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Demdike@Cult Labs 23rd June 2019 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SymbioticFunction (Post 606018)
I certainly don't want to sound out of order but I would suggest that it's a mistake for a big fan to wait for Alice's 29th studio album to turn up in a charity shop. It's certainly superior to 'Pretties For You', the non-Poison 'Trash' music and the non-Vengeance Is Mine 'Along Came A Spider' music. I don't personally see a Cooper collaboration with Joe Perry, Tommy Henriksen and Johnny Depp as a bad thing. This is a fun album imo and well worth checking out.

Classic Rock gave it 6/10 and their female reviewer also has issues with Depp and his alleged wife abuse. Calls it
Quote:

"A problematic listen and it leaves a distinctly sour taste"
I really hope she doesn't read The Dirt.

The final line of her review reads -

Quote:

Rise is long, unfocused and sprawling which could have done with editing but when Hollywood Vampires are good they distill the spirit of classic rock as effortlessly as you'd hope for men of Cooper and Perry's calibre.

SymbioticFunction 23rd June 2019 01:48 PM

For her sake, I hope she's not a Harry Potter fan.

Susan Foreman 23rd June 2019 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SymbioticFunction (Post 606018)
I certainly don't want to sound out of order but I would suggest that it's a mistake for a big fan to wait for Alice's 29th studio album to turn up in a charity shop

But regular readers know that I tend to buy music cd's about 20 years after they have been released!

Susan Foreman 24th June 2019 06:26 AM

Sensationalism from The Daily Mail

"Alice Cooper has DEATH PACT with his wife as he 'couldn't live without her'

EXCLUSIVE: Rocker Alice Cooper says 'The Lord is our glue' and has kept him and his wife Sheryl Goddard together and in love for 43 years
Shock rock king Alice Cooper made an art of terrifying audiences during his Seventies heyday.

Sticking his head in a guillotine on stage. And performing a mock hanging which nearly killed him.

He was even rumoured to have slept in a coffin with a built-in stereo installed.

So when we start talking about his devoted wife of 43 years, Sheryl Goddard, it’s somehow not quite so shocking when Alice, 71, stares into my eyes and sighs: “We’ve made a pact – there is no way of surviving without each other.

“I couldn’t live without her. We always said there will never be a time when one of us will be mourning the other.

“Whenever it does happen, we are going to go together.


“I’ve been married 43 years to the greatest girl in the world. We have never cheated on each other.”

It’s entirely believable. In a rock world littered with shattered marriages, they’ve been inseparable since Sheryl, 61, began dancing in his stage shows in 1975.

And they’ll perform together when the Alice Cooper band comes here in October.

“She dances better now than she did in 1975. You would think people would want to get away from the wives but she is my best friend. And there is no way of surviving without each other.”

They met six years after Alice accidentally created the shock rock genre which marks its 50th anniversary in September.

His band were playing the Toronto Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival Festival when, legend has it, a fan threw a live chicken on stage.

Alice chucked it back into the crowd where it was torn it to pieces and the bits thrown back on stage.


Sick as it was, the incident catapulted the band into notoriety, and the man born Vincent Furnier became the king of shock through his morbid and truly wild stage props – even singing with a boa constrictor round his neck.

In 1972, the release of rebel anthem Schools Out made him a hero to a whole generation of teenage pupils.

But his next big hit No More Mr Nice Guy couldn’t have been further from reality.

As he talks of the cocaine days he put behind him, and his star mates from David Bowie and Mick Jagger to Johnny Depp, he comes across as a really nice guy.

Despite their death pact, Alice reckons both have a long way to go before that eventuality arises – and cites his 96-year-old mum Ella Mae Furnier as his inspiration.


He says: “She’s indestructible. It must be in the genes. I’m 71 and weigh the same I did when I was 30. I’ve got that body that doesn’t get exhausted. I don’t smoke. I haven’t had a drink for 37 years.

“I’m the only one in the band that doesn’t get sick. I cut out sugar and I drink a lot of Diet Cokes. Maybe they are keeping me well.

"And the two-hour stage show is your aerobic.”

It’s all a far cry from the other coke he used to be into. He reckons the one reason he is still alive is because he quit the drug of choice in LA in the Seventies.

He says: “I lived there during the great cocaine blizzard. I didn’t know one person that didn’t do cocaine.

“It was a period of your life that you got through and then never touched it again.

“I lived through it but a lot of my friends did not live through it.”

Now it’s all about fitness for Alice – and an enduring love of rock and roll. “That’s why I carry on,” he says.

He even compares himself to Mick Jagger who took to the stage with the Rolling Stones on Friday night after a heart operation. Alice says: “He’s is an alien from another dimension. Mick and Keith (Richards) hit
it hard on the road – how are they
still alive? Keith told me he quit years ago. Mick is unbelievable, probably not human.”

Alice also counts David Bowie as a friend, despite there always being rumours of rivalry between the two outrageous showmen.

“People wanted there to be a rift but I honestly I admired what Bowie did. There was no friction at all between us,” he says.

As well as touring with the Alice Cooper band, Alice is also one third of rock outfit The Hollywood Vampires alongside A-list actor Johnny Depp, 56, and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, 68.

The group is named after a celeb drinking club formed by Alice in the 1970s which included the likes of John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon.

There have been recent reports that Alice has been helping pal Johnny as he overcomes his acrimonious divorce from Amber Heard, 33.

But Alice insists Pirates Of The Caribbean actor Johnny is in fine fettle.

He says: “I never believed in fake news in my life. But then we were about to tour and I read this article saying ‘Johnny Depp weighs 110lb’.

“But he is in perfect condition. It said he was depressed, but he was laughing and playing guitar. Everything it said was the total opposite to what is reality.

“I said to him, ‘How do you live with this?’ He goes, ‘It’s just Hollywood. You’ve just got to live with it’.

"We have been together in the band for five years now and there has never been one argument about anything.”


While Alice goes on providing the wow factor during his epic gigs, off stage Mr Nice Guy can be found doing stuff you might expect from a dad-of-three of his age – babysitting the grandchildren.

“I have twin grandsons – they see Alice Cooper the character and they know it’s the character I play,” he explains. “They say, ‘You play a monster, but you are not really a monster, Grandad’.”

Alice laughs and admits that in these times it’s harder to shock audiences like he did way back when.

“We still do things that would have been shocking in the 1970s but now it is just theatrics,” he says.

“People see the Alice Cooper show for what it is.

“When you can’t be more shocking than CNN, then you really do quit trying to shock.’"
With a lot of the article being taken out of context, Alice has released the following statement:

"Sheryl and I do NOT have a death pact, we have a LIFE pact. We love life so much. What I said was that because we're almost always together, at home and on the road, that if something did happen to either of us, we'd most likely be together at the time. But neither of us has a suicide pact. We have a life pact. And, besides, I'm booked through 2028, so..."

SymbioticFunction 24th June 2019 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman (Post 606044)
But regular readers know that I tend to buy music cd's about 20 years after they have been released!

Fair enough. :) A naughty person currently has the full album on YouTube so you can have an early listen to the whole thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC633i46LFs

Susan Foreman 25th June 2019 08:11 PM

July 25th, 1969 - 50 years ago today, the debut album from The Alice Cooper Group, entitled 'Pretties For You', was released on Frank Zappa's 'Straight' label

While it's not a great album, it's not as bad as many people claim. It's a sign of it's time, and the influences of Zappa and (psychedelic) Pink Floyd is obvious. But this is a band who are still finding their feet and there are some good songs on offer - 'Reflected', which would later be reworked as 'Elected' from the 'Billion Dollar Babies' album, and 'Levity Ball' which is as catchy as anything and an indication of things to come

The finished record was effectively a demo. In his first autobiography, 'Me Alice', Alice describes the making of the album. Paraphrasing things:
The band looked forward to recording their first album under the guidance of Zappa, someone they admired a great deal, but it didn't turn out quite the way they expected. Zappa was apparently barely present during the short sessions, instead leaving the actual production work to Ian Underwood, a member of Zappa's band. The band proceeded to run through the songs ready for the actual recording when Zappa reputably appeared declaring the sessions done and that the album would be ready in a week! Members of the band pointed out that there were mistakes that needed to be repaired but Zappa's just said "don't worry, we'll fix it in the mix', and that was pretty much the last they heard from him!
Upon it's release, one review descibed the album as "...a tragic waste of plastic....". Nasty maybe, but without it (and follow-up album 'Easy Action') we would never have had the likes of 'Love It To Death', 'Killer' and 'Billion Dollar Babies'

Of course the album didn't sell that well, but it sold more then the '50 copies to friends and family' that is sometimes suggested. It peaked at #194 on the Billboard chart listing for August 2nd 1969, almost certainly due to the Zappa connection


Demdike@Cult Labs 30th June 2019 01:47 PM

Alice Cooper - Wicked Young Man

A two disc box set that comprises the albums Brutal Planet and Dragontown is on Music Magpie for £2.09

Two excellent heavy Alice albums, bargain really.

https://store.musicmagpie.co.uk/prod...cked-young-man

One in stock at time of posting.

Susan Foreman 30th June 2019 03:14 PM

'Brutal Planet' as also been re-released under the titles 'Pick Up The Bones' and 'Shock Rock: The Early Days'

although neither one contains the Japanese bonus track 'Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me' or the extra tracks on the 'tour edition' release:

It's The Little Things (live)
Wicked Young Man (live)
Poison (live)
My Generation (live)
Total Rock Documentary (radio show)

SymbioticFunction 30th June 2019 03:55 PM

I've got the Clowns Will Eat Me track. But on a UK reissue of Dragontown. Anyway as I've just posted elsewhere, the more I listen to Rise, the more I like it. Have now played it several times since release (that certainly didn't happen with Paranormal). I now think it's the best Alice record since The Eyes of Alice Cooper (which I loved).

Susan Foreman 5th July 2019 05:23 AM

Alice has just started the 'Ol' Black Eyes Is Back' tour, with a show at the Grand Theater at Foxwoods, Mashantucket, Connecticut with a show on July 4th, 2019

From what I am led to believe, this is the setlist:
  • Feed My Frankenstein
  • No More Mr. Nice Guy
  • Bed of Nails (first time live since 2004)
  • Raped and Freezin' (first time live since 2008)
  • Fallen in Love
  • Muscle of Love
  • I'm Eighteen
  • Billion Dollar Babies
  • Poison
  • Nita Strauss solo
  • Roses on White Lace (first time live since 1988)
  • My Stars (first time live since 1974)
  • Devil's Food
  • Black Widow Jam
  • Steven
  • Dead Babies (first time live since 2009)
  • I Love the Dead
  • Escape
  • Teenage Frankenstein (first time live since 2001)

    Encore:
  • Under My Wheels
  • School's Out

No doubt the songs played will change over the coming weeks, but I'm disappointed there's no 'Welcome To My Nightmare', 'Only Women Bleed', 'Cold Ethyl' or 'Dwight Frye' but 'Roses On White Lace' and 'Teenage Frankenstein'...IF this list is true!!!

No word on any theatrics as yet, but we are being promised a new FrankenAlice monster and the stage set is supposedly based around a castle design. A basic idea can be seen from a short clip of 'Feed My Frankenstein' which has been uploaded to YouTube



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