{"id":13849,"date":"2014-10-27T01:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T05:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13849"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:42:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:42:18","slug":"content-needed-the-album-by-album-challenge-alice-cooper-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13849","title":{"rendered":"The Album by Album Challenge: Alice Cooper (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Welcome to another \u201cAlbum by Album Challenge.\u201d For those that are new here, the \u201cAlbum by Album Challenge\u201d is where I take a band\u2019s entire discography and listen to every album in order of release from front to back. With my unforgiving and well-aged ear, I call it how I hear it. In some cases, I find that what I once thought was good is actually pretty crappy and sometimes crap manages to age into something pretty kick ass. And in some cases, face melting is still just good ol\u2019 face melting.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>This time around I have one of my most epic challenges to date: ALICE COOPER!\u00a0 For this challenge, it was so fucking long I had to split it up into 4 parts just so it wouldn&#8217;t be so fucking long all at once.\u00a0 I split them up into The Alice Cooper Band, Alice Cooper Solo, The Nightmare Returns, and Alice 2k (2000 &gt; Present).\u00a0 This was one of the toughest ones to date because of the length but I&#8217;ll be honest and say that I learned a hell of a lot about the man, his bands, his triumphs, his comebacks, and his failures.\u00a0 All in all, it&#8217;s Alice Fucking Cooper!\u00a0 I hope you all enjoy Part 1: The Alice Cooper Band!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pretties For You<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date<\/strong>: June, 1969<br \/>\n<strong>The Good<\/strong>: Titanic Overture, 10 Minutes Before the Worm, Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio, Today Mueller, Living, Fields of Regret, No Longer Umpire, Levity Ball, B.B. On Mars, Reflected, Apple Bush, Earwigs to Eternity, Changing Arranging<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The Indifferent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As huge of an Alice Cooper fan as I am, I can honestly say that I hadn\u2019t heard this album in well over 20 years in its entirety. I remember as a kid I thought it fucking sucked but now at 41 I have to say that this album is absolutely fucking brilliant. While it may not be the Alice Cooper sound in general that the world came to know them for (yes, I said THEM), it totally encapsulates what this band was all about and really documents such a unique start for this legendary act.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7d2CQ6nuDYs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Musically I love how much ground this album covers. The Beatles\u2019 influence on them is very much obvious on songs like, \u201cToday Mueller\u201d and \u201cLiving\u201d and even on \u201cSing Low, Sweet Cheerio\u201d I can hear some Allman Brothers Band in there (think Whippin\u2019 Post and you\u2019ll know what I mean). The album is chock full of psychedelic and even at times progressive jams. This definitely sets the pace for where Alice Cooper would go as a band and this really is a pretty fucking magical album. I need to spin this one more often that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n<p>======================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Easy Action<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> March, 1970<br \/>\n<strong>The Good:<\/strong> Mr. &amp; Misdemeanor, Shoe Salesman, Still No Air (jets), Below Your Means, Return of the Spiders, Laughing at Me, Refrigerator Heaven, Beautiful Flyaway, Lay Down And Die &#8211; Goodbye,<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The Indifferent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With Easy Action, I\u2019m starting to hear Alice Cooper steadily morphing into the band that the world would be more familiar with. This album is a lot less \u201cZappa\u201d like than the first one and this one has the band playing and writing with a lot more focus. \u201cMr. &amp; Misdemeanor\u201d opens and has to be one of my favorite AC songs. I never really listened to this album in full so this time around was a really awesome experience. I loved how \u201cStill No Air\u201d was so weird and psychedelic and even had elements and lyrics of what would later become \u201cGutter Cats vs. The Jets\u201d on the Schools Out album. \u201cBelow Your Means\u201d has the band jamming at Captain Beyond like heights and \u201cReturn of the Spiders\u201d is just a fucking epic facemelt that I can totally see being a huge influence on Hanoi Rocks.<\/p>\n<p><center>&lt;<iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/odu_2o67n9c\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The album closes out with \u201cLay Down and Die, Goodbye\u201d which just sounds like a fucking acid trip if you could hear one. Easy Action is really a pretty spectacular fucking album and you can totally hear that these fuckers were really making art. It\u2019s like 5 kids got left alone in the art closet with all the tools of the trade at their disposal. I would even go as far as to call it orchestrated chaos. This album was the mushy clay starting to take form but what it was about to turn into we would eventually see over the next few albums.<\/p>\n<p>======================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Love It To Death<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> February, 1971<br \/>\n<strong>The Good:<\/strong> Caught in a Dream, I\u2019m Eighteen, Long Way to Go, Black Ju Ju, Is It My Body, Hallowed Be My Name, Second Coming, Ballad of Dwight Fry, Sun Arise<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The Indifferent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What a fucking awesome record. Right out of the gates, THIS is the Alice Cooper that we would all come to know and love. The band sounds so connected and \u201cCaught in a Dream\u201d is one of those songs that I just can\u2019t believe wasn\u2019t a huge hit. What a great song and a great way to open up the album. This is where some of the most iconic Alice Cooper songs were born. \u201cI\u2019m Eighteen\u201d, \u201cIs It My Body\u201d, \u201cBallad of Dwight Fry.\u201d Even though I\u2019ve heard these songs a zillion times, they never sound old, dated, or unexciting. These songs are still every bit as great as they were the first time I ever heard them.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XbYf0hFowm4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While the \u201chits\u201d are fantastic, to me, it\u2019s the deeper cuts that really stand strong. \u201cBlack Ju Ju\u201d is such an awesome and dark tune that really sets the tone of just what this band was all about and what they would be about for a good while after this. \u201cHallowed By My Name\u201d, much like \u201cBlack Ju Ju\u201d just sounds like the Alice Cooper band that we would all come to love and it also solidifies the sound that they would carry forward with. This is just such great songwriting, great production, and an amazing performance. What a terribly underrated band but this is the album that put them on the map and rightfully so. What a classic.<\/p>\n<p>======================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Killer<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> November 1971<br \/>\n<strong>The Good<\/strong>: Under My Wheels, Be My Lover, Halo of Flies, Desperado, You Drive Me Nervous,Yeah Yeah Yeah, Dead Babies, Killer<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The Indifferent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Man, talk about an album that lives up to its. There isn\u2019t a single bad song on this album and it\u2019s so fucking good that I listened to it twice back to back. Much like with Love it To Death, this one is chock full of hits like \u201cUnder My Wheels\u201d, \u201cBe My Lover\u201d, \u201cDead Babies\u201d, and \u201cDesperado\u201d but the real magic lies in the deep cuts. \u201cHalo of Flies\u201d is a song that for years was so sadly overlooked but I was so glad to see it resurrected in Alice\u2019s live shows this past couple of years. \u201cYou Drive Me Nervous\u201d is another song that I can\u2019t believe never got the attention it deserved and the title track is such a strong piece.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o7br7tfnBoA?list=RDo7br7tfnBoA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDesperado\u201d, even though a pretty popular song, is such a strong, dark song with it\u2019s almost western undertones to it but it\u2019s the title track that really wins it for me. Leave it to Alice Cooper to close out an album with such a bizarre and somewhat disturbing track. This album is such a fucking goldmine of greatness and as a whole was sadly overlooked by me in the past. I\u2019m so glad I heard this one straight through as this is, as of now, my favorite AC album. This challenge just keeps getting better and better. I\u2019m lovin\u2019 this!<\/p>\n<p>======================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>School\u2019s Out<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> June, 1972<br \/>\n<strong>The Good:<\/strong> School\u2019s Out, Looney Tune, Gutter Cats vs. The Jets, Blue Turk, My Stars, Public Animal #9, Alma Mater, Grand Finale<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The Indifferent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From what I can tell this is the first Alice Cooper album to boast some form of a concept. While it\u2019s not a continuous concept, all the songs are tied in somehow with being young, being an outcast, and just the overall strife and trials of being young. I still haven\u2019t figured out just how \u201cBlue Turk\u201d fits into this concept but that song is fucking amazing and again, one of those sadly forgotten songs that is every bit as good as the more known hits of their career. \u201cGutter Cats vs. The Jets\u201d never gets old and that song is always a treat to see performed live with the \u201cStreet Fight\u201d section as well. The highlight of this album for me is \u201cPublic Animal #9.\u201d This song has been a favorite of mine since I first bought this album back in the 80\u2019s and much like \u201cBlue Turk\u201d is sadly ignored and somewhat forgotten. I also have to say how I love that \u201cAlma Mater\u201d reminds me of that earlier psychedelic stuff that was more prevalent on their earlier albums.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_iPHmjHnbuE\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Schools Out is such a brilliant fucking album and song for song there isn\u2019t a single weak moment on this album. It absolutely blows me away at how much consistently great material this band was capable of churning out up to this point. School\u2019s Out is yet another perfect album from Alice Cooper. The band sounds so good and so tight and the instrumentation shows signs of growing up as well. The horns in \u201cGrand Finale\u201d almost seem to somewhat foreshadow what would be to come on Welcome to My Nightmare. I loved every thing about this album and even more so now than I ever did.<\/p>\n<p>======================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Billion Dollar Babies<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> February 25, 1973<br \/>\n<strong>The Good:<\/strong> Hello Hooray, Raped and Freezin\u2019, Elected, Billion Dollar Babies, Unfinished Sweet, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Generation Landslide, Sick Things, Mary Ann, I Love the Dead,<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The Indifferent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is just something about this album that sounds like a fucking hit album. This is where it all came together and it\u2019s this album that put Alice Cooper on the map as one of the biggest bands in the fucking world. Everything about this album is perfect. Even the \u201chits\u201d like \u201cElected\u201d, \u201cBillion Dollar Babies\u201d, and \u201cNo More Mr. Nice Guy\u201d sound every bit as awesome as they ever have. Why do they never get old? Because they\u2019re great, well written songs and a truly great song is one that you never get tired of hearing. While the hits are great, can we just talk about \u201cGeneration Landslide\u201d? Holy shit what a fucking song and how \u201cRaped and Freezin\u2019\u201d wasn\u2019t a hit is beyond me. Well, maybe it\u2019s because of the title having \u201crape\u201d in it.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tolpiIqX_Zw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This also seems to be where we really see \u201ccreepy\u201d Alice make an appearance. I mean, \u201cSick Things\u201d, then \u201cMary Ann\u201d (way creepy in its own right), and then closing out with their ode to necrophilia \u201cI Love the Dead.\u201d Much like the albums before this one, Billion Dollar Babies never gets old. Every time I listen to this album I find it every bit as good if not better than the first time I ever heard it. What an awesome album and a timeless classic to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>======================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Muscle of Love<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> November 20, 1973<br \/>\n<strong>The Good:<\/strong> Big Apple Dreamin&#8217; (Hippo), Never Been Sold Before, Hard Hearted Alice, Crazy Little Child, Working Up a Sweat, Muscle of Love, Man With The Golden Gun, Teenage Lament \u201974, Woman Machine<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The Indifferent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What a fucking brilliant album. This is an album that even back in the day I just kind of ignored. I didn\u2019t pass it up because I was scared or anything but this album just didn\u2019t boast the number of popular songs that their past albums did. I first discovered this album about 15 years ago and has been one of my favorites ever since. This album is so full of great songs and it really shocks me that it didn\u2019t turn out more hits than just the title track. \u201cBig Apple Dreaming\u201d is such a great opener, \u201cCrazy Little Child\u201d with its barroom barrel sound is such a great listen but to me, it\u2019s all about \u201cTeenage Lament \u201974.\u201d That is a song that has a timeless message and it\u2019s songs like this one that showed what a brilliant band they could really be.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qx6sKnKEJ6c\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to believe that this is the album that pretty much broke up the classic Alice Cooper Band as we would know it to this point. While this is yet another great album, I can really see that up this point Alice Cooper was really working within their own formula and not straying much from it at all. While this is a great thing as a fan, as an artist you can see that Vinnny Furnier probably wanted to expand a nd grow beyond the means that was possible with this band. With a fine mix of dark humor, rock n\u2019 roll show tunes, Muscle of Love was the end of an era and the beginning of whole knew exciting chapter that would turn Alice Cooper from a band of five into an iconic figure of one.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13851\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here for Part II: Alice Cooper Goes Solo<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to another \u201cAlbum by Album Challenge.\u201d For those that are new here, the \u201cAlbum by Album Challenge\u201d is where I take a band\u2019s entire discography and listen to every album in order of release from front to back. With my unforgiving and well-aged ear, I call it how I hear it. In some cases, I find that what I once thought was good is actually pretty crappy and sometimes crap manages to age into something pretty kick ass. And [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,277],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-13849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-by-album-challenge","category-music-news","tag-alice-cooper"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19530,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13849\/revisions\/19530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}