The Grouchy Gaijin's Thoughts on Music and Such

 

In 1948 in Detroit Michigan Vincent Damon Furnier was born.

Vincent was the son of a religious family who later changed his legal name to Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper, the legend goes, was a 17th century witch whose spirit Vincent would summon before going on stage. The idea was that Vincent sold his soul to Lucifer in order to become a rock star.

Frankly that is a load of crap, brought to us by the same kind of people who have always lead the Witch Hunt. Do you remember the pre-school teachers in the 1980s who had allegedly engaged in Satanic Ritual Abuse of small children? Eventually everyone was cleared and to this day there is NO record of any type of Satanic Ritual Abuse in the United States (I imagine that is true around the world).

However I digress. In the early 1970s Vincent (by then known as Alice) and his band of irreverent musicians had become a unit and were trying to climb their way to the top of the rock music scene. This was after the Beatles, after the "Summer of Love" and all that Peace and Love Hippy nonsense. Alice looked around and said "I want to be the greatest Rock and Roll villain there is!" With that, the era of shock rock had arrived. Elvis Presley asked rhetorically " What have I done?" The reply was clear: Get out of the way you fat greaser; its my turn.

Alice has always been known for his elaborate stage shows. An Alice Cooper concert reminds more of a musical or opera than a rock concert. To be sure the music rocks, he always has some really good musicians with him, I saw him a couple of years ago and the entire band looked about 23 years old. They could defiantly wail. However Alice doesn't break out of character until the show is over and everyone is introduced.

His 1975 album Welcome to my Nightmare is always a prominent part of the show. This album is a bit like the Beatles Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Both albums are "concept" albums that used each song on the album to tell part of a story. If the title track from Sergeant Peppers singled the advance of a new era of peace, love and harmony then Welcome to my Nightmare is a resounding F-you to the Hippies. All is not well in the world and Alice is going to make you aware of that.

Where Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds brought fourth images of a safe, drug induced paradise with tangerine trees and marmalade skies The Black Widow brings us back to earth with a dose of reality. The message is: Its not all fun and games; there are no kaleidoscope eyes with which we can see the truth. Life is hard, bad things happen and sometimes those we are drawn to hurt us the most. The song's opening line read by the late Vincent Price says it all. The Black Widow devours her mate unhampered by emotion.

My favorite song on the album is Cold Ethel. The music is killer. The lyrics if taken seriously would be disturbing. "Cold Ethel's cool in bed. She aught to be, Ethel's dead" Throughout Alice's career he has had the ability to weave fantastic, if disturbing, images together to form his unique brand of Rock and Roll. To quote Groucho Marx with regard to Alice's act: That, is good vaudeville!

You should definitely give this album a listen and if you ever have the chance go to an Alice Cooper show. It will be well worth the price of admission.

Grouch rating 5 out of 5 scowls - a classic.