alice cooper

11dec2012
thinking for a couple of days on where to head next??.. probably more than any other artist in the seventies to effect me was alice cooper. i first heard the band around 1972. the first was either schools out or alma mater. i heard schools out in our 2nd form music class. not many people in our form took music as an elective , it was all woodwork, metalwork and tech drawing, follow the crowd type of thing. i don't even think there was enough for a class. same went for social studies, i don't think that's even relevant any more, shame really. there was the non elective , 1 period a week music. we done a bit of theory , quavers & crotchets , but most of the time we'd just play records. the teacher encouraged us to bring in records. the year before, 1971, i brought in some 45s, i had 4 , no one else bought nothing that year, it was sort of embarrassing really. i actually learnt a good lesson, that proved right time and time again, thank you rick nelson. them records i brought in , i don't know how they went down, it don't matter what you like , someone dont. those records, the beatles -hey jude/revolution, the jacksons- abc, ray stevens - gitarzan, mungo jerry - in the summertime, were my beloved treasures, something a 12 yr old thinks are great . when someone says there rubbish, it dont feel so good, and then you dont like them as much for a bit. when rick nelson release garden party it was right on.

14dec2012
probably heard alma mater first. i used to listen to the radio at my grandmothers' place. i heard it when i was having a bath on 2sm radio, also i remember hearing, t.rex - children of the revolution at that same time, that was a single and you could play it on the jukebox, 10cents a song or 3 for 20. when you think about it now , that's sort of expensive by todays 99cent downloads, you could by the single for $1.10. it was pay or no music, or try your luck listening to the radio. alma mater was only on schools out . i never got to hear it in class. the girl borrowed the record from someone, she only played school's out, and said the rest was crap, i had no say. i really wanted to hear that alma mater song, i thought it was great, after hearing it on the radio. every christmas was record buying time, between me and my sister, i wanted schools out and she wanted the slider.

17dec2012
so i got school's out, the first issue here had them disposable paper knickers , that were around at that time. you couldn't wear these though, they were around the record  and the cover opened like a desk. the desk cover continue over the next few reissues, then just an normal cover. i couldn't work out who was who from the cover, there was just a photo. i remember a piss up party a few of the olds' friends , they got me to show them the knickers and play the album. i thought they cant relate to that. i think it lasted about 2or 3 songs , then the old man put his beethoven shit on, i hate that shit, i really do. i like a few classical pieces , but i know the rest is fucking shithouse.

27dec2012
i liked most of schools out, the two end songs on both sides weren't much. i'd play the album before going to school. it seemed like nobody like that album much, they were mostly into bowie, creedence and the stones. in 1973, a guy in my class was carrying around the billion dollar babies album , reading and singing the lyrics off the album cover. i asked him if he heard schools out, he never . i brought it in and lent it to him, he liked the first track, but said billion dollar babies was better. anything you can do .. you know. i never got billion dollar babies until some years later second hand, it still had everything thing in tacked. it had a few good songs , but shit too. i had the first greatest hits album which had most on it. i actually thought at the time that guy had the album , it was before schools out. probably that greatest hits was my next cooper album, then school days the first two albums on a double, didn't go much on it as i remember, i can't really remember the songs, i think there was some spiders something or rather.

1jan2013
i got school days from the record club, sold it not long after, too much. the next would have been the greatest hits album , also from the record club. you'd think by reading this that i wasn't much of a fan, i just knew what i liked , like most teenagers,  until they snap out of it. i was happy with the greatest hits album , it served as a good template for the earlier albums. this time would have been late 74, i joined that club then. after that i remember getting muscle of love in the post. records you got from the club came with cardboard packaging . muscle of love had it's own cardboard  pack, i thought it must be a good album if they print that stuff on the box(dummy). it had 1 or2 on it , but wasn't played much. welcome to my nightmare , i never bought that until a year or two after it's release.

2jan2013
the next things were tapes. i made this move after the record debt was paid off, i decide to join their tape section and get them first half dozen cheap. that's where i got love it to death. i really got into that album, black ju ju was a bit much, but the rest was so so. when you look back at the band stuff, i reckon, love it to death is probably their best album. i'd known sun arise from rolf harris and his shows in the 60's before he done the big move. i was surprised that harry butler co wrote it, i didn't realize that until the 80's. alice coopers version starts off good , but then turns into sameness , which in my opinion makes it fill. i always thought they should have spent a bit more time on adding a verse, rather than sameness. i get that same thing with the stranglers golden brown, but that's another story. i think love it to death is the alice cooper blue print. next, probably goes to hell , again tape. i liked this album some what, it was a bit showbizy though, even compared to welcome to my nightmare. eventually i swapped it for jj cale naturally. i took it on a bike trip down the coast, a mate had a truck, we all loaded up the truck and headed south. a guy really liked it and swapped. by this time it had become just another album.

8jan2013
you and me on countdown, somewhat thrilling? compared to the other stuff they played ,yes. the thing with alice cooper, he does those soppy  ballads, that get you in. stuff like alma mater, only women bleed, i never cry , etc, there always there , it's the mix. even new yorks dolls had that with lonely planet boy. the album lace and whiskey was very hard to get into, i think it had 2 or 3, but struggled. i had the tape , which made it hard to jump tracks, the thing with the love it to death tape , i think, just before black ju ju , you turn the tape over and it starts right on the ballad of dwight fry, i done that lots. i liked ubangi stomp on lace and whiskey, didn't know it was a cover at that time, i like all them versions too, warren smith, jerry lee etc.

10jan2013
from the inside, i got this on vinyl, the cover reminded me of brain salad surgery by e.l.p   not that i had that album. the single wasn't much , but i can understand the sentiment . it's been that long since i heard the album, i liked most or it. i liked serious, it had a good pace about it, a bit like, a song on goes to hell, something about pedal to the medal in the lyrics. i checked the songs on goes to hell, can't remember half of them. there's been lot's of different things since . but i know the alice cooper album formula for them 70's one's. flush the fashion , again vinyl, again single a bit weak, i liked this album, a bit , what was term new wave. i remember asprin damage. there was some kind of direction here, but the formula had worn thin, welcome to the 80's. i gave special forces a go, but it was moving on time.