necrophilia. wife abuse. psychotic behaviour. alcohol and substance abuse. rape. infanticide. psychiatric patient abuse. death. murder.

macabre. shocking. bizarre.taboo.

for it had to be to shake the musical establishment out of the complacency of the bubble gum and sugar sweet age, the flower generation, the disco generation.

no matter what his personal proclivities were, alice ranks with the best rock groups of the different periods since the early 1970's and has rightfully earned him living legend status.

and underpinning the insight, anger, cynicism, bitterness, the tenderness and humour, a musical ability that was inventive, raw, hard edged, unique and at times unashamedly commercial yet with moments of sheer brilliance, a style copied by many and mastered by few.

and so the master of shock rock was born.

alice cooper

born detroit michigan, February 4 1948, vincent damon furnier grew up in phoenix influenced by television, in the age of space and rockets.

alice had a choice of being the boxboy at the local supermarket, working at the carwash or joinng a band. he chose the latter, for after the beatles came along he realised that girls loved the boys in a band, so the band it was.

"we didn't have a blues influence. the music that affected us was the saucy theme songs, like on 77 sunset strip and bourbon street beat"

"i couldn't care less about how many times his baby left him"

"we were middle class suburban brats that had everything we wanted. we never had a blues".

in 1965 the band comprised alice on lead vocals and harmonica, glen buxton on lead guitar, michael bruce on guitar, piano and organ, dennis dunaway on bass and neil smith on percussion. working their way west in the late 60's, they finally settled in the los angeles area finding work at local clubs leading up to an engagement at the cheetah. it was here that they had a powerful effect on a man in the audience, shep gordon. he witnessed the audience walk out on the group and from then on knew that he had to become involved in a group that had the strongest negative influence he had ever seen. he was to become their manager.

shep gordon recognised the group's musical ability and alice's ability to use sexual aberrations to break down the conditioning of the audience, seeing the way the audience became threatened by overt sexuality. under his direction they were signed by frank zappa's straight records and began engagements all over america. the early response remained strongly negative, evidenced in michigan when a bikie gang tried to rush the stage and voiced threats to kill the band.

by late 1970, the group was being accepted for its music rather than being rejected for its appearance. tickets to the shows became increasingly difficult to obtain and people were staying to the end of the show. by early 1971, the group's records under the warner brothers label started charting. the album love it to death rose into the u.s. top 20, the hit single eighteen moved into the top 10 as did the single caught in a dream..

reviewing their concert at long beach, the los angeles music writer wrote," each of the songs was a more emphatic knockout than its predecessor. sun arise and their two indisputably superb hit singles eighteen and caught in a dream were utterly smashing musically. the ballad of dwight fry the last half of which saw alice singing in a strait jacket, was a simply unforgettable theatrical experience."

late in 1971 two new hits were in the charts, the single under my wheels and the lp killer. by now the group lay claim as one of the best rock bands on the concert circuit. subsequent albums school's out 1972, the title single from which became number 1 in the uk for three consecutive weeks from august 12 1972 and warner brothers biggest selling single to that time, ending a 5 week run by donny osmond with puppy love (later satirised in the fade out to the teen anthem department of youth ), billion dollar babies (1973)and muscle of love won critical acclaim, achieving like killer gold record status.

billion dollar babies set new standards in album content and presentation. not only did it contain the richest banknote in rock history, the album was one of the first true concept albums in the world and contained four genuine hit singles in hello hooray, elected, billion dollar babies and no more mr nice guy as well as songs with themes that were to be further developed in the mid 1970's, themes of love of the dead and sexual violence. in addition there was the dentists anthem, unfinished sweet, a song guaranteed to send shivers down the spine on every phobic dentist patient. the tour a 56 city 62 day blitz of the u.s.a. made alice a household name.

in 1975 alice and warner bros split, a move anticipated by the recording label when it released the retrospective album alice coopers'greatest hits.

"i basically had a lot of problems with warner brothers.first they were afraid that theatrical heavy metal was drying up so they weren't as thrilled about promoting the band as they used to be. but they sure got excited when i told them i wanted to record albums under the name alice cooper. they wanted alice cooper to be a name and not just a person. at that point a bunch of lawyers with briefcases started getting into it"

alice soon had his name legally changed and signed with atlantic records. his first solo album welcome to my nightmare became a monster, in record sales, in tour attendances, in sheer musical ingenuity and in theatre spectacle. conceived and written over a 2 year period, alice began pre-production work for the soundtrack in association with guitarist dick wagner and composer alan gordon in los angeles in the spring of 1974. the composition of the lyrics and melodies spanned three continents and were written in such exotic cities as paris, rio de janeiro and new york, in toronto master producer bob ezrin began work on the project as alice and a host of the finest rock and roll muscians moved to the nimbus 9 studios. in january 1975 the massive project was complete, overdubbing and sweetening having been concluded at the record plant west and a & r studios in new york.

welcome to my nightmare like billion dollars babies developed the concept theme to new levels of sophistication setting a standard and reaching a zenith that has probably not been bettered, by the master or any of the many worldwide apprentices. amidst the macabre and mayhem of demonic visions, the single only women bleed became alice's first pure bred love ballad, an anthem for women's liberation, a massive hit single that challenged the social mores of the time, but at a time when the world could not handle the double entendre of the single title let alone the social evil of wife subservience and abuse and was more able to cope by pretending wife bashing didn't occur, by being blissfully ignorant and preferring to listen to the schmaltz of tony orlando and dawn, tammy wynette and the bay city rollers where life was comfortable and sugar sweet.

the album also spawned the hit single department of youth, the worldwide smash anthem for the children of the world, itself also too challenging for its time, too threatening to the establishment. tracks like some folks and cold ethyl were blistering hard rockers, the latters theme of necrophilia leading a british m.p. to try to have the show banned.

" they tell me alice is absolutely sick," he said," and i agree with them. I regard his act as an incitement to infanticide for his subteenage audience. he is deliberately trying to involve these kids in sadomasochism. he is peddling the culture of the concentration camp. pop is one thing anthems of necrophilia is another."

and welcome to my nightmare introduced stephen to the world for the first time, the psychotic boy-man who was to return to the world stage in later albums.

alice made up with warner brothers rejoining the label and recording new albums for the company for the next 8 years. he used session musicians rather than a full time band and rode the concert circuit with various rosters of performers. during this period the albums were;

alice cooper goes to hell 1976

lace and whiskey 1977

the alice cooper show 1977

from the inside 1978

flush the fashion 1980

special forces 1981

zipper catches skin 1982

da-da 1983

alice spent most of the 80's struggling to overcome alcohol addiction. fuelling the theatre and spectacle of violent and erotic rock, alcohol finally took its toll at a time when disco was all the fashion. being an unwanted hard rock band was depressing and resulted in a period of hospitalisation for alice. the late 70's/early 80's albums bear testament to the frustration, the pain and the anger. the albums in hindsight are milestones in alice's recovery, and are derserving of critical acclaim.

alice cooper goes to hell 1976 - written for the psychotic boy-man steven this bedtime story contains the beautiful ballad i never cry and hard rockers go to hell,didn't we meet and the hauntingly melodic wake me gently.

lace and whiskey 1977 - featuring the california boy's choir in no more love at your convenience and my god, this album contains the chart topping ballad you and me.the album really was like a life sentence without plurals with its bottle of seagram's, revolver and black lace on the cover.

the alice cooper show 1977

from the inside 1978 - co written with elton john's lyricist bernie taupin and dick wagner and featuring a host of rock and roll luminaries including kiki dee, davey johnstone, marcy levy, dee murray, and alice's wife sheryl, the album brought into focus life inside a psychiatric institution, with its expose of different inmates and their treatment, showing that mental illness knew no boundaries and played no favourites, from the rich wish i were born in beverly hills, to the poor jackknife johnny. it exposed the hypocricy of psychiatrists and psychiatric labelling, "we talk to our shrinks, huh they talk to their shrinks" inmates (we're all crazy) and raised the taboo subject of priesthood sexuality nurse rozetta. and like previous albums it too had a ballad how you gonna see me now.

flush the fashion 1980 - an urbane alice tried to be a model citizen with this effort, with his tongue in cheek rebellion against the formula music of the early part of the decade. worth a listen for the lyrics alone in pain , the album contains some classic alice themes and riffs in such songs as clones, nuclear infected and aspirin damage.

special forces 1981

zipper catches skin 1982

da-da 1983 - marking the return of bob ezrin and dick wagner to the team, the album for the most part was done using a fairlight computer. though no chart topper, it is a tightly constructed album that contains some very clever lyrics as alice tackles such varied themes as patriotism, u.s. style of course, family skeletons in the closet, sexual perversion and identity crises. well worth a listen if only for the title track and the ending to pass the gun around.

after this period alice played golf, joined the "personality" trail becoming a guest on many interview shows and graced the t.v. screen as a game show celebrity on such programmes as "hollywood squares." it almost seemed as the wheel had turned full circle, the suburban brat of the t.v. era returning to his roots.

in 1986 alice signed with a new label m.c.a. and released a debut album constrictor, followed by raise your fist and yell released in 1987. this latter album was backed with his most ambitious tour in years called the nightmare returns.his new band was kane roberts on lead guitar, devlin7 on guitar, kip winger 3rd on bass, paul horowitz on keyboards and ken mary on drums. the video of the tour itself is a classic with its high energy and stunning visual theatre assaulting the senses, as blood and mayhem combine to threaten the sanity of the viewer.