One nice thing about this Alice Cooper discography review, aside
from allowing me to talk to myself, is that I've been able to pin
some dates on things such as the year I "discovered" the music of
Mr. Cooper. That would be February 1985 when I received the Alice
Cooper band Greatest Hits collection from me mum for Valentines
Day. I know this because Twisted Sister's Stay Hungry came
out in May 1984 and it was in reading about their influences that
I read the name Alice Cooper and thought, "Isn't he that guy that
was on the Muppet Show?" Months passed and I forgot to follow up
on that lead until one night in which I couldn't sleep and call
Rock 104 at two in the morning to ask the night DJ the name of the
rock singer who had a girls name* and then a music binge where I
purchased the back catalog. In 1985 came Come Out and
Play, the follow up to Twisted Sisters blockbuster which
included this song and video:
Alice looks rather clear-eyed, does he not? Even at 43 I get a kick out of the Tom Savini cameo.
It was also during
this time, 1984 to be exact, that he tested his sobriety by
featuring in the foreign film Monster Dog which sported two
original songs, one of which was quite good. Constrictor
came out in the fall of 1986 and was the first Cooper album which
I heard about beforehand and had the chance to anticipate. At the
time I had a mullet** and was deep into Dio and other metal bands
so the new Cooper album felt right at home***. To freak me out
even more, Alice Cooper was playing in my home town just a few
days before Halloween and I was able to listen to an interview
with Mr. Cooper and Doc West at Rock104****. To cap it all off, I
repented and became a Christian about a week before the concert
and was confused at why other Christians were picketing. Didn't
they get that this was just a personna? Didn't they know that Mr.
Cooper was also Christian? Neither did I! Oh, the irony!
But enough about me (though this is my therapy), how about
Cooper's 16th album? For on thing, it has three bassists, which
isn't exactly good, but since one of those bassist is pre-Winger
Kip Winger the curse kind of cancels itself out.
So how does it stack up today? If this means anything, consider that when I started on this series I realized that I had never
purchased this album on CD, content with my cassette tape in the
garage, whereas I had purchased almost every other album in a digital format. However I bit the financial bullet and purchased
a used CD when I started the series but have held off until today to listen and... The first thing I noticed is that for the
most part the trademark vocal snarl is missing, replaced with
straight singing. And the songs, well, they're kinda generic
metal. Better than average, mind you, but Alice is still getting
used to metal as well as working sober so there isn't a lot of
"Cooper" in these songs.
You want more detail? Why sure! Focusing on the songs which
sport a true Cooper vibe, there's "Teenage Frankenstein" where he
appeals to the awkwardness of the teen years with lyrics of "These
ain't my arms / And these legs ain't mine / I'm a teenage Frankenstein." "Life and Death of
the Party" has a slightly eerie sound, though the lyrics don't
really make much sense. "The World Needs Guts" has long been a
favorite, whether it's the heavy yet upbeat guitar riff or the
mention of blood and guts, I don't know. "The Great American
success Story" was yet another attempt to get into the movies, a
Rodney Dangerfield one at that, but somehow did't get picked even
though it's upbeat metal-pop is top of the crop. What DID get picked was a tie in
with the Friday the 13th franchise, "He's Back (The Man Behind The
Mask)" which could also be about himself. This one, though very
synth heavy*****, is appriately creepy but I
feel that the bridge was very reminiscent of late 80s Christian
cheese-rock like Degarmo & Key. Maybe D&K were taking their cues
from the Coop?
Of the rest of the songs, er, "Thrill My Gorilla" has a super-
heavy flange on a drum fill that sounds absolutely attrocious and
"Trick Bag" is so full of poppy, glittery synthesizers that I
think Prince would have been offended. Overall, though, these two
plus two more that won't be mentioned are pretty generic.
To summarize, the music is good but slightly generic, very much a child of it's times.
Rank: Quality but not classic
* Ah, the days before the internets!
** Though I didn't know it was called that and was the first in my
class to sport such a beast.
** I purchased the cassette at Mr. Music in Southtown Mall,
neither of which exist today.
**** During said interview Alice said there would be no ballads
"this time" which I took to meaning that since coming out of
retirement there would be no more ballads hereafter forevermore.
This added to the betrayal I felt when Poison came
out.
***** It was the 80s and I learned to play this song on my Casio
CZ-1 synthesizer. Simple yet effective.
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