80´s Alice Cooper

Hey, if his entire 80's output somehow miraculously shows up in a Goodwill someday or at a flea market for a buck apeice, I'll snap 'em up just because. But until that happens...pass.   

For a while as a kid I enjoyed his 80's work more than his classic work. That's switched by a good amount these days, however.

beside mentioned i still like DaDa.
Constrictor- is gr8 comeback, i love the opening strong title, need to be refreshed as opener for today shows. last track He's Back is great last closer song again, everything between is hard rock of 80s sometimes sounds like more demo that regular song but they are good songs.
RYFAY- love it more than konstriktor, opener freedom another track that need to be put back on the setlist. ryfay is much more stronger more heavier. i like all tracks.
Hey Stoopid- everything's fine from start to end with all the session guitarist or ... love it. typical end anthemic catchy songs.
Trash- same, fits more for bon jovi or another related performer but AC need the new breakthru in 80s and Desmod Child knew how to did it. btw track is taken from BJ. no weak point, every song is killer.
Tempatation- hard for me to acept it. listen it too much back than but never really got me. it's dark, slow, mean... etc. aah kinda like it but im reserved. i like more brutal planet.

manny wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I have no interest in anything from Alice in the 80's. Anything up to around 1978 and then from The Last Temptation ('94) and forward from that. The early 80's stuff is too "new wave" and the late 80's stuff is too "slick Bon-Jovi fluff".

I personally loved his New Wave era (which seems to have been influenced more by blow, whiskey and lack of artistic direction), Flush the Fashion, Special Forces and DA DA are all worthy of the Coop, 'Zipper Catches Skin' is the weakest one of that era.

MG, I would recommend Special Forces out of the early 80's material to at least check out. It's the perfect combination of the new style he was shooting for and classic AC.

I'm with Manny on this one. Love his early 80's releases. When it comes to his later 80's stuff, Constrictor and Raise Your Fist especially, I have some pretty stong memories tied to them and played them to death at one point during high school. They were some of the only cassettes I had to play in the car   

Constrictor- While it was good to see Alice make the huge return to form he did with this album, it's very uneven. Despite Alice's ability to adapt to different styles and make them his own (as well as bringing his own "coopness" to the songs) a few of the tracks suffer from being too 80's. Wet drums, over synthed, the overly lite sing song chouruses in one or two songs, all detract some from it. As well as a few tracks that feel like filler or just aren't that great. With that said there's some real classics in "Teenage Frankenstein", "He's Back", "Simple Disobedience" and the majority of the album is good. This just wouldn't be the first album I reach for from this era. Kane Roberts' guitar playing is awesome on the record.

Raise Your Fist and Yell- The quintessential "metal" Alice album as far as I'm concerned. Not as pop laden as Constrictor, and stronger compositions over all. Ol' Alice also picks back up with a unified theme on this based around slasher flicks (one of hist best tours IMO)which works well. The opening track "Freedom" still stands as one of his best singles. While there are a couple tracks that are "meh" worthy, this album flows very well. The best part of the album definately is the last half. Starting with the killer "Prince of Darkness" it picks up from there into an excellently crafted suite of tracks(Time To Kill thru Roses on White Lace) about and unnamed killer. "Roses on White Lace" is an superb closing track. The band on this album, particularly Kane & Kip, are great.

Trash- Ugh, this one ranks at the bottom of his album's for me. Pure pop metal essentially, which worked well for Alice as this record was huge, but most of the album can be tossed out. "Bed Of Nails", "Trash", "Posion" and "Spark In The Dark" are great tracks.

Hey Stoopid- A good record, still some holdover sounds from "Trash", but this is where he starts to segue into where he was heading on "The Last Temptation". Some uneven moments, but overall a solid release.

The Last Temptation- Excellent! Pure classic Alice.

'Raise Your Fist and Yell' is the only album from then I still think is as strong as the early 70s albums.
"Constrictor" is ok.

RYFAY isn't rock, but pure metal, mostly in the heavy metal KISS "Lick It Up" album style with the song "Freedom" being a nod to "thrash metal".

Not really a fan of the others, and will have to hear "The Last Temptation" again to remember what it was like.

You guys are great rapping about all his releases !
One older brother was Aerosmith - the other was Alice Cooper -
He must have more albulms out than KISS !
I have read a few books - one by Michael Bruce - ( how the Cooper 70's era ended )
another was a golf / rock book ( ? )
I forget - what a huge, almost mythical, legend he really is -
and how in the halls of metal - everyone chats with interest about him -
Him with Dee Snider in " Cruel to your School " is a great 80's glimpse of him -

DeathCult wrote:

MG, I would recommend Special Forces out of the early 80's material to at least check out. It's the perfect combination of the new style he was shooting for and classic AC.

I love Special Forces so much. I even have an embroidered Special Forces back patch on my coat. Some friends of mine do a great electro-punk/metal cover of Who do you think we are? that is pretty killer.

breathingliquid wrote:

DeathCult wrote:

MG, I would recommend Special Forces out of the early 80's material to at least check out. It's the perfect combination of the new style he was shooting for and classic AC.

I love Special Forces so much. I even have an embroidered Special Forces back patch on my coat. Some friends of mine do a great electro-punk/metal cover of Who do you think we are? that is pretty killer.

Special Forces is my favorite from that era. Has a great punk edge to it. A perfect album IMO. Back patch eh? That's pretty awesome man, I've never actually seen one in person. I have a hat from the tour though.

DeathCult wrote:

breathingliquid wrote:

DeathCult wrote:

MG, I would recommend Special Forces out of the early 80's material to at least check out. It's the perfect combination of the new style he was shooting for and classic AC.

I love Special Forces so much. I even have an embroidered Special Forces back patch on my coat. Some friends of mine do a great electro-punk/metal cover of Who do you think we are? that is pretty killer.

Special Forces is my favorite from that era. Has a great punk edge to it. A perfect album IMO. Back patch eh? That's pretty awesome man, I've never actually seen one in person. I have a hat from the tour though.

It's a bootleg I am sure but I just love that military/skull logo. It's super well done. Currently AC has added Special Forces logo designed guitar pics to his merch table.

I still like DaDa. Its a lot different than most of his stuff and it has some really good songs on it.

'Trash' and 'The Last Temptation' are excellent. 'Trash' is one of the best hair/pop/glam/whatever-metal albums of all time, IMO.

'Hey Stoopid' is good, features some great songs, but felt too much like 'Trash Part II' at points and was perhaps even more slick and polished.

'Constrictor' and 'Raise Your Fist and Yell' aren't out-and-out classics but very fun and saw Alice successfully embracing the '80s metal movement. 'Raise Your Fist...' is the better of these two by far.

Darn it, with autumn/Halloween coming up, now you've got me wanting to go through Alice's discography again like I did last year!

Metal Misfit wrote:

Darn it, with autumn/Halloween coming up, now you've got me wanting to go through Alice's discography again like I did last year!

No reason not to!

In a recent interview, Alice talked about his early 80's "blackout" albums and had this to say...

Quote :

Cooper touched on his ‘blackout albums’ consisting of his albums recorded in the early ’80s — Flush The Fashion (1980), Special Forces (1981), Zipper Catches Skin (1982) and DaDa (1983) — which he does not remember due to being under the influence of illicit substances during those years.

With respect to those albums, Cooper indicated:

“I was basically writing these trippy little songs that now I listen to, and I don’t remember writing them. I don’t remember producing them. I don’t remember touring with them. I might have been involved in the cocaine blizzard that was going on in Los Angeles at the time.”

“Now I listen to them and I go, ‘Wow! That song is so good!… I am almost tempted to go back into those albums and reproduce some of those songs, because some of the songs were so clever that I hate to see them just disappear.”

What would you think of Alice re-recording some of those songs and putting out a cd culled from those albums?

I'd personally be all for it. From the little I've heard of that era, I don't like it at all. Too New Wave weird 80's slop. But rerecorded with modern production and heavier guitars? Bring it on!

And here's a reminder of Alice's "look" of that era.

Cocaine's a helluva drug!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

And here's a reminder of Alice's "look" of that era.

Cocaine's a helluva drug!

My lord !