Ultimateclassicrock.com's Top 10 most underrated Alice Cooper songs...

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/alice-cooper-underrated-songs/

I enjoyed this list and the writer's notes on each song. I dig 'em all. There are probably songs I'd choose differently, but I mean, 99% of Alice's catalog is underrated, and also, 99% of his catalog is excellent (he's a had a song or two that I don't care for, but that's about it). So any songs you choose I'm bound to agree with.

Generation Landslide would have been my #1, but nice to see it on someone list at all.

Anyone who knows me, especially if you are on Facebook, you know what huge Alice fan I am.

Amazing for any artist so successful, a large body of his work, whether solo or with the band, remains unknown.

Great list and nice to see someone with knowledge of the catalog going at it.  

Still, it would have been nice to see I Love America on there... Or anything from those early 80s albums.

ultmetal wrote:

Generation Landslide would have been my #1, but nice to see it on someone list at all.

I don't know if it'd be my #1, but I too love the hell out of that track.

And I agree with Manny...I will never get why while everyone knows who Alice Cooper is, mostly, his music remains somewhat obscure (other than the obvious tiny handful of songs that get played on classic rock radio) to the world at large.

Interesting article - I only recently started picking up Alice's discography (and I am no where near done) so I'm not the best one to ask... That said, I really liked Brutal Planet and Wicked Young Man when he performed them live (saw him open for Maiden 4 times.) I picked up the album and was disappointed in the overall sound/production of the songs on the record, the songs were much better live!

Brutal Planet and Dragontown were the first CDs Alice put out when I was old enough and actually interested in buying music with any regularity, so I have a soft spot for them as a result. If he was going to flirt with being Rob Zombie, he could have done a much worse job than Brutal Planet IMO.

DaDa and Lace and Whiskey have some true gems.

While I do agree that many of the choices on there are underrated in the sense that fans don't often talk about them, pretty much everything from 1971-1975 should be out of bounds on an underrated list (other than stuff from Muscle of Love). My list would be something like this:

10. Who Do You Think We Are - Very catchy song from his least popular era
9. The World Needs Guts - You could pick nearly any song from this album, but this one has among the catchiest choruses
8. Eat Some More - This is probably his heaviest song ever. A total masterpiece.
7. Triggerman - Very catchy, cool upbeat tune with a wicked ending
6. Freedom - From Alice's most metal album, this song is very heavy
5. He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask) - Really commercial, but still a great song
4. Pick Up The Bones - Very evil stuff; the performance on "Brutally Live" is fantastic
3. Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever - Perhaps it's a bit too early to call this underrated, but this song is all kinds of brilliant. I love the ending.
2. Dangerous Tonight
1. Might As Well Be On Mars - The back to back combo of Dangerous Tonight and Might As Well Be On Mars is maybe Alice's best work. The former is incredibly heavy and sadistic, while the latter is a fantastic ballad with great lyrics.

I don't really think Alice's early to mid '70s stuff is all that underrated. Maybe a bit obscured by his big '70s hits but those early albums are usually well-regarded.

However, most of his albums in the 1976-1991 range seem to be judged much more harshly and there's some great stuff on those, particularly in that 1980-1983 stretch. Those four albums starting with Flush the Fashion are just great. The title track from DaDa is one of his very best songs, and probably his creepiest ever.

I also agree about Might As Well Be On Mars. Such a great ballad. It should have been a massive hit in '91.

Spiner202 wrote:

2. Dangerous Tonight
1. Might As Well Be On Mars - The back to back combo of Dangerous Tonight and Might As Well Be On Mars is maybe Alice's best work. The former is incredibly heavy and sadistic, while the latter is a fantastic ballad with great lyrics.

I agree with this, both great songs.

For me Alice's most underrated songs are: Cold Machines, Brutal Planet, Eat Some More, I Just Wanna Be God, Spark In The Dark, This Maniac's In Love With You, Life And Death Of The Party, Trick Bag, Crawlin, Hell Is Living Without You, Prince Of Darkness, Raise Your Fist And Yell, Give The Radio Back, Bed Of Nails, I'm Your Gun, Snakebite, Hurricane Years, Little By Little, Die For You and Dirty Dreams.

From the list i like only THE BLACK WIDOW (very special song), CAUGHT IN A DREAM, PUBLIC ANIMAL 9 (yes it has a STONES vibe to it but also early 70s KISS), and HALO OF FLIES. This makes me for shore a bad fan    but i still own a lot of his records. I had to check some of this songs again on you tube because i didnt remember them and the ones i named are the ones i like from the 10.

Metal Misfit wrote:

DaDa and Lace and Whiskey have some true gems.

Among others, I've always liked Scarlet and Sheba from DaDa.

Guilty from ...Goes To Hell (70's) is another track that comes to mind.

Good list though.  Of course, I love Alice.

for me,
DaDa is perfect concept album and DaDa as song opener for show is top 1.
RYFaY is another forgotten gem and songs on it.
Constrictor next album which is so good with songs and none of them are perfomed live except He's Back
Hey Stoopid album have lots of songs which are awesome and not played live and they are underrated.

im not into special forces and zipper catches skin or flush the fasion, but still good song on the albums which should be played live.

all in all, 70s are top 80s are not and later are unaccpetable for alice to play.

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this is setlist of tribute AC band, must say we had so much fun at the show.
i've never hear that songs live and this tribute band made it.

I agree that Alice's material from 1980 through 1991 gets unfairly ignored by music fans (often even by Alice fans) and by Alice himself. I don't know his actual opinions on the music, but he plays little of it live.

Although when I saw him in October last year, he did play a total of 4 or 5 songs from his "hair metal" period, which is more than I've seen in one show ever (usually just "Poison" and sometimes "Feed My Frankenstein").

To me, the whole Dirty Diamonds album (minus the bonus track Stand) would be Alice's most underrated songs.

jstate wrote:

To me, the whole Dirty Diamonds album (minus the bonus track Stand) would be Alice's most underrated songs.

"Stand" is one of the only Alice songs that I downright do not like at all. I have no problem with him doing a song with a rapper, and I have no problem with Xzibit...but that song is just not good.

I think I need to put in an honorable mention of "King of the Silver Screen" from Lace & Whiskey and "Make That Money (Scrooge's Song)" from Zipper Catches Skin for the underrated list.

Always nice to see the Flush the Fashion - Dada period getting some love. I definitely think it was close to his best.

Runicen wrote:

I think I need to put in an honorable mention of "King of the Silver Screen" from Lace & Whiskey and "Make That Money (Scrooge's Song)" from Zipper Catches Skin for the underrated list.

Always nice to see the Flush the Fashion - Dada period getting some love.  I definitely think it was close to his best.

Agreed on "King of the Silver Screen" for sure.

And I love his early 80s period. Flush the Fashion particularly would be numbered among my top 5 albums.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I agree that Alice's material from 1980 through 1991 gets unfairly ignored by music fans (often even by Alice fans) and by Alice himself. I don't know his actual opinions on the music, but he plays little of it live.

Although when I saw him in October last year, he did play a total of 4 or 5 songs from his "hair metal" period, which is more than I've seen in one show ever (usually just "Poison" and sometimes "Feed My Frankenstein").

Alice probably dosen't even remember most of those songs, as they were recorded during a very low point in his life where he was struggling with alcohol addiction, so it's understandable if he has a hard time looking back on that period.

I seem to remember some Behind the Music or whatever talking about how he was hospitalized after Dada with dehydration because of how much he was drinking.

If you look at promo shots of him around Special Forces, you can definitely see it coming, so I'd certainly understand if that was the case.

Vexer6 wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I agree that Alice's material from 1980 through 1991 gets unfairly ignored by music fans (often even by Alice fans) and by Alice himself. I don't know his actual opinions on the music, but he plays little of it live.

Although when I saw him in October last year, he did play a total of 4 or 5 songs from his "hair metal" period, which is more than I've seen in one show ever (usually just "Poison" and sometimes "Feed My Frankenstein").

Alice probably dosen't even remember most of those songs, as they were recorded during a very low point in his life where he was struggling with alcohol addiction, so it's understandable if he has a hard time looking back on that period.

He definitely doesn't remember recording Zipper Catches Skin and DaDa, and he has also mentioned in one interview that he doesn't remember Special Forces either. I think he does remember Flush The Fashion though.

He was clean by the time Constrictor came out, so he definitely remembers everything from that point on. In fact, he has hinted many times over the past few years that he wants to bring out some songs from Raise Your Fist and Yell, but he never seems to play anything from it.

It must have been the cold war for these boozing rockers, but Alice and John Cale apparently had this obsession with Soldier of Fortune magazine in the 80s that I never quite saw coming and I don't think either of them understand in hindsight.

The real crime is that we never got to hear an Alice record produced by JC. That would have been... interesting.