45, yeah... b/w Hard Hearted Alice.
I just downloaded Muscle of Love. No sign of Minelli.
― gnarly sceptre, Monday, 21 July 2008 13:29 (sixteen years ago) link
I think "Hard-Hearted Alice" has long-time Chicago journalist Bob Greene on backing vocals...(he was allowed to be token "band member" while he documented the Muscle Of Love tour in '74)...
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 13:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Supposedly he's streaming his new album on Myspace.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Bob Greene?
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
He's just that good!
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Pretties... & Easy Action sooo classik.
― vogtlin, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:13 (sixteen years ago) link
I love "Easy Action" but "PFY" is not very good
― Tom D., Monday, 21 July 2008 16:14 (sixteen years ago) link
wrong. it is very good. so there.
― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:15 (sixteen years ago) link
troof.
― vogtlin, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:19 (sixteen years ago) link
I only have Killer and Love It To Death but they are awesome
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Updating my Coopalog now on CD. Hell, I don't even remember what LPs I still have down in the basement.
― libcrypt, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:33 (sixteen years ago) link
ohh yuh just in case anyone cares i think pretties and easy action were recently reissued as nice price type cds. which is great cause the cds were like $25 otherwise.
― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Sigh. I keep saying I'm gonna try to get into Alice and it just never seems to happen.
― Bimble, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Did you ever hear Teenage Lament 74?? I can't see anyone disliking that song. It was sent by God. And Satan.
― gnarly sceptre, Monday, 21 July 2008 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link
the new thing is up on his myspace...not too bad so far!
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 21 July 2008 17:12 (sixteen years ago) link
at least this first one seems more like 70s type shit instead of metal, i hear saxophones! clapping!
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 21 July 2008 17:13 (sixteen years ago) link
you mean the first song? (sorry, can't stream myspace at work.)
That first album on New West was really terrible. Is this basically the followup to that?
― Mackro Mackro, Monday, 21 July 2008 17:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Thing is even Alice knows he's been a joke for decades. Remember when he had the steroid-gobblin' body-builder who was supposed to look like a commando on guitar? He's been missing for at least fifteen years. Where did he go?
Time to resurrect this fanzine review from one of the Mick Box threads:
ALICE COOPER Flush The Fashion AC doesn’t get enough credit for his chameleonic exploits. Then again, while Bowie was ripping off the hip uptown vanguard of Lou Reed and Neu!, Alice was fixated on the tricks of Meatloaf and Croft Superstars. He had his ear to the rail at the turn of the 80’s, however, when Devo and Tubeway Army came marching into his life. He quickly assembled a supporting cast of Italian-American session men, adopted a new militant transvestite chic for the stage, and took an armful of his electro-new wave lp’s down to the lab. What we get is an inebriated but spirited hodgepodge of approximations that today he doesn’t recall recording. Alice showcases his knack for timeless throwaway rhymes that sporadically appear to lead to some notion of sense, before abandoning course into the ninny non-sequential rants of an eighty-pound blackout alcoholic. But he’s got a lot on his mind, and wastes no time railing against cyborgs, gay bars and nuclear contamination, while ruminating on the virtues of police brutality and exceeding recommended dosages of aspirin. Many topics touched on by Gary Numan himself, though Alice curiously paws at them with a washed-up drunken whimsy. In fact, the degree to which his synth pop is so off-the-mark and decidedly un-bleak, makes this lp is a bit of an anomaly. And I wouldn’t doubt if future generations judge him more reverently for this madcap stab at de-evolution than his famously snarky rock anthems to high school and fucking dead people. Clocking in at a lean 30 minutes, this tour de force of garage-damaged Casio-core is a shoe-in sensation for your next dance party. (Also recommended if you can track it down: the Paris-only TV special which features Alice lip-synching these tunes in such exotic locales as subways, alleys, and junkyards, all one-shot videos with a total production value of thirty bucks or so)
― Gorge, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:03 (sixteen years ago) link
On that latter note:
'Clones (We're All)' from Paris
But perhaps even better:
'Clones (We're All)' from Pink Lady and Jeff
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:06 (sixteen years ago) link
From comments on the latter:
barriobajaj (2 weeks ago)
Is it just me or is Alice Cooper aping Gary Neuman?
chunkino (2 weeks ago)
Why do you think the song is called "Clones."
---
Chunkino was wise.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:07 (sixteen years ago) link
That's a fantastic fanzine review, Gorge. Thanks for posting it.
― Bimble, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Actually, if you could find a bunch of people writing reviews like that for a real magazine devoted to reissues in 2008, I'd buy a two year subscription.
― Gorge, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Ha! Yeah me too!
― Bimble, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:13 (sixteen years ago) link
sigh...I really miss the days when Alice tried...
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:24 (sixteen years ago) link
on a creepy note, I recently dug up my old concert program from the Special Forces tour, and it's uncanny how much AC resembled Vera from the old Alice sit-com in those days...dingy broad!
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:26 (sixteen years ago) link
hmmm now i wanna go buy flush the fashion
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link
nice try:
And I wouldn’t doubt if future generations judge him more reverently for this madcap stab at de-evolution than his famously snarky rock anthems to high school and fucking dead people.
― henry s, Monday, 21 July 2008 18:46 (sixteen years ago) link
That's pushing well past the boundary. Maybe 25-50 cents for used vinyl, tops.
― Gorge, Monday, 21 July 2008 19:45 (sixteen years ago) link
http://metalinquisition.blogspot.com/2008/07/kane-roberts-renaissance-man.html
― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Gorge has falsely accused me on another thread of "not getting" Alice Cooper. Libel!
As I said there, my good friend of ten years GAVE me the damn Mascara & Monsters CD last weekend at his baby shower. He just fucking gave me the CD okay? I have it on my iPod now but have not listened yet. Give me one fucking break.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 07:38 (sixteen years ago) link
REPORT BACK.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Saturday, 9 August 2008 07:51 (sixteen years ago) link
yes I am fucking reporting back and low and behold if there's any ILXOR who could make me play Alice Cooper it is Alex in NYC
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:26 (sixteen years ago) link
mmm...."Desperado". Isn't it goth? Or glam? Who fucking cares what it is? I love it.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:28 (sixteen years ago) link
I would like to see Peter Frampton take on Alice Cooper in the ring.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:29 (sixteen years ago) link
"Under My Wheels" I don't know what to do. My brain is humming with glam. I can prove to you that the Brits can do it better if you give me a chance, but shit.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 12:33 (sixteen years ago) link
"She asked me why the singers name was Alice"
No please give me a break this is great stuff. And I still have it on my iPod to enjoy. Be kind to me.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 01:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh no this is the shit. "No More Mr. Nice Guy" now that's some mighty meaty good rock and roll that could even shame the Brits.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 01:34 (sixteen years ago) link
"Only Women Bleed" folks. Goddamnit. This fucking CD smokes. I can't even get over it. Holy shit.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 02:00 (sixteen years ago) link
I can prove to you that the Brits can do it better if you give me a chance.
David Bowie already did that. But Alice Cooper's 70s material (Well, up to and including "...Goes To Hell") was great too.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 10 August 2008 02:02 (sixteen years ago) link
I take it all back!
― Gorge, Sunday, 10 August 2008 03:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Hahahahhaha Thank YOU!!!!!
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 04:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Libcrypt did you read that you bastard?
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 10 August 2008 04:07 (sixteen years ago) link
mmm...."Desperado". Isn't it goth? Or glam?
It's Jim Morrison, isn't it?
― Tom D., Monday, 11 August 2008 11:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Interviewed the man a week ago. Fun guy, showbiz pro. Told me he has no memory of writing, recording or touring behind Special Forces, Zipper Catches Skin and memories of DaDa are somewhat hazy, but present because producer Roy Thomas Baker was such a taskmaster. Also told a great story about some guy (who looked like "the sheriff of any small town in middle America") coming up to him, and instead of the golf question Alice was expecting, saying to him, "DaDa. I listen to that album every day."
― unperson, Monday, 11 August 2008 12:16 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm listening through the Cooper oeuvre today (through Welcome To My Nightmare), and digging it a lot. I think they get better over that span, or least: Muscle of Love didn't do anything for me, but Goes to Hell is great: I like the horns in the mix in the later albums.
― Euler, Saturday, 24 October 2009 13:12 (fourteen years ago) link
I still fly the flag for Flush the Fashion.
― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 24 October 2009 13:16 (fourteen years ago) link
The sound on "Only Women Bleed" isn't very far from what Dylan seems to have been going for on Street-Legal and Slow Train Coming, esp. "Man Gave Names To All The Animals", both in the bass sound and in the rhythm of the vocals (at least in the verses of "Only Women Bleed").
― Euler, Saturday, 24 October 2009 13:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Maybe its somehow obvious, Only Women Bleed to me always sounded like a half-sister of Lou Reed's Berlin.
― Marco Damiani, Saturday, 24 October 2009 13:45 (fourteen years ago) link
bought copies of killers, love it to death, and easy action recently - kind of on a whim, but also in response to the ravings of a close (and very wise) friend who's been a die-hard fan for decades. weird to find that something really and truly brain-snappingly BRILLIANT has been loitering around trying to get your attention your entire goddam life. why was i not made aware at age 13, when i really needed shit like this? i mean, don't know that i like any three sequential records by any band all that much more than these.
and it's not like i'd never heard of alice cooper. i grew up with the hits, with school's out on the muppet show, with eighteen and welcome to my nightmare and even clones. have heard and dug covers by sonic youth, the melvins, and others i respect. but i never took the time to listen closely, to hang around past my initial dismissal of the cheeze factor. and i was wrong. i was so, so tragically wrong. this is some of the best oddball hard rock i've ever heard, up there with BOC (who occasioned a similar revelation a couple years back), the stooges, bowie's glam era, etc.
i'm ashamed to have ignored alice (the band) for so long, but also thrilled to have found something this rewarding just sitting there waiting to be picked up - super clean copies of all three lps cost about $12 total. dunno that it'll last, but for the moment, "halo of flies" is up there with my top 10 songs of the 70s. and "the ballad of dwight fry" isn't far behind.
while i'm at it, i do not get the lack of love for easy action. pretties for you may be a tough sell, but easy action is fantastic. love the combo of developing hard rock muscle and lingering prog-pop ambition. the songs are less immediate, but the variety and creativity make up for it.
hey, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt_yo76AbQ4&feature=related
― a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 8 December 2009 09:12 (fourteen years ago) link
best part is that i've got another 4 records to go! up through school's out i mean. what i've heard of the later solo stuff i don't dig at all. but who knows? i've clearly got a lot to learn...
― a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Tuesday, 8 December 2009 09:15 (fourteen years ago) link