The cover of the booklet is gorgeous. That should have been the album cover with the red Alice logo in the sky above the skyline.

Fun album. :) Pleased with this coming after the second (recommended) Hollywood Vampires album. When it finished, my wife said "Play it again" which was very nice. Whilst I would obviously prefer a HD copy of the concert, I took a look and it looked quite decent being upscaled to 4K through my UHD player. Watching the dvd on Sunday afternoon. btw I like this idea of studio albums having a recorded concert as a part of the package. :)

The new edition of Classic Rock seems right up your street, Susan. Eight pages on Alice and six on Kate Bush.

Detroit Stories gets an 8/10 review.

It'll be on sale in shops sometime next week if you want to check it out.

I watched the full Paranormal Evening at the Olympia Paris show last night.

I absolutely loved it, a thrilling experience.

What a band Alice has. Glen Sobel is a terrific drummer, Chuck Garric a powerhouse of a modern metal bass player, whilst guitarists Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie bring both songwriting class and a superior mixture of hard rock and sleaze metal styles to the performance and finally there's Nita Strauss. Arriving on stage covered in blood, she's an absolute blast, a brilliant performing force of nature that would grace any band. Whilst Alice himself is forever the consummate live performer.

Together the band and Alice make songs you've heard a million times previously such as No More Mr. Nice Guy and I'm Eighteen seem fresh, edgy and new whilst lesser performed songs such as Pain and Paranoiac Personality come across as genuinely exciting. Then there's The World Needs Guts. One of the best songs on 1986's comeback album Constrictor which is if anything let down by a shiny production, but live with Strauss, Roxie and Henriksen attacking it in full throttle, it becomes an aggressive heavy metal guitar attack that flayed me in my seat.

A concert dvd i'll definitely be returning to and at £15.49 a bargain...plus i got a free Alice Cooper studio album with it.

By the way. Is it wrong to have the hots for both Calico and Sheryl in their guise as undead nurses?

I'm planning on doing the 'Paranormal Evening at the Olympia Paris' concert a bit later this evening - when the sun has gone down, and it's dark outside

New interview at Forbes

"Sunday Conversation: Alice Cooper Goes Back To His Detroit Roots On New Album

Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer Alice Cooper releases his new album, Detroit Stories, this Friday, February 26. The album takes the shock rock icon back to his roots, back to the early days of playing the Grande, where he recalls some weekends it would be him, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, the MC5 and the Who, or the Kinks or Savoy Brown.

Teaming as usual with producer Bob Ezrin, Cooper has put together a vintage Cooper record, "Guitar-driven rock," as he calls it. The 14-song collection ranges from an impressive cover of the Velvet Underground's "Rock And Roll" to the surreal, upbeat pop of "Our Love Will Change The World."

I spoke with Cooper about the making of the new album, his dream Detroit festival, from Jack White to Bob Seger, his admiration for the Who and much more.

Steve Baltin: How you doing?

Alice Cooper: Just like every other band waiting to get on the road, but we'll see how these shots are going, the vaccines. I think that's gonna make a big difference.

Baltin: How have you adjusted to life at home?

Cooper: In some ways, we had toured so much, 190 cities almost every year, it was kind of a relief. But, at the same time, I don't know one band that's not like a race horse right now at the starting line, wanting to get out and play. We live most of our life on that stage and when you take that away that's like taking a drug away. So it's almost like coming off of a drug.

Baltin: I know, from talking to so many artists, there have been waves of dealing with this, from it's been nice to have more time with the family to losing your mind with restlessness.

Cooper: Especially guys that were lifers, guys that have spent their whole life on the road — [Paul] McCartney, the [Rolling] Stones, us. Most of my life has been on the road. At the same time this has never happened in the history of the world where the world just stopped and everybody had to reorganize. But that didn't mean you couldn't write and record songs. I found myself writing a ton of songs. Johnny Depp called the other day, from the Vampires, and he goes, "I've got so many songs written." I said, "Joe Perry says, 'Me too.' And me too. Let's put out a triple album." That's all you really can do is write and stay connected that way.

Baltin: When was Detroit Stories done?

Cooper: The Detroit Stories album was done before the pandemic, so we had already had that done. And we're already working on the next album, Bob Ezrin and I are. So we're already getting songs and getting a feel for what the next album is going to be. And we could probably do another one after that before we go back out on tour.

Baltin: Does missing the road and thinking of being hungry again remind you of the early days?

Cooper: Bob and I never necessarily go into an album just to do 12 songs. We always try to find a theme, Paranormal and Welcome To My Nightmare and School's Out were all concept albums. It's just the way we think. Both of us are naturally theatrical. So the deal was we were talking about how L.A. had the Doors and that was the sexy rock, with Love. And San Francisco had their Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and New York had the Young Rascals and that sound. Detroit was guitar-driven rock and roll and that's where we belonged. When we didn't click in San Francisco or L.A. we went to Detroit and all of a sudden there we were on stage with bands very much like us. Seals And Croft would never do well in Detroit (laughs) because Detroit audiences want their bands to be loud and with attitude. You gotta have attitude if you're playing Detroit. And that was exactly where we belonged. So when "Eighteen" broke out of Detroit...we would do shows like at the Grande Ballroom in East Town. And it would be the MC5, the Stooges, Alice Cooper and the Who. That's a pretty good night of rock and roll right there. And that was an average weekend, or maybe the next week it was Savoy Brown or the next week was the Kinks or somebody. But all these young Detroit bands, none of us had made it yet. We were just local bands. And yeah, going back to Detroit then was my homage to hard rock. I said, "This album has to be done in Detroit, it has to be all Detroit players, it has to be about Detroit." And literally going to Detroit, recording it in Royal Oak in East Detroit. The only guy that wasn't from Detroit was [Joe] Bonamassa. He was our guest Detroiter. But there were certain songs I really wanted him on, he and Steve Hunter together was gonna be so good. I tried to create characters that would have been in Detroit. The "Hamtramck Hammer" and "Painkiller Jane," characters like that, that I guarantee you live in Detroit (laughs).

Baltin: I loved that with the "Rock And Roll" cover you changed it from a New York station to a Detroit station.

Cooper: Yeah, when Lou [Reed] did it, he did it with the Velvet Underground, and, at that time, that heroin chic, kind of throw it away. And Bob and I heard that and went, "What if we Detroit-ized that song?" And when we did we turned it into a rock monster. We played it for Laurie Anderson and Laurie loved it. And she said, "Lou would have loved this version."

Baltin: I was talking to someone from the U.K. and the debate is always where did the punk scene start, U.K. or New York?

Cooper: No, it's Detroit, Iggy was the ultimate, total punk. It was not sophisticated at all, the Stooges just went (starts humming) and just let Iggy go and do what he does. We wrote more songs I think that were song songs. And the MC5 were a show band, they were like a black revue with white guys. When you saw their show they were a great show band. But here's the crazy thing, back then, if we were playing the Grande and it was a total rock and roll, sweaty, black leather jacket audience, you'd look down and you'd see Smokey [Robinson] and two of the women from the Supremes and a guy from the Temptations. They would come to the rock shows and we would go to see them at the soul revue shows and things like that. In the middle of the riots, if you had long hair and you were in a band you could go to any black bar in Detroit and you were not the enemy. You were a musician. Music was the common denominator.

Baltin: Were there songs on Detroit Stories too where you got that adrenaline rush and you knew you had hit something special?

Cooper: Yeah, and it wouldn't be on the album if everyone of these songs didn't have that. We went through a lot of songs and the ones where we looked at each other and went, "Yes," are the ones that made the album. And that was including Wayne Kramer. We kind of included all the guys, their opinion. If it didn't make us all go, "Yeah," it wasn't gonna make the album.

Baltin: But as an artist you are always pushing yourself harder. So were there moments where you hit the sweet spot?

Cooper: Yeah, Lou Reed's "Rock And Roll" song we listened back to that and went, "Aw, man, we can't do it any better than that. It's on the money." "Sister Anne" was another one like that. "Our Love Will Change The World," as weird as that song is, it's a happy, happy song and the lyrics are totally subversive (laughs). It's like the children of the damned singing to our generation and they're singing to us going, "Could you guys get out of the way? And we're gonna change this world into a place you won't recognize, you won't understand it, but you'll get used to it." And I said, "Wow, what a great juxtaposition. Kids telling us to get out of the way."

Baltin: That goes back to one of the first interviews you and I did when we were talking about the influence of the Who on your writing.

Cooper: Yeah, the Who were so good because if you listen to their records there's nothing ever in the way of anything. That big guitar, that big power chord and Pete Townshend told me when they lost their bass player [John Entwistle] that was half the sound. He says he was like half of the music, "I'm one half and he was the other half." And Keith Moon was, I think, the best stage drummer I ever saw in my life, he was amazing. But when you listen to the records nothing is in the way of the vocals. It's always clean where the vocal comes in. Then where Townshend comes in he comes in at the right time with the right stuff, like George Harrison does with the Beatles. He wasn't overplaying.

Baltin: Are there moments for you on Detroit Stories that take you back to the early days of being on stage at the Grande?

Cooper: Even taking it to the ultimate thing is the original band on the record doing "Social Debris." We wrote that song together, the original band, Glen [Buxton] of course is gone, but we sat and we wrote it because we always felt like "Social Debris." We didn't feel like we belonged in the flow of traffic there. And that song came off as a song that should have been on Love It To Death or Killer. And here's the great story behind this. Bob kept getting these letters from this guy in Ireland and he said the only albums he learned how to play guitar on was Pretty's For You and Easy Action, our first two Frank Zappa albums. And nobody played like Glen. Glen Buxton and Syd Barrett were like two peas in a pod and this guy, that's how learned to play. So Bob got back in touch with him and he said, "So you can play like Glen?" And he says, "Sure." We sent him the track and he played the lead guitar on it. And he sounded like Glen. So after we listened back to that track we all went, "Jeez, we went back to 1972." It's just pure Alice. It's not sophisticated but it just works. You listen to it and you go, "That could be only Alice Cooper, the original band."

Baltin: Who are the three Detroit bands that have to be on your Detroit festival with you?

Cooper: Have to have Jack, Jack White is such a creative Detroit kid. That guy does everything totally against the tide. Everything he does is against everything you learn about writing a hit record. And yet everything he writes is so catchy that it's great. So he's a total maverick musically. You have to have Iggy. Iggy is the heart and soul of Detroit. You can't say Detroit without him. And I think you've got to have Bob Seger. He as many hits as we did. Both of us broke out and became national bands, but it's pure Detroit.

Baltin: When people listen to this record what do you want them to know about Detroit?

Cooper: Detroit's not the butt of the joke. If it is the butt of the joke then it's the most creative butt of any joke ever (laughs). It's a record that goes all over the place, but it's a guitar-driven, rock and roll record. And, to me, that's what Alice Cooper is."

In case you missed here, here is the chat


One of the things mentioned is the plan for the next album is to feature the current touring band on it:

"The whole idea is to show off how tight the band really is so if we write the songs, rehearse them on the road, record it on the road and call the album "The Road" or just "Road". That would be the concept for the whole album."

So what do you think of the new album and concert, Susan?

Both the CD and DVD will have to be played a couple of times for me to totally 'get' them, but...

On first listening, the album is fun...although I don't think many of the songs have potential for being played live. There were a few songs that *did* made me sit up and take note:

- It was strange and a bit disappointing hearing Alice swearing during 'Drunk And In Love'. He has always been 'family safe', so hearing him come out with something that was not PG rated was shocking (and not in the good way you associate Alice with being 'shocking')

- Lyrically, 'I Hate You' is a good, old fashioned tongue-in-cheek Alice track, and something that will become a favourite in time

- I'm not sure what to think about Alice giving the phone number for the Samaritans hotline at the end of 'Hanging By A Thread (Don't Give Up)'. Yes, I know it's probably the most serious song that the band has ever recorded, and the subject matter (Covid) is something that is close to everyone's heart, but this 'breaking the fourth wall' doesn't sit comfortably with me

- 'Shut Up And Rock' is (for me) the best song on the disc and one of the few songs that could make it to the live set

The DVD was good, but it's a bit too light on the theatrics for my liking. The inclusion of 'Pain' and 'The World Needs Gut' was nice - two songs that I don't have on any of my other Alice live DVDs - and I am glad that they dropped the 'Brick In The Wall' segment from 'Schools Out'. It's not the best Alice live DVD I have got, but it's by no means the worst either

For me the best songs on the album are the cover versions. Hanging By a Thread is cringe inducing personally. The Beatles esq love song gets better every time i've played it.

As for playing the songs live. He only needs to choose one. Can't play the same songs you've been playing for fifty years if you're gonna play new stuff. :lol:

As for the theatrics on the concert, that was similar to when i saw him. Barely any theatrics at all.