently it's got the Pointer Sisters and Liza Minelli on backup vocals??!?
Now to check out Billion Dollar Babies, etc, obviously, but would it be pessimistic to assume that it can only possibly be downhill from that song? Even if the albums are as good as suggested by all the Alice Cooper C/D threads (of which there are many), I'v got a bad feeling it's gonna be one of those situations where you completely fall for a new band, only to realise you've stumbled onto the absolute apex...
― gnarly sceptre, Monday, 21 July 2008 12:36 (fifteen years ago) link
...you haven't stumbled onto the absolute apex
― Tom D., Monday, 21 July 2008 12:38 (fifteen years ago) link
you have at least 5 classic LP's awaiting you...oh, but to be able to experience them all again for the first time...
by the way: in what format did you pick up "Teenage Lament '74"?...45 RPM?
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 12:47 (fifteen years ago) link
45, yeah... b/w Hard Hearted Alice.
I just downloaded Muscle of Love. No sign of Minelli.
― gnarly sceptre, Monday, 21 July 2008 13:29 (fifteen years ago) link
I think "Hard-Hearted Alice" has long-time Chicago journalist Bob Greene on backing vocals...(he was allowed to be token "band member" while he documented the Muscle Of Love tour in '74)...
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 13:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Supposedly he's streaming his new album on Myspace.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Bob Greene?
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:17 (fifteen years ago) link
He's just that good!
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:21 (fifteen years ago) link
Pretties... & Easy Action sooo classik.
― vogtlin, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:13 (fifteen years ago) link
I love "Easy Action" but "PFY" is not very good
― Tom D., Monday, 21 July 2008 16:14 (fifteen years ago) link
wrong. it is very good. so there.
― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:15 (fifteen years ago) link
troof.
― vogtlin, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:19 (fifteen years ago) link
I only have Killer and Love It To Death but they are awesome
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Updating my Coopalog now on CD. Hell, I don't even remember what LPs I still have down in the basement.
― libcrypt, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:33 (fifteen years ago) link
ohh yuh just in case anyone cares i think pretties and easy action were recently reissued as nice price type cds. which is great cause the cds were like $25 otherwise.
― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:37 (fifteen years ago) link
Sigh. I keep saying I'm gonna try to get into Alice and it just never seems to happen.
― Bimble, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Did you ever hear Teenage Lament 74?? I can't see anyone disliking that song. It was sent by God. And Satan.
― gnarly sceptre, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:55 (fifteen years ago) link
the new thing is up on his myspace...not too bad so far!
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 21 July 2008 17:12 (fifteen years ago) link
at least this first one seems more like 70s type shit instead of metal, i hear saxophones! clapping!
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 21 July 2008 17:13 (fifteen years ago) link
you mean the first song? (sorry, can't stream myspace at work.)
That first album on New West was really terrible. Is this basically the followup to that?
― Mackro Mackro, Monday, 21 July 2008 17:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Thing is even Alice knows he's been a joke for decades. Remember when he had the steroid-gobblin' body-builder who was supposed to look like a commando on guitar? He's been missing for at least fifteen years. Where did he go?
Time to resurrect this fanzine review from one of the Mick Box threads:
ALICE COOPER Flush The Fashion AC doesn’t get enough credit for his chameleonic exploits. Then again, while Bowie was ripping off the hip uptown vanguard of Lou Reed and Neu!, Alice was fixated on the tricks of Meatloaf and Croft Superstars. He had his ear to the rail at the turn of the 80’s, however, when Devo and Tubeway Army came marching into his life. He quickly assembled a supporting cast of Italian-American session men, adopted a new militant transvestite chic for the stage, and took an armful of his electro-new wave lp’s down to the lab. What we get is an inebriated but spirited hodgepodge of approximations that today he doesn’t recall recording. Alice showcases his knack for timeless throwaway rhymes that sporadically appear to lead to some notion of sense, before abandoning course into the ninny non-sequential rants of an eighty-pound blackout alcoholic. But he’s got a lot on his mind, and wastes no time railing against cyborgs, gay bars and nuclear contamination, while ruminating on the virtues of police brutality and exceeding recommended dosages of aspirin. Many topics touched on by Gary Numan himself, though Alice curiously paws at them with a washed-up drunken whimsy. In fact, the degree to which his synth pop is so off-the-mark and decidedly un-bleak, makes this lp is a bit of an anomaly. And I wouldn’t doubt if future generations judge him more reverently for this madcap stab at de-evolution than his famously snarky rock anthems to high school and fucking dead people. Clocking in at a lean 30 minutes, this tour de force of garage-damaged Casio-core is a shoe-in sensation for your next dance party. (Also recommended if you can track it down: the Paris-only TV special which features Alice lip-synching these tunes in such exotic locales as subways, alleys, and junkyards, all one-shot videos with a total production value of thirty bucks or so)
― Gorge, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:03 (fifteen years ago) link
On that latter note:
'Clones (We're All)' from Paris
But perhaps even better:
'Clones (We're All)' from Pink Lady and Jeff
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:06 (fifteen years ago) link
From comments on the latter:
barriobajaj (2 weeks ago)
Is it just me or is Alice Cooper aping Gary Neuman?
chunkino (2 weeks ago)
Why do you think the song is called "Clones."
---
Chunkino was wise.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:07 (fifteen years ago) link
That's a fantastic fanzine review, Gorge. Thanks for posting it.
― Bimble, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Actually, if you could find a bunch of people writing reviews like that for a real magazine devoted to reissues in 2008, I'd buy a two year subscription.
― Gorge, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Ha! Yeah me too!
― Bimble, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:13 (fifteen years ago) link
sigh...I really miss the days when Alice tried...
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:24 (fifteen years ago) link
on a creepy note, I recently dug up my old concert program from the Special Forces tour, and it's uncanny how much AC resembled Vera from the old Alice sit-com in those days...dingy broad!
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
hmmm now i wanna go buy flush the fashion
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:41 (fifteen years ago) link
nice try:
And I wouldn’t doubt if future generations judge him more reverently for this madcap stab at de-evolution than his famously snarky rock anthems to high school and fucking dead people.
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:46 (fifteen years ago) link
That's pushing well past the boundary. Maybe 25-50 cents for used vinyl, tops.
― Gorge, Monday, 21 July 2008 19:45 (fifteen years ago) link
http://metalinquisition.blogspot.com/2008/07/kane-roberts-renaissance-man.html
― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Gorge has falsely accused me on another thread of "not getting" Alice Cooper. Libel!
As I said there, my good friend of ten years GAVE me the damn Mascara & Monsters CD last weekend at his baby shower. He just fucking gave me the CD okay? I have it on my iPod now but have not listened yet. Give me one fucking break.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 07:38 (fifteen years ago) link
REPORT BACK.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Saturday, 9 August 2008 07:51 (fifteen years ago) link
yes I am fucking reporting back and low and behold if there's any ILXOR who could make me play Alice Cooper it is Alex in NYC
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:26 (fifteen years ago) link
mmm...."Desperado". Isn't it goth? Or glam? Who fucking cares what it is? I love it.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:28 (fifteen years ago) link
I would like to see Peter Frampton take on Alice Cooper in the ring.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:29 (fifteen years ago) link
"Under My Wheels" I don't know what to do. My brain is humming with glam. I can prove to you that the Brits can do it better if you give me a chance, but shit.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:33 (fifteen years ago) link
"She asked me why the singers name was Alice"
No please give me a break this is great stuff. And I still have it on my iPod to enjoy. Be kind to me.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 01:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh no this is the shit. "No More Mr. Nice Guy" now that's some mighty meaty good rock and roll that could even shame the Brits.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 01:34 (fifteen years ago) link
"Only Women Bleed" folks. Goddamnit. This fucking CD smokes. I can't even get over it. Holy shit.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 02:00 (fifteen years ago) link
I can prove to you that the Brits can do it better if you give me a chance.
David Bowie already did that. But Alice Cooper's 70s material (Well, up to and including "...Goes To Hell") was great too.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 10 August 2008 02:02 (fifteen years ago) link
I take it all back!
― Gorge, Sunday, 10 August 2008 03:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Hahahahhaha Thank YOU!!!!!
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 04:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Libcrypt did you read that you bastard?
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 04:07 (fifteen years ago) link
mmm...."Desperado". Isn't it goth? Or glam?
It's Jim Morrison, isn't it?
― Tom D., Monday, 11 August 2008 11:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Interviewed the man a week ago. Fun guy, showbiz pro. Told me he has no memory of writing, recording or touring behind Special Forces, Zipper Catches Skin and memories of DaDa are somewhat hazy, but present because producer Roy Thomas Baker was such a taskmaster. Also told a great story about some guy (who looked like "the sheriff of any small town in middle America") coming up to him, and instead of the golf question Alice was expecting, saying to him, "DaDa. I listen to that album every day."
― unperson, Monday, 11 August 2008 12:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm listening through the Cooper oeuvre today (through Welcome To My Nightmare), and digging it a lot. I think they get better over that span, or least: Muscle of Love didn't do anything for me, but Goes to Hell is great: I like the horns in the mix in the later albums.
― Euler, Saturday, 24 October 2009 13:12 (fourteen years ago) link
I still fly the flag for Flush the Fashion.
― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 24 October 2009 13:16 (fourteen years ago) link
The sound on "Only Women Bleed" isn't very far from what Dylan seems to have been going for on Street-Legal and Slow Train Coming, esp. "Man Gave Names To All The Animals", both in the bass sound and in the rhythm of the vocals (at least in the verses of "Only Women Bleed").
― Euler, Saturday, 24 October 2009 13:22 (fourteen years ago) link