Published on Oct 2, 2001
The is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear this album
compared with that oh-so-stinky debut
Pretties For You is how rapidly the Alice Cooper group’s
songwriting and playing skills managed to drastically improve in
the space of only one year.
Easy Action isn’t a perfect album, but it’s pretty shocking
to hear such a colossal improvement over
Pretties For You. This is the classic Alice Cooper band’s
little known follow up album to their little known debut record,
released in 1970, only a year before the critical and commercial
breakthrough classic album
Love It To Death.
All the signs of the band’s musical direction in the near future
can be found on
Easy Action. I guess they woke up and realized what a turd
of a debut they had put out and by the sound of things managed to
get sober enough the second time around in the studio to actually
nail down some stellar songwriting. I mean, judging by the lyrics
here I’m pretty much convinced that they must still have been ON
something, but hey! That’s rock ‘n roll, MAAAAAAAN!!!!
Yep, those are actually fully developed songs you hear this time
around! Isn’t that shocking? Unlike the debut which was 38 minutes
of mostly unintelligible noise, each song on
Easy Action is distinctive from the rest. But keep in mind
that this is a transition album seeing the band mature from
non-sensical crap phase to awesome hard rock songwriting phase, so
there’s a mix of both these aspects throughout the album.
So without further ado, let’s get down to the nitty gritty: the
actual songs. Right off the bat the change in style hits ya like a
cloud of weed! I personally feel that there are a few songs on here
which should have become classics and remained in the live
repertoire, but unfortunately the album bombed…it didn’t even
sell as well as
Pretties For You for some ungodly reason, so I guess that’s
why even the good material on here has become completely
forgotten…which really is a shame. Cooper probably hasn’t
performed ANY of this material since 1970, if ever, and I’d bet
that he even doesn’t remember much about this album!
The first song is “Mr. And Misdemeanor”, which sounds a lot like
the Alice we would come to embrace in later albums. It’s a mid
tempo rock tune with prominent piano accompanyment, but the most
important thing you’ll notice is the first appearance of Alice’s
straight forward poppy singing punctuated with his now famous
trademark frequent bursts of that whiskey soaked hoarse growl to
emphasize the good/evil split personality for that ultimate creepy
effect that he would master for the full blown psychotic themes
that were stylistically central to his albums later in his
career.
The next song, “Shoe Salesman”, is a pretty bizarre ‘lil
number… it’s a pretty mellow, mostly acoustic tune and while it’s
not bad, it’s certainly no classic, and the lyrics serve as a prime
example of an utter lack of sobriety! “Still No Air” sounds a bit
like a leftover from the first album with the weird arrangements
and unorthodox guitar noises, but it’s still executed a lot better
than anything on that stupid album.
“Below Your Means” in my opinion is one of the songs on
Easy Action which is very well crafted and acts as a real
glimpse into the band’s future musical direction. Sort of an eerie
song with a catchy melody and some great guitar arrangements before
turning into an extended jam. Kinda reminds me of the style on the
seminal
Welcome To My Nightmare.
“Return Of The Spiders”, the next song, I assume is a reference
to the period around 1967 when the band was still in high school
together and called themselves The Spiders. They sure upped the
tempo for this one…just check out the hyperactive bass playing by
Dennis Dunaway and the blistering drumming by Neal Smith with
Alice’s over-the-top snarls! Hardly any guitar on this one
though.
What I always loved about the original Alice Cooper group is
that each of the band members developed their own unique and
instantly recognizable playing style. This is one of the few bands
where the drumming and bass work consistently capture as much of
the limelight as the guitars and vocals. I’d be hard pressed to
find another bass player who is as original as Dennis Dunaway. Just
as fascinating is that you can’t really pin down the band’s sound;
unlike most harder rock bands of the era, there doesn’t seem to be
any strong blues influence, but it’s rather more theatrical
sounding.
It may be sacrilege to make comparisons to the Beatles because
Alice Cooper, nor anyone else at that time, were quite in the same
songwriting league, but I think that as musicians they were every
bit as original. Even John Lennon himself was a fan of Cooper’s
music, and they regularly got sloshed together!
Back to the songs…”Laughing At Me” is a beautiful track that
should have been a hit…it’s an early example of the eerie teen
angst riddled songs like “I’m 18” and “School’s Out” that would
become such huge hits for the band over the next few years.
Now, when you hear “Beautiful Flyaway” I swear you’ll think it
must be a misplaced track or something. This very solid mid-tempo
piano tune sounds like a lost Beatles recording! There’s nothing in
this song AT ALL that would indicate it’s Alice Cooper! The most
baffling thing is that Alice himself sounds exactly like Paul
McCartney! Shocking! But awesome!
Last but not least, the last song on Easy Action is “Lay Down
And Die, Goodbye”, and is pretty much a seven and a half minute jam
with a bit of singing thrown in in the last thirty seconds. But
unlike the nonsensical, disjointed, uninspired, and ill adivised
instrumental jams on the debut record, this one actually seems to
have some structure to it, and it defintitely sounds very dark and
creepy, almost like the soundtrack to a nightmare (foreshadowing
yet again)…it’s a perfect tune to throw on the stereo on
Hallowe’en night to scare them kiddies…MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
In closing, this is another obscure snapshot of a band less than
a year from smashing into the mainstream world unleashing a legacy
and impact that remains to this very day three decades later.
Easy Action is totally a transition album that mixes the
total freak out weirdoness of the debut with the garagey rock of
the next one,
Love It To Death, which made them a household name. It’s
pretty much for die-hard fans only, but it’s very interesting to
see how this bizarre band evolved!
In any case, this is an underated album that is way better than
the debut, but not nearly as good as the next dozen or so releases.
It suffers from inconsistency, but the good material here is REAL
GOOD and it annoys me that it’s constantly ignored. Too bad that it
also has been out of print for years now, so I guess we’ll just
have to wait for the inevitable remastered re-issue with restored
photos and artwork, and new liner notes, which is the kind of
faithful treatment every other classic rock band seems to be
getting nowadays. This is definitely an album that deserves a
revival.