Beyond the 130 - Alice Cooper Band

[Charlie O.]

"on hiatus"!

I always loved the album cover (and inner sleeve).

[Phenomenal Cat]

I'm listening to Greatest Hits right now. It's bizarre that these mixes are 'regular' to me - the original album versions are superior in almost every instance. I'm starting to think that "Under My Wheels" simply had Rick Derringer's guitar track mixed out. It's so lightweight. Strangely enough, "I'm Eighteen" does start with harmonica, though it's a single sustained note (which I mistakenly identified as a guitar note for, oh, about 35 years).

[Count Machuki]

I'm listening to Greatest Hits right now. It's bizarre that these mixes are 'regular' to me - the original album versions are superior in almost every instance. I'm starting to think that "Under My Wheels" simply had Rick Derringer's guitar track mixed out. It's so lightweight. Strangely enough, "I'm Eighteen" does start with harmonica, though it's a single sustained note (which I mistakenly identified as a guitar note for, oh, about 35 years).

Well, hell, that really takes the shine off that record, one of two Alice Cooper ones I have.
The other's Billion Dollar Babies

I'll look out for the other classic stuff...I see it go by in cheap bins sometimes. They were pretty popular.

Anyway, great OP, man

[The Slider]

Love School's Out the album, but don't really know the rest of their stuff apart from the singles.

would you like me to ease your throat?


(edit - just sent you a link to my dropbox)

[The Slider]

I've come to '70s hardrock in a very roundabout way in my musical lifepath (it's only this weekend that I've Deep Purple In Rock for the very first time for instance), so it's only in the last year or so that I've discovered Alice Cooper, and I quickly picked up the four albums from 'Love it to death' to 'Billion dollar babies' and 'Welcome to my nightmare', the first solo album.
I was very impressed with all of them, but - as it often happens these days when you can get entire discographies at the drop of a hat - it was all a bit too much too soon. Too much new information to really attach myself to it.
So I've temporarily filed most of them and I'm just getting acquainted with 'Love it to death' for now.
Such a killer album.
I'm looking forward to digging in to them one at a time.

Wise.

[The Slider]

of course the first five can be picked up for a tenner on Amazon



then you just throw in the double disc remastered Billion Dollar Babies (which includes a live set on the 2nd disc)for another six quid and you have all you really need.
Unless you feel the need for Muscle of Love for another fiver. But I wouldn't bother.

Killer and Schools Out are my two favourites these days, though B$B always used to be.
I like Love it to Death but the first two have never really grabbed me.
Muscle of Love just seems to pass me by. I have played it probably 30 times in the past and couldn't even hum you a tune off it - not even the single.

[Jimbly]

Love School's Out the album, but don't really know the rest of their stuff apart from the singles.

would you like me to ease your throat?


(edit - just sent you a link to my dropbox)

Cheers I'll probably pick up the album set.

[Charlie O.]

Muscle of Love just seems to pass me by. I have played it probably 30 times in the past and couldn't even hum you a tune off it - not even the single.

I'm always surprised when anybody says anything good about it. Aside from the title track, I thought it was a dog when it came out. Between the early oughts and this past summer, I gave it two or three more spins and found that I liked "Hard Hearted Alice" okay, but that otherwise my age-8 reading had been spot on - the rest is, at best, competent but uninspiring, and at worst shark-jumpingly bad.

Pretties For You, on the other hand, has only gone up in my estimation in recent years. Perhaps I'll write a proper defense of it when I have the time and energy.

[Phenomenal Cat]

Muscle of Love just seems to pass me by. I have played it probably 30 times in the past and couldn't even hum you a tune off it - not even the single.

I'm always surprised when anybody says anything good about it. Aside from the title track, I thought it was a dog when it came out. Between the early oughts and this past summer, I gave it two or three more spins and found that I liked "Hard Hearted Alice" okay, but that otherwise my age-8 reading had been spot on - the rest is, at best, competent but uninspiring, and at worst shark-jumpingly bad.

Dennis Dunaway says in a 2011 interview that they had a falling out with Bob Ezrin so, ironically, they ended up working with Jack Richardson, the guy who didn't want Ezrin to sign the band in the first place.

Pretties For You, on the other hand, has only gone up in my estimation in recent years. Perhaps I'll write a proper defense of it when I have the time and energy.

I'd love to read it if you write it. As I hinted at in the opening post, a lot of songs I've heard by groups like Dungen sound like lost Pretties tracks.

[Charlie O.]

Dennis Dunaway says in a 2011 interview that they had a falling out with Bob Ezrin so, ironically, they ended up working with Jack Richardson, the guy who didn't want Ezrin to sign the band in the first place.

True. I wouldn't necessarily blame Richardson for Muscle Of Love - I think the band just didn't have the goods. But it is very possible that Ezrin would have pushed them to do better, if they had allowed him to. Judging by his (often excellent) work with The Guess Who, Richardson wasn't the "hands on" producer that Ezrin was.

[pig bodine]

Very nice. As I've often said, the AC band was my Beatles. Also my second concert--BBB at the Utica Aud. Dec. 1973 w/ZZ Top opening. I think Lay Down and Die, Goodbye needs a mention, The heaviest thing around in 1970, plus I like the video this guy made to go with it.
[youtube]?v=YHAE_MpmTXk[/youtube]

[Phenomenal Cat]

My son really enjoyed this scene, soundtracked by a heavily-made up Alice performing "Ballad of Dwight Fry"




Whoa. Crazytown. Alice digs his Rolfs.

[Charlie O.]

[Charlie O.]

At the Toronto Peace Festival, 1969:





It is not exactly hard to see why the California hippies couldn't relate to this band.

I wish to god Yoko had sat in with them!

[Guy E]

Here's a picture from the Alice Cooper show I saw on June 21, 1971 - a temporary stage set-up at Inwood Skating Rink, Oak Lawn, IL.



From Glen Buxton's website:
Dex Card’s Wild Goose. Building now serves as a social club/church. Dex Card (radio dj) established several teen club’s in the south Chicago suburbs…several of them called ‘The Wild Goose’. When (deejay) Dex Card started his Wild Goose circuit-basically, he’d ask a club owner, “Hey, can I call your club the Wild Goose on Saturday?”-and local bands started playing all of his places. It was referred to as the Dex Card circuit.

This was just as I'm Eighteen was hitting big and it was a great show that brings back vivid memories. They had a really cheesy electric chair prop that Alice was electrocuted in. There was a wrought iron fence separating the outdoor skating rink from the sidewalk and all the old folks across the street were sitting on their stoops watching the show, amused by the racket.

[fange]

^^
Awesome!

[Phenomenal Cat]

^^
Awesome!

I dream of shit like this.

[Phenomenal Cat]

I double-dog dare you to watch this. He is absolutely faced.

[Guy E]

I saw them a second time December 14, 1971 at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago, a pretty swanky place for Alice Cooper:



The group's website lists the gig at the Civic Auditorium, but there is no such place. Dr. John was the opener, but the gigography also lists Poco and Humble Pie 3rd and 4th on the bill. I'm pretty sure I would remember seeing those acts - I had albums by both. I never saw a four-act bill at the Auditorium (and can only remember one three-act bill). Shows started promptly at 8:00 and were typically over by 11:00 with enough time to hump it back to Union Station and get the last train home. My guess is that the bill was pared-down to allow the headliners more time, but who knows? I was just 17 and memory is a funny thing.

I think the "Civic Auditorium" misinformation comes from this poster. The band had played the Civic Opera House in April of '71.


It was a much bigger production with Alice being hung from a gallows and everything, but I mainly remember the great teenaged vibe of the show. Most concerts I went to had a mix of college kids and 20-somethings, but I don't think anyone out of high school would be seen at an Alice Cooper show when I'm Eighteen was a hit. It was all quite stoned and giddy.

Here's another shot from Oak Lawn six months earlier:


The stage/shed was small, a tiny set-up in the corner of the outdoor space, facing out at a 45-deg angle. I remember it being pretty packed, but I doubt there were more than 350 or 400 kids; it was a small paved yard/skating rink surrounded by the old municipal building on three sides and open to the sidewalk/street. I can still remember waiting on line and paying my $2.50 entrance fee to a grandmotherly woman at a folding table - no ticket, no hand stamp. Then we walked down a short corridor and through a door back out to the skating rink. The whole thing had a PTA fundraiser kind of atmosphere... let the kids have their fun.

The electric chair looked like it was made from cardboard painted silver, but the group started hiring theatrical professionals soon after that. I remember that it sounded remarkably good and the band was a road-tested machine by then, tight as hell.

[Charlie O.]

I double-dog dare you to watch this. He is absolutely faced.

I didn't get very far.

Frankly, he's too drunk for my comfort even in Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper (filmed on the BDB tour).