Tuesday, May 28, 2002 1:35:54 AM
Rock 'n' Roll Artists A-Z...Re: Alice Cooper
http://www.alicecoopershow.com/
http://www.antonyjohn.com/
http://www.users.wineasy.se/anmo/
http://www.glenbuxton.com/
Born Vincent Furnier, February 4, 1948, Detroit Michigan.
The Alice Cooper story begins on February 4, 1948, in Detroit, Michigan, when Vincent Furnier, displaying the ear-splitting vocal calisthenics that would serve him well in the decades to come, came kicking and screaming into an unsuspecting world. After several years of living in the oppressive shadow of massive automobile factories, the family decided to change their environment by relocating to the desert ambience of Phoenix, Arizona. This fortuitous move meant that Vincent would be fated to enroll at Cortez High School, where his naturally abundant supply of cheap wit landed him the opportunity to write for the school newspaper. "Get Outta My Hair," his wise-guy column, brought him the friendship of two fellow student journalists: soon-to-be lead and bass guitarists Glen Buxton and Dennis Dunaway. As luck would have it, all three were looking for a way to score with the female Cortezians. And, hey, what better way to get to first base than by forming a rock `n' roll band, right? Not quite. Instead, Vince and Dennis decided to join the Cortez track team, of all things, whereupon their marathon running prowess made them instant varsity heroes.
This first exposure to fame was sufficient enough to embolden their self-confidence to the point where, along with fellow marathoner John Speer (on drums), Glen, and Glen's pal John Tatum (on lead guitar), they decided to don wigs and enter their lettermen's talent show as a Beatles parody. They even went so far as to hire several of the once-elusive Cortez beauties to scream for them from the foot of the stage during their mock performance. That little display of adulation, however bogus, was all it took to convince the future anarchists that this was the life for them. So what if they didn't know how to play their instruments yet? Since when was musicianship a prerequisite of forming a rock 'n' roll band? They would learn. They were 16. They called themselves the Earwigs.
Just as there are a million stories in the Naked City, so are there at least as many theories as to how Vincent Furnier transmogrified into the legendary entity doomed to be revered and reviled the world over as Alice Cooper. First and foremost of these is the story of what happened late one night while the group was visiting Dick Phillips (aka Dick Christian), their manager at the time. Phillips, a colorful character in his own right, had been urging the group to break out of their run-of-the-mill mold. That evening, just for laughs, his mother pulled out a Ouija board to do a reading. As soon as it began, however, the letter indicator began wildly skipping across the board, spelling out the name A-L-I-C-E C-O-O-P-E-R.
From that little incident, the boys concocted a tale that would only serve to enhance the Alice Cooper legend in the years to come: that Vince was the reincarnation of a young woman of the very same name--a woman who had been burned alive at the stake hundreds of years ago for being a witch! Then again, Alice has been known to change his stories from time to time. Sometimes he claims to have chosen the name because it had "a Baby-Jane/Lizzie-Borden-sweet-and-innocent-with-a-hatchet-behind-the-back kind of rhythm to it." At other times, he maintains: "Alice Cooper is such an all-American name. I loved the idea that when we first started, people used to think that Alice Cooper was a blonde folk singer. The name started simply as a spit in the face of society. With a name like Alice Cooper, we could really make 'em suffer."
Regardless of which story you choose to believe, of far more importance is the fact that the word suffer doesn't even begin to describe the damaging, senses-shattering assault that these guys inflicted on the mores of common decency. The Alice Cooper manifesto was an unrelenting, rampant commitment to the wholesale slaughter of every civilized tenet known to society. They created a designed-to-shock dynasty of decadence by pushing the limits of both rock 'n' roll and theatricality. The Alice Cooper Group's relentless pursuit of a higher level of satirical sonic brutality took outrage to its inevitable extreme.
Keep in mind that, back in 1969, the only excuse a couple of rednecks needed to blow away Captain America and Billy at the end of Easy Rider was the fact that they both looked like a couple of hippies. Given how that was the climate across much of middle America at the time, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how well the spectacle of five tough lookin' cross-dressin' guys (one of 'em named Alice) with hair down to their waists, wearing mascara and jewelry--and grinding out a sonic exuberance of noise to boot--was likely to have gone down a full year earlier.
And just how they didn't end up with their brains shotgunned across some steaming macadam in one of the Southern towns they were so fond of invading is anyone's guess.
Read the rest of the story here (it is long)...
http://www.alicecooper.com/bio.html
The Earwigs / Spiders / Nazz( ? - 1968)
Alice Cooper - vocals
Glen Buxton - guitar - b. November 10, 1947, Akron, Ohio; d. October 19, 1997.
Michael Bruce - guitar/keyboards - b. March 16, 1948.
Dennis Dunaway - bass - b. December 9, 1948, Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Neal Smith - drums - b. September 23, 1947, Akron, Ohio.
Name changed to Alice Cooper.
Alice Cooper (1968 - 1974)
Alice Cooper - vocals
Glen Buxton - guitar
Michael Bruce - guitar/keyboards
Dennis Dunaway - bass
Neal Smith - drums
Albums:
"Pretties for You" (1969)
"Easy Action" (1970)
"Love It to Death" (1971) - Singles: "Caught In a Dream", "I'm Eighteen"
"Killer" (1971)
"School's Out" (1972) - Singles: "School's Out", "Elected"
"Billion Dollar Babies" (1973) - Singles: "Hello, Hooray", "No More Mr. Nice Guy"
"Muscle of Love" (1974)
Group disbands. Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith later (in 1977) form Billion Dollar Babies. Alice Cooper goes solo.
Compilations:
"Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits" (1974)
"Classicks" (1995)
"The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper" (4-CD box set) (1999)
Alice Cooper solo:
"Welcome to My Nightmare" (1975) - Single: "Only Women Bleed"
"Alice Cooper Goes to Hell" (1976) - Single: "I Never Cry"
"Lace and Whiskey" (1977) - Single: "You and Me"
"The Alice Cooper Show" (live) (1977)
"From the Inside" (1978) - Singles: "How You Gonna See Me Now", "From the Inside"
"Flush the Fashion" (1980)
"Special Forces" (1981)
"Zipper Catches Skin" (1982)
"Dada" (1983)
"Constrictor" (1986)
"Raise Your Fist and Yell" (1987)
"Trash" (1989) - Single: "Poison"
"Hey Stoopid" (1991)
"The Last Temptation" (1994)
"A Fistful of Alice" (live) (1997)
"Prince of Darkness" (1998)
"Snorting Anthrax" (1998)
]
Breaking Clay Makes My Day!
http://www.alicecoopershow.com/
http://www.antonyjohn.com/
http://www.users.wineasy.se/anmo/
http://www.glenbuxton.com/
Born Vincent Furnier, February 4, 1948, Detroit Michigan.
The Alice Cooper story begins on February 4, 1948, in Detroit, Michigan, when Vincent Furnier, displaying the ear-splitting vocal calisthenics that would serve him well in the decades to come, came kicking and screaming into an unsuspecting world. After several years of living in the oppressive shadow of massive automobile factories, the family decided to change their environment by relocating to the desert ambience of Phoenix, Arizona. This fortuitous move meant that Vincent would be fated to enroll at Cortez High School, where his naturally abundant supply of cheap wit landed him the opportunity to write for the school newspaper. "Get Outta My Hair," his wise-guy column, brought him the friendship of two fellow student journalists: soon-to-be lead and bass guitarists Glen Buxton and Dennis Dunaway. As luck would have it, all three were looking for a way to score with the female Cortezians. And, hey, what better way to get to first base than by forming a rock `n' roll band, right? Not quite. Instead, Vince and Dennis decided to join the Cortez track team, of all things, whereupon their marathon running prowess made them instant varsity heroes.
This first exposure to fame was sufficient enough to embolden their self-confidence to the point where, along with fellow marathoner John Speer (on drums), Glen, and Glen's pal John Tatum (on lead guitar), they decided to don wigs and enter their lettermen's talent show as a Beatles parody. They even went so far as to hire several of the once-elusive Cortez beauties to scream for them from the foot of the stage during their mock performance. That little display of adulation, however bogus, was all it took to convince the future anarchists that this was the life for them. So what if they didn't know how to play their instruments yet? Since when was musicianship a prerequisite of forming a rock 'n' roll band? They would learn. They were 16. They called themselves the Earwigs.
Just as there are a million stories in the Naked City, so are there at least as many theories as to how Vincent Furnier transmogrified into the legendary entity doomed to be revered and reviled the world over as Alice Cooper. First and foremost of these is the story of what happened late one night while the group was visiting Dick Phillips (aka Dick Christian), their manager at the time. Phillips, a colorful character in his own right, had been urging the group to break out of their run-of-the-mill mold. That evening, just for laughs, his mother pulled out a Ouija board to do a reading. As soon as it began, however, the letter indicator began wildly skipping across the board, spelling out the name A-L-I-C-E C-O-O-P-E-R.
From that little incident, the boys concocted a tale that would only serve to enhance the Alice Cooper legend in the years to come: that Vince was the reincarnation of a young woman of the very same name--a woman who had been burned alive at the stake hundreds of years ago for being a witch! Then again, Alice has been known to change his stories from time to time. Sometimes he claims to have chosen the name because it had "a Baby-Jane/Lizzie-Borden-sweet-and-innocent-with-a-hatchet-behind-the-back kind of rhythm to it." At other times, he maintains: "Alice Cooper is such an all-American name. I loved the idea that when we first started, people used to think that Alice Cooper was a blonde folk singer. The name started simply as a spit in the face of society. With a name like Alice Cooper, we could really make 'em suffer."
Regardless of which story you choose to believe, of far more importance is the fact that the word suffer doesn't even begin to describe the damaging, senses-shattering assault that these guys inflicted on the mores of common decency. The Alice Cooper manifesto was an unrelenting, rampant commitment to the wholesale slaughter of every civilized tenet known to society. They created a designed-to-shock dynasty of decadence by pushing the limits of both rock 'n' roll and theatricality. The Alice Cooper Group's relentless pursuit of a higher level of satirical sonic brutality took outrage to its inevitable extreme.
Keep in mind that, back in 1969, the only excuse a couple of rednecks needed to blow away Captain America and Billy at the end of Easy Rider was the fact that they both looked like a couple of hippies. Given how that was the climate across much of middle America at the time, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how well the spectacle of five tough lookin' cross-dressin' guys (one of 'em named Alice) with hair down to their waists, wearing mascara and jewelry--and grinding out a sonic exuberance of noise to boot--was likely to have gone down a full year earlier.
And just how they didn't end up with their brains shotgunned across some steaming macadam in one of the Southern towns they were so fond of invading is anyone's guess.
Read the rest of the story here (it is long)...
http://www.alicecooper.com/bio.html
The Earwigs / Spiders / Nazz( ? - 1968)
Alice Cooper - vocals
Glen Buxton - guitar - b. November 10, 1947, Akron, Ohio; d. October 19, 1997.
Michael Bruce - guitar/keyboards - b. March 16, 1948.
Dennis Dunaway - bass - b. December 9, 1948, Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Neal Smith - drums - b. September 23, 1947, Akron, Ohio.
Name changed to Alice Cooper.
Alice Cooper (1968 - 1974)
Alice Cooper - vocals
Glen Buxton - guitar
Michael Bruce - guitar/keyboards
Dennis Dunaway - bass
Neal Smith - drums
Albums:
"Pretties for You" (1969)
"Easy Action" (1970)
"Love It to Death" (1971) - Singles: "Caught In a Dream", "I'm Eighteen"
"Killer" (1971)
"School's Out" (1972) - Singles: "School's Out", "Elected"
"Billion Dollar Babies" (1973) - Singles: "Hello, Hooray", "No More Mr. Nice Guy"
"Muscle of Love" (1974)
Group disbands. Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith later (in 1977) form Billion Dollar Babies. Alice Cooper goes solo.
Compilations:
"Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits" (1974)
"Classicks" (1995)
"The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper" (4-CD box set) (1999)
Alice Cooper solo:
"Welcome to My Nightmare" (1975) - Single: "Only Women Bleed"
"Alice Cooper Goes to Hell" (1976) - Single: "I Never Cry"
"Lace and Whiskey" (1977) - Single: "You and Me"
"The Alice Cooper Show" (live) (1977)
"From the Inside" (1978) - Singles: "How You Gonna See Me Now", "From the Inside"
"Flush the Fashion" (1980)
"Special Forces" (1981)
"Zipper Catches Skin" (1982)
"Dada" (1983)
"Constrictor" (1986)
"Raise Your Fist and Yell" (1987)
"Trash" (1989) - Single: "Poison"
"Hey Stoopid" (1991)
"The Last Temptation" (1994)
"A Fistful of Alice" (live) (1997)
"Prince of Darkness" (1998)
"Snorting Anthrax" (1998)
] Breaking Clay Makes My Day!
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