Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! My Adventures in the Alice Cooper Group

[uwe]

Flush the fashion was my first concert. Davey Johnstone was with him and I remember that being an excellent show. I saw him a year later for Special Forces and liked it, but it wasn't the same. I didn't really know enough to know why, but I put it down to my being so excited the first time. Still good memories though.

I saw this the other day and I think it should probably go here:

Very cool to see those old badgers recreate their sound so well - no one does it quite like them. It's refreshing to witness Vince without eye make-up and his usual "Alice, the Act" stage demeanor as just the singer of an - somewhat elderly - rock band. 

When I first heard that Davey Johnstone of all people was in Alice's band I thought "what an ill fit, an Elton John guy with Alice Cooper", but it worked out surprisingly well. Johnstone - ever since his Magna Carta days - is versatile without being bland.

[nofi]

while not a die hard fan i do like many cooper songs. i never liked the dress up thing at all. it looked dated from the start and diminished the impact and cheapened the value of many great songs, imo.

[uwe]

I was a budding adolescent when I saw Cooper first on TV (Top of the Pops) with this vid here, I'd have to lie if I wouldn't admit that I was completely mesmerized by his look. Ignore the music which is not original (but a credible tribute), I couldn't find an original TOTP performance that plays in Germany:



When I dug a little deeper and heard the rumours in school that "Alice Cooper kills chickens on stage"

(he never did, well just one, but that was an unfortunate accident as the chicken refused to fly when he threw it back into the audience - from where it had come too; young Vince had missed a lot of biology class which also probably explains that gender uncertainty evidenced by his later stage name)

that only added to the fascination.

Over time though, you're right, the image probably drove more people away than it initially attracted.

My first rock album ever was - no, not Deep Purple, that was my 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th - Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits. I adored loved (it) to death that album and its wonderful sleeve,



thought every single track brilliant. Still know it by heart today. The pun inherent to the "greatest hits" title on one hand and the mob style cover on the other only dawned on me decades later though! 

[Nocturnal]

That greatest hits album was one of my first albums as well. I still love that album and the CD gets semi-regular spins during my drive times. I used to like Flush the Fashion too but not sure that has held up all that well. I still like "Clones" tho.

[Highlander]

First "album" (a tape) was Billion Dollar Babies ... bought Muscle on release and much of it up until he went golf-pro, then sporadic... it would be good if he did one more recording with what's left of the band though... a nice pic has emerged of the four of them together recently...

[Nocturnal]

Ken, your book arrived today. I won't be able to ship until Monday because I am leaving town directly from work tomorrow and won't return until Sunday afternoon. I will update you when it ships.

[Highlander]

Something may have arrived Andy... safe and sound...

In your dept, Sir...!