It was 1973, the first year since 1970 that all four Beatles released Solo albums simultaneously.  That's a lot of fab music for one year.  And a welcome thing too, had the records been chock full of great songs.  But it's telling, all these years later, that only Ringo's record holds up to repeated listenings.  Not that I'm complaining.  I love the Beatles (then and now) and eagerly bought and listened to all the crazy crap they released in the 70s.  But here's the thing: I just can't sit through these records, one by one, anymore. George is just too pedantic and whiny; John had lost touch with the pop music world in general, and his songwriting skills in particular; Paul, like John, seemed bereft of original ideas, melodies, and inspiration; and Ringo, well Ringo got some help.  He (wisely) didn't produce his record himself (unlike each of his former band-mates), and it's that extra set of ears behind the boards that really sets his record apart from the others.  If John, Paul and George had simply reached out to a first rate producer (George Martin, for example) for some considered feedback, their recorded documents from '73 might actually be worth spinning.  But, of course, that's the last thing they wanted: pleasant Beatly music. And too bad too, because the alternative was a crop of narrow-visioned albums that left their fans (this fan in particular) befuddled and bemused. 

So, is there any decent music inside the covers of Mind Games, Red Rose Speedway, Living in the Material World and Ringo?  Well, yes!  I've distilled 75 minutes from the collective 160 into what I feel is a very tasty, satisfying set.  Some of these songs are among my favorites.  John's I'm The Greatest, sung by Ringo is, well, the greatest; George's Be Here Now is sublime; Paul's My Love still inspires; and Ringo, well, Ringo hardly faltered due to the able assistance of pop-producer-extraordinaire Richard Perry.  So here it is:  Steve's ersatz Beatles record from 1973.  I'm calling it 'Living In Ringo's Red Rose Mind Game'.   And the entire set fits nicely onto one CD.  Copies available on request.    Listen and enjoy.

I'm the Greatest
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
Photograph
Sue Me, Sue You Blues
My Love
Get On the Right Thing
You Are Here
Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
Be Here Now
Oh My My
One More Kiss

Mind Games

I Know (I Know)

Living in the Material World
Six O'clock

Tight A$

Little Lamb Dragonfly

You're Sixteen

Since I continued to follow the Coop, career-wise, for the remainder of the 70' and into the early 80s, I'm adding an addendum to my previous 'Kudos to Alice Cooper' post .  The records I'm commenting on here are not a string of classics, but the few I didn't discard after purchase.  It's not that I ever stopped listening to Alice, it's just that besides being a dedicated AC fan, I'm also a dedicated record collector, and keeping the minions at manageable levels means thinning the ranks every so often.  Over the years I've sold dozens of records (some regrettably, most not) that fell off the play-list and simply took up valuable shelf space.  The AC records that fit this category are few, and I'm currently on the look-out for a replacement Flush the Fashion, since the opening two song salvo of "Talk, Talk" and "Clones" did at least hold the promise of great things to follow.

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Alice Cooper Part 2: the Solo years.  Once Alice Cooper (the band) broke-up in late 1973, Alice Cooper (the man) had some decisions to make.  The biggest one being: What the hell to I do now?  Actually, he knew exactly what he wanted to do: carry on right where Billion Dollar Babies left off.  So, he cooks up another concept, gets 'producer extraordinaire' Bob Ezrin back into the fold, and voila, phase 2 begins without a hitch. 

Welcome To My Nightmare (1975)

What do you do when you're a famous singer without a band?  Hire one, silly.  Luckily for the Coop, when Bob Ezrin was dismissed in '73 prior to the completion of Muscle of Love, Bob immediately began working with Lou Reed on Berlin (the record, not the city).  The two (Bob and Lou) put together a crack session band for the album, and Lou liked 'em so much, he kept them on for the accompanying tour.  And then Lou being Lou, after the tour ended, he fired everyone.  So when Alice was ready to go back into the studio in the Autumn of '74, he and Bob Ezrin (already back on-board as producer) didn't have far to look for musians.  Bob knew a great band that had both recorded and toured together, and they were lookin' for work.  Welcome to My Nightmare, like School's Out two years before it, is little bit Broadway, and a little bit Rock-n-Roll.  Not an easy match, but it worked for Alice.  And both records  have at least one song that, while serving the concept, also stands alone as a radio-friendly rocker.  On WTMN, it's "Cold Ethyl."  Steve Hunter's guitar catches fire on this track, and he's given free rein to rock his Hendrix-lovin' heart out.  This would have been my choice for single release, but I guess the title tune and the big ballad, "Only Women Bleed" sold the concept better.  The "Nightmare" itself is fleshed out with a tight set of story songs, and here again, Bob Ezrin uses high production values to keep things chilly and dreamlike. The Act 3 section, including "Years Ago", "Steven", "The Awakening", and "Escape" is Alice's best finale since Killer.  Because of what this album ultimately did for the 'Coop's career,
 it's a Definite Classic.

Goes To Hell (1976)

This is where sustained appreciation of Alice Cooper becomes a little more difficult.  At this point, you're either a fan or you're not.  I didn't then, and I still don't today, see this record winning the 'Coop many new fans.  But the ballad "I Never Cry" did chart in '76, so at least he continued the momentum.  For Goes to hell, Alice pretty much stuck with the same formula that served him so well on Welcome to My Nightmare: same producer, same band, same high production values; but this time out, our hero descends from his nightmare into hell.  The problem is: there's nothing very "Hellish" going on in the music.  Luckily, this is one of Alice's funnier records: his dialogues with the Devil catch a little fire. And Steve Hunter gets to shred a couple times (Guilty and Wish You Were Here); but for this fan, there's too much talkin' and not enough rockin'.  I rate this album Very Good+, but Not Essential

In 1977 Alice released two records, (Lace and Whiskey & The Alice Cooper Show), that I purchased, listened to a few times, then sold at my local used-record store.  The competition was getting much tougher by this time, and my ears were being drawn to other sounds.  Here's a short list of the records that grabbed my attention in '77:

 Going For The One - Yes

Aja - Steely Dan

RA - Utopia

All N All - Earth, Wind & Fire

Heavy Weather - Weather Report

"Heroes" - David Bowie

Lust for Life - Iggy Pop

Lights Out - UFO

Talking Heads '77

Live! In the Air Age - Be Bop Deluxe
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel

                         

                      

From The Inside (1978)

Old band Out, Studio band In.  Actually, this is the beginning of Alice's long and winding search for another Bob Ezrin, his true production soul-mate.  For this record, David Foster steps in--this is the era before he became a bombastic 'Pop-music' kitsch-miester.  Was it Foster who convinced Alice, for the first time, to seek professional help with the lyrics?  No matter.  Alice and word-write Bernie Taupin managed to concoct a concept out of the Coop's recent stay at a mental institution for treatment of acute alcoholism.  Exploiting personal problems for profit is always risky, and if not handled skillfully, the "product", in this case, The Record, can quickly devolve into maudlin melodrama. And that's the problem here.  Very much like Goes To Hell, the music is not nearly as dark or compelling as it might have been had the writers dug a little deeper and allowed our hero to hit rock bottom before regaining the surface.  Deferring to his (mostly) juvenile audience, Alice stays very PG-13 on this one--to his own loss.  Luckily, his humor still lingers, so "Nurse Rosetta" and "Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills" are fairly funny; and Steve Lukather's able rock-n-roll chops assure "Serious" rocks a little.  And while no single song really stands out, Alice's latent ability at ballad writing resulted in "How You Gonna See Me Now?" his 4th consecutive weeper to chart.  Pretty Good, but Not Essential.

Alice released records in 1980 and 1981 (Flush the Fashion & Special Forces), that I purchased, listened to a few times, then sold at my local used record store.  The competition was getting much, much tougher by this time, and my ears were being drawn to other sounds.  Here's a short list of the records that grabbed my attention in '80 and '81:

                                

Back In Black - AC/DC

Boy - U2

Hotter Than July - Stevie Wonder

Los Angeles - X

Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel

Pretenders - Pretenders

Remain In Light - Talking Heads

Zenyatta Mondatta - The Police

American Garage - Pat Metheny

Tattoo You - The Rolling Stones

Moving Pictures - Rush

4 - Foreigner

Zipper Catches Skin (1982)

Here we find our hero grabbing at straws in a bold attempt to stay radio friendly and hip.  No single concept emerges from this collection of tracks, and no single song sparks; but Alice, at least momentarily, has abandoned ballad writing in favor of his new found focus: stand-up comedian. So what is Zipper Catches Skin?  Exactly what the title suggests: a bunch of painful excursions into satire and comedy.  What makes it a keeper for me is the music.  Alice's record company probably set the budget for this record at  . . . well, lets just say, not very high.  Luckily, his collaborators were in the mood, (if not 'in the money'), so the jokes are at least partnered with saucy guitar riffs.  Like his last few records, Zipper Catches Skin will garner Alice no new fans; and many of the old ones, including this one, thought, "what the hell is this?"  We sure have come a long way from Dead Babies.  And maybe that's the point.
Of interest to die-hard AC fans only.  Definitely Not Essential.  

DADA (1982)

After cycling through a list of capable producers (David Foster, Roy Thomas Baker, Richard Podolor, Himself & Eric Scott, and Steve Tyrell), Alice finally re-teamed with producer extraordinaire Bob Ezrin for DaDa.  And this fan is very glad he did.  The concept for this record is the pseudo-legend of the maniacal Warmer family, which should have set this crack team of studio veterans on a chilly journey through America's twisted heartland.  Sounds like fun to me!  And to their credit, Alice and company do attempt to fill the spaces with tension and intrigue, but nothing really compels.  The production values are high, (due to Bob's presence, no doubt), so doctor visits, dark family secrets, desperate escapes, and grim discoveries all get plenty of "atmosphere," but little else.  If this record had been released in '79, or even earlier (like in '77, instead of Lace and Whiskey), the team might have sounded less tired.  And that's the missing element here: enthusiasm.  It would be four long years before Alice made another record, and listening to Dada, it's easy to see why.
Good, but Not Essential.

Greatest Hits (1974)

This is the best place to go for proof  that Alice Cooper was much more than a freak show.  His string of classic hits is here, in chronological order; and the band's musicianship, songwriting prowess, and Bob Ezrin's extraordinary production skills shine as brightly today as when these tracks were first recorded.  A Definite Classic.

In honor of Alice Cooper's entry into the Rock-N-Roll hall of fame, I'm posting my impressions of the band's run of classic hard-rocking albums recorded between 1971 and 1973.  It's a staggering accomplishment, both in quality and consistency, but maintaining such a high standard proved to be overwhelming.  The band broke up shortly after the release of Muscle of Love.  A final tour was started, then abruptly abandoned; but Alice Cooper left behind a string of 5 killer albums, 12 memorable hit singles, and a live act that inspired, for good or evil, legions of ghoulish followers.  These were the rock records that I grew up listening to, and I'm still listening to them today.  Congratulations Alice Cooper!

LOVE IT TO DEATH (1971)

Most of the elements that made Alice Cooper a unique 70s act are in place here.  Luckily, producer extraordinaire Bob Ezrin caught the band live one night at a half-full Max's Kansas City in New York. They had already released two undistinguished albums that had done little to grow their fan base beyond the local club scene in Detroit.  All that changed when Mr. Ezrin convinced his boss Jack Richardson to let him take Alice Cooper into the studio.  He turned their raw, unfocused sound into something with serious commercial potential without polishing away any of their rough edges.  Garage Rock, Proto Punk and Arena Rock can be heard on “Caught In A Dream”, “I’m Eighteen”, and “Long Way To Go” respectively.  And the band’s trademark weirdness appears in the two Gothic epics, “The Ballad of Dwight Fry” and "Black Juju.”  Alice is in top form vocally, employing a variety of “voices”; Mike Bruce and Glen Buxton layer each song with distinctive guitar work, and the rhythm section of Neal Smith and Dennis Dunaway drives each track into the stratosphere.
A Classic.

KILLER (1971)

This is where the band really solidified their hard rock style while simultaneously perfecting their ability to produce a wide variety of songs that, taken together, provided the Coopers with a lose theme for their macabre live shows.  On Killer, songs like “Dead Babies” and the title track fit in perfectly.  But what keeps the record a compelling listen are the shorter, punchier hits, like “Under My Wheels”, “Desperado”, and “Be My Lover.”  The long and winding “Halo of Flies” with its rhythmic, punchy synthesizer parts, sounds very Who-ish to this fan, but in a good way.  The Coopers were always a little derivative, but at least they had excellent taste.  The songs “You Drive Me Nervous” and “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” burn with the garage-rock energy of their early club-stomping days.  A Classic.

SCHOOL'S OUT (1972)

Did the band stay up late one night, drop acid, and watch West Side Story.  Except for the fact that they came up with their most original, incendiary single to date, School’s Out sure sounds like it.  No matter, the record still burns with raw energy, and they did get a theme for the accompanying tour out of it, so why not.  This just might be the Cooper’s Art Rock record.  “Looney Tune”, “Gutter Cat vs. the Jets”, “Street Fight”, and “Grand Finale” are all pieces of a grand and grandiose design, and “My Stars” and “Blue Turk” while rocking, trade the garage for the theater with their grand piano adornments and cool jazz arrangements.  “Public Animal # 9”, the meanest song on the record, gives Alice a chance to employ another of his great character voices, and "Alma Mater" is reverent without being overly sentimental.  A Classic. 

BILLION DOLLAR BABIES (1973)

 This is where I first heard Alice Cooper.  My older brother had a copy, which really attests to the crossover popularity of Billion Dollar Babies. The band pretty much peaked with this one, due mainly to the quality and quantity of its hit singles and overall high production values.  “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Elected”, and “No More Mr. Nice Guy” all charted.  And “Hello Hooray” and “Generation Landslide” became FM radio staples.  There are so many good singles here it’s scary!  The theme for the tour was defined by the tracks “Sick Things” and “I Love the Dead”; and for this fan, both seem a little more calculated than compelling.  With hindsight, it’s easy to see why the band became so divided after this recording.  It’s a great record sure, and it brought the band more fans than ever: they went from national attention to worldwide fame.  But they had also strayed well away from their garage rock roots, and the theatrical nature of their recordings had become confining.  I still play this record, and it always satisfies; but its slickness is also its salvation.  A Classic.

MUSCLE OF LOVE (1973)

The great divide: the band wanted Bob Ezrin, big production and grandiose themes gone; the singer wanted to continue in the direction they had so successfully board out.  So what is Muscle of Love? To this fan, it’s simply a great collection of hard rocking songs, pretty ballads, a movie title song (The Man With the Golden Gun) and forward looking experiments that could and should have been explored further.  I love this record!  I would characterize this one as the band’s Deep Purple album.  They pulled back on the futuristic sounding synthesizers and upped the organ ante considerably.  If the songwriting hadn’t been up to the band's usual high standard, things could have gone terribly wrong; but the songs are there.  On a side note: on previous records, Bob Ezrin had begun substituting professional studio musicians for band members when he thought it necessary, and that practice continued on Muscle of Love. The record making process, The Job, had all come a long way from Love It To Death; and maybe the time was right for a split.  But I simply cannot fault this record.  The singles, “Teenage Lament ‘74” and “Muscle of Love” are as good as the band gets.  And both sides of the record have a flow, a groove, that makes them, for this fan, compelling listens.  This is a personal record that sheds new light on the Coopers.  A Classic.    

U Tube Rules!

I've been reading this book by Alex Ross called, 'The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century', and without utube, I wouldn't have finished the first chapter. The book is mostly about post-modern classical music: the atonal, forbidden tritone (diabolus in musica) variety. Since I don't know that music well, it would be a real slog reading The Rest Is Noise without the ability to instantly reference these older, relatively obscure pieces of classical music.  Seriously, if you don't know the music well, there's no other way to appreciate the book.  Utube rules!  Well, utube and Wikipedia both.  My verdict on the music?  Awesome.

Utube has also helped me build a huge play-list of favorite music.  It's funny, but any website that sells music, like amazon, only provides soundbites of songs; but (I guess) since utube is considered strictly a video website, the music, any music, flows freely simply because it is used as background noise for video.  Funny.  Awesome, but funny.  And all the more valuable to me.  Now, when I'm working, or anytime, I'm not searching for CDs to play or downloading songs from itunes, I'm listening to utube.  The only drawback is that sometimes videos are pulled, but that's usually no problem because there are multiple postings of just about everything.  Most of the video is amateurish, but some of it is interesting, like the one that accompanies Also Sprach Zarathustra, by Deodato: the animation that plays with the music is well worth watching.  Mostly, though, I just listen to the music. 

Another favorite search for me lately is interview clips of my favorite contemporary musicians telling funny or interesting stories.  Sometimes, like this clip of Chris Squire, the stories are both funny and interesting.  So I'm blogging this one mainly to share it, but also so I can watch it myself without searching for it.  It's kinda long, but well worth the time if you've got a few minutes free.  And probably much more enjoyable than my favorite Shoenberg clip.  I'll post that later!


Chris Squire telling a funny story.

I've just finished reading a biography about chameleon rock star, David Bowie.  It's written by Marc Spitz and titled, simply, Bowie.  I'd have gone with Chameleon Rock Star, myself; or maybe, Rock & Roll Savior.  Anyway, it's one of a hundred or so bio's published in the last 35 years detailing the Glamor King's life; but even  though I'm a huge DB fan, until now I've never bothered to read one.  I figured (wrongly) that they'd all be too gossipy and salacious to hold my interest, but Mr Spitz's book was a treat to read from start to finish.  Then I searched the internet and found this clip from the British sit-com, Extras, which is mentioned in the book, and I laughed my ass off while watching it.  And now look, I've managed to figure out how to post videos from utube.  Will wonders never cease.   The clip with Ricky Gervais and Patrick Stewart also rocks.  Oh, go ahead, watch them all!

R. I. P.  Ronnie James Dio