So, it is halloween time

Let's talk about one of the most underrated artists of all time...

Alice Cooper may seem somewhat silly now, but back in the 60's & 70's he was the black sheep of the music world. Freaking out parents and religious people a like. He was the Marilyn Manson, Eminem, Ozzy, Lady GaGa whatever of his time.

And this dude could write a song! it may not seem like it but Alice wrote some great songs.... Bob Dylan said he was an underrated writer. And Miles Davis admired him to.

Anyone else a fan of the coop? whether it's hi classic 70's era, his experimental 80's, or his hair metal comeback in the late 80's early 90's.

[Edited 10/11/11 15:48pm]

I am a HUGE fan of the original Alice Cooper band, particularly Love It to Death, Killer, School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies. Muscle of Love was ok, but obviously inferior to the preceding four albums. Welcome To My Nightmare was interesting but an awfully big departure from the early albums.

After that he largely lost me until his late '80s comeback. While they pale compared to his mighty '70s tetralogy I thought that Trash, Hey Stoopid and The Last Temptation were very solid albums.

While I do not rate them as highly as some fans I do I think his late '70s/early '80s albums are at the very least interesting and well worth a listen (From the Inside, Flush the Fashion, Special Forces, Zipper Catches Skin and DaDa).

Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell are kind of crappy but they were somewhat successful and did set the table for his late '80s comeback.

I'm not really too familiar with his more recent work. Brutal Planet and Dragontown were very strong albums but I wasn't necessarily crazy about the sound of them. Good albums but not necessarily good Alice Cooper albums, if that makes any sense. I quite enjoyed The Eyes of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds. Those two albums probably came the closest to recapturing the garage rock fun that made his early work so great.

rialb said:

I am a HUGE fan of the original Alice Cooper band, particularly Love It to Death, Killer, School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies. Muscle of Love was ok, but obviously inferior to the preceding four albums. Welcome To My Nightmare was interesting but an awfully big departure from the early albums.

After that he largely lost me until his late '80s comeback. While they pale compared to his mighty '70s tetralogy I thought that Trash, Hey Stoopid and The Last Temptation were very solid albums.

While I do not rate them as highly as some fans I do I think his late '70s/early '80s albums are at the very least interesting and well worth a listen (From the Inside, Flush the Fashion, Special Forces, Zipper Catches Skin and DaDa).

Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell are kind of crappy but they were somewhat successful and did set the table for his late '80s comeback.

I'm not really too familiar with his more recent work. Brutal Planet and Dragontown were very strong albums but I wasn't necessarily crazy about the sound of them. Good albums but not necessarily good Alice Cooper albums, if that makes any sense. I quite enjoyed The Eyes of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds. Those two albums probably came the closest to recapturing the garage rock fun that made his early work so great.

Like anyone with a career of work he had his period of crappy production records, but i gotta admit this new record nightmare 2 is pretty good stuff

Gunsnhalen said:

And this dude could write a song! it may not seem like itbut Alice wrote some great songs.... Bob Dylan said he was an underrated writer. And Miles Davis admired him to.

Anyone else a fan of the coop? whether it's hi classic 70's era, his experimental 80's, or his hair metal comeback in the late 80's early 90's.

Yes! As a matter of fact, I am. I will see him live 3 times in the next two weeks, starting this friday in Milano! My concerts 13 to 15.

My favourite albums of his are "Welcome to my nightmare", "Billion dollar babies", "From the inside", "Killer", "Trash", "Hey Stoopid", "DADA"..... lol I like a lot actually.... also "Goes to hell" and "Lace and whiskey" are pretty good. And the new one is pretty cool too. I love "I am made of you", "Last man on earth", "I gotta get out of here" and "Under the bed".

And yes, he definitely has some great songs. Throughout his career, on pretty much all his albums!

lastdecember said:

Like anyone with a career of work he had his period of crappy production records, but i gotta admit this new record nightmare 2 is pretty good stuff

Hmm... I'm not so sure, throughout his career he had solid albums (sure, some where better than the other and some not as good as the other), but there never was a long stretch where he had really, really bad albums... the only stretch that would come to mind is the early 80ies, but even then DADA, which is kinda in the middle of it, is a much better album than I originally thought. I really like it a lot actually.

[Edited 10/11/11 16:30pm]

rialb said:

I am a HUGE fan of the original Alice Cooper band, particularly Love It to Death, Killer, School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies. Muscle of Love was ok, but obviously inferior to the preceding four albums. Welcome To My Nightmare was interesting but an awfully big departure from the early albums.

After that he largely lost me until his late '80s comeback. While they pale compared to his mighty '70s tetralogy I thought that Trash, Hey Stoopid and The Last Temptation were very solid albums.

While I do not rate them as highly as some fans I do I think his late '70s/early '80s albums are at the very least interesting and well worth a listen (From the Inside, Flush the Fashion, Special Forces, Zipper Catches Skin and DaDa).

Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell are kind of crappy but they were somewhat successful and did set the table for his late '80s comeback.

I'm not really too familiar with his more recent work. Brutal Planet and Dragontown were very strong albums but I wasn't necessarily crazy about the sound of them. Good albums but not necessarily good Alice Cooper albums, if that makes any sense. I quite enjoyed The Eyes of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds. Those two albums probably came the closest to recapturing the garage rock fun that made his early work so great.

His work with the Alice Cooper band & his first few solo albums are his best period hands down!, strangely enough Trash was the first i got of him. Got it at a garage sell the cassete tape in 2004.. i was in 8th grade and curious haha. That's a fun album as is Raise your fist but not outstanding. Constricter i like for He's Back & Teenage Frankenstein.. but oh boy did that have some awful tracks! Thrill my gorilla? lol

Zipper Catches Skin is an underrated album, i must say Coop said he also did some of his over the top antics with a wink. I can see that for sure, but it seems lats 2 decades he has kind of been pure camp Alice, where the music is supposed to be over the top & silly. I am mixed on that, his early albums where dark, and also had some great ballads written in there.

PatrickS77 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

And this dude could write a song! it may not seem like itbut Alice wrote some great songs.... Bob Dylan said he was an underrated writer. And Miles Davis admired him to.

Anyone else a fan of the coop? whether it's hi classic 70's era, his experimental 80's, or his hair metal comeback in the late 80's early 90's.

Yes! As the matter of fact, I am. I will see him live 3 times in the next two weeks, starting this friday in Milano! My concerts 13 to 15.

My favourite albums of his are Welcome to my nightmare, Billion dollar babies, From the inside, Killer, Trash, Hey Stupid, DADA..... lol I like a lot actually.... also Goes to hell and Lace and whiskey are pretty good. And the new one is pretty cool too. I love "I am made of you", "Last man on earth", "I gotta get out of here" and "Under the bed".

And yes, he definitely has some great songs. Throughout his career on pretty much all his albums!

lastdecember said:

Like anyone with a career of work he had his period of crappy production records, but i gotta admit this new record nightmare 2 is pretty good stuff

Hmm... I'm not so sure, throughout his career he had solid albums (sure, some where better than the other and some not as good as the other), but there never was long stretch where he had really, really bad albums... the only stretch that would come to mind is the early 80ies, but even then DADA, which is kinda in the middle of it, is a much better album than I originally thought. I really like it a lot actually.

Yeah i am so jealous of you...lol

You get to see like 300 shows a year , i saw Alice on his Dirty Diamonds tour in 05. I was a freshman in high school... and i thought it was amazing. Looking back it was a short show, not even half an hour & he didn't do every theatrical thing he usually does..... but it was atill a good show!
DADA was a pretty bad album for me lol, and as mentioned Constrictor has 2 songs i dig.. the rest are ick lol

Gunsnhalen said:

PatrickS77 said:

Hmm... I'm not so sure, throughout his career he had solid albums (sure, some where better than the other and some not as good as the other), but there never was long stretch where he had really, really bad albums... the only stretch that would come to mind is the early 80ies, but even then DADA, which is kinda in the middle of it, is a much better album than I originally thought. I really like it a lot actually.

Yeah i am so jealous of you...lol

You get to see like 300 shows a year , i saw Alice on his Dirty Diamonds tour in 05. I was a freshman in high school... and i thought it was amazing. Looking back it was a short show, not even half an hour & he didn't do every theatrical thing he usually does..... but it was atill a good show!

Huh?! Really? Then you didn't see a full show of that tour... what happened? Where did you see it? I really liked that tour... he did "I never cry" and "Welcome to my nightmare" and a selection from that album, which he didn't do for quite some time.

Gunsnhalen said:

DADA was a pretty bad album for me lol, and as mentioned Constrictor has 2 songs i dig.. the rest are ick lol

That's what I thought too, when I bought it like 16 years ago.... only about a year or so ago, I realized what a fun album it is. You should give it another try. "Enough's enough", "Former Lee Warmer", "Pass the gun around", "Scarlet and Sheba" and "Fresh blood" are cool songs. "I love america" is fun and camp.

[Edited 10/11/11 16:31pm]

I'm a huge fan of The Coop!!! He is in my top 3 of all time, right between Prince and KISS. I'd list my favorite albums by him, but it's pretty much ALL of them! I'm really enjoying the new, Welcome 2 My Nightmare! I've seen him in concert 6 times, and each time was more amazing than the last!!! He is the most underrated song writer in history, and I remember that quote from Dylan.

*Also...don't forget about his real early stuff on Frank Zappa's label, Easy Action and Pretties For You...GREAT STUFF!!!!!!!! LOVE YA ALICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i had a very surreal conversation with AC recently about the different flavours of tea he likes.

its stranges cuz i dont have anything to do with tea lmao...i just let him ramble.

was about 3 weeks ago

PatrickS77 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

DADA was a pretty bad album for me lol, and as mentioned Constrictor has 2 songs i dig.. the rest are ick lol

That's what I thought too, when I bought it like 16 years ago.... only about a year or so ago, I realized what a fun album it is. You should give it another try. "Enough's enough", "Former Lee Warmer", "Pass the gun around", "Scarlet and Sheba" and "Fresh blood" are cool songs. "I love america" is fun and camp.

[Edited 10/11/11 16:31pm]

"Former Lee Warmer" is one of his best songs. It has the classic Alice sound, on a mostly non-traditional Alice sounding album.