Alice Cooper (Official Thread)

[rtbuck]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

After the ‘Special Forces’ Tour ended in February of ’82 Alice began writing material for his next album. Alice went back into the studio in the late spring with Mike Pinera, Erik Scott, Duane Hitchings, & Craig Kampf from his ‘Special Forces’ band Kampf added percussion to the album but Jan Uvena was the drummer for the sessions. Back after an absence from the previous two Alice Cooper albums was guitarist Dick Wagner who also co-wrote four of the 10 tracks for the new album which would be called ‘Zipper Catches Skin’




Zipper Catches Skin

Released: 1982
Label: Warner Brothers
Song Titles: Zorro’s Accent/ Make That Money/ I am the Future/ No Baloney, Homosapiens/Adaptable/ I Like Girls/ Remarkably Insincere/ Tag, You’re it/ I Better Be Good/ I’m Alive That was the Day my Dead Pet Returned to Save My Life


‘Zipper Catches Skin’ in my opinion is one of Cooper’s worst yet there are enough good moments on the album that keeps it from gaining dust on my CD racks. “Zorro’s Accent” is the first track & despite continuing in the same weird “Special Forces” style there are some great music moments on this track. At about the 2 minute mark there’s an instrumental break that for a second brings me back to the ‘68-’70 era for about 25 seconds. “Make that Money” is the best track on the album by far as Alice is back in the form of the Alice of old here doing what he should be doing which is rocking out. Once again, Alice revisits his old days (only this time from the ‘Killer’ era) during the final 30 seconds of the song. Actually, “Make That Money” was wrote back in the late 70’s with Wagner for a project that was never finished which was a concept album based on Ebeneezer Scrooge. Heavy synthesizers is what “I am the Future” is based around. Alice had a commitment to write a song for the soundtrack of the movie ‘Class of 1984’. This is probably the second best track on the record & actually I’m surprised it didn’t chart at all because it really is a well written song. “No Baloney, Homosapiens” musically has some decent parts but overall it’s strange & forgettable. “Adaptable” isn’t bad but the lyrics get a bit stupid during the song as Alice interjects his weird & corny sense of humor into the lyrics which continues on throughout the album especially on the tune that follows “I Like Girls”. It’s another okay song ruined by its corniness. The late Patti Donahue of the Waitresses sings additional vocals on the song but she can’t help escape the corniness as she tells Alice to “Oink off!” at the end. Without a second to spare “Remarkably Insincere” kicks in & it’s more of the same as the previous 2 songs. “Tag You’re it” is kind of a tribute to the Halloween movies in the same vein as “You’re a Movie” from ‘Special Forces’. Alice plays the part of a movie director on this one as the lyrics have him shouting out orders to his cast. “I Better be Good” musically could be another “Guilty” but once again corny cute lyrics take over this tune. Corny lyrics or not I do like this song & it does get stuck in your head. The final track is “I’m Alive That was the Day my Dead Pet Returned to Save My Life” & it’s more of the same but with a title like that you can’t help but like this one. Listening to this album makes me wonder how much better ‘Special Forces’ would have been had Wagner been back on that one because I really feel that had it not been for his obvious musical direction this album could have been a lot worse.

Alice was now really losing the battle of alcoholism & with his records not charting didn’t help matters much. In the spring of ’83 Alice once again reunited with Dick Wagner & this time he also brought back Bob Ezrin to put together his final album for Warner Brothers Records which was to be titled ‘Da Da’.




Da Da

Released: 1983
Label:Warner Brothers
Song Titles: Da Da/ Enough’s Enough/ Former Lee Warmer/ No Man’s Land/ Dyslexia/ Scarlet & Sheba/ I Love America/ Fresh Blood/ Pass the Gun Around

‘Da Da’ is a dark eerie new age sounding album which musically featured heavy sounding synthesizers & electronic drums (only 4 tracks featured an actual drummer). I actually think this is a brilliant & different album from Alice that did not get the recognition it deserved. The title track starts the album out & it’s an instrumental of synthesizers with faint voices of a doctor speaking to a patient. The doctor asks about his son & the patient says that he has a daughter to which the doctor tells him that he has a son & not a daughter. “Enoughs Enough” is probably my favorite track off the album as Wagner rips a great solo in this dark new wave tune. “Former Lee Warmer” is a creepy horror sounding piece that sends shivers down your spine which is followed by “No Man’s Land” which is an okay new wave style song with a cool rocking guitar solo. Heavy synthesized repetitive rhythms with clever & humorous lyrics bring us “Dyslexia” which something about it brings me back to the ‘Lace & Whiskey’ album for some reason (not the synthesized rhythm but something in the sound of the chorus). “Scarlet & Sheba” is one of the strongest all around tunes on the album featuring some great musicianship & it fades right into “I Love America” which is patriotism at its best. The song says it all about America & listening to it makes me want to go to a ball game & have a hot dog loaded with mustard. Prakash John’s bass work is very evident on “Fresh Blood” as this great tune could fit in on any of the mid-late ‘70’s albums by the Coop. “Pass the Gun Around” is a great song to close out the record as this is another all around strong tune. Both musically & lyrically this is the best song on the album(even though I am partial to Enough’s Enough being my favorite track). which ends with a gunshot & the sound of blood dripping on the floor.



Unfortunately, once again the new album failed however it did reach 93 in the UK but things were not going good at all for Alice & for the first time since 1968 he was without a record label. Alice’s drinking had him knocking at death’s door as he was so incredibly thin & malnourished. Alice’s wife Sheryl couldn’t take anymore & didn’t want to see her husband kill himself so she served him with divorce papers. They got to the courthouse & Alice privately pulled Sheryl into a conference room. Something finally hit him & he told Sheryl that this was all wrong & he now realized that all this was his fault. He told her he didn’t want it to end like this & she agreed. He was now committed to stop drinking & checked back into rehab. This time according to Alice was different than his first stint in rehab & after a month he was back home & has been sober since.

 

[rtbuck]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

 

[METALPRIEST]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

Zipper Catches Skin is a great album and Former Lee Warmer has to be one of my Favorite Cooper tunes...DADA is a real feel good disc for me!!

 

[METALPRIEST]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

ALICE turns into Monster Dog in

MONSTER DOG!!!

 

[rtbuck]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

Alice was now clean & sober & decided to take time off from Rock & Roll to relax & to spend time with his family but by 1984 he had the itch to get back in the spotlight. His first step was taking the role as rock star Vincent Raven in the horrible 1984 movie ‘Monster Dog’ which took Alice nowhere but his name was back out there. He then was asked by the popular 80’s Glam Hair Metal band Twisted Sister to take part in recording vocals & making a music video with them for their up & coming song “Be Chrool to Your Skuel”. Alice accepted & then he took a look around at what was happening on the mid 80’s music scene. He seen bands such as Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P., Motley Crue, Ozzy, & bunch of others emerge on the now popular heavy Metal scene & all these bands showed a great deal of influence from Alice. Alice was now ready to jump on the metal scene & began working on songs for a new album with Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy but nothing ever became of this. There were rumors going around that Alice was working on a hard rock remake of the old Yul Brenner movie “The Magnificent Seven” that would star a bunch of Metal stars & Alice himself would play Brenner’s starring role but no evidence was ever found of this. Alice discovered a wild guitarist playing in the clubs named Kane Roberts who had the look of a Heavy Metal “Rambo”. Alice knew this was the perfect guitarist for his comeback & the two began working on a new album (with MCA Records) & a new stage show that would be a major comeback for Alice with a return to the old “Killer Alice” character. Alice & Kane Roberts worked early on during these sessions with former Alice Cooper Group members Neal Smith & Dennis Dunaway but unfortunately no material was ever completed but the sessions did go well.




Constrictor

Released: 1986
Label:MCA Records
Song Titles: Teenage Frankenstein/ Give it Up/ Thrill my Gorilla/ Life & Death of the Party/ Simple Disobedience/ The World Needs Guts/ Trick Bag/ Crawlin’/ Great American Success Story/ He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)



MP edit: Video removed from Youtube


The “Constrictor” album cover was a picture of Alice’s face with his 1970’s style make-up & a snake wrapped around his throat & mouth. Actually, the album was originally going to be called ‘Awake for the Snake’ & it did chart in the US & the UK. Along with Kane Roberts, Alice also brought in unknown bassist Kip Winger to the band. The first track “Teenage Frankenstein” is a great way to kick off this comeback album as it’s a guitar heavy tune with catchy hooks & Alice’s vocals are raspy as ever. “Give it up” is more of a rocking pop tune while “Thrill my Gorilla” is a bit heavier tune with lyrics about the evolution of man through the weird sense of humor of Alice. “Life & The Death of the Party” is your typical 80’s sounding Hair Metal tune in which the song is somewhat mellow but it’s also got heavy sounding rhythms & a great guitar solo. “Simple Disobedience” is another heavy tune which doesn’t really do much but Roberts does shine on guitar in a couple of sections. “The World Needs Guts” is a great all around well written tune with driving riffs from Roberts throughout the song & Alice’s vocals are at their best. “Trick Bag” is heavy & almost a little funky in parts. The music from “Trick Bag” was actually the original music for “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)”. The story was that Alice was asked to contribute a song to be used as a theme for the new ‘Friday the 13th Part VI’ movie & the movie’s producers felt the music in “He’s Back” was too heavy so Alice changed the music to a more electronic keyboard type sound. Incidentally, Alice contributed two other songs to the soundtrack of the movie “Teenage Frankenstein” & “Hard Rock Summer” which is a great tune whose title says exactly what it’s about. The tune appears on disc 3 of the box set. “Crawlin’” is one of my favorite on the album next to “Teenage Frankenstein”& it would fit in perfectly on side two of “Flush the Fashion” in between “Grim Facts” & “Dance Yourself to Death”. In the same vein as “Crawlin’” is the next tune “Back to School” & the album closes with “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)” which was fairly popular overseas.



Alice’s new tour (his first since 1982) was appropriately called ‘The Nightmare Returns’ & it ran from October 1986 through March 1987. In the show Alice returned to his stage executions which hadn’t been done since his ‘Madhouse Rock Tour’ in 1979. This time around Alice brought back the guillotine. He also brought back “The Ballad of Dwight Fry” in which Alice broke loose from his straight jacket & used it to strangle his nurse played by the extremely tall Linda Albertano who also played Alice’s executioner with the guillotine. She pulls the dummy head out of the basket in front of the guillotine, holds it up, & the head spits blood all over her face. Another highlight is kind of an illusion trick during “Teenage Frankenstein” where Alice builds his own giant robot piece by piece from pieces of metal. All of a sudden, once the robot is complete it comes to life & eventually Alice destroys it. There is one part of the show where a camera man wanders on to the stage & Alice spears him with the mic stand causing the stand to pierce through his stomach & exit out his back. During Kane Roberts solo in “I’m Eighteen” fireworks are shot out the top of his guitar like a machine gun. It definitely was a pretty wild tour & a video was released from the tour & has since been released on DVD. It’s titled ‘The Nightmare Returns’ & it is a great show featuring songs from ‘Constrictor’ mixed with all of the classic Cooper You would expect to hear.


Removed dead video

 

[rtbuck]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

Alice & his current band went into the studio during the summer of 1987 to record his next album which was darker & heavier sounding than ‘Constrictor’. The new album was full of rebellion & violence & the tour which coincided with the album was promised to be Alice’s bloodiest tour ever. ‘Raise Your Fist & Yell’ was released early in November of 1987.




Raise Your Fist & Yell

Released: 1987
Label: MCA Records
Song Titles: Freedom/ Lock Me Up/ Give the Radio Back/ Step On You/ Not That Kind of Love/ Prince of Darkness/ Time to Kill/ Chop Chop Chop/ Gail/ Roses on White Lace


This is a phenomenal album with Alice at his best. This was the perfect direction for Alice to go at this time as up until then this was his heaviest album ever & his voice is even meaner than ever. The opening track “Freedom” was the only single released from the album & it really has a Heavy Metal anthem feel to it The chorus screams out the album title & listening to this tune will have you “Raise Your Fist & Yell”. Robert Englund (Freddie Krueger) lends his voice to “Lock Me Up” at the beginning of the song after a thunderclap of drums & electrifying rhythms. “Alice Cooper you have been accused of mass mental cruelty! How do you plead?” Alice responds with “GUILTY!!” & Englund begins to laugh. This is another great tune & it doesn’t stop there Alice & the band keep pushing harder as they rock their way through “Give the Radio Back”. “Step On You” brings the violence up a notch as the metal onslaught continues. “Not that Kind of Love” is a hard edge tune with a few decent spots but it probably is the weakest if any of the tracks on the album. “Prince of Darkness” is dark & heavy & actually was the closing song for the John Carpenter movie of the same name which briefly featured Alice. This brings us to the wildest & darkest section of the album…the final 4 songs, all of which fits together to tell a horrific story of a psychopathic killer who kills a bride & an unsuspecting prostitute. “Time to Kill”, “Chop Chop Chop”, “Gail”, & “Roses on White Lace” are all heavy sounding wild tunes with violent lyrics. This is stuff actually would fit right at home on a King Diamond album. Three of the 4 are very metal sounding while “Gail” is a short creepy song sandwiched in the middle with music similar to “Years Ago”.





I was fortunate enough to see this tour which was phenomenal & had everything one would want from a Cooper show. I actually wish this tour was out on DVD because it was so wild & bloody. The set list was mostly the standard Cooper hits but they did bring back “Teenage Frankenstein” from the previous album & tour. The show ended up being based around those final 3 songs from ‘Raise Your Fist & Yell’. It was really wild to see, as “Chop Chop Chop” came to an end a girl dressed as a prostitute with heavy make-up, a black leather mini skirt & Fishnet Stockings came wandering onstage & Alice snuck around, grabbed her from behind, & slit her throat. Blood was flying everywhere & of course that led to “Only Woman Bleed” in which at the end the prostitute stabbed Alice in the back. Alice also brought back “The Black Widow” & “Dead Babies” to his set list & this time Alice’s execution was by hanging which brought “Killer” back as well. His encore was “Freedom” & “School’s Out”.

 

[Hepcat]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

...a girl dressed as a prostitute with heavy make-up, a black leather mini skirt & Fishnet Stockings came wandering onstage & Alice snuck around, grabbed her from behind, & slit her throat. Blood was flying everywhere & of course that led to “Only Woman Bleed” in which at the end the prostitute stabbed Alice in the back.

I actually can't get into all that violent play acting in his shows. All that stuff is so over the top that I think it often overshadows the music - which is a real pity since the music is so good.

 

[rtbuck]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

I can agree with that Hep but this was a time when slasher movies were the in thing. Kids in their mid teens through their late twenties all couldn't wait for the next Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street movie & at least in my area when you would go see those movies kids were actually cheering as Jason or Freddie butchered someone(which is actually quite morbid but that was in back then). Alice was always into horror & basically what he was trying to do was create his own slasher movie through his music & stage production. It's easy to look at this stuff in disgust(& I mean that, I was even a bit hesitant to post those photos but felt they coincided with what I had wrote) but it's no different than watching a Friday the 13th movie & that's what Alice was doing.

***I just went back & reread what I wrote here & personally I wasn't disgusted by this kind of stuff but I could certainly understand if someone is disgusted of a picture of a girl getting her throat slashed without kind of understanding the whole idea behind it. As I said this was no different than watching a slasher movie

 

[Hepcat]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

Well, suffice it to say that I'm not a movie buff overall - with the exception of the B-movie sci-fi flicks from the fifties, the Hammer Horror movies (which were decidedly non-gory by modern standards) and the cartoons that aired in theatres from the Golden Age of cartooning in the forties and fifties when standards of animation were high and political correctness was not a consideration.

 

[rtbuck]

Re: Alice Cooper ~ March 2010 Band of the Month

Well, suffice it to say that I'm not a movie buff overall - with the exception of the B-movie sci-fi flicks from the fifties, the Hammer Horror movies (which were decidedly non-gory by modern standards) and the cartoons that aired in theatres from the Golden Age of cartooning in the forties and fifties when standards of animation were high and political correctness was not a consideration.

Nothing beats those old Sci Fi movies. My favorite is still the Alligator People!