Alice Cooper - The Alice Cooper Show (1977)

 (U.S 1964 - Present)

His first live album, 'The Alice Cooper Show' (1977) was recorded with several musicians from his original Alice Cooper Band, plus new members Prakash John, Steve Hunter & Dick Wagner, who had played on Lou Reed’s brilliant live album, 'Rock N Roll Animal'. 

While they bring top-notch musicianship to the 11 tracks included here (two of which are medleys, so a total of 13 songs were performed) and everything is delivered professionally, it’s lacking a certain punch…especially on the 7 songs first recorded by the original Alice Cooper Band. 

While there are no particular standout tracks, it was nice to hear earlier songs like “Under My Wheels,” “I’m Eighteen,” “Is It My Body” and “Billion Dollar Babies.” I know when it comes to an Alice Cooper concert that the music is only part of the appeal, and although it’s a pleasant listen one can't help thinking that there's something missing: the visual aspect of the show.

'The Alice Cooper Show’ was recorded live on August 19th – 20th 1977 at The Aladdin Hotel, Las Vegas, USA, during Cooper’s ‘King Of The Silver Screen’ tour (‘King Of The Sliver Screen’ is a track from the preceding ‘Lace And Whiskey’ album). 

Released in December 1977 on the Warner Brothers label, the record was produced by Brian Christian and Bob Ezrin and clocks in at a compact 39 minutes and 38 seconds. It wasn’t a huge commercial success, reaching only number 131 on the 1978 Billboard chart, but is a fantastic atmospheric record capturing some of the energy and charisma of Alice Cooper, featuring some of the best songs from the album’s which preceded the tour.

I should also point out that by the 1977 tour, Cooper was in dire need of help with alcoholism (at the peak of the disease, the Coop was downing two cases of Bud and a bottle of whiskey a day). After the tour was over, Alice had himself hospitalised in a sanatorium, leading to the writing of next album ‘From The Inside’. 

Alice has said that he won’t listen to ‘The Alice Cooper Show’ album because it reminds him of the period when the demon drink was killing him…

Bassist Dennis Dunaway describes Alice’s late night routine:   ”He couldn’t go to bed unless he made sure he had a beer sitting next to the bed , because that was the first thing that he did in the morning…”

Alice remembers: ”Before I opened my eyes, I’d have three or four hits of beer and then I’d wake up, turn on the cartoons and then throw up. It’s okay, I’m ready for the day…Let’s go!”

The Show

The full setlist for the tour also included ‘Unfinished Sweet’ (from ‘Billion Dollar Babies’), ‘Escape’ (from ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’) and ‘It’s Hot Tonight’, ‘Lace and Whiskey’ and ‘King of the Silver Screen’ (from the ‘Lace And Whiskey’ album),  which are not included on this release.

Axe-chopping of bloodied baby dolls, execution by hanging at the gallows, an androgynous stage persona wrapped in snakes (usually boa constrictors) – all part of the Alice Cooper stage act…A new addition to the show at this time was an eight-foot tall furry Cyclops, which the Coop decapitated and killed!

Alice taunting the 8 Foot tall Cyclops

Alice describes his stage persona: “When I assume the character, I have no idea what it’s gonna do, because it’s not me!”

Interviewed on ‘Kidsworld’ in 1977, A young Alice without makeup, dressed in white vest and jeans, describes the tour:

”This show that we’re doing now is about three months of rehearsals, eight or nine hours a day. Our show is a total spoof on TV. It’s a rock…it’s like a rock opera kinda thing…but I mean the whole stage looks like a television set…and we have commercials, and it’s all done to rock music and everything…it’s the first real attempt at rock theatre that really works…”

The ‘show’ starts with huge audience reaction, frantic telephone ringing and the build-up of the band, an intro for up-tempo rocker, opener to the ‘Killer’ album ‘Under My Wheels’, a perfect mood-setter…’

Love It To Death’’s expression of teenage angst ‘I’m Eighteen’ is next, then a great sequence – the psycho-sickness of ‘Sick Things’ (as Alice would have it – this could only be a Cooper track), from the snakeskin-wrapped ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ album, then the rocker ‘Is It My Body’ and a slow number ‘I Never Cry’.

The familiar drum riffs introduce the amazing title track from ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ – an enjoyable rendition with Alice handling all vocal duties, unlike, of course, the stunning original hit recording, which featured mystical singer-songwriter Donovan.

In a recent interview, Donovan cast his mind back to London, 1973:

"Alice was downstairs and I was upstairs in Morgan studios when he was doing ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ and he came in and said hello, and I went down and said hello to him, and I had heard this track and he said ‘Do you want to put a vocal on it?’ I said ‘sure’ but there’s…so big and so bouncy and so loud, I think I’m gonna have to get into a falsetto (sings ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ high part) so I did that. Nobody believed it was me, then it went to number one, didn’t it…so me and Alice are fast friends now!”

Alice remembers in a recent interview:

”The first time I met Donovan, we were recording ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ at Morgan Studios and we realised that we needed a British voice that was going to mimic my voice and I said ‘Who’s here in the studio?’ and they said ‘Donovan’s next door’ and I went ‘Oh, this’ll be great!’ ‘cause he’s got that great British voice you know, and I went into the studio, walked right into the studio and he was doing something and I said ‘Donovan, I’m Alice Cooper’…’Oh, Hi..’ and I said ‘C’mon’…’What?’…I said ‘It’s time to sing rock’n’roll…” 

He did the talking part (adopts ‘British’ accent) ‘we go dancing nightly in the attic in the…’ He had so much fun doing that song, and then I said ‘now you gotta sing it and I’ll do the talking, you know’…That record went right to number one…It’s really fun to have Donovan on that. I like the idea of taking somebody out of their comfort zone and putting them in a place where they didn’t normally go to, you know. And since then, every time we see each other, we always talk about that thing…”

A cut-down version of ‘Devil’s Food’ from ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ is an intro to ‘Black Widow’. Another first for Alice was hiring the theatrical talents of Vincent Price to narrate on a rock track – eight years before Michael Jackson’s extended video for ‘Thriller’ (with Price voiceover in the ‘graveyard’ section) – the famous horror actor speaks the monologue at the beginning of the song as ‘The spirit of the nightmare’ in which Cooper is trapped, for the mini-movie ‘Alice Cooper: Welcome To My Nightmare’. 

Brilliant in its conception, the narration casts Price as a museum curator, describing the live ‘exhibits’ in the arachnid section, The recorded narration became a feature of Cooper’s live shows, after which Alice exclaims:

”These words he speaks are true
We’re all humanary stew
If we don’t pledge allegiance to…
The Black Widow!’ (in this rare case, a male of the arachnid species…)

There are three ballads on this live album, all co-written by Alice and Dick Wagner, and beautifully crafted songs they are, evidencing the sensitive lyrical side of the man:

"Only Women Bleed", from ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’, also a hit for British actress/singer Julie Covington in 1977, is a classic, but quite dark in its subject matter, dealing with a husband’s overpowering of his wife, leading to domestic violence.

"I Never Cry" from the ‘Alice Cooper Goes To Hell’ album is a tear jerker and there’s more than a touch of autobiography about it, if you listen to the lyrics carefully.

"You And Me" was the single from ‘Lace And Whiskey’. On stage, Alice sings "You And Me" to a mannequin (in some ‘70s shows, his wife Sheryl), at first looking into her eyes, then dragging ‘her’ over his shoulder by the hair, holding her up by the hair, then throwing ‘her’ across the stage (in a fit of faked domestic violence?).   I don't think this segment would go down well in current day concerts!

The live versions are spirited and sound great, although obviously not as polished and produced as the studio recordings. They do work very well in breaking up the set of rock and upbeat funkier tracks.

The medley ‘I Love The Dead’ (Alice’s homage to his necrophilia, as only he can do), ‘Go To Hell’ (Alice telling himself off for his misdemeanor's over a funk backbeat) and ‘Wish You Were Here’ (instrumental sections of the track only) works well as a set closer…

Of course, the ‘night’ ends with the encore ‘School’s Out’! delivering the lines in his trademark snarl and wagging his finger at the delirious audience… ”Well we got no class, and we got no principles, we ain’t got no intelligence, we can’t even think of a word that rhymes!” [Extract from eddiesrockmusic.wordpress.com]

Australian Tour

Australia was lucky enough to witness the beginnings of the Alice Cooper Show, when Copper's band toured Down Under in March of 1977. At the time it was billed as 'Welcome To My Nightmare - The Alice Cooper Show'.

They played at all major capital cities in Australia, including four concerts in Melbourne, at Festival Hall on March, 21st - 24th.  I was lucky enough to see the show at Festival Hall, but can't for the life of me remember which of the 4 dates it was and much of the concert is a vague memory. As I was attending my first year at Uni at the time, I suspect my brain cells were somewhat impaired on the night by too many beers and perhaps other recreational substances! 

Australian Tour Dates:

(1977 March)

14: Australia - Entertainment Centre, Perth

15: Australia - Entertainment Centre, Perth

18: Australia - Westlakes Football Stadium, Adelaide

21: Australia - Festival Hall, Melbourne

22: Australia - Festival Hall, Melbourne

23: Australia - Festival Hall, Melbourne

(Apparently there is an Audio Recording in circulation)

24: Australia - Festival Hall, Melbourne

26: Australia - Showground Arena, Sydney (40,000 people were in attendance, breaking the Australian record at this time)

29: Australia - Festival Hall, Brisbane

30: Australia - Festival Hall, Brisbane

31: Australia - Festival Hall, Brisbane

Thanks to alicecooperechive.com for the above Australian Dates and Press Release document

This post consists of FLACS ripped from CD and comes with full album artwork for both vinyl and CD media, plus label scans.  My original intention for this post was to provide a vinyl rip, rather than a CD rip. However, I was not happy with the quality of the recording that was coming from my vinyl, in comparison with that from CD media.  The left channel on my vinyl was significantly softer and less vibrant than that of the right channel and consequently decided to ditch this inferior recording.  I suspect the pressing or mastering on my vinyl copy is poor compared to the newer release on CD, and so am providing it instead.  I'd be interested in hearing if others have experienced this, if they own the vinyl.

Thanks to sickthingsuk.co.uk for the Alice Cooper Show posters, ticket stubs, adverts featured in this post.

One reason why I purchased this album back in the late 70's was because it featured guitarists "Steve Hunter' and 'Dick Wagner" (see left) , who I admired at the time, stemming from their past association with Lou Reed.  I do remember being really disappointed with the sound quality of the guitar work when I heard this record for the first time, probably a consequence of the inferior pressing/mastering of the LP. 

This appears to have been partly rectified on CD releases.

Track Listing:

01 Under My Wheels 2:30

02 Eighteen 4:58

03 Only Women Bleed 5:47

04 Sick Things 1:01

05 Is It My Body 2:28

06 I Never Cry 2:51

07 Billion Dollar Babies  3:13

08 Devil's Food / The Black Widow  5:41

09 You And Me 2:19

10 I Love The Dead / Go To Hell / Wish You Were Here 6:31

11 School's Out 2:19

Tracks:

from ‘Love It To Death’: 2, 5

from ‘Killer’: 1

from ‘Schools Out’: 11

from ‘Billion Dollar Babies’: 4, 7, 10a

from ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’: 3, 8

from ‘Alice Cooper Goes To Hell’: 6, 10b, 10c

from ‘Lace And Whiskey’: 9

Alice Cooper: vocals

Steve Hunter: guitar

Dick Wagner: guitar, vocals

Prakash John: bass, vocals

Fred Mandel: keyboards

Pentti ‘Whitey’ Glan: drums

Alice Cooper Show Link (251Mb)