Published on Oct 29, 2001
In 1999 Rhino Records (the nostalgia-friendly label under
Warner) released
The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper, a four cd, eighty-one
track box set monster, complete with a sickeningly detailed and
well put together eighty-one page booklet. The good folks at Rhino
as usual went that extra mile to put together a fantastic package
that leaves no stone unturned. Every era of Alice Cooper’s long
career is faithfully covered with this set, from his very earliest
high school recordings in the mid 60’s right up to 1999. Finally, a
collection exists that gives one of the most influential artists in
rock history the respect that he deserves, and even critics who are
not fans of Cooper have admitted that this kind of tribute was long
overdue, and that the presentation of the box set itself is a model
for others to follow.
Although this box set is a fantastic overview of the 30 year
career of Alice Cooper, it does have a couple of minor faults.
Someone who is just interested in a greatest hits collection is not
going to fork over eighty bucks for this extravagant summary of a
legendary career, and for the complete Alice freaks like myself
there is too much inclusion of common tracks already widely
available elsewhere.
Nevertheless, the purpose of a box set is to provide many
examples of an artist’s musical history, and to unlock the vaults
to gain access to obscure material, and in this sense,
The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper delivers. There’s a
plentiful amount of rare and unreleased tracks, comprising of
demos, soundtrack contributions, and foreign singles and b-sides,
all remastered, as well as the eighty-one page booklet, containing
tons and tons of high quality rare photographs from all periods of
his illustrious career, in addition to plenty of celebrity guest
opinions, thorough essays on the history of Cooper’s career, an
extensive breakdown of his entire discography, including release
dates, songwriting credits, and other technical information, and a
track by track detailed synopsis done mainly by Alice himself as
well as former members of his various bands, etc., all in full
colour! The four cd’s are basically arranged in chronological
order, with disc one covering 1965 – 1972, disc two covering 1973 –
1976, disc three covering 1977 – 1986, and disc four covering 1986
– 1999.
Time for a bit of history: before the five high school buddies
who comprised the classic line-up of the early Alice Cooper group
(1968 – 1974) were actually called Alice Cooper, they were briefly
named the Nazz, and before that, the Spiders. Under these little
known aliases the band recorded a handful of ultra rare singles,
which are included on disc one and provide the most fascinating
glimpse at the very earliest beginnings of what would become one of
the world’s most notorious bands barely five years later.
“Hitch Hike” is the earliest example included here, a Marvin
Gaye cover recorded by the Spiders way back in 1965. Along with the
Beatle-esque “Why Don’t You Love Me”, and the Who-ish “Don’t Blow
Your Mind” (both from 1966), these early tracks are surprisingly
catchy and well played slices of mid 60’s raw guitar pop-rock that
showcase a bunch of teenagers with great talent and limitless
potential.
So this naturally begs the question: Why did they completely
abandon that musical approach in favour of the amateurish and
bizarre foray into sloppily played noise psychedelia on the debut
album,
Pretties For You? Maybe they thought that that was the
future of music, or that they were still trying to find their own
sound, so who knows…but I can’t help but think that they might
have made a big impression much sooner if only they had applied the
more conventional pop hooks that they were obviously capable of,
heard on these early recordings, to the debut album, which probably
would have made it much more listenable than it is.
It doesn’t end there; also included are several tracks from
around the time of the
Pretties For You recording sessions that would have made the
album much stronger had they been included, like the studio version
of “Levity Ball”. First of all, that’s one of the few decent songs
on that whole album, but for some reason they choose to put a
horribly recorded live version of the song on the album instead of
the far superior studio version included on this box set. Why did
they do that??
But the most stunning omission on
Pretties For You is the song “Nobody Likes Me”, also
included here. It’s sickening that a song of such quality did not
make the final cut of an album otherwise filled mostly with silly
noise experiments. “Nobody Likes Me” is probably the earliest
example of the eccentric, fully theatrical creepy Alice Cooper that
wouldn’t surface for several more years. It opens with a hauntingly
beautiful guitar line over a waltz rhythm before a fascinating
polka style mid section takes over. Extremely creative song in
every sense, and highly melodic. I believe it to be one of the
finest songs the band ever wrote, so it truly boggles my mind as to
why it never got more exposure. I guess they didn’t include it on
Pretties For You because it was too melodic!
Certainly “Nobody Likes Me” is way ahead of its time, sounding
like a leftover from the 1975
Welcome To My Nightmare sessions, and I can’t believe Alice
didn’t resurrect it for that album as the style would have been
perfect. The song is also proof that the band already had strong
theatrical leanings and excellent musicianship before Bob Ezrin
came along and encouraged them to go in that direction in 1971.
On disc three there are also several noteworthy rare tracks,
such as the inclusion of one song from the 1977
Battle Axe album, the only album recorded by a band called
Billion Dollar Babies that included former Alice Cooper group band
members Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith. There is
also a creepy cover of the Beatles’ song “Because”, on which the
Bee Gees (!) provide background vocal harmonies to Alice’s lead
vocals and a harpsichord melody. Quite an interesting version, and
it comes from the soundtrack to a universally panned 1978 film
called
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
There are also the single versions of several standard album
tracks included on the box set, and while most of the time this
means that their overall length is shortened, in some cases these
versions sound better than the ones found on the albums. One such
case is the the single version of the 1978 track “From The Inside”,
from the album of the same name. Not only is it shorter, but I
found the mix to be superior to the common version, with the
crunchy, galopping guitar riff in the verses much more prominent,
giving the song a more powerful feel that the album version could
definitely have benefitted from.
The there is the excellent b-side, “No Tricks”. This is another
example of an amazing song that would have made the album it’s
connected with stronger had it been included in the final track
listing, in this case
From The Inside once again. It’s a powerful, sultry
bluesy/soul duet sung with Betty Wright, and it amazes me that it
didn’t make the final cut. “No Tricks” is another Alice Cooper song
that would had potentially had classic status. What a shame.
“Look At You Over There, Ripping The Sawdust From My Teddy Bear”
is a title that pretty much in itself gives away that it was a song
written during Alice’s strange early 80’s punk-new wave phase.
Indeed, this weird but somehow likeable keyboard pop song was
intended for the final cut of the 1981
Special Forces album, and early pressings of the vinyl
copies had it listed on the back of the album sleeve, even though
it was not included! Apparently the first run of sleeves were
printed before the album was even finished, and at the last minute
Alice decided not to include the song on the album because he felt
it didn’t really fit in…strange thing is that I find this song to
be much more listenable than almost half of the ones that were
included!
Another ultra rare inclusion on this box set is of the two songs
Alice recorded for the soundtrack of a totally obscure low-budget
Spanish made slasher film in 1984 called
Monster Dog. I had the personal misfortune of seeing the
movie, which has to be among the worst ever made, but the two
songs, the hilarious Iggy Pop-like “Identity Crisises”, and the
gothic Cure-like “See Me In The Mirror”. It really hurts to see
that he went from writing in this catchy style to th horrid hair
metal of
Constrictor and subsequent releases only two years
later…if only he had kept this kind of material up, the rest of
the 80’s would not have been the creative trash heap that it
became.
One other interesting song worth mentioning is a 1999 remix of
“Hands Of Death”, a great track recorded with Rob Zombie for the
X-Files soundtrack in 1996. It’s as close as you’ll likely
ever get to hear Cooper doing intense, stomping, harsh electronic
industrial music…what an awesome tune, perfect for a dance floor
filled with black clad, doc marten wearing rivetheads.
So, If all that still ain’t enough to whet your appetite, then
ya don’t know what’s good for you! What can I say other than repeat
what I said before, that when it comes to a detailed, accurate
overview of a rock legend’s 30-plus year career in a supremely
dedicated, beautiful package, then it doesn’t get any better than
this. A must have for Coop fanatics. True, it may be a bit
intimidating for a casual fan to pick up, but
The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper has just about
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Alice Cooper (But Were
Afraid To Ask).