|
Alice Cooper
LIST OF ALICE COOPER REVIEWS: Pretties For You (1969)
Leave your thoughts about Alice Cooper here.
Pretties For You (1969)Album Score: 10A lot of people who were Alice Cooper fans in the '70s think that Love it to Death was the first Alice Cooper album, but that's their third one. Before we can begin discussing this band's breakthrough album, we have to talk about about the two albums the group did beforehand. (Thanks to the advent of online downloads, these once-obscure albums can be enjoyed by all!!!!) (Now's a good time to mention that the term 'Alice Cooper' is a confusing one. Before 1975, 'Alice Cooper' was the name of the entire band. The man who became known as Alice Cooper in 1975 was previously called Vincent Furnier. OK, now that that's cleared up.) If anything, this album proves to me what a talent this guy is. It's nothing like what this band became famous for. Instead of straight-ahead, hard-rock classics like "I'm Eighteen," we get stuff that closely resembles early Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa. This is stuff that sounds straight out of the acid '60s movement, and it's great stuff. Granted, it wasn't revolutionary at all. But I find it just about as enjoyable as anything from that genre. It might prove how misguided I am as a reviewer, but this album achieved a similar score as Piper at the Gates of Dawn ....... but you know what a flawed classic that is. As you might have guessed, this album is pretty messed up at times. Although, usually I'd think the songs are pretty normal if you stripped down all those freaked-out tones and cluttery sound effects. Notably "Reflected" has a very similar melody as "Elected" from Billion Dollar Babies. Usually the melodies in the album are entirely decent. The album's lesser spots are where he's trying on some of the weirdly stuctured stylings of Frank Zappa notably ... They do it well, but it's clearly not their strong point. "Today Mueller" is an interesting song, because it seems to point to Cooper's theater-rock future. There are so many interesting songs that I want to mention them all here, so in this case I'll let my track reviews stand on their own. If you're a Cooper fan who hasn't heard this album, you may be shocked, but it's definitely worth a listen. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Easy Action (1970)Album Score: 10A stark difference from the previous album. The acid-rock pretenses are mostly gone, and what is left can be described as a ... um ... transitional album? ... I almost don't want to use that term, because Love it To Death was such a 180-degree turn for them. What would be fairer is to say this album points to all of Alice Cooper's albums up until Welcome to My Nightmare as well as the previous one. The album title is from The West Side Story, and they quote from the movie in track #3. They would revisit that musical again in School's Out. "The Return of the Spiders" is perhaps the song that most closely resembles Love it to Death with its hard rock mentality. (That song also features some of the most energetically played drums of all time!) The opening track, "Mr. and Misdemeanor" (that also happens to be my favorite) is another reminder of theater rock. Unfortunately, the acid-rock is a lot less convincing here. The ending track is notably pretty hard to sit through much of it ... it's so uninspired and has an extreme reliance on nonsensical sound effects. "Below Your Means" tends to drag on and on as well. The blame for this is said to be the producer, David Briggs, who didn't have much vision for this type of music. Whatever's to blame, this isn't such an enjoyable album. Cooper fans ought to appreciate some of these songs, but ... I doubt they'll like it much. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Love it to Death (1971)Album Score: 13This where Alice Cooper reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally begins. Granted, I still say it's wrong to ignore the two albums he cut before this, but who's to say that he didn't make a *huge* turn for the better? Gone are Alice Cooper's attempts to be psychedelic. Now they're going polished, hard-rock 100 percent of the way! Much of the thanks to that direction is given to producer Bob Ezrin. Heck, anything would have been better than that previous producer! The funny thing is, they don't really do anything too unique here ... I mean, the song production just consists of the usual orchestration. No sweeping synth-passages or mellotrons or anything. Very much, you can consider this hard rock. But that doesn't even do it justice, because there's a good amount of theatrical material on here. "Black Juju" and "Ballad of Dwight Fry" are rather lengthy epics. The latter one is the obvious favorite! Naturally, the album is probably more famous for the single "I'm Eighteen," which very appropriately gets tons of radio play to this day. That was an anthem that struck a pretty large chord in the kids of the day (according so some guy I talked to at an Alice Cooper concert), and who's to say it didn't? That song is flippin' awesome! I'm going on a limb and calling the energetic rocker "Long Way to Go" my favorite track of the album. I love it when they rock out!!! The greatest aspect of the album is its diversity. No two songs sound alike! Furthermore, there isn't a moment in here that sounds misfired. Every song on the album deserves an 8.0 or above; not once do I second guess myself about that. This album is even loaded with catchy melodies. Heck, give me this stuff over Led Zeppelin any frikin' day of the weak! It's a classic album, and I love it!!! Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Killer (1971)Album Score: 14Though we will always love Love it to Death for its general tendency to be awesome, we're always going to have to look at Killer for its unmatchable solidness. The songwriting is absolutely brilliant from beginning to finish. Everyone with a prior idea of Alice Cooper probably thinks of him/them as a disgusting, underground group that's mostly unlistenable and strictly hard, sloppy rock. Get that notion out of your head immediately! These guys are artists! Don't believe me? Just listen to this album. Naturally, they'll begin the album with two solid hard-rock numbers to get things started on the right foot. There's no sense in getting too weird before your audience is fully engaged! "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover" are excellent tracks that are not only drenched with catchiness, but they feature some excellent guitar work from good old Michael Bruce. After that, there's the wholly mindboggling "Halo of Flies," which is more than eight minutes long, but I'd wager it has enough ideas to fill up an entire album. I'd say very few bands, even progressive ones, do not come close to matching that one for ideas. "Desperado" is also a great, dramatic song that was meant to be a tribute to the fallen Jim Morrison. A huge highlight, and arguably my favorite track (I could be schizophrenic --- part of me says I am), is "Dead Babies." This track was apparently controversial in its day even though it's anti-child abuse! (I looked this up on Wikipedia, so it must be true.) I say, that's a great song because of the melody and the weird tones these guys use. Nope, there's absolutely nothing shoddy about this album. Shock-rock does not mean it's trashy! These guys are as tasteful and artsy as can be. Off you go to hear this for yourself. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
School's Out (1972)Album Score: 12This album is unrelentingly enjoyable. Sure, Killer is a much better album. It's seamless, wonderful, tuneful and complex. School's Out is looser around the edges, a little less consistent and much less serious...... But as it turns out School's Out is unrelentingly entertaining, and I'm much more likely going to be caught listening to this rather than Killer. That's just the way I am. (P.S. Much of the music I listened to in my childhood up until my last year of high school were showtunes ... or classical music. I still like them, so that probably explains it.) So let's talk about this monumentally entertaining album. Gosh, I like every single one of these songs. "School's Out" has got to be my favorite although a few other tracks vie for that position. That one's his famous anthem that's not only hugely catchy and interesting in the artistic sense, but spirited. It captures the attitude of school-ridden youngsters perfectly who are counting down to that glorious day that is the last day of school. He even matches the 'mood' with "Alma Mater," which helps me recall vividly the moments as youngsters would leave the school for the last time --- you know, happy but sort of sad and sentimental at the same time. Of course, this isn't a concept album about school. That's just two songs. The rest he uses to elaborate on the showtunes that Vincent Furnier was more interested in than his serious, harder albums as Love it to Death and Killer. He frequently quotes The West Side Story and creates a more glitzy image for himself and his songs. A certain fan base felt betrayed by that move, but I like it!! Again, that's my personal taste speaking there. I'm too much of a Monkees fan to like hard-rock anyways... "Blue Turk" is a hugely impressive song and arguably the greatest display of songwriting on the album. It's done in Vegas show-tune style, and it even gets a bit jazzy (with some excellent horn noodling!!!). Most importantly, the melody is catchy, and it's just fun. FUN!!! I like fun music. You know that, right? This is a great album! I found it to be an accurate statement of youth... and the showman posturing is hugely entertaining. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Billion Dollar Babies (1973)Album Score: 13Billion Dollar Babies was quite a commercial success for Alice Cooper, and it's the only album of his to chart #1 on the U.S. pop charts. It didn't only do that, but it topped the British pop charts. If only people would buy tasteful music in such large numbers these days! And what a fantastic album this is! Alice Cooper continues to write music in the same showman's vein that he had started with School's Out except this manages to be more furious and even more solid. What else should I need to point out other than "Elected?" That's a furious song with glorious arrangements and a pompous mood that absolutely nails its subject matter. It's difficult to think about any other song that captures the pompous, self-glorifying spirit of politicians in election campaigns. Yeah, Alice Cooper was exaggerating that feeling, but I can easily picture any political candidate running that song through the mind while on the campaign trail. "No More Mr. Nice Guy" was the famous pop-hit from the album, and that's a famous song for excellent reason. It's just a good, catchy track with an extremely memorable chorus. I still remember hearing Alice Cooper singing this song at his concert I attended in 2005 as if it were yesterday... The title track is another hugely memorable one. There are so many good ideas, but the one that I can't get out of my mind is his idea to sing the chorus like usual but also have a sinister voice speaking them. It also helps that the melody is wonderful anyway. All throughout, this band proves why they're so highly regarded among rock enthusiasts. There's nothing like those guitar licks and solid solos --- they accomplish this while always keeping the focus on the songwriting. There is hardly a wasted note. Every single track on this album is great, but there are a few tracks present that keep this from becoming a total masterpiece. "Generation Landslide" might be loaded with ideas, but it seems like a comparatively weaker effort compared to the rest of the album. Also, "Raped and Freezin'" might sound pretty solid and accomplished --- but that just doesn't have the same amount of wild ideas as the rest. But these "weak spots" I speak of only exist because of the impossibly high standards Alice Cooper has set. This is a hugely enjoyable album through and through with wholesome creativity! I don't want to refund a single second of the time I invested in listening to this. In fact, I'm going to listen to it many times again! Hooray!!! Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Muscle of Love (1974)Album Score: 10This seems like a real step back for the band, which had just come off from doing the spectacular Billion Dollar Babies... and well, it is a step back. Right from the first moments of the opening track, "Big Apple Dreamin'," that's pretty obvious. The song is loose and not very memorable. If you go back to any previous Alice Cooper album, they've all had much more explosive beginnings except arguably the debut album. Indeed, this album's biggest sin is that it's middle-of-the-road... It's so middle-of-the-road, that an Alice Cooper fan can't help feeling a tad disappointed in it. This album seems tossed-off--- Well, it wasn't really tossed off, but it's clear these guys were holding themselves back. They came out with classic after classic, and here is a bona fide non-classic... Oh well. But that said, is Muscle of Love bad? Of course not! This is all perfectly entertaining! It's just that none of this stuff even threatens to capture my attention, or get me excited. There aren't any great melodies for me to memorize that characterized Billion Dollar Babies nor any great instrumental moments that characterized Killer. This is kinduva "ho-hum" release. No wonder Furnier just decided to go solo after this!! His "muscle of love" wasn't into it... and neither am I. (By the way, he tells us that the "muscle of love" is his heart...) My favorite song is "Man With a Golden Gun," but even that doesn't seem to be anywhere near as spectacular as I know this band was capable of. What I liked about that song was his interesting incorporation of the James Bond theme song with his usual brand of heavy rock. However, the most convincing rocker is probably "Never Been Sold Before," which has the cleanest instrumentation. But that's contrasted by relatively bland (but still entertaining) songs like the generic rocker "Workin' Up a Sweat" and the quasi-gospel "Teenage Lament '74." It's almost painfully evident that they were treading water with this release! ... I'm sorry I can't come up with too many inspiring words to say about this, but such is the effect of this non-inspiring album! A bit 'o history: This is where the band says goodbye to Alice Cooper. The band wanted to return to the hard-rock days of Love it to Death, but the frontman (Mr. Furnier) wanted to go even more down the showtune route... And as you probably know, he would... Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Welcome to My Nightmare (1975)Album Score: 13This is where Alice Cooper the band became Alice Cooper the man. He donned a tuxedo and top hat, and he did what he always wanted; make a glammy showtune album! This career decision wasn't surprising or unexpected. Apart from the album cut directly previous to this, Muscle of Love (usually considered a black sheep), all of Cooper's albums had elements of showtunes, but never to this degree. Cooper famously teamed up with producer Bob Ezrin who co-wrote most of these songs... Many people have mixed feelings about him, but I like him, if nothing else, for making two Kiss albums tolerable. And anyway, if he co-wrote this album, then he can't be all bad! It begins with the title track, a funky song with strong Broadway leanings. It's quite a nice introduction with its catchy melody and its well arranged brass section that's design to rile up the listeners and set the tone for the rest of the album! That's followed up with the excessively campy though entertaining dialogue bit from actor Vincent Price (he's sort of the ideal person to get for this sort of thing). Even though there's a lot of Broadway stuff here, Cooper doesn't forget that he's still considered hard rock in some parts! "Cold Ethyl," the ultimate shock-rocker about necrophelia, is the straightest hard-rock song. "The Black Widow" has a better riff though it incorporates much more theatrical ideas! "The Department of Youth" is more of a pop-rocker, but that one's especially well-done with the catchiest melody of the whole album, and an extremely memorable chorus. The "masterpiece" work comes at the end with a three-part suite --- a sort of psychological horror story about a boy named Steven with a double personality. The aesthetics in "Years Ago" was masterfully done, and the main song, "Steven" ranks as one of the best written songs of the whole album also with brilliant arrangements. "The Awakening" is a little less passionately done, and the instrumentals aren't nearly as interesting, but even that one has some merit. As far as I'm concerned, Welcome to My Nightmare fully deserves its status as one of Alice Cooper's most celebrated albums. The foremost reason for that is, obviously, the songs are very well-written, and the arrangements are rather inspired. Furthermore, the campy horror movie theme is a complete blast, and that's a quality that manages to make this work stand out as among the finest and most unique albums in rock 'n' roll. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell (1976)Album Score: 11Nobody can deny the utter fantastic run that the entity known as Alice Cooper had on coming up with such great, memorable albums. I mean, just scan his discography and try to refrain from drooling at their utter greatness. However, you’ll probably notice that after Welcome to My Nightmare, his albums cease to be famous. Yup, it is natural to group Alice Cooper Goes to Hell in the 1976-1983 grouping of not-so-highly-regarded albums. But if you bother to listen to them, I’m sure you’ll find that they are incredible pieces of entertainment! All of Alice Cooper’s albums tend to be worth hearing, which is something that I don’t say too often about such prolific artists. This is pretty much a sequel to Welcome to My Nightmare, except it’s less serious. Half of these tracks sound like they’re right off of a Broadway soundtrack… and the other half wouldn’t have been that inappropriate on one. “Go to Hell” is such an excellent song that I only wish it was in an actual Broadway play! It’s an incredibly fun track that features an angry mob singing a highly catchy melody amidst some terribly rockin’ heavy metal instrumentation. (One thing that most Broadway plays never did well was rock ‘n’ roll… but here is Alice fulfilling that need in my life.) Much more cutesy but perhaps more entertaining is “Give the Kid a Break.” The ‘50s style piano-boogie-cum-Broadway strongly recalls the Kinks’ A Soap Opera … and Alice’s song is so catchy and the play acting is so entertaining that I’m sure that Ray Davies experienced some pure pangs of jealousy if he heard it! To anyone who doesn’t care for the cheesy Broadway stuff, “Guilty” marks a return to straight rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s a very catchy tune, too. It sounds a little like he was trying to write another “Department of Youth,” but it’s not quite as good. It’s still a fun and catchy song, though. And “Wish You Were Here” is even more heavy rocking. Although the vocal melody probably could have been stronger … and while that rock jam thing at the end was cool, it could have been less cliched. Ah well… I do like hearing it regardless. One thing Alice could have bothered to work on a bit more was his ballads … but even those are very good by most standards. But they do have a bad tendency to be overly pompous without the soul and melodies to back them up. That said, I liked “Wake Me Gently” enough to give it an A-, so there you go. I find that song terribly enchanting… as it starts out as almost a Renaissance ballad, and then it turns into a sort of sing-a-long power chorus. “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” is a similar song, except it was misfired completely. The melody is OK, but the instrumentation sounds very awkward. And constantly quoting “Over the Rainbow” did terrible damage to the song development. “Going Home” is a nice, happy power chorus that sounds designed to leave us exiting the theater with big smiles implanted firmly on our faces! Well, it does that job well, although there seems to be something missing from that song … Maybe it’s not orchestrated well enough, or maybe it’s just missing heart. A pair of odd tracks surfaces early on in the album. “You Gotta Dance” is an unexpected foray into disco music… although thanks to the ultra-sharp instrumentation, catchy melody, and Cooper’s campy vocal performance, it’s hardly a cheap one. “I’m the Coolest” is an even odder track, which features a really cool, laid back groove whilst Cooper talk-sings in a very sinister way. Some listeners choose that song as the best of the album, but I fail to find the grand appeal of that one… I find it rather boring, frankly. While this hardly matches the greatness of Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper Goes to Hell is something of an undervalued album in my book. There are a number of valuable gems strewn throughout this album, and there are more than enough creative ideas to keep it interesting. Cooper has always made great efforts to write entertaining songs, and this album is just another example of his good work. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Lace and Whiskey (1977)Album Score: 11If you thought that tight disco song on Alice Cooper Goes to Hell was too uncharacteristic to be believed, just wait until you hear this album. You will hear rockabilly, Euro-dance, country-western, church music and a sappy love ballad. Really! The rest of the songs are the far more expected heavy pop-rock and theater music. This diversity is crazy!!! There’s nothing better than an insanely diverse album... if you want my opinion... even though it does end up causing some problems. But I’ll talk about that later. First, let’s talk about the opening three tracks. All of them are the heavy pop-rockers, and thus nothing that you haven’t heard Alice do before. ...But they’re certainly worth hearing, because they’re awesome! “It’s Hot Tonight” is a has a pretty wicked, heavy riff with a guitar soloing throughout. It’s not his best hard rock effort, but its texture is wonderfully done, and it’s thunderous. A solid opener! The title track comes next, which has a sort of tango rhythm. Yeah, that’s a little prissy to be sure and I almost wish that it was mixed better, but the melody is catchy and the captivating harmonies make it that much nicer. “Road Rats” is the one song on here that all Alice Cooper fans really need to hear. That bluesy riff in the verses packs quite a punch, and that transition to the more pop-rock oriented chorus was an excellent touch. After that, the album gets weirder. “Damned If You Do” is the country-western song I was talking about, but it’s not true country-western, because it’s too good. The pace is too fast and the beat is too driving. Plus, the melody is too original and the harmonies are not cliche enough. Yeah, Alice Cooper was so good at it that he would have been booed right off the stage at any tavern in the American South!! That electric guitar mimicking the slide guitar is an especially fun touch... Yeah, that electric guitar sounds too good for country, too. (Take that, country music!) After those four enjoyable, harder rocking songs are finished playing, Alice gives us a ... er ... silly love song? It’s called “You and Me,” and my first impression was that it would have been something good for Barry Manilow to sing. I then looked on Wikipedia, and I discovered that I wasn’t that far off ... Frank Sinatra actually covered it. Yeah... Alice Cooper wrote a song that Frank Sinatra covered. Really, it’s not such a terrible song. The hooks are very strong, and the harmonies are rather gorgeous. The symphonic strings are drenched a bit too much with high fructose corn syrup, but it’s nothing Alice should feel too embarrassed about. ...The only major problem I have with that song is its placement. After those four heavier rock songs, it sounded like I accidentally switched on a Carpenter’s album or something! Icky! What comes next is a multi-part Broadway suite called “King of the Silver Screen.” You’ll like it depending on how much you like Broadway. Well, I like Broadway!! There are some really awesome, bouncy electric guitar parts throughout. How he works in a bombastic rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is hilarious. The last four songs of Lace and Whiskey are some of the most diverse though the album’s weakest in my opinion. Surely they’re still worth hearing. “Ubangi Stomp” is a surprisingly straitlaced attempt at 1950s rockabilly where Alice seems to have taken the role of a crowd-pleasing, fancy voiced stud who’s probably hoping to get laid that evening. “(No More) Love at Your Convenience” is the Euro-dance song. Considering how much I adore ABBA, you’d think I wouldn’t have a problem with it. But it’s a rather flat sounding albeit overproduced song with hooks that mostly fall flat. (It’s better than Arabesque at least!) “I Never Wrote These Songs” is surprisingly moving if you read the lyrics ... I believe this is the first time Alice ever tried anything confessional before. But lyrics aside, the song doesn’t ever catch fire. The final song is also confessional in which Alice tells us that he’s looking for more spiritual fulfillment in his life. It’s interesting lyrical stuff, and I like those “heavenly” arrangements, but this one seems to be too long. Ah well. Lace and Whiskey ain’t the perfect album. But at least it’s a lot better than its reputation. There’s plenty of stuff on here to keep me entertained. Alice dabbling in other genres might not have been a massive success, but he seems to be giving them his best shot. Nothing on here seems like a toss-off. Even that one song Frank Sinatra covered. The album score was veering toward a 10, but the diversity gave me reason enough to keep it at an 11. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
The Alice Cooper Show (1977)Album Score: 11Alice Cooper had iconic status for his live shows, but somehow that reputation didn't translate to his live albums. The Alice Cooper Show was his only live release in the '70s, and it has a reputation of sucking. Part of that might be understandable; his live shows were most notable for their theatrics, which obviously we can't witness on an audio recording. What ends up bothering people about listening to this is it's a much sloppier and looser than the fine-tuned originals, and Alice Cooper the band purists will probably resent that this live album was released in the solo era. But honestly, it's not that bad. The instrumentalists are not only competent but they rock. Alice Cooper is a terribly fun vocalist who oftentimes adopts a sort of creepy growl in his performances at the delight of his fans as though he were in a musical stage version of a Vincent Price movie. (The Vincent Price-ness extends to Vincent Price himself; his recording of the “Black Widow” monologue is kept fully intact.) And the audience loved it, surely. He always seemed to love giving performances to his screaming fans (that can be frequently heard); he knew what they paid money to see, and he gave it to them. Nothing is more evident of his love for the fans as the song selection. There are 11 tracks here and only two of them came out of Alice Cooper Goes to Hell and Lace and Whiskey, his two most recent works that hadn't been a bit of a commercial and critical disappointment. Instead, he concentrates on his 1971-1975 peak albums with special attention paid to Welcome to My Nightmare, of course, because that's his most popular work. Even when I saw him in concert in 2005, he concentrated mainly on that album. (I guess he never gets sick of it!) That brings me to mentioning the reason I used to be so reluctant to score these sorts of live albums. Considering he only plays his most popular songs, this is more like a greatest hits album. He does have two full selections from his two recent albums, and they're curiously both ballads. (“Go to Hell” and “Wish You Were Here” are included in a three-song medley that I will discuss later.) There's “I Never Cry,” a well-written if not terribly memorable ballad given a somewhat unenthusiastic vocal and instrumental treatment. And then there's that awful piano “You and Me,” which is going to be groan-inducing no matter who performs this or how. Of all the songs from Goes to Hell and Lace and Whiskey, why do these ones? ...Oh well. Let's not dwell on those. The album opens with a cool rendition of “Under My Wheels,” that incredible pop-metal song from Killer that (despite the relative lack of popularity) is arguably the Coop's masterpiece. Don't expect it to pack anywhere near the same punch as the original—it has a much looser feel. But the guitars still crunch along mightily, and that melody is difficult to be beat! Since no Cooper concert would be the same without a rendition of “Eighteen,” one of his most celebrated anthems. His growl-singing did seem to go a bit too far with that one, but it remains a terribly fun performance of a fantastic song! There's also a one-minute snippet from “Sick Things,” in which the theatrics in Cooper's vocals are heightened so much that I can only imagine what weird things were happening on the stage. He also does a rendition of “Is It My Body” from Love it To Death. That's not one of the songs I remember most from that album, but it's great and they make it a fun experience. But the centerpiece of the album is surely the “ Devil's Food/Black Widow” number, which I already mentioned has much of that Vincent Price monologue intact. I listen to it and try to imagine what he was doing on stage... It makes me wonder if this wouldn't have been better served as a concert release! Anyway, this is a great rendition of a great song! Probably the creepiest moment here occurs on the first part of the “I Love the Dead/Go to Hell/Wish You Were Here” medley. Wow, those guitars were originally more pounding and rocking, but here they're calculated and sinister. That's the sort of interesting change-up, specifically, that I look for in live albums. The remaining parts of the medley aren't nearly as interesting although “Go to Hell” is a blast as well! The whole album closes with a rousing rendition of “School's Out,” which is probably tied with “Eighteen” as his most memorable anthems. They give that song the thunderous spirit that it deserves... The guitars are chomping hard and the drums are pounding deep... all the meanwhile we can hear the insane wailing of all his excited minions (the audience). It's a lot flashier than the original, but that's what a crowd-pleaser like Alice Cooper does! (And I don't mean anything derogatory in the term “crowd-pleaser” ... Everyone's part of the crowd, and musicians ought to work on pleasing them. There's nothing scientific about such a concept.) I have no way of knowing if Alice Cooper had better live performances in his career, and I regret that there aren't any live releases from the band era. Nonetheless, this is an altogether decent recording, and hearing Cooper perform these old favorites always proves to be a good time. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Alice Cooper and Cheap Trick Live: Topeka, Kan. (September 7, 2005)ALICE COOOOOOOOOPERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! And I have my hearing back, too! It wasn't looking good after the next couple of days, but my hearing totally resumed in full! ...I'm actually a very busy man at the moment, and I simply don't have time to dabble in all those irrelevancies that plagued my previous live concert reviews. That's right, there's a test somewhere that I'm not studying for. And, I'm listening to Joan Baez (I'm not lying, either), so those little irrelevancies don't seem very important. Besides, there's nothing much irrelevant to report! I left for the Alice Cooper concert right after my Paleoclimatology class got out. ... So, I didn't really have time to do anything irrelevant... Although, there are a few very useful things I learned by attending this Alice Cooper/Cheap Trick concert in Topeka, Kansas on that very fateful September 7, 2005 evening. 1. 6'5'' long-white-haired men with goatees, a few missing teeth, who wear sleeveless shirts don't actually smell that much. In fact, 80 percent of male teenagers (e.g. the one sitting near me) smell much worse. 2. You'd think that being at a chair in front of really short people on the floor seating would be a good thing because you can see over their heads. But, nope. Their genetic misfortune and a digital camera gives them a good excuse to stand on the chairs. 3. Not all that odd people attend Alice Cooper concerts. I met my demographic with this one. The audience consisted of 30 percent geeks/nerds, 20 percent "regular cool people," 20 percent hayseed farm people, 15 percent elderly-I-have-no-idea-what-they're-doing-at-this-concert people, 10 percent people with baffling haircuts, and (to my uttermost shock despite Alice Cooper's costumes) only 5 percent people with that "goth" fetish. So, my demographic (geeks/nerds) was best represented at this concert, which is a first. (For reference, I was outnumbered by office employees at the David Bowie concerts, cowboys at the Bob Dylan concert, maybe-lesbians at the Sarah McLachlan concert, and total dorks at the Brian Wilson concert.) 4. Actually, Cheap Trick doesn't suck. There was a local Topeka band that opened the show ... 30 minutes before it was supposed to start. They sucked, but not that much. They were "hard core heavy metal" ... which ... um ... I don't like that much. They did two songs and then, as the lead singer was building himself a great introduction to a third song (saying something about how great a guitar was) and then consequently being forced off the stage. (HAAAAHHH!!!!!) And then, there was a big pause. And then CHEAP TRICK CAME OUT!!!!!!! ... Actually, I owned the first Cheap Trick album for quite some time, and ... I don't listen to it ... ever. But the band totally didn't suck. I mean, if you didn't enjoy the music, you were at least entertained by the fact that each one of the guitar players changed guitars from one very peculiar guitar to an extremely peculiar guitar upon the advent of a new song! And a six-neck guitar, which gave me the impression that I should start using my mortality. And Cheap Trick really loves themselves ... or at least the lead guitarist (who I can accurately describe as a California raisin in a baseball cap) loves Cheap Trick. He kept on screaming "WHO ARE WE? ... WHO ARE WE? ... WE ARE CHEAP TRICK!" in the microphone, or some variant of that. And he threw about 126 guitar picks at members of the audience. I guess he figured that these Kansas people at home were wearing their fingers raw by plucking their guitars with their bare fingers. ... Anyway, he didn't throw one at me! I WANTED A CHEAP TRICK GUITAR PICK!!!!!!! BOOOTOTOTOTOTO!!! But, I actually enjoyed the songs! They had that one song that I heard of once ... The one with the intellectual lyrics that goes "I want you to want me ... I need you to need me ..." The lead singer is the only member of Cheap Trick who actually aged well. He still hasn't given up the hair-metal look (where the rest of the band members either went wrinkly or bald), but ... all the more power to you, blonde dude. ... And then ALICE COOOOOOOPEPEPERRRRR!!! ...After the intermission. The stage was set up with a weird skeletal angel thing on the side (which would later be revealed as a guillotine), a coffin, and ... I forgot what else. What's widely considered Alice Cooper's greatest song (Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera") started playing and a very very frightening demonic scream was heard as Alice Cooper appeared on that Topekan stage. (Actually, I would discover later that the demonic scream was not produced by anyone associated with the stage act, but the woman standing behind me.) Then, Alice Cooper started to sing ... a song ... (I honestly forgot what it was. I think it was "Department of Youth") and he was strutting around a ... showman's stick... Overall, Alice Cooper's stage antics were most delightful. It was not only delightful because it was exactly what I expected out of an Alice Cooper concert (lots of weird B-grade horror movie props, snakes, coffins, violence, etc.) but ... IT WAS FREAKING HILARIOUS!!! ... I mean, I saw Alice Cooper doing things on Wayne's World and stuff, but ... whoah. Whenever he'd smack a guitarist or his daughter (who'd dance around on stage frequently wearing just enough clothes to not be considered totally indecent), he had his head chopped off via a guillotine and re-emerged in a coffin at one point ... it MADE ME LAUGH! ... Because, as we all know, violence is funny. I was more amazed at Alice Cooper's personality. He didn't come across as a human being. Rather he was more of an actor who was sent from the netherworld to play with snakes, conduct fake violence, and deliver a rock concert. He didn't actually "talk" until the encore. It was all dancing, singing, and playing with props-- Oh yeah, Alice Cooper sang songs! ... Not only was Alice Cooper's stage antics meant to be unabashedly crowd-pleasing, but so was his set list! ... Very very few songs were actually from his latest album. (I know for sure that there was one, "Dirty Diamonds," but I think there might have been another.) Most of them were from his most beloved period between 1971 and 1975, including nearly every song from Welcome to My Nightmare. Seriously, I think he did every bloody song on that album except for one or two! (He even did that weird suite that appears at the end of it!) I also don't think "Feed My Frankenstein" isn't that bad of a song ... Well, it is a bad song, but at least ... at least it's better than Joan Baez! (That's right, I'm a sexist Republican.) Also, seeing the song performed in PERSON and not on the radio or on Wayne's World is kinduva thrill. That brings me to my last and final point. ALICE COOPER IS AWESOME!!! ... This was seriously an utterly phenomenal concert experience and anyone in the world who ever consciously forwent attending an Alice Cooper has their life devalued accordingly. Going to this concert seriously made me reconsider demoting the January 2004 David Bowie concert as the best concert I've ever attended. Anything doing that is seriously worth considering a mention in the Encyclopedia Britannica. |
All reviews are written by Michael Lawrence.
