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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary.
Alice Cooper became the first star of
horror-shock rock, relying on the most truculent and ridiculous show of
the era. But Cooper had been a disciple of Frank Zappa's satirical operettas,
mainly on Pretties For You (1969),
and later became, first and foremost, a terrific craftman of
"teenage anthems" in the tradition of Chuck Berry.
Epically defiant, Under My Wheels (1971) and School's Out (1972)
represent the authentic, subversive spirit of rock'n'roll, while albums such
as Love It To Death (1971) continued to recycle and borrow themes
from the vaudeville, Broadway showtunes, horror movies, and the Grand Guignol.
Full bio.
The singer and songwriter hiding behind the name
Alice Cooper became famous for inventing horror-shock rock, but in reality he was above all a great creator of “teenage anthems,” in the purest tradition of Chuck Berry. Epically rebellious, they represent the spirit of rock and roll in all its subversive power. His extravagant and outrageous “poses” had their roots in vaudeville, Broadway musicals, horror movies, operetta, and Grand Guignol theater.
Vincent Furnier, hailing from the heartland of heavy metal (Detroit), made his debut in Los Angeles as a disciple of Frank Zappa, although what made him popular with middle-class kids was the publicity campaign that presented him as the reincarnation of a little girl who had been burned alive two centuries earlier, a girl named “Alice Cooper.”
Pretties For You (Straight, 1969)
takes Frank Zappa's Dada operettas as its model. The various "scenes" are separated by idiotic one-minute interludes (whether operatic, vaudeville or avant-garde). The chaos includes a symphonic overture, a blues jam, several beat refrains, and above all, traces of psychedelia
(Fields Of Regret and Levity Ball).
The result is outrageous, but naive.
Beat, blues-rock, and psychedelia were also the underlying inspirations for the subsequent
Easy Action (1970), where, however, the gags (extended into suite form) had less bite and imagination and revealed a mediocre and blurred bubblegum for intellectuals
(Mr Misdemeanor,
(Laughing At Me, Shoe Salesman,
Return Of The Spiders)
and self-indulgent experiments
(Lay Down And Die Goodbye).
Having relocated back to Detroit (during the heyday of MC5 and Stooges),
Cooper decided to take off his avantgarde mask and apply his undoubted versatility to the traditional rock song form. The most successful compositions on
Love It To Death (Warner, 1971) define his true personality, because they are invariably the most hard-rock
(I'm Eighteen, to celebrate the new law that allowed 18-year-old kids to drink alcohol)
and the teenage anthems (Caught In A Dream).
The step between genius and clown is very short. His new repertoire consisted
of monstrous theatrical extravaganzas with emphasis on cross-dressing and
horror-shock. Killer (1971) contains
Dead Babies and especially Under My Wheels.
Alice Cooper became a rock star with
School's Out (1972), shamefully exhibiting
all sorts of maniacal depravity without restraint, with a particular predilection for necrophilia
(I Love The Dead, Mary Ann),
but without ever abandoning the vein of teenage anthems in which he still crafts several classics
(School's Out, Elected).
Even the artist
Salvador Dali` paid attention (Dali` employed him for a holographic work of
1973).
Billion Dollar Babies (Warner, 1973), with
Billion Dollar Babies,
Hello Hooray,
Generation Landslide,
Elected and
No More Nice Guy,
and Muscle of Love (1974)
were the best-selling albums of the era.
However, this singer
dumbed down by alcohol and drugs, in the grand scheme of rock things this singer had to resign himself to a supporting role, a poor counterpart to David Bowie and Jim Morrison performing in suburban theaters.
Alice Cooper eventually looked for help to fight his alcohol and drugs
addictions.
Welcome To My Nightmare (1975) introduced a whole new line-up, and
a new Cooper: Only Women Bleed is a ballad with brass arrangements
and Some Folks is a cabaret skit.
Black Widow (although too similar to David Bowie's Sweet Thing)
and especially the
"Steven" tryptich (Years Ago, Steven, The Awakening)
make this first "solo" album a worthy continuation of the silly saga.
Alice Cooper Goes To Hell (1976), with I Never Cry,
Lace And Whiskey (1977), that sets a crime-novel to music,
From The Inside (1978), inspired by his experience as an inmate of a
psychiatric institution,
Flush the Fashion (1980),
Special Forces (1981),
Zipper Catches Skin (1982),
and Dada (1983) marked the slow but steady decline of his antics.
The age of punk-rock and speed-metal was not terribly interested in his
old-fashioned sound.
Cooper tried a new career with the lame pop-metal ofd
Constrictor (MCA, 1986) and
Raise Your Fist And Yell (1987), and finally scored a new hit with
Poison, from Trash (Epic, 1989).
But Hey Stoopid (Epic, 1991)
and The Last Temptation (1994)
failed to capitalized on it.
The brutal attack of Brutal Planet (2000)
and Dragontown (Spitfire, 2001) tried, one more time, to resurrect
the aging star.
The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper (Rhino) is a four-disc box-set that
summarizes Cooper's career.
Along Came A Spider (2008) was a mediocre return to the stage.
Welcome 2 My Nightmarez (2011) was, instead, an amusing (if not
groundbreaking) set of pop songs: notably the power-ballad
I Am Made of You,
the hilarious skit of Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever, a version of
ZZ Top's electronic boogie for zombies,
and Ghouls Gone Wild, catchy punk-rock a` la New York Dolls with a
surf-style refrain.
The limitations of Alice Cooper can be summarized in the fact that too many
of the songs sound like covers:
the roaring A Runaway Train, that sounds like Bob Dylan gone southern boogie,
I'll Bite Your Face Off, a faithful imitation of the classic sounds of
the Rolling Stones,
Last Man on Earth, a blues lament for marching band,
I Gotta Get Outta Here, that mixes blue-collar rock and Mersey-beat.
There is nothing wrong with Paranormal (2017). If a younger band
have included the evil southern boogie Fallen In Love, the
percussive punk-pop You And All Of Your Friends and the
big-band rockabilly Holy Water on the same album, the press would
waste accolades all over them. Alice Cooper did his best to prove that
he could stand up to the new generations, and even gifted a
trademark Alice Cooper-ian anthem to his old fans, Genuine American Girl.
The autobiographical
Detroit Stories (2021), produced by Bob Ezrin, was the first Alice Cooper album to top the sales charts despite being nothing special.
There is little of note past the four covers:
the Velvet Underground's Rock & Roll (1970),
Outrageous Cherry's Our Love Will Change the World (2005),
MC5's Sister Anne (1971) and
Bob Segar's East Side Story (1966).
The psychobilly Go Man Go (with Wayne Kramer of MC5 on guitar),
the rowdy boogie Social Debris,
the visceral funk-soul $1000 High Heel Shoes,
the Chuck Berry-esque rock'n'roll Hail Mary,
the singalong pub anthem Detroit City 2021,
are nostalgic tributes to an era but in that era these songs would have been
considered too stereotypical to be taken seriously.
Then, again, perhaps Alice Cooper was never meant to be taken seriously.
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