The Alice Cooper Thread

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Paul Mccartney, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp To Guest On Alice Cooper's Covers Album - Blabbermouth.net

[troggi]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Paul Mccartney, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp To Guest On Alice Cooper's Covers Album - Blabbermouth.net

That "covers" album is bound to be a must for Alice fans but it is also a "definitely maybe" for all the "Dead Drunks" fans. Now that almost covers all bases, talk about great marketing...

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by troggi

That "covers" album is bound to be a must for Alice fans

Not according to some people over at the SickThings Alice Cooper forum

General consensus seems to be 'I'd rather have a proper new Alice album instead of a covers album'

Also the covers section in the show hasn't gone down well with some people commenting that Alice is 'breaking character' by doing it!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by suziginajackson

Not according to some people over at the SickThings Alice Cooper forum

General consensus seems to be 'I'd rather have a proper new Alice album instead of a covers album'

With the likes of McCartney and Depp it's bound to get a lot of publicity near it's release and will probably get him a UK top 10 album which can only be a good thing. It will also most likely be his most successful album since 94's The Last Temptation.

After all these years Alice has nothing to prove and can surely make an album of his choice. So screw the internet whingers.

[troggi]

Originally Posted by suziginajackson

Not according to some people over at the SickThings Alice Cooper forum

General consensus seems to be 'I'd rather have a proper new Alice album instead of a covers album'

Also the covers section in the show hasn't gone down well with some people commenting that Alice is 'breaking character' by doing it!

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

With the likes of McCartney and Depp it's bound to get a lot of publicity near it's release and will probably get him a UK top 10 album which can only be a good thing. It will also most likely be his most successful album since 94's The Last Temptation.

After all these years Alice has nothing to prove and can surely make an album of his choice. So screw the internet whingers.

Gotta admit that I'm with the good master Demdike on this one but I don't think I have the inclination or the staying power to screw all "internet whingers!"

[VeZius]

I've loved Alice Cooper's music all my life, but somehow I haven't bought any of his albums yet. I've just listened to them through various other means. (I do have Brutally Live and Welcome to My Nightmare DVDs..)

So my question is, which releases of his albums should I get? Which are the best remasters?

Would appreciate it if someone who's familiar with his releases could help out.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by VeZius

I've loved Alice Cooper's music all my life, but somehow I haven't bought any of his albums yet. I've just listened to them through various other means. (I do have Brutally Live and Welcome to My Nightmare DVDs..)

So my question is, which releases of his albums should I get? Which are the best remasters?

Would appreciate it if someone who's familiar with his releases could help out.

As far as i'm aware the only album to have been remastered is Welcome to my Nightmare. The rest are all cd issues from 1989 or 1999 in the case of From the Inside.

My favourite Cooper period is Constrictor onwards. I always look at From The Inside as the last album of the first half of his career, with Dada and Zipper Catches Skin a couple of drug fuelled oddities.

So going off that my fave Alice albums from his comeback in release order are -

Raise Your Fist and Yell
Trash
The Last Temptation
The Eyes of Alice Cooper
Dirty Diamonds
Welcome 2 My Nightmare

No doubt Suzi will post a ten page career run down for you.

[Susan Foreman]

• Pretties for You (1969) and Easy Action (1970) - interesting curios, but by no means essential
• Love It to Death (1971), Killer (1971), School's Out (1972), Billion Dollar Babies (1973) - classics. No record collection should be without them
• Muscle of Love (1973) - good, but not essential
• Welcome to My Nightmare (1975) - essential
• Alice Cooper Goes to Hell (1976) and Lace and Whiskey (1977) - not essential, but worth getting. Alice does disco!
• From the Inside (1978) - my personal favourite Alice album
• Flush the Fashion (1980), Special Forces (1981), Zipper Catches Skin (1982) and DaDa (1983) - the 'forgotten years'. Recorded when Alice was an alcoholic, and by his own admission, he doesn't remember anything about them. All have some good songs, but none should be the first albums that you get
• Constrictor (1986), Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987), Trash (1989) and Hey Stoopid (1991) - the metal years
• The Last Temptation (1994) - a good one
• Brutal Planet (2000) and Dragontown (2001) - very heavy and industrial
• The Eyes of Alice Cooper (2003) and Dirty Diamonds (2005) - back to basics, almost garage punk
• Along Came a Spider (2008) - I like this, but many other fans don't
• Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011) - possibly the best album since the 70's

For a new fan, just discovering Alice, you could do a lot worse than getting the 4 disc 'Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper' set - it contains pretty much everything you need to know about the man and his music - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Crimes-...f+alice+cooper

Billion Dollar Babies has been remastered as a double disc special edition. The second disc contains live recordings of most of the album ('Mary-Ann' is missing) and some early demos

When I get the time, I am planning of doing an album-by-album, track-by-track critique of the entire Alice Cooper discography

[troggi]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Raise Your Fist and Yell
Trash
The Last Temptation
The Eyes of Alice Cooper
Dirty Diamonds
Welcome 2 My Nightmare

Originally Posted by suziginajackson

• Pretties for You (1969) and Easy Action (1970) - interesting curios, but by no means essential
• Love It to Death (1971), Killer (1971), School's Out (1972), Billion Dollar Babies (1973) - classics. No record collection should be without them
• Muscle of Love (1973) - good, but not essential
• Welcome to My Nightmare (1975) - essential
• Alice Cooper Goes to Hell (1976) and Lace and Whiskey (1977) - not essential, but worth getting. Alice does disco!
• From the Inside (1978) - my personal favourite Alice album
• Flush the Fashion (1980), Special Forces (1981), Zipper Catches Skin (1982) and DaDa (1983) - the 'forgotten years'. Recorded when Alice was an alcoholic, and by his own admission, he doesn't remember anything about them. All have some good songs, but none should be the first albums that you get
• Constrictor (1986), Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987), Trash (1989) and Hey Stoopid (1991) - the metal years
• The Last Temptation (1994) - a good one
• Brutal Planet (2000) and Dragontown (2001) - very heavy and industrial
• The Eyes of Alice Cooper (2003) and Dirty Diamonds (2005) - back to basics, almost garage punk
• Along Came a Spider (2008) - I like this, but many other fans don't
• Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011) - possibly the best album since the 70's

For a new fan, just discovering Alice, you could do a lot worse than getting the 4 disc 'Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper' set - it contains pretty much everything you need to know about the man and his music - The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper: Amazon.co.uk: Music

Billion Dollar Babies has been remastered as a double disc special edition. The second disc contains live recordings of most of the album ('Mary-Ann' is missing) and some early demos

When I get the time, I am planning of doing an album-by-album, track-by-track critique of the entire Alice Cooper discography

I, for one, am looking forward to Suzi's critique, I find her comments to be very fair and she has impeccable taste in music. I can't argue with Dem's and Suzi's picks but I would say that "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell" is an essential just to hear Alice "do" a Judy Garland, I love it. "Along Came a Spider" is great! Okay, a couple of tracks are a bit suspect and it is, in essence, a "concept album" but I love it ('specially as mine is a signed copy won from those nice folk at "Planet Rock")!

As for personal favourites- tricky but; "Love It to Death", "Killer", "Billion Dollar Babies", "From the Inside" (I still have a copy of the Marvel comic), "Flush the Fashion" (weird but I love it), "Trash", "Hey Stoopid", "The Last Temptation", "Brutal Planet", "Dragontown", "Along Came a Spider" and "Welcome 2 My Nightmare".

With regards to "Welcome 2 My Nightmare", try to get the "fan pack" if you can, the magazine that accompanies it is informative and has some great photos; "Brutal Planet" and "Dragontown" are often available as a twin pack.

Well that's my three pence worth, enjoy!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by troggi

With regards to "Welcome 2 My Nightmare", try to get the "fan pack" if you can, the magazine that accompanies it is informative and has some great photos; "Brutal Planet" and "Dragontown" are often available as a twin pack.

I have the fan pack too. It's very good but without looking i'd say it would be going for silly money now.