Alice Cooper is Happening. . .
I have been an Alice Cooper fan for a long time, but sadly I have neglected him. This might be the first time he is referenced here on the Wild West. I actually have given more attention to his manager, Shep Gordon, who is an interesting dude in his own right! It is simply the case of there being a lot of good music going on out there. Well, I will try with this post to rectify some of that neglect. . .
The Coop just has had a lot of press lately. It has been fifty years since the release of Love it to Death, which of course has the classic tune “I’m Eighteen” on it.
In February, he released Detroit Stories, which is something like his 28th album? That number includes both the Alice Cooper Band and solo efforts and I might be off by one or two. Detroit Stories was recorded in Detroit, and again produced by his long-time producer Bob Ezrin.
Alice Cooper really clicked for me in the summer of 1981, when a buddy of my suggested we go check out his show. I did not really know his music, but I was never one to pass up checking out a rock’n’roll show, so why not?
Cooper kicked ass. He was at that time promoting his new album Special Forces, which sadly did not do much commercially, but I thought it was pretty good. I thought the show was cool and simply rocked. It was not one of his larger productions. Sadly there were no cannons, no guillotines, no bottles of gin and vodka chasing him around the stage. Still, I recall it being pretty damn good.
Lastly, in the last month or two, I was watching a recent find involving some live Bernie Torme on Youtube. Of course I was. . . Anyway, I proceeded to post a comment and someone, a Mr. John Barnes, who has quite the collection on YouTube, quickly responded and pointing me to this version of Alice’s “Under My Wheels” as done by Bernie Torme. I do wonder who is singing on the below version?
Like I said, just a lot of Alice Cooper going on out there lately, and that is very cool. At least in my neck of the woods.
