Alice Cooper: Classic or Dud??

Yes! I have to strain a bit to enjoy Schools Out, and strain more as the theatrics thicken.

top tier: Killer, Love it to Death
2nd tier: School's Out, Easy Action
3rd tier: Billion Dollar Babies, Pretties for You
after that you're on your own

is how i break it down to an extent

Top tier: Love it to Death, Killer, Billion Dollar Babies
Second tier: School's Out
Third tier: Muscle of Love
Not a fan at all: Easy Action, Pretties For You

yep thats pretty much it. Billion Dollar Babies is peak pop Alice for me. intro to the title track is maybe my fave rock intro ever?!?

Billion Dollar Babies is top tier imo
The songs aren't all good but the really good ones (including title track, Hello Hooray) always put me in a good mood. LOVE Hello Hooray!!!

hmmm, upon reflection I am moving Billion Dollar Babies to 2nd tier

we'll be releasing a full statement later today :)

I think Easy Action is great I don't get why ppl diss it

and obv these are all really great records

GOD I FEEL SO STROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG
i love Hello Hooray
i was obsessed with that song for a while and the different versions of it. alice's is best imo. i would like to hear bob pollard give it a crack.

haha oh god yeah hello hooray chorus is totally GBV i never thought of that

even the "let the lights grow dim -- i've been ready" part sounds like BP's singing/songwriting to me

and yes i know Alice Cooper did not write it but his version is best as i previously mentioned

the original is not even close to AC's version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FLEvosGeHA

If we're including solo Alice, hen Welcome to My Nightmare and DaDa are easy inclusions in the top tier for me.

I'm not much into 1976-1979 Alice. The coked up New Wave blackout years (1980-1982) are far more interesting, if spotty. I like some tracks from the hair metal period (1986-1991) although not entire albums. I suspect only the real absolute die hards are familiar with his work after 1994.

Huh, I've never heard that version of 'Hello Hooray' until now... I've heard the 1968 Judy Collins version (which is where I think Cooper/Ezrin got the song) and it really is nothing like Cooper's. They really made that song their own.

great album opener too

I have to strain a bit to enjoy Schools Out, and strain more as the theatrics thicken.

― eva logorrhea (bendy), Tuesday, December 18, 2018 2:16 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

School's Out was a bit of a departure for them in many ways - the rock gets toned down a touch and it starts to get a little more theatrical (hammered home by the brief West Side Story cover and things like 'Blue Turk' and 'Grande Finale') and there's more contributions from session musicians and more emphasis on production. It feels less sinister than the LP's before it and even the one after.

However! Dunaway's bass playing throughout is stunning and 'My Stars' is one of the very best Cooper songs, IMO.

even the "let the lights grow dim -- i've been ready" part sounds like BP's singing/songwriting to me

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, December 18, 2018 9:32 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah totally has that amthemic GBV vibe

Has there been an Alice Cooper artist poll on here yet?

Top tier: Love it to Death, Killer, Billion Dollar Babies
Second tier: Easy Action, School's Out
Third tier: Muscle of Love, Pretties For You

man, its so peculiar to me that anyone after the fact thinks that this band was at any time "the best rock band in the world," or even particularly good. Neal Smith, Buxton…fuck, all of the four instrumentalists' shit is pretty weak. Grand Funk and this band got the payday and acclaim that I would rather the Stooges and MC5 received. I watch that footage upthread, and I'm forever waiting around for this band to be revealed as the American Sabbath. But I always end up thinking it was correct for him to leave those guys behind, and I don't believe there's any other circumstance where I agree with "you're the star, you're the one with talent, ditch those losers." I'm surely the only ILMnik who thinks KIss is a sesquidillion times better than the Alice Cooper band.

I hope you are! Neal Smith was a great drummer and Dunaway churned out great bassline after great bassline, Glen Buxton was no virtuoso admittedly.

... Michael Bruce, good songwriter.

Yeah, Cooper's rhythm section was truly great and Michael Bruce was largely responsible for a lot of the evergreen Cooper classics that the solo Alice would never dream of leaving out of his live set.

Also, when listening to 'Halo of Flies', the band that I'm hearing doesn't square up with what veronica moser is saying/describing at all.

Ok so you're calling the Cooper band weak instrumentalists then stumping for KISS who were completely horseshit musicians except maybe sober Ace

he do scales

KISS are the single most overrated American hard rock band of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uep1pgOUyr0

Listening a really nice 1st press Love It To Death I got for a song rn. Having never really gone post the hits until recently, I'm amazed how garage-y they still were. Perhaps the most Nuggets-ish of all the big early Hard Rock/Metal bands? "Black Juju" could pass for the Chocolate Watchband!

Absolutely! Garage-y while still having a decent degree of musicianship, I think, particularly the rhythm section of Dunaway and Smith. Bob Ezrin really worked wonders in keeping this band focused - apparently, he helped to tighten up 'I'm Eighteen' a great deal for one. I like Welcome to My Nightmare and - much later - DaDa a lot as "solo" Cooper collaborations with Ezrin and Dick Wagner, but I wish the band would have just taken a year off and realised that the theatrics were as much a part of the bands identity as the music.

Bob Ezrin fingerprints are on the mixing board when the classic lineups of Alice Cooper, Kiss and Pink Floyd came apart (at least for the first time).

You mean, Bob "Yoko" Ezrin.

Spotted on FB: Glenn Buxton's 18th birthday. Guy on the left is you-know-who.

https://scontent.fhou1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/64569208_10219751299196630_94425684931248128_o.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_oc=AQmAphh-XUP2NCoMyV0Jss4uPI5suQ8PukDC7kZWw1z9cxwZnKsgAvv0Fk6SGt0ZceE&_nc_ht=scontent.fhou1-1.fna&oh=96b5554d9614883b4da46507f9d0944a&oe=5D96B1BF

Vince?

Vince Before Alice.

looking like a member of Wall of Voodoo

Ha!

Lots of jams imo.

good list

I just checked Wiki and goddamn does Alice Cooper have a lot of albums I never knew about

Coop might be a great candidate for a listening thread actually

listening to Dirty Diamonds from 2003, this is kinda...awesome?

I just checked it out on Youtube (it's a bit spotty w/some "you can't watch this in your country" omissions) and you're right! Rough production that doesn't sound like 256 overdubbed guitars with the treble rolled off and a few really strong tracks.

yeah I mean not like an early 70s record but I was pretty impressed

New single: "Don't Give Up"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__YxWnRACxI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKO6zKPfb8A

The Alice Cooper Band in Diary of A Mad Housewife

oh wow the end of that clip rules

Dennis Dunaway wrote about this in his book. Apparently that's olive oil that Alice is hosing down the crowd with, so that the feathers would stick to their clothes.

Kinda hard to imagine Richard Benjamin as an Alice Cooper fan.

Definitely more of a Leo Sayer guy.

We know Neil Young watched this movie at the time, wonder what he made of that scene?

I think the Cooper group lived in Topanga Canyon at this time, so Neil was probably well aware of their antics.

He tried to persuade Crosby to tear up a pillow onstage.

XP...and David Briggs produced their second album.

Drummer Neal Smith later said of the record producer David Briggs, "David hated our music and us. I recall the term that he used, referring to our music, was 'Psychedelic Shit'. I think Easy Action sounded too dry, more like a TV or radio commercial and he did not help with song arrangement or positive input in any way."