Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper - The Studio Albums 1969-1983 (2015) {15 Disc Box Set Rhino-Warner 081227953744}
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© 1969-83, 2015 Rhino / Warner | 081227953744
Rock / Hard Rock / Shock Rock / Glam Rock

Weighing in at 15 CDs, The Studio Albums 1969-1983 is a hefty box set but, at $85, it is relatively affordable considering that it contains everything Alice Cooper – both the band and the man – recorded at Straight and Warner. Whatever bonus material attached to CD reissues over the years has been stripped away – nothing from the 2001 deluxe edition of Billion Dollar Babies, then – and there are no new remasters of the albums, but this set isn't bare bones. The mini-LP replicas contain a few inserts carried over from the vinyl and, more importantly, those early Straight Records are present, which is good because they were out of print for a while. Not everything here is great – he did have a rough patch in the late '70s and early '80s – but it's all interesting, and it's especially nice to be able to get the entire catalog so easily and cheaply.

With Alice Cooper experiencing a career resurgence by the late '80s, another best-of collection was assembled for release in just about every area of the world except the U.S., 1989's Beast of Alice Cooper…

Alice Cooper takes over Halloween with a sensational concert featuring show stopping performances. Cooper has specially selected three of the UK's most dangerous performers to appear with him on stage. Their bizarre acts will feature guillotines, electric chairs, blood special effects and fire-eaters…

Coming off such conceptual, theatrical, sleazy hard rock records as the massively successful School's Out (1972) and Billion Dollar Babies (1973), the Alice Cooper group decided that their next release would be more along the lines of their earlier, more straightforward work (à la Love It to Death). While Muscle of Love was a gold-certified Top Ten success, it performed below expectations (their previous two albums peaked at number two and number one, respectively) and would unfortunately prove to be the original Alice Cooper band's last studio album together…

Dragontown continues the assault of Alice Cooper's gift to the new millennium that was Brutal Planet. Considered a third chapter of a trilogy initiated by 1994's The Last Temptation, this shadowy production plays like hardcore in slow motion. There is no one identifiable song like "Gimme" or "Brutal Planet" from the last episode, but the production values are high and the innovative riffs consistent. This work stands on its own, chock-full of the dark prince of pop's nasty humor. "It's Much Too Late" is supposed to be for John Lennon, but the Beatlesque backing vocals sound like Carole King's hit from Tapestry on hard drugs. There are references to the sacrilege spread out over Lennon's work from Plastic Ono Band to Imagine, but here Alice takes off the gloves and gives the church the finger: "I'm sending you all to hell/I'm tired and I'm wired here…."

Alice Cooper has been deemed "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He is notorious for his theatrics and compelling, and often shocking, stage antics. It seems that these things may have, to a fair degree, overshadowed his prowess as a songwriter. Many have simply dismissed Alice Cooper as a shock rocker more along the lines of KISS than Dylan or Bowie. To me, he is more akin to the latter two. Cooper's songwriting brilliance wasn't lost on Bob Dylan either, who regarded him as an overlooked and under-appreciated songwriter. Or John Lennon who said his favorite song was Cooper's "Elected". Or Frank Zappa, who signed Alice Cooper to his label. As a kid with a love for rock n roll and horror movies, Alice Cooper and KISS both captivated me, but it was the music of Cooper that stood the test of time as I grew older.

For the Alice Cooper fans who feel his output was spotty before and after the 1989 classic Trash on Epic, Brutal Planet is a cause to rejoice. It is a solid hard rock offering. Cooper is in great voice, and he sounds mean and spirited. The title track would be a blessing on radio today. It has great bottom, sizzling guitars, and wonderful backing vocalists. The most impressive thing about this album is Cooper's lyrics. "Sanctuary" could be Lou Reed meets Deep Purple in their heyday. Back in 1987 Cooper performed with an unruly band all over the map. It was very uncomfortable and a far cry from his heyday of "I'm 18" and "Under My Wheels": guitars too loud, and an artist obviously struggling with his personal demons.

Give him points for persistence: Alice Cooper just won't quit. He's seen it all from the bottom to the top – and done the trip more than once – but still continues on his merry-morbid way, punching out albums like a spry young'un. The first thing one has to say about The Eyes of Alice Cooper is thank Jehovah and all his witnesses that the Mascara'd One has grown out of his metal/industrial phase. That look just never took. Discs like Brutal Planet (2000) and the somewhat better Dragontown (2001) offered little to his legacy or his legion of fans – aside from nascent headbangers discovering the Coop for the first time. Eyes harks back to Alice's overly maligned early-'80s discs Special Forces and Flush the Fashion – albums that suffered by comparison with his landmark '70s releases but remain far more musically appealing than the aforementioned new-millennium fare.