The Alice Cooper Thread

[Susan Foreman]

RIP Dick Wagner

Richard 'Dick' Wagner was one of Alice's most notable guitarists. He first turned up on the 'School's Out' album, where he provided the solo on the song 'My Stars'.

He appeared on 'Billion Dollar Babies', playing guitar and co-writing 'I Love The Dead', although his contribution to the lyrics is uncredited.

He then played on 'Muscle Of Love'

With the break up of the original Alice Cooper Group, and the emergence of Alice Cooper (the solo artist), Wagner was probably the single most important musician on board. His sense of melody and guitar playing were essential to Alice's survival on his own.

He co-wrote and performed with Alice on all the albums from 'Welcome To My Nightmare' until 'From The Inside'.

He later turned up on 'Zipper Catches Skin', 'Dada' and co-wrote 'Might As Well Be On Mars' for the 'Hey Stoopid' album, although he didn't play on the record

Apparently he also co-wrote some material for 'The Last Temptation' which didn't make the final album.

On July 30th 2014, it was anounced that Dick Wagner had passed away following a series of heart and lung problems.

[troggi]

I remember buying "From the Inside" and a workmate saying "it's crap, Wagner's not on it!" He was a stalwart fan who felt about the "Alice Cooper Band" in much the same way as I felt about the classic Deep Purple, Yes and Uriah Heep line-ups. I think that he was wrong about the album being "crap" but right about Wagner, he was a great contributor to the Alice Cooper mythos and will be missed.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by troggi

I remember buying "From the Inside" and a workmate saying "it's crap, Wagner's not on it!" He was a stalwart fan who felt about the "Alice Cooper Band" in much the same way as I felt about the classic Deep Purple, Yes and Uriah Heep line-ups. I think that he was wrong about the album being "crap" but right about Wagner, he was a great contributor to the Alice Cooper mythos and will be missed.

'From The Inside' is one of my favourite Alice albums

Incidentally, Dick Wagner IS on the album, alongside Steve Lukather (from Toto)and Rick Nielsen (from Cheap Trick). He also co-wrote 7 of the ten songs included

Also, your mate was wrong. 'FTI' is not by the Alice Cooper Band. It is by Alice Cooper as a solo artist

[Susan Foreman]

With the untimely death of Robin Williams in mind...

...Did you know that Alice Cooper is mentioned in the very first episode of 'Mork And Mindy'?



From about 13 minutes in

[Susan Foreman]

It seems that there will be a new live Alice DVD released soon

""Raise The Dead - Live At Wacken" will be available as DVD + CD Digipack . The DVD contains 22 songs from the Wacken concert and bonus material shows an interview with the man himself. The double CD has the complete concert. BluRay Amaray (Full HD). FSK 12, running time 75 min plus another 20 min of interview. 22 Songs LIVE…. a phenomenal stage show, all classics in one package + – Alice Cooper – one the biggest entertainers ever! Just enjoy the show!

RELEASE DATE:
DE: October 17th, 2014
UK: October 20th, 2014
US: October 21st, 2014"

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by suziginajackson

It seems that there will be a new live Alice DVD released soon

""Raise The Dead - Live At Wacken"

Track listing:

"Hello Hooray, House Of Fire, No More Mr Nice Guy, Under My Wheels, I'll Bite Your Face Off, Billion Dollar Babies, Caffeine, Department Of Youth, Hey Stoopid, Dirty Diamonds, Welcome To My Nightmare, Go To Hell, He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask), Feed My Frankenstein, Ballad Of Dwight Fry, Killer/I Love The Dead, Break On Through, My Generation, Poison, School's Out (inc. Another Brick In The Wall)"

For some reason, it appeared that the covers of "Revolution" and "Foxy Lady", which were performed at the show, are not included on the release

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by suziginajackson

Rumour has it that the upcoming covers album will feature Paul McCartney

Mucho confusion!!!!

Apparently there is a Paul McCartney tribute covers album due to be released soon - Kiss, Alice Cooper and Bob Dylan Lead All-Star 'Art of McCartney' Tribute

It's possible that Alice was meeting with Paul for this project, and not the Alice covers album

[Susan Foreman]

When people find out that I am a fan of Alice Cooper, one of the questions that ALWAYS seems to come us is...what is the meaning of the make-up

Well, when he has been wearing make-up, Alice has had a number of looks:

Eyes

When he first started wearing eye make-up, the first design is known as 'the spider eyes' [fig 1]. Yes, the design looks like spiders, but the actual concept comes from the heavy make-up worn by Bette Davis in 'Whatever Happened To Baby Jane', mixed with the idea of "tears of someone crying making the mascara run"

This was later changed to the more famous 'Clown' make-up, and this is actually inspired by the sad clown which would appear in Italian opera [fig 2]

Mouth

When it comes to the mouth area, most people assume that this is supposed to represent (either) vampire fangs, or a trail of blood down the chin where a victim has been bitten. However, the actual design is (I think) more disturbing that that. The lines down Alice's face represent a ventriloquist dummy [pic 3]

[Susan Foreman]

Alice covers 'Eleanor Rigby' for the 'Art of McCartney' Tribute album



It seems a bit of a pointless cover. The tune is so much like The Beatles version, they might just as well used the original backing track, and there is none of the Alice persona in the vocals

It's a loving version yes, but it could have been so much more

[Susan Foreman]

Alice Cooper's Dead Drunk Friends | VICE United States