BIOGRAPHY
Originally, there was a band called Alice Cooper led by a singer named Vincent Damon Furnier. Under his direction, Alice Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, heavy metal, and garage rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood, and huge boa constrictors, all coordinated by the heavily made-up Furnier. By that time, Furnier had adopted the name for his androgynous on-stage personality. While the visuals were extremely important to the group's impact, the band's music was nearly as distinctive. Driven by raw, simple riffs and melodies that derived from '60s guitar pop as well as show tunes, it was rock & roll at its most basic and catchy, even when the band ventured into psychedelia and art rock. After the original group broke up and Furnier began a solo career as Alice Cooper, his actual music lost most of its theatrical flourishes, becoming straightforward heavy metal, yet his stage show retained all of the trademark props that made him the king of shock rock.
Furnier formed his first group, the Earwigs, as an Arizona teenager in the early '60s. Changing the band's name to the Spiders in 1965, the group was eventually called the Nazz (not to be confused with Todd Rundgren's band of the same name). The Spiders and the Nazz both released local singles that were moderately popular. In 1968, after discovering there was another band called with the same name, the group changed its name to Alice Cooper. According to band legend, the name came to Furnier during a ouija board session, where he was told he was the reincarnation of a 17th-century witch of the same name. Comprised of vocalist Furnier — who would soon begin calling himself Alice Cooper — guitarist Mike Bruce, guitarist Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith, the group moved to California in 1968. In California, the group met Shep Gordon, who became their manager, and Frank Zappa, who signed Alice Cooper to his Straight Records imprint.
Alice Cooper released their first album, Pretties for You, in 1969. Easy Action followed early in 1970, yet it failed to chart. The group's reputation in Los Angeles was slowly shrinking, so the band moved to Furnier's hometown of Detroit. For the next year, the group refined their bizarre stage show. Late in 1970, the group's contract was transferred to Straight's distributor Warner Bros., and they began recording their third album with producer Bob Ezrin.
With Ezrin's assistance, Alice Cooper developed their classic heavy metal crunch on 1971's Love It to Death, which featured the number 21 hit single "Eighteen"; the album peaked at number 35 and went gold. The success enabled the group to develop a more impressive, elaborate live show, which made them highly popular concert attractions across the U.S. and eventually the U.K. Killer, released late in 1971, was another gold album. Released in the summer of 1972, School's Out was Alice Cooper's breakthrough record, peaking at number two and selling over a million copies. The title song became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. and a number one single in the U.K. Billion Dollar Babies, released the following year, was the group's biggest hit, reaching number one in both America and Britain; the album's first single, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," became a Top Ten hit in Britain, peaking at number 25 in the U.S. Muscle of Love appeared late in 1973, yet it failed to capitalize on the success of Billion Dollar Babies. After Muscle of Love, Furnier and the rest of Alice Cooper parted ways to pursue other projects. Having officially changed his name to Alice Cooper, Furnier embarked on a similarly theatrical solo career; the rest of the band released one unsuccessful album under the name Billion Dollar Babies, while Mike Bruce and Neal Smith both recorded solo albums that were never issued. In the fall of 1974, a compilation of Alice Cooper's five Warner albums, entitled Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits, became a Top Ten hit.
For his first solo album, Cooper hired Lou Reed's backing band from Rock 'N' Roll Animal — guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, bassist Prakash John, keyboardist Joseph Chrowski, and drummer Penti Glan — as his supporting group. Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper's first solo album, was released in the spring of 1975. The record wasn't a great departure from his previous work, and it became a Top Ten hit in America, launching the hit acoustic ballad "Only Women Bleed"; its success put an end to any idea of reconvening Alice Cooper the band. Its follow-up, 1976's Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, was another hit, going gold in the U.S. After Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, Cooper's career began to slip, partially due to changing trends and partially due to his alcoholism. Cooper entered rehabilitation in 1978, writing an album about his treatment called From the Inside (1978) with Bernie Taupin, Elton John's lyricist. During the early '80s, Cooper continued to release albums and tour, yet he was no longer as popular as he was during his early-'70s heyday.
Cooper made a successful comeback in the late '80s, sparked by his appearances in horror films and a series of pop-metal bands that paid musical homage to his classic early records and concerts. Constrictor, released in 1986, began his comeback, but it was 1989's Trash that returned Cooper to the spotlight. Produced by the proven hitmaker Desmond Child, Trash featured guest appearances by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and most of Aerosmith; the record became a Top Ten hit in Britain and peaked at number 20 in the U.S., going platinum. "Poison," a mid-tempo rocker featured on the album, became Cooper's first Top Ten single since 1977. After the release of Trash, he continued to star in the occasional film, tour, and record, although he wasn't able to retain the audience recaptured with Trash. Still, 1991's Hey Stoopid and 1994's The Last Temptation were generally solid, professional efforts which helped Cooper settle into a comfortable cult status without damaging the critical goodwill surrounding his '70s output. After a live album, 1997's Fistful of Alice, Cooper returned on the smaller Spitfire label in 2000 with Brutal Planet and Dragontown a year later. The Eyes of Alice Cooper appeared in 2003 and found Alice and company playing a more stripped-down brand of near-garage rock. Dirty Diamonds from 2005 was nearly as raw and hit the streets around the same time Alice premiered his syndicated radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper.
DISCOGRAPHY
Pretties For You (1969)
1.)Titanic Overture
2.)10 Minutes Before the Worm
3.)Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio
4.)Today Mueller
5.)Living
6.)Fields Of Regret
7.)No Longer Umpire
8.)Levity Ball (Live At the Cheetah)
9.)B. B. On Mars
10.)Reflected
11.)Apple Bush
12.)Earwigs To Eternity
13.)Changing Arranging
Well, its far from what's considered "Classic Alice" but if you get into psychadelia or just like it weird (and that's what they were then, weird as hell), its definately worth checking out. I personally love this album and consider "Levity Ball", "Fields Of Regret", "Living", "Reflected", and "No Longer Umpire" to be classics. Another neat thing about this album is you hear alot of parts from tracks on here which would later be used in other AC songs. As of late, it's been reissued with "Easy Action" so its now readily available, and I suggest checking it out if only to hear the Alice Cooper band in its formative days.
Easy Action (1970)
1.)Mr. & Misdemeanor
2.)Shoe Salesman
3.)Still No Air
4.)Below Your Means
5.)Return of the Spiders
6.)Laughing At Me
7.)Refrigerator Heaven
8.)Beautiful Flyaway
9.)Lay Down and Die, Goodbye
"Easy Action" is very much in the same vein of "Pretties For You" but also serves quite nicely as the bridge between the formative and classic versions of the Alice Cooper band and the perfect snap shot of a constantly evolving entity. The tracks literally flip flop more or less, some sound like the weird "Pretties" Zappa inspired AC, and the others sound more like the stripped down rock of their classic period. "Mr. & Misdemeanor", "Shoe Salesman", "Return Of The Spiders", "Refrigerator Heaven", "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye" are excellent tracks and well worth getting the album for.
Love It To Death (1971)
1.)Caught In A Dream
2.)I'm Eighteen
3.)Long Way To Go
4.)Black JuJu
5.)Is It My Body
6.)Hallowed Be My Name
7.)Second Coming
8.)Ballad Of Dwight Fry
9.)Sun Arise
Without a doubt their breakthrough album. Despite them still being in a transition sound wise, this is where it really started to come together soundwise for them, not only sporting their first hit in "I'm Eighteen" but kicking out some other major rockers in "Is It My Body", "Long Way To Go", "Hallowed Be My Name", and "Caught In A Dream". Along with the ass kicking eerie epic that is the "Ballad Of Dwight Fry". Excellent performances throughout and top notch production by Ezrin just add to what already makes it a must have.
Killer (1971)
1.)Under My Wheels
2.)Be My Lover
3.)Halo Of Flies
4.)Desperado
5.)You Drive Me Nervous
6.)Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
7.)Dead Babies
8.)Killer
Great classic Alice Cooper band here, pure perfection on record and an essential album to have. Every song on this album, just rocks, from the more wider known hits of "Desperado","Under My Wheels", and "Be My Lover" to the epic "Halo Of Flies" and the haunting and incredibly heavy "Dead Babies". Whats really cool about it, is it manages to mix the psychadelia and garage rock of their earlier albums with their newer more focused harder hitting rock sound. Ezrin's production is just stellar on this as well. Also, Dennis Dunaways bass work on this album is exemplary really shines through above everything else.
School's Out (1972)
1.School's Out
2.Luney Tune
3.Gutter Cat vs. The Jets
4.Street Fight
5.Blue Turk
6.My Stars
7.Public Animal #9
8.Alma Mater
9.Grand Finale
Billion Dollar Babies (1973)
2.Raped And Freezin'
3.Elected
4.Billion Dollar Babies
5.Unfinished Sweet
6.No More Mr. Nice Guy
7.Generation Landslide
8.Sick Things
9.Mary Ann
10.I Love The Dead
Muscle Of Love (1974)
1.Big Apple Dreamin' (Hippo)
2.Never Been Sold Before
3.Hard Hearted Alice
4.Crazy Little Child
5.Working Up A Sweat
6.Muscle Of Love
7.Man With The Golden Gun
8.Teenage Lament '74
9.Woman Machine
Welcome To My Nightmare (1975)
1.Welcome To My Nightmare
2.Devil's Food
3.The Black Widow
4.Some Folks
5.Only Women Bleed
6.Department of Youth
7.Cold Ethyl
8.Years Ago
9.Steven
10.The Awakening
11.Escape
Goes To Hell (1976)
1.Go To Hell
2.You Gotta Dance
3.I'm The Coolest
4.Didn't We Meet
5.I Never Cry
6.Give The Kid A Break
7.Guilty
8.Wake Me Gently
9.Wish You Were Here
10.I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
11.Going Home
Lace And Whiskey (1977)
1.)It's Hot Tonight
2.)Lace And Whiskey
3.)Road Rats
4.)Damned If I Do
5.)You And Me
6.)King Of The Silver Screen
7.)Ubangi Stomp
8.)(No More) Love At Your Convenience
9.)I Never Wrote Those Songs
10.)My God
Unfortunately, by his third solo album, Alice seemed to be fading a bit. It isnt really a bad album per say, but a good portion of it does just sort of fade into the background, and while I may be a little biased towards Alice and the AC band as I grew listening to these albums pretty regularly, this album got slammed alot worse than it deserved. The first three songs actually kick it off to a pretty good start and are pretty competent rockers, with his ballad "You And Me" also being another stand out track here.
The Alice Cooper Show (Live) (1977)
1.Under My Wheels
2.Eighteen
3.Only Women Bleed
4.Sick Things
5.Is It My Body
6.I Never Cry
7.Billion Dollar Babies
8.Devil's Food/The Black Widow
9.You And Me
10.I Love The Dead/Go To Hell/Wish You Were Here
11.School's Out
From The Inside (1978)
1.From The Inside
2.Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills
3.The Quiet Room
4.Nurse Rozetta
5.Millie And Billie
6.Serious
7.How You Gonna See Me Now
8.For Veronica's Sake
9.Jackknife Johnny
10.Inmates (We're All Crazy)
Flush The Fashion (1980)
1.Talk Talk
2.Clones (We're All)
3.Pain
4.Leather Boots
5.Aspirin Damage
6.Nuclear Infected
7.Grim Facts
8.Model Citizen
9.Dance Yourself To Death
10.Headlines
Special Forces (1981)
1.Who Do You Think We Are
2.Seven & Seven Is
3.Prettiest Cop On The Block
4.Don't Talk Old To Me
5.Generation Landslide '81 (Live)
6.Skeletons In The Closet
7.You Want It, You Got It
8.You Look Good In Rags
9.You're A Movie
10.Vicious Rumours
11.Look At You Over There, Ripping The Sawdust From My Teddy Bear
Note: While Track 11 is listed on the original vinyl released, it was actually cut from the album at the last minute.
Very long review for this album, but as it's quite usually passed over and not very popular, I feel it deserves an in depth account:
Now, this has always been one of my favorite Alice albums, and from a period when he delved a little bit into new wave obscurity, this one shines through as a gritty gem (a dirty diamond if you will) that is Alice's most straightforward rocker since the 70's and returns in alot of ways to the sound of the original AC band, and is probably his best recent rocker at that point in time. The only real complaint you could make about this, at least IMO anyway is it comes of a little uneven at melding the two sounds at times, which I think could be do to the fact, that while it does sound like a good return to older material, Alice is pretty much writing on his own here instead of with the original AC band who were quite the driving force along with Alice himself when it came to writing the songs. Although his snide lyrics are perfectly in place here.
The album starts off with "Who Do We Think We Are?" the album's lone single, which stands as an excellent song in Alice's career and one of his best rockers, but is unfortunately one of his most overlooked as well. It would've fit in well with any of the "classic" albums. "Seven & Seven Is" (which is a Love cover), which is next up is also a pretty rocking track, that manages to splice AC's more modern (at the time anyway) sound with the rock of past albums. "Prettiest Cop On The Block" follows along in the same vein of Seven & Seven Is, although not quite as dark sounding and flows nicely along with the sound of the album. Next we have "Don't Talk Old To Me" which is one of those slightly uneven songs, which while flows well within the context and sound of the album, relies a bit heavier on the modern sounding aspect of the album, flows nicely, but couldve definately been written better. Following on the heels of that, we have "Generation Landslide '81 (Live)" (although it is not actually live) which does fit very well in with the sound on the album and was rerecorded very faithfully to the original track from "Billion Dollar Babies". After this comes "Skeletons In The Closet" which is a great darker modern sounding one, which is essentially just drums and keyboards. "You Want It, You Got It" which follows it perfectly, which IMO is one of the best things about this album, none of these songs break the flow of the album and they meld in nicely together. "You Look Good In Rags" is another great rocker that would stand up just as well with the 70's material as "Who Do We Think We Are" does, and another of my personal favorites, nice little riff in the song. "You're A Movie" is a great tounge in cheek song about Patton that always will bring a smirk to my face, and melds both styles quite well. The recurring theme of guns and soliders is due to Alice's fondness of Solider of Fortune and war movies apparently. Now, the album closes with "Vicious Rumours" which is another great punchy rocker that also stands up well.
"Look At You Over There, Ripping The Sawdust From My Teddy Bear" was the track that was cut from this album, after the inital pressing and several extra covers for the album with the song listed on it were done Alice decided it didnt fit in with the rest of the album (it later resurfaced on the boxset, listed as a demo even though it's a finished track. And Alice is right, it really doesnt fit the flow of the album).
So, this one easily makes it into my top 5, do yourself a favor and pick it up!
Zipper Catches Skin (1982)
1.Zorro's Ascent
2.Make That Money (Scrooge's Song)
3.I Am The Future - From The Motion Picture "Class of '84"
4.No Baloney Homosapiens
5.Adaptable (Anything For You)
6.I Like Girls
7.Remarkably Insincere
8.Tag, You're It
9.I Better Be Good
10.I'm Alive (That Was The Day My Dead Pet Returned To Save My Life)
Da Da (1983)
1.)Da Da
2.)Enough's Enough
3.)Former Lee Warmer
4.)No Man's Land
5.)Dyslexia
6.)Scarlet And Sheba
7.)I Love America
8.)Fresh Blood
9.)Pass The Gun Around
Out of all his new waveish albums, this one seems to get the most praise, unfortunately I have to disagree with that. Not a bad album by any means mind you, there's just nothing here that really excels above the other three early 80's albums he put out. What makes it different however, is Bob Ezrin returns for this to not only produce once again, but write as well, so in addition to songs having a hook regardless of that though, you also get the feel of an audio horror once again with Ezrin being back on bored through the creepy intro "DaDa" and "Former Lee Warmer" which channel "Welcome To My Nightmare" quite well. Alice lets his humour shine bright here once again too, with the hilarious "I Love America" (man I wish he had done a video for this one!) and "Dyslexia" (although, while the lyrics here are funny, the music itself is kinda irritating). "Scarlet And Sheba" has an awesome feel to it that melds Alice's newer style to that Nightmare type sound perfectly, and in the closer you get a nice slower closer track in "Pass The Gun Around". The remainder of the tracks here didnt really holds my interest much, outside of "Enough's Enough", thetes a few moments here and there, but it largely just fades out for me. A decent album from Alice, worth picking up for those four great tracks alone.
Constrictor (1986)
1.Teenage Frankenstein
2.Give It Up
3.Thrill My Gorilla
4.Life And Death Of The Party
5.Simple Disobedience
6.The World Needs Guts
7.Trick Bag
8.Crawlin'
9.Great American Success Story
10.He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask)
Raise Your Fist And Yell (1987)
1.Freedom
2.Lock Me Up
3.Give The Radio Back
4.Step On You
5.Not That Kind Of Love
6.Prince Of Darkness
7.Time To Kill
8.Chop, Chop, Chop
9.Gail
10.Roses On White Lace
Trash (1989)
1.)Poison
2.)Spark In The Dark
3.)House Of Fire
4.)Why Trust You
5.)Only My Heart Talkin'
6.)Bed Of Nails
7.)This Maniac's In Love With You
8.)Trash
9.)Hell Is Living Without You
10.)I'm Your Gun
Hey Stoopid (1990)
1.Hey Stoopid
2.Love's A Loaded Gun
3.Snakebite
4.Burning Our Bed
5.Dangerous Tonight
6.Might As Well Be On Mars
7.Feed My Frankenstein
8.Hurricane Years
9.Little By Little
10.Die For You
11.Dirty Dreams
12.Wind-up Toy
The Last Temptation (1994)
1.Sideshow
2.Nothing's Free
3.Lost In America
4.Bad Place Alone
5.You're My Temptation
6.Stolen Prayer
7.Unholy War
8.Lullaby
9.It's Me
10.Cleansed By Fire
A Fistful Of Alice (1997)
1.School's Out
2.I'm 18
3.Desperado
4.Lost In America
5.Teenage Lament '74
6.I Never Cry
7.Poison
8.Billion Dollar Babies
9.Welcome To My Nightmare
10.Only Women Bleed
11.Feed My Frankenstein
12.Elected
13.Is Anyone Home
The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper (1999)
Disc 1:
Don't Blow Your Mind
Hitch Hike
Why Don't You Love Me?
Lay Down and Die, Goodbye
Nobody Likes Me (demo)
Levity Ball
Reflected
Mr and Misdemeanor
Refrigerator Heaven
Caught In A Dream
I'm Eighteen
Is It My Body
Ballad Of Dwight Fry
Under My Wheels
Be My Lover
Desperado
Dead Babies
Killer
Call It Evil
Gutter Cat vs. the Jets
School's Out
Disc 2:
Hello Hooray
Elected
Billion Dollar Babies
No More Mister Nice Guy
I Love The Dead
Slick Black Limousine
Respect For The Sleepers
Muscle of Love
Teenage Lament '74
Working Up A Sweat
Man With the Golden Gun
I'm Flash
Space Pirates
Welcome To My Nightmare
Only Women Bleed
Cold Ethyl
Department Of Youth
Escape
I Never Cry
Go To Hell
Disc 3:
It's Hot Tonight
You And Me
I Miss You
No Time For Tears
Because
From the Inside
How You Gonna See Me Now
Serious
No Tricks
Road Rats
Clones
Pain
Who Do You Think We Are
Look At You Over There, Ripping the Sawdust From My Teddybear
For Britain Only
I Am the Future
Tag, You're It
Former Lee Warmer
I Love America
Identity Crises
See Me In The Mirror
Hard Rock Summer
Disc 4:
He's Back (demo)
He's Back
Teenage Frankenstein
Freedom
Prince Of Darkness
Under My Wheels (Decline of Western Civilization)
I Got A Line On You
Poison
Trash
Only My Heart Talkin'
Hey Stoopid
Feed My Frankenstein
Fire
Lost In America
It's Me
Hands Of Death
Is Anyone Home
Stolen Prayer
Brutal Planet (2000)
Brutal Planet
Wicked Young Man
Sanctuary
Blow Me A Kiss
Eat Some More
Pick Up The Bones
Pessi-Mystic
Gimme
It's The Little Things
Take It Like A Woman
Cold Machine
Dragontown (2001)
Triggerman
Deeper
Dragontown
Sex, Death And Money
Fantasy Man
Somewhere In The Jungle
Disgraceland
Sister Sara
Every Woman Has A Name
I Just Wanna Be God
It's Much Too Late
Sentinel
The Eyes Of Alice Cooper (2003)
1. Detroit City
2. What Do You Want From Me?
3. Love Should Never Feel Like This
4. Spirits Rebellious
5. Novocaine
6. Man Of the Year
7. Bye Bye Baby
8. Be With You Awhile
9. I'm So Angry
10. Between High School and the Old School
11. This House is Haunted
12. Backyard Brawl
13. The Song That Didn't Rhyme
Dirty Diamonds (2005)
1.)Woman Of Mass Distraction
2.)Perfect
3.)You Make Me Wanna
4.)Dirty Diamonds
5.)The Saga Of Jesse Jane
6.)Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)
7.)Pretty Ballerina
8.)Run Down The Devil
9.)Steal That Car
10.)Six Hours
11.)Own Worst Enemy
12.)Zombie Dance
13.)Stand
LINKS
WWW.ALICECOOPER.COM -- Alice's Official Website
www.myspace.com/alicehalloffame -- Project to get Alice into the hall of fame