Thanks bucky!! I know alot of people knock Sgt. Pepper's the movie with the Bee Gees...but I like it and own it. Alice's appearance is GREAT so I'm gonna post it!!!
George Martin when producing this track didn't like Alice's original take as he was singing it. He told him something like, "Do it like Alice would"
Sometime around 1980 Alice fell off the wagon. It happened innocently enough as he and his wife Sheryl went out for dinner while in Lake Tahoe. Sheryl ordered a glass of wine with her dinner and Alice reached over and took a sip. That was all he needed and soon he was hiding bottles of alcohol all over the house. Alice recorded four albums from ’80-’83 and toured on two of the release but he hardly recalls anything from this era.
1979/1980 was a different time for music as the “in” music was disco, pop or punk/new wave and popular rock acts of the 70’s such as Alice, KISS and Aerosmith were beginning to have trouble connecting with the new generation of music fans. By the end of the Mad House Rock tour Alice was slightly beginning to change his look.
Alice decided that punk/new wave was the way to go and together with keyboardist, Fred Mandel, and guitarist, Davey Johnstone, the trio began writing songs featuring a more keyboard/synthesizer sound much like The Cars or Gary Numan. The trio entered the studio along with John “Cooker” Lopresti on bass, Dennis Conway on drums, and producer Roy Thomas Baker who had produced The Cars.
Flush The Fashion
Released: 1980 Label: Warner Brothers Song Titles: Talk Talk / Clones (We’re All) / Pain / Leather Boots / Aspirin Damage / Nuclear Infected / Grim Facts / Model Citizen / Dance Yourself to Death / Headlines
I can remember the first time I heard ‘Flush the Fashion’. I had just gone to the store for my Mom and I was listening to Q107 from Toronto in the car. The DJ said they just received the new Alice Cooper album and it was different from anything Coop had done before. He then said that they were going to play the entire album at 6 p.m. I rushed home and pulled the station in on the radio tuner on my stereo and laid back to listen. At that time I was against the whole punk/new wave movement that was going on and ‘Flush the Fashion’ had me a bit confused at first because I felt like I shouldn’t like it, but I really did enjoy the whole album upon that first listen. I bought the album the day it was officially released and to this day it is one of my favorite Cooper albums.
“Talk Talk” opens the album and it’s a cover from the late 60’s which was originally recorded by the Music Machine (incidentally the original Alice Cooper Group used to play this song during their club days). “Clones” was released as a single and did make it to the charts. The song is based around a keyboard riff similar to “Cars” by Gary Numan. “Pain” may be mellow but the lyrics and Alice’s vocals bring intensity to the tune making it one of the best tracks on the album. “Pain”, along with “Road Rats” and “Only Women Bleed” were performed live for the movie, ‘Roadie’ which starred Meatloaf. “Leather Boots” is a 50’s style rocker in the same vein as “Ubangi Stomp”. “Aspirin Damage” and “Nuclear Infected” are two new wave style rockers that both lyrically show Alice’s sense of humor. “Grim Facts” is a rocker with a killer guitar riff running through it. Up next is what I consider the best track off the album,. “Model Citizen” which kicks your ass right from the beginning drum intro. The song features some stinging guitar work by Johnstone and Alice’s vocals are at the top of their game. I also always liked “Dance Yourself to Death” as it is just a cool rocker with some fun lyrics about some corny parents trying to act cool with the dad wearing a T-shirt that reads “Give Me Pot Not Booze”. The album closes with a tune called “Headlines” which is a decent rocker about doing anything to make the headlines in a newspaper.
Alice did a small tour to support the new album with a stripped down stage with very few effects. The tour features about five or six songs from ‘Flush the Fashion’ mixed with the regular classic Cooper tunes. Alice also brought back “Gutter Cats vs. the Jets” to the stage and also added “Guilty” to the live show. A riot broke out at Toronto’s CNE stadium where Alice cancelled at the last second due to his asthma.
In the summer of 1981 Alice embarked on a short US tour from June-August but unfortunately his new album ‘Special Forces’ (which he finished recording in May) was not released until that September. I was fortunate to have caught a show at Melody Fair in North Tonawanda, NY and the show was not what I expected. I was in the fifth row for the show and I’ll never forget it. Dry ice filled the stage as the band members, all dressed in army fatigues, and began throwing cardboard grenades into the crowd. All of a sudden Alice ran onto the stage with feminine makeup and his hair up in a bun. He was actually pretty disturbing to look at as he also looked to weigh about 90 lbs.
He opened with “Who Do You Think We Are” which, despite never hearing it, I thought it was great. As disturbing as Alice looked he put on one hell of a stripped down rock ‘n roll show as he rocked his way through stuff such as “Model Citizen”, “Guilty”, “Cold Ethyl”, “Clones”, “Under My Wheels”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, and “I’m Eighteen” to name a few. The highlight and surprise came near the end of the show when the band jammed nearly a ten minute version of “Generation Landslide”. It was amazing and unbelievable, and as the jam ended the band and Alice launched back into “Who Do You Think We Are” and Alice left the stage. Alice Cooper and band came back for one encore which was an extended version of “School’s Out” but what made the ’72 classic great on this night was that Alice let his hair down and wore his classic makeup around his eyes, causing the crowd to go wild.
Finally in September of 1981 ‘Special Forces’ was released and went nowhere on the charts. There was no real promotion behind the record and even the album cover was nothing special. The cover showed a pair of swords crossed with a small portrait of Alice in his feminine makeup with his hair up.
Special Forces
Released: 1981 Label: Warner Brothers Song Titles: Who Do You Think We Are / Seven and Seven Is / Prettiest Cop on the Block / Don’t Talk Old to Me / Generation Landslide ’81 / Skeletons in the Closet / You Want It You Got It / You Look Good in Rags / You’re a Movie / Vicious Rumors
At first I thought the album was a bit too strange for my tastes but I couldn’t stop listening to it and the more I listened to it, the more I liked it. ‘Special Forces’ is kind of a darker new wave album that was originally to be titled ‘Skeletons in the Closet’. The band featured guitarist, Mike Pinera, formerly of Blues Image who had a hit with “Ride Captain Ride” and later Iron Butterfly, guitarist, Danny Johnson, bassist, Erik Scott, keyboardist, Duane Hitchings, and drummer Craig Kampf. The album’s first track, ‘Who Do You Think We Are” is great. The song starts off with some eerie keyboards and then “bang!” drums, guitars, and bass kick in along with Alice’s snarling vocals singling the lyrics “Who do you think we are”. This is what I consider the best tune on the album as Alice sounds like classic Alice vocally here. “Seven and Seven Is” is a great punk cover of the 1960’s hit by Love. “Prettiest Cop on the Block” is a forgettable tune which Alice uses his sense of humor in the lyrics about a cop who seems to enjoy dressing undercover as a woman. “Don’t Talk Old to Me” is one of those dark sounding new wave tunes with a violent streak as Alice sings “Don’t shake that finger in my face no more or I might bite it off and spit it on the floor.” “Generation Landslide ‘81” is listed as being a live track but it was actually recorded in the studio. Alice added a new verse to the tune which could’ve been left off but the song itself is pretty cool and rocks pretty hard. Side two begins with “Skeletons in the Closet” and it is another strange forgettable tune. Upon my first listen to the album I felt “You Want It You Got It” had potential of being a possible hit with what was going on in the world of music at the time. The tune was released as a single but failed to chart in the United States. “You Look Good in Rags” and “You’re a Movie” have a similar sound and style to “Don’t Talk Old to Me” from side one. The album closes with “Vicious Rumors” which is an awesome rocker with great lyrics as Alice sings “You feel the knife stuck in your back…You feel the twist and you hear it crack!” The song is the hardest driving song on the album and as the song begins to fade the first track “Who Do You Think We Are” is revisited.
The album lists another track on the back cover which is not included on the album called “Look at You Over There, Ripping the Sawdust from my Teddybear.” The song was dropped at the last minute because it was felt that the song "musically" didn’t fit with the rest of the tunes. The song did surface on the box set and I felt it could’ve fit in just fine on the album.
The band performed a small tour of the UK and Europe in January/February of 1982 and in March they hit the studio to record a song for Alice’s British fans. The song was called “For Britain Only” which was released in April of ’82 in the UK as an EP that also featured phenomenal live versions of “Who Do You Think We Are”, “Model Citizen” and “Under My Wheels” recorded live from Glasgow in February of 1982.
During this era Alice appeared on the 'Tomorrow Show' which was a late night talk show hosted by Tom Snyder. Alice did a sit down interview with Snyder & then Alice performed "Who Do You Think We Are", "Seven & Seven Is", & "Under My Wheels" with his band live in the studio.
He also filmed a special in Paris for Paris TV called “Alice in Paris” which featured 18 songs. Eleven of the songs were MV type music videos and the other seven were recorded live in a studio. Seven of the 18 songs were from the ‘Special Forces’ album, three songs were from ‘Flush the Fashion’ and the rest were the usual Alice Cooper classics including, “I’m Eighteen”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, “School’s Out”. I would love to see this get a DVD release.
Great reading as usual Bucky, I can remember when Flush the Fashion was released, many old Alice fans didn't know what to make of it, but when faced with the changing landscape many bands were trying new things to stay relevant, and Alice was no different.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
