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  #91  
Old 28th March 2015, 06:37 PM
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Thanks a lot for the suggestions! Really helpful of you. I'm surprised there isn't many remastered albums. I've collected pretty much everything David Bowie has done, and there's several remasters around!

Also I was looking at this boxset on Amazon US and the first reviewer is complaining about the set having 3 remastered albums and 2 old masters. Does he just not know what he is talking about then?

Suzi, I've been considering getting that Life and Crimes boxset, so maybe I'll make that my first purchase. It's also got the Jason song, "He's Back" on it, which has been playing in my head all the time lately (thanks to the several Friday 13ths lately). So I need to have that ASAP.
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  #92  
Old 28th March 2015, 07:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VeZius View Post
Also I was looking at this boxset on Amazon US and the first reviewer is complaining about the set having 3 remastered albums and 2 old masters. Does he just not know what he is talking about then?
I would say 'go for it'. I don't have that particular release, but I would say that three out of the five Cd's are essential for Alice Cooper fans

Quote:
Originally Posted by VeZius View Post
Suzi, I've been considering getting that Life and Crimes boxset, so maybe I'll make that my first purchase. It's also got the Jason song, "He's Back" on it, which has been playing in my head all the time lately (thanks to the several Friday 13ths lately). So I need to have that ASAP.
There are actually two versions of 'He's Back' contained in the boxset. The first is the demo version, while the second is the the 'movie mix''. The actual song is found on the 'Constrictor' album
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  #93  
Old 1st April 2015, 08:43 AM
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As promised/threatened a few posts ago, here is an Alice Cooper album-by-album, track by track discography. What I am going to try to do, is post at least one song every day, starting with the first album, and moving thru the entire discography, complete with my thoughts on the song, and any snippets of information I have regarding the track

So, lets go back in time to 1969, when the Alice Cooper Group released the 'Pretties For You' album. It is a real oddity baring few signs of what was to come. Showing the obvious influence of both Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa (on who's label it was orginally released) it shows a band still finding its legs but there are still some great tracks on offer. It is certainly not an essential purchase, but it is not as bad as some people would lead you to believe.

Dennis Dunaway still notes this as his favourite Alice Cooper record

Pretties For You was recorded in 1968, but not released until June 1969

Alice Cooper - Vocals and Harmonica
Neal Smith - Drums and Vocals
Dennis Dunaway - Bass and Vocals
Glen Buxton - Lead Guitar
Michael Bruce - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Organ

Producer Ian Underwood and Herb Cohen

The first two songs are linked. We first hear 'Titanic Overture', which is an instrumental, which leads into '10 Minutes Before The Worm'. The inspiration for the second song comes came from the old saying, The early bird gets the worm. But Dunaway would ask "Just how punctual was that bird? 5 minutes early? 10 minutes?"!



1/13/ Titanic Overture (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)

Instrumental

2/13/ 10 Minutes Before the Worm (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)

"Let me be
What a way for one too realise
Gotta waste a bore now I see
How he is so happy feeling sad

Heavily Depressed

God I knew
Think I will enjoy the view
-oy the view, -oy the view
Everything is standing still
...ill ...ill"
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  #94  
Old 1st April 2015, 10:52 PM
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I haven't listened to "Pretties for You" for going on for 18 years and I never listened to it much before that! I remember it being a little too... "Zappa-lite" in places, not that Zappa is in any way bad, it's just that all Alice seemed to be missing was the xylophone!

Thank you Suzi, I am (virtually) holding my breath until your next instalment.
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  #95  
Old 2nd April 2015, 12:34 AM
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The third song on the album is "Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio", and it is more psychedelic nonsense!

Alice Cooper - Vocals and Harmonica
Neal Smith - Drums and Vocals
Dennis Dunaway - Bass and Vocals
Glen Buxton - Lead Guitar
Michael Bruce - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Organ

3/13/ Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



"Forget, remember nothing please
The force came from the flame
I pass along the path inside
My light shining always

We'll get there first a name cried out
And looked back all the way
Recalling falling down
A lot of time was spent that way

But this story starin' me
Had already begun
'Cause I had some vision in my sight
On the journey to be one

Help me, help please, help me please
The screaming starts again
The trick I find, something hid
You look, you find, I win

While working while the play was on
The play was alright then
Think thoughts, big thoughts
Take off and go home, back next week again

Right then my story ended
And a new one had begun
'Cause I had some vision in my sight
On the journey to be one"


Track #4 is entitled 'Today Mueller', and once again it's amazing how different the band were in the 60's, to what the Alice Cooper Group (and later the solo artist) became.

The song was written about a friend of the band, who had the name Michelle Mueller. She was working as a secretary in Phoenix, Arizona. Her nickname was 'TOOTIE', although no one seems to remember why the band changed it from 'Tootie' to 'Today'.

In 2007, Dennis Dunaway remembers: "Tootie, who is always smiling, drove the Earwigs around in her baby-blue Mustang. [She was] among the first to support the band and we are still good friends."

[The Earwigs was the name of the band in 1964 - a pastiche of The Beatles]

4/13/ Today Mueller (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



"Today Mueller
Let it happen
Happy slappin', tappin' paddy-oh
She'd like to give her life away
Like to stay another day old
Try it out another way

Ah, today, today, today, today mueller
Give your notice of your leaving
Ah, today, today, today, today mueller
Don't tell them you will go with me
This will always be

Red rover, red rover
Pass under, pass over, pass through
And over, and over the White Cliffs of Dover with you
Today mueller
Make it happen "
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  #96  
Old 2nd April 2015, 03:10 PM
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Two more songs from 'Pretties For You

Track #5 on the album is 'Living', and musically it is very much a slice of the 60's. Fuzz guitars to the fore!

Alice Cooper - Vocals & Harmonica
Neal Smith - Drums and Vocals
Dennis Dunaway - Bass and Vocals
Glen Buxton - Lead Guitar
Michael Bruce - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Organ

5/13/ Living (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



"Living
I is only one part of being
Believing
Is to know just what you're feeling

You were so positive thing you know, you have
I'm sure that in knowing you're growing and it's you

Thinking
Is you're own road of living
Dreaming
Is the one way to being

Go in and your eye can see everything that`s you
The only real person you need to know is you

Ahhh..... oh
Living, Living, Living"


The final song on the first side of the original release is entitled 'Field Of Regret.


6/13/ Field Of Regret (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



"Forever I'll enjoy you undertaining
Come to see you every day now if I can
Is it not the time for everybody?
I still wake on the fields of regret

There is something to this dream we're all involved in
Can I see it, can I say it may exist
Why then don't the night show really matters
If we dwell in the fields of regret

What horror must invade the mind
When the approaching judge shall find
What sinful deeds from all mankind

With death and nature in surprise
Behold the wretched sinners rise
To meet the judge's searching eyes

And when the doomed no more can flee
From the flames of misery
Assist me while I die

Wander through those ever thoughts though if imagined
But come down on it's so easy to resist
Rest me, hide my years upon the planet.
Sound another, no part over, won't forget
When we laugh at the fields of regret. "
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  #97  
Old 3rd April 2015, 07:50 AM
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Two more songs from 'Pretties For You

Track #7 on the album is 'No Longer Umpire', and again the influence of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd is unmistakable. I just wish it had a better drum sound!

Alice Cooper - Vocals & Harmonica
Neal Smith - Drums and Vocals
Dennis Dunaway - Bass and Vocals
Glen Buxton - Lead Guitar
Michael Bruce - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Organ

7/13/ Living (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



"We've been so caught up in the subject of personnel
Playing and acting, and slaving and bathing ourselves

Who lies and who tries to come over everyone
Painting a picture to show everyone in the world

Fearing is natural
New names and faces can bring
Build ups and barriers hiding behind everything

Who lies and who tries to come over everyone
Painting a picture to show everyone in the world "


This followed by the first of my two favourite songs on the album - 'Levity Ball'. I think this would work well if it was resurrected and played live

If you listen closely to the song, you will hear a string section. Alice has said that the weird part about this was there was no strings in the recording session! The real to real tape was erased before they recorded their cut, but something that was on before bled through in the same key!

8/13/ Levity Ball (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



[I] "I got my invitation to the annual levity ball
Seeing the location was within the mirrored room
Walking in my room I found I had nothing to find
I got into my evening wear and left my clothes behind

I sat down on the stairway seven hours at a time
Writing all of this poetry that I knew would never rhyme
The memory I knew I must have had when I came in
Was off somewhere in places where I'd never ever been

And then in came a cake all decorated in my name
With four paper brown candles, are all spelling out the same
The clock was passing out from time to time I saw it all
Beginning of the ending for my first levity ball
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  #98  
Old 4th April 2015, 01:41 PM
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Today's delights from 'Pretties For You

Track #9 on the album is 'B. B. On Mars', and it's another psychedelic/punk song! I like it. For some reason, it reminds me of some of the insidental music that was used in 'The Young Ones' television show from the 80's

Renfield, who was the personal assistant to Alice says: "I think it was Dennis who came up with that title [BB on Mars]. I think I once heard it wasn't a person at all but rather an actual BB. If that doesn't translate, a BB is a small ball bearing. So, I guess it means a small metal ball on a big red ball. Those guys were messed up back then."

Alice Cooper - Vocals & Harmonica
Neal Smith - Drums and Vocals
Dennis Dunaway - Bass and Vocals
Glen Buxton - Lead Guitar
Michael Bruce - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Organ

9/13/ B. B. On Mars (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



"(I stop, we stop)
Go
Now let's see what's going on
See inside
It's quiet inside, see
Now let's hear what's going on
Here inside "


Track #10, 'Reflected;, is the second of my personal favourites on the album. Fans of the band will detect a bit of fore-shadowing here. The song was later reworked, and it became 'Elected' on the "Billion Dollar Babies" album

10/13/ Reflected (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



[I] "Look upstanding with your head held high
You will be reflected
You look outstanding with your eyes in disguise
Just beyond your mask-qes

Holy, Hollywood (he), it's divine
I'm surely glad, I'm surely all the time
And even though I'm, you will always hear

Very rarely worry upmost constantly
Could you be receptive
Our life's outstanding in a shower please
Wet my skids a plenty

Baby, what a day all over town
I'm surely glad, I'm surely all around
And even since I knew, it's all so clear

You will be reflected
You will be reflected
You will be reflected
You will be reflected, reflected

Yeah..."
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  #99  
Old 6th April 2015, 07:59 AM
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Two more songs from 'Pretties For You. Don't worry - we have almost finished this album!!!

Track #11 on the album is 'Apple Bush', and like the other songs on the album, it is very much a product of its' time

Alice Cooper - Vocals & Harmonica
Neal Smith - Drums and Vocals
Dennis Dunaway - Bass and Vocals
Glen Buxton - Lead Guitar
Michael Bruce - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Organ

11/13/ Apple Bush (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



"But over in a land that's in my back yard
There's a people who succeed, they don't try hard

Well, they found a way to live with ease
By eating from the bush instead of the trees

Apple bush, apple tree
Path to eternity
Find you a path and you follow the call

Apple bush, apple tree
Back to eternity
Cut you a path with a chance you may fall

Well, over in a corner, standing there
Telling my house that they haven't a single care

But my house does not listen (worry) it's got a path of it's own
Yet the bush, and a tree, never leave it alone

Apple Bush, apple tree
Back to eternity
Find you a path and you buy with a call

Apple bush, apple tree
Back to eternity
Cut you a path with a chance you may fall

Someday like my house you're going to chose too
If you cut this new path well the old one will do
and you live with the people who live with ease
The red apple bush, the blue apple tree "


Track #12, is 'Earwigs To Eternity', and it is a strange on! Presumably the fast section is supposed to conjure up the image of an earwig skitting around

One of the names used by the band, before they settled on Alice Cooper, was The Earwigs - a parody of The Beatles

12/13/ Earwigs To Eternity (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



[I] "Oh, four years long
And oh, what a song to hear, my dear
Four long years
Now we start to hear a whisper

Alice Cooper
All of the time we have
All of the time we had you
All of the time we have
All of the time we have

We are throwing all of our hands so high
You out there
[two voices at the same time]
Singing (playing) ditties (lovely) beautiful song (what a little song)
for you to be aware

Oh what a time we have
All of the time we have you
Oh what a time we have
All of the time we have
All of the time we have you

You're the one you're looking for
Let me in, let me in
Who's there, who's there, who's there "
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  #100  
Old 6th April 2015, 08:23 PM
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The final song from 'Pretties For You' is entitled 'Changing Arranging'

Alice Cooper - Vocals & Harmonica
Neal Smith - Drums and Vocals
Dennis Dunaway - Bass and Vocals
Glen Buxton - Lead Guitar
Michael Bruce - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Piano and Organ

13/13/ Changing Arranging (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith)



[I]"Ah.....
Ah.....
Oh....
I'm changing, arranging
Things I never thought I'd move before
I'm changing, arranging
To your personality I asked for it for

I need a soul who'll never say what I feel
Just fearing that I will accept the ideal
I look up high and I swear all I see
Is a carbon copy image of me

I'm dying, half trying
Baby, baby, for the rest of my life
I'm trying and dying
Maybe, maybe`s tryin' be my life

I've fight a never ending battle inside
Just trying to rectify my personal pride
I swear I don't know what it's got over me
But I know it doesn't want to be free

Oh.......
Oh....... "[/QUOTE]

So that is the first Alice Cooper Group album, and it probably comes as a bit of a surprise to those who are more familiar with the rock/metal music that was to come later. With the exception of the production, especially on the drums (which sound like empty boxes being hit), it's not a bad album I suppose

The band played a lot of shows in 1969 to promote the record, appearing with bands like The Doors, The Mothers Of Invention, The Byrds, Steve Miller Band, MC5, The Stooges etc.

A basic setlist for these shows comprised of:
  • No Longer Umpire
  • Today Mueller
  • 10 Minutes Before the Worm
  • Levity Ball
  • B.B. On Mars
  • Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio
  • Changing, Arranging.

The band also played a variety of non-album tracks in the early days, such as "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye" (which will turn on on the second album, 'Easy Action'), a reworked "Don't Blow Your Mind" and "Nobody Likes Me"

On September 13th, 1969, the band appeared at the Toronto Rock And Roll Revival Festival. This was the show which featured the infamous chicken incident. It was also at this show where the band recorded the live album 'Nobody Likes Alice Cooper'

This is the most widely reproduced Alice Cooper live recording. It has been released by many different labels under many titles and many album covers. These releases are not authorized Alice Cooper albums. However, they are not bootlegs as the recording is owned by a private party. Unfortunately, the private party was so uncaring in the production of these releases that two of the songs ("Ain't That Just Like a Woman" and "Goin' to the River") are NOT Alice Cooper at all (the actual performer is Ronnie Hawkins and they were recorded Hallmark Studios in Toronto in late 1964). Also, almost all of the song titles on the album were fabricated by the private party. The actual titles (shown here in parentheses) are mostly live versions of songs from "Pretties For You":
  • Ain`t That Just Like A Woman (not Alice)
  • Painting A Picture (No Longer Umpire)
  • An Instrumental (part of "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye")
  • I`ve Written Home To Mother (part of "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye")
  • Freak Out Song ('Don't Blow Your Mind' with different lyrics)
  • Going To The River (not Alice)
  • Nobody Likes Me (aka Freak Out)
  • Science Fiction (Fields Of Regret)

As already noted, this release has many titles, including:
  • Ain't That Just Like A Woman
  • Alice Cooper
  • Blood On My Chopper
  • Freak Out
  • Freak Out Song
  • Home To Mother
  • Ladies Man
  • Legends
  • Live At "Toronto"
  • Nobody Like Me
  • Nobody Likes Me
  • Painting a Picture
  • Rock Legends Vol. 2
  • Science Fiction
  • Slack Alice
  • Snorting Anthrax
  • Toronto Rock 'N' Roll Revival 1969 Vol. IV
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