One of the enduring enigmas of heavy rock: Is Alice Cooper a band or is Alice Cooper a person. The answer, for any readers who aren't that well-versed in lore or music, is both. But that never really seems quite right, because Alice (the man once known as Vincent Furnier) is such a large personality that he makes it hard to acknowledge anyone else sharing the stage with him, because Alice Cooper, the solo artist, released his first album only a year or so after the breakup of Alice Cooper, the band, and because the theatrical stage show and creepy storytelling are at least as defining as either of them.
Alice Cooper started as a group of high schoolers who could barely play their instruments in Phoenix, Arizona in the mid-60's, and managed to get signed by Frank Zappa to his indie label in 1968. Their first two albums on his label, 1969's Pretties for You and 1970's Easy Action are loose and unpolished, but the somewhat avant-garde compositions and quirky arrangements give a hint about the creativity that would become clearer later when they developed the chops, funding and focus to more clearly showcase it.
Alice Cooper started as a group of high schoolers who could barely play their instruments in Phoenix, Arizona in the mid-60's, and managed to get signed by Frank Zappa to his indie label in 1968. Their first two albums on his label, 1969's Pretties for You and 1970's Easy Action are loose and unpolished, but the somewhat avant-garde compositions and quirky arrangements give a hint about the creativity that would become clearer later when they developed the chops, funding and focus to more clearly showcase it.
1971's Love It to Death is a landmark album, Alice Cooper's last with Zappa's "Straight" label, and first with producer Bob Ezrin (who I consider to be an integral part of the band). It was the band's first commercial success, and demonstrates enormous musical progress, particularly as instrumentalists. The band went on to release four more albums in less than three years, a break-neck writing, recording and touring pace that, remarkably, resulted in a large catalog of consistently terrific music. All of Killer, School's Out, Billion Dollar Babies and Muscle of Love are highly recommended. Alice even managed one excellent album without his bandmates in 1975's Welcome to My Nightmare (still produced by Ezrin) before the quality of the output started to fade.
In the early 70's, Alice Cooper was an integral part of heavy metal's and glam rock's roots, but, perhaps even more importantly, they founded modern shock rock, and their influence can be seen decades later in the likes of Mercyful Fate, Gwar, White Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot and Ghost B.C., to name a few. Despite their status as innovators, the music itself still holds up over 40 years later as progressive and powerful. Here are a pair of clips, both from the Love It to Death album: the studio version of my favorite, "Black Juju" and a live for television performance of the eerie "Ballad of Dwight Fry".
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