Alice Cooper: Classic or Dud??

On that latter note:

'Clones (We're All)' from Paris

But perhaps even better:

'Clones (We're All)' from Pink Lady and Jeff

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.

That's a fantastic fanzine review, Gorge. Thanks for posting it.

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.

Ha! Yeah me too!

sigh...I really miss the days when Alice tried...

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!

hmmm now i wanna go buy flush the fashion

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.

hmmm now i wanna go buy flush the fashion

That's pushing well past the boundary. Maybe 25-50 cents for used vinyl, tops.

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?

http://metalinquisition.blogspot.com/2008/07/kane-roberts-renaissance-man.html

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.

REPORT BACK.

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

mmm...."Desperado". Isn't it goth? Or glam? Who fucking cares what it is? I love it.

I would like to see Peter Frampton take on Alice Cooper in the ring.

"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.

"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.

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.

"Only Women Bleed" folks. Goddamnit. This fucking CD smokes. I can't even get over it. Holy shit.

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.

Gorge has falsely accused me on another thread of "not getting" Alice Cooper. Libel!

I take it all back!

Hahahahhaha Thank YOU!!!!!

Libcrypt did you read that you bastard?

mmm...."Desperado". Isn't it goth? Or glam?

It's Jim Morrison, isn't it?

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."

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.

I still fly the flag for Flush the Fashion.

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").

Maybe its somehow obvious, Only Women Bleed to me always sounded like a half-sister of Lou Reed's Berlin.

bought copies of killers, love it to death, and easy action recently - kind of on a whim, but also in response to the ravings of a close (and very wise) friend who's been a die-hard fan for decades. weird to find that something really and truly brain-snappingly BRILLIANT has been loitering around trying to get your attention your entire goddam life. why was i not made aware at age 13, when i really needed shit like this? i mean, don't know that i like any three sequential records by any band all that much more than these.

and it's not like i'd never heard of alice cooper. i grew up with the hits, with school's out on the muppet show, with eighteen and welcome to my nightmare and even clones. have heard and dug covers by sonic youth, the melvins, and others i respect. but i never took the time to listen closely, to hang around past my initial dismissal of the cheeze factor. and i was wrong. i was so, so tragically wrong. 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), the stooges, bowie's glam era, etc.

i'm ashamed to have ignored alice (the band) for so long, but also thrilled to have found something this rewarding just sitting there waiting to be picked up - super clean copies of all three lps cost about $12 total. dunno that it'll last, but for the moment, "halo of flies" is up there with my top 10 songs of the 70s. and "the ballad of dwight fry" isn't far behind.

while i'm at it, i do not get the lack of love for easy action. pretties for you may be a tough sell, but easy action is fantastic. love the combo of developing hard rock muscle and lingering prog-pop ambition. the songs are less immediate, but the variety and creativity make up for it.

hey, check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt_yo76AbQ4&feature=related

best part is that i've got another 4 records to go! up through school's out i mean. what i've heard of the later solo stuff i don't dig at all. but who knows? i've clearly got a lot to learn...

and maybe flush the fashion. remember thinking that was pretty hilarious in my youth.

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.