(1973, Warner Bros)
This is the album that every single Hard Rock and Heavy Metal musician cites as a major influence; add also the fact that the lyrical content and onstage antics of Alice Cooper have both paved the way for nearly everything shocking from NWOBHM to Black Metal and here you have what it takes to be the emblem of a whole music style. Blame Vincent Damon Furnier (real name of Alice) for this...
The works of ALICE COOPER (the band around the gifted persona of Alice) started in the late 60s with two albums in the psychedelic Rock field, assisted by the extreme persona of Frank Zappa. From 1971 onward ALICE COOPER altered their style and started building up what was later cited as Shock Rock music (remember to read something about Arthur Brown here and how he influenced Alice), featuring really extreme and profound lyrics and a set of onstage performance that blew everyone away; call it guillotines, snakes, butchering, lunacy actions or you name it. Still, this was the extra sauce to the music and lyrics of the band that was always willing to shock the Rock (and not only) audience.
Choosing an ALICE COOPER album from the 1971-1975 era – since then Alice went on solo in his own name with a series album he still produces up to date – is not an easy task, but if we have to speak about music as the main course I think it’s “Billion Dollar Babies” we should trust in. This 1973 release came as a follow-up disc to the highly successful “School’s Out” and went on even higher, topping the charts at the time in the US and the UK. Unlike most cases, we initially have to say that the lyrics deal with themes like vanity, necrophilia, the feeling of terror, sexual abuse and anything else you can imagine... and it’s 1973 we’re talking about, right? Still, Alice had (and still has, in my opinion) the gift to present the themes in such a theatric way that the allegoric meaning was closer than you’d primarily think.
Else, and in addition, the music itself was dramatically more powerful in regards to any other ALICE COOPER (the band) album. It’s not a coincidence that tracks like “Elected”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “Billion Dollar Babies” have been covered (or have parts of them ‘borrowed’ for other songs) by class bands such as MEGADETH, Bruce Dickinson, SAMAEL, DEF LEPPARD, DEATH SS and AYREON among others. The main thing about this disc is that it has the unique trademark atmosphere of the time with cocky Rock being the central spine but the vogue riffs and refrains/bridges break loose in another dimension and it still is some certain dose of ‘what-the-fuck’ reaction to e.g. trade the straightforward message from “Elected” with the same-titled tracks’ inner comprehension. I do not even wanna talk about “I Love The Dead”, on the other hand; a cheerful choir refrain happily praising necrophilia like being in a 1st grade school...
The guitars/bass/drums lines are supreme and the solos are quite innovative and spooky for that period of time; but there’s also this in-your-face accomplishment when it comes to straight tunes that you wonder what kind of bipolar character this man was (and still is). It’s no wonder ALICE COOPER as a band are responsible for the music and/or lyrics and/or live performances of bands like KISS, AEROSMITH, W.A.S.P., KROKUS, MERCYFUL FATE/KING DIAMOND, ANTHRAX and MEGADETH to name a few. Ok, the band’s and artist’s studio discography has now been huge but if you have to start with one and only album to see what is all about, then I think “Billion Dollar Babies” is the closest deal.
Tracklist
01. Hello Hooray
02. Raped and Freezin’
03. Elected
04. Billion Dollar Babies
05. Unfinished Sweet
06. No More Mr. Nice Guy
07. Generation Landslide
08. Sick Things
09. Mary Ann
10. I Love The Dead
Lineup
Alice Cooper - Vocals, Harmonica
Glen Buxton - Guitar
Michael Bruce - Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Dennis Dunaway - Bass, Backing Vocals
Neal Smith - Drums