Alice Cooper

There was an old Coop thread in the R.I.P. section, but he deserves more respect than a zombie thread, so I'm starting up a new one.

Speaking of zombies, I saw this on Amazon recently:

http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Albums-1969-1983-CAB-15/dp/B00ZGVMKU6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435167649&sr=8-1&keywords=alice+cooper+box+set

It's coming out late July and has everything from the first band album up through Dada (a personal favorite). Apparently, a few of these are more recent Japanese remasters which are supposed to be crazy bonkers good, but others are either unidentified or mixed heritage.

Since I already have copies of ALL of these, the only real appeal is shaving down some shelf space by getting the box and tossing my individual copies, but maybe someone else on the board has an interest.

Oh, but if I find out there are bonus tracks on these albums, all bets are off and it'll be "Shut up and take my money!" time.

Those box sets of "complete studio albums" are typically no-frills, original album in a card board sleeve, no booklets deal. Nothing wrong with that, I own a few myself. But you get very little, if anything, in terms of extras. The bargain price tag usually associated with these releases also reflect the lack of bonuses.

If you're looking to kick-start your Alice Cooper collection, it's a fine set. I did a similiar thing with both ZZ Top and The Replacements. Since my collection was sorely lacking in albums by both, I got the box sets and *boom*, just like that, had more than enough to satisfy my musical curiosity.

The Blue Oyster Cult box was kind of the odd man out. Plenty of bonus material, discs compiling the odds and sods left over AND a download code for four live radio broadcasts.

I think I'm holding out hope that The Coop gets a set of similar grace and dignity.

The last few batches have been a bit lacklustre though. Still, the bargain prices work out alright. At the persistent badgering of a friend, I finally own some Van Halen, having gotten the box that has the first six albums in one go. No book or bonus tracks though, sadly, but a nice collection starter.

Yea, I guess it depends on the artist and material available. Mostly the ones I've seen have been no-frills affairs.

The ZZ Top set of 10 albums had all the original real drums put back in after someone thought it was a good idea to release the albums with electric drums in the 80's. So I guess you could call that a bonus.

Rhino records re-released all of the Replacements albums (separately) a few years ago with all kinds of b-sides and whatnot, however the box set I just purchased had none of that. Just the albums as they were originally released. Although probably remastered to today's current LOUD standards.

Man...I want that!!

Runicen wrote:

There was an old Coop thread in the R.I.P. section, but he deserves more respect than a zombie thread, so I'm starting up a new one.

Speaking of zombies, I saw this on Amazon recently:

http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Albums-1969-1983-CAB-15/dp/B00ZGVMKU6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435167649&sr=8-1&keywords=alice+cooper+box+set

It's coming out late July and has everything from the first band album up through Dada (a personal favorite).  Apparently, a few of these are more recent Japanese remasters which are supposed to be crazy bonkers good, but others are either unidentified or mixed heritage.  

Since I already have copies of ALL of these, the only real appeal is shaving down some shelf space by getting the box and tossing my individual copies, but maybe someone else on the board has an interest.

Oh, but if I find out there are bonus tracks on these albums, all bets are off and it'll be "Shut up and take my money!" time.  

Dada is great! If there are bonus tracks I would consider but otherwise no since i own them all.

I have all his stuff from the 70's. I can't get into the 80's albums, so I'd take a pass on this.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I have all his stuff from the 70's. I can't get into the 80's albums, so I'd take a pass on this.

Zipper Catches Skin is a spotty album, but has some great tracks on it. "Make That Money," for example, is a killer track. DaDa is a personal favorite, but it's so weird that I have a hard time figuring out how I'd recommend it. According to Wiki, Alice himself has said that it's the scariest album he ever made and that he can't listen to it. I'm going to venture to guess that has more to do with the drugs he was on at the time than the subject matter itself though.

King, I'm in the same boat with regard to the bonus material, but even the mastering is of interest to me. I have the first five albums via the "Original Album Classics" series and those were mastered hot as hell. Take the Pretties for You or Easy Action tracks from that and compare them to their versions on the "Life & Crimes" box and it's staggering how much they pushed it into the red, sadly.

And I have both the new(-ish) ZZ Top box AND Sixpack and, I have to admit I appreciate both, but I also heard the Sixpack versions first, so that probably colors my view of those remixes.

I find all of Alice's 80's output to be spotty at best. Not just the early 80's when he was drunk and lost, but the mid-to-late 80's when he was polished, slick hair metal. If I took all those albums from that era, I could probably cherry-pick a decent disc or 2 worth of music, but I'm not interested in getting the albums themselves. I'd never listen to them. Discs 3 & 4 of The Life And Crimes box set covers that era plenty for me.

I love his stuff from the 70's and then not again till the early 90's when he righted the ship with The Last Temptation and most of the albums that followed.

The hair metal stuff was definitely where he lost me. Those albums definitely could be condensed into one GREAT album. Likewise, The Last Temptation is a great album, but it's one of the few by Cooper that I feel I've "over heard," and tend to steer away from. I loved it when I first heard it in my teens, but it hasn't held much staying power for whatever reason, while the early 80s stuff is still so unique and odd that I find myself coming back to those albums all the time.

We're getting into subjective taste here 100%, but it's definitely interesting to me the different angles we're coming from.

I've mentioned it before elsewhere so I don't want to stray too far off topic here, but I think a lot of big acts from the 70's transitioning into the 80's lost their way, either through various bad habits or new technology and sounds of the era or both. Artists like Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, and Aerosmith found themselves in the midst of syths, keyboards, slicker production, MTV etc., and their output in that time frame suffered for it. It took them a few years to find a balance or get back to their sound.

That's not to say there aren't a few gems floating in around there, but I'd be hard pressed to find any 80's album that surpassed their 70's counterparts.

The 70s were baseball and the 80s were chess. You really can't compare the two directly.

The new tech of the 80s didn't just influence sonic textures (though it did that a LOT), it also got people writing their material differently and from that perspective, I definitely get why someone wouldn't be into a band's 80s stuff vs their 70s material. For my money though, listening to bands playing with the 80s sounds and such was a bit like, "I wonder what Black Sabbath would sound like with Michael Bolton fronting it? What if Deep Purple made an electronic record?" and other such questions. It was getting to see a band you liked putting their spin on a musical style and that's why I have an almost unhealthy love for 80s material. It was watching my favorite artists playing in someone else's sandbox and it led to some awesome stuff.

Trick is, I don't see those albums playing the same game as the 70s material, so I can't really compare them. It's two different games with two different sets of rules and I think some groups did way better by 80s rules than they're given credit for.

Quote :

"I wonder what Black Sabbath would sound like with Michael Bolton fronting it? What if Deep Purple made an electronic record?"

Said noone EVER.

"What if Helloween put out a record of old banjo tunes?"

I'm going to back 80s Alice in every thread.

Flush the Fashion through Trash are all essential in my book (and Hey Stoopid, but I said 80s, so you know...same thing).

I still don't get how a board full of people that like many/most/all of the bands playing the same style of glam/pop metal in the mid to late 80s can be so not into Alice's mid to late 80s stuff. He is one of the best dudes there is at this stuff in my opinion; his vocals and aesthetic fit well, and he was working with some talented musicians within that genre to boot.

He took the booze-and-snakes characters he was doing in the 70s, gave them neon guitars and some hairspray, and just really let loose. Even if Trash is too slick or polished for you, Constrictor and Raise Your Fist And Yell are right there in the epicenter, loud as hell and fun. Kane Roberts rules.

Runicen wrote:

The 70s were baseball and the 80s were chess.  

More like the 70s were great literature and the 80s was a trashy romance novel.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I'm going to back 80s Alice in every thread.

Flush the Fashion through Trash are all essential in my book (and Hey Stoopid, but I said 80s, so you know...same thing).

I still don't get how a board full of people that like many/most/all of the bands playing the same style of glam/pop metal in the mid to late 80s can be so not into Alice's mid to late 80s stuff. He is one of the best dudes there is at this stuff in my opinion; his vocals and aesthetic fit well, and he was working with some talented musicians within that genre to boot.

He took the booze-and-snakes characters he was doing in the 70s, gave them neon guitars and some hairspray, and just really let loose. Even if Trash is too slick or polished for you, Constrictor and Raise Your Fist And Yell are right there in the epicenter, loud as hell and fun. Kane Roberts rules.

Raise Your Fist and Yell is my favorite Cooper album.

S.D. wrote:

Runicen wrote:

The 70s were baseball and the 80s were chess.  

More like the 70s were great literature and the 80s was a trashy romance novel.  

Sometimes you just want a good bodice-ripper!

When it comes to Trash and Hey Stoopid!, my problem is more that Alice seemed to not quite know what he was going to do. Trash had some songs ("Hell is Living Without You" for example) which were just kind of clumsy and not suited to him particularly well IMHO. Hey Stoopid! tried to throw in a few singles and then also pepper in heavier conceptual stuff and it just felt like a really mixed pot that didn't gel.

I can't really comment on Constrictor or Raise Your Fist and Yell because I haven't heard either and I think they're the only two Coop albums I don't own in some form or other. I should really address that...

both Constrictor and Raise Your fist are good, although not even comparable to his 70s stuff.

15 slipcased cds for $85 is way too much. I bought first 5 Pretty Maids albums for $13.48 (currently listed on Amazon at $16.99 with free prime shipping)

$3-4 per pop is about the most a person should pay for such bare-bone "box-set"

I am a Alice Fan, I remember that I first discovered him from the 70´s great tracks. I think they hv a diferente kind of magic.

But My favorite tracks from alice are those... the HEAVIEST ones
- Freedom
- The World need guts
- Roses on White Lace
Saw him 3 times... but never saw my favorite tracks live Sadly :/

I hv all the records on Cd, I will not buy the box, but a nice ADD to those you want to have a special Thing from the Roots

stormspell wrote:

15 slipcased cds for $85 is way too much. I bought first 5 Pretty Maids albums for $13.48 (currently listed on Amazon at $16.99 with free prime shipping)

$3-4 per pop is about the most a person should pay for such bare-bone "box-set"

Yeah, but that's only $5.67 each and Alice is WAY more popular than Pretty Maids.

I'm just saying you know. I'm not a completist and already got all AC albums I need - they still have bunch of the original brand new CDs at overstock.com for less than $6

Happy 68th Birthday, Coop!!



You're the last of a dying breed.

Happy Birthday, Sir!