Alice Cooper: the 50th Anniversary

The Blind Eternities forum

Posted on May 30, 2019, 9:26 p.m. by DemonDragonJ

This year is the 50th anniversary of Pretties for You, Alice Cooper’s debut album. That album is a rather eclectic blend of a variety of different sounds, ranging from late-60’s-era psychedelic rock to hints of progressive rock to simple noise and cacophony, but little of the horror and harder-edged music that would later become hallmarks of his sound and image (it was not until his third album, Love it to Death, that Cooper and his band would develop their signature sound and achieve mainstream popularity).

Although Cooper’s debut was rather inauspicious and unremarkable, indications of the talent of the musicians in his band and the status would later achieve were clear from the beginning. Their willingness to explore new ideas and push the boundaries of music earned them a following, who helped them eventually grow into one of the most prominent musical acts of the 1970’s. Their eventual incorporation of horror imagery and provocative lyrics earned them the admiration of their fans, but the ire of the establishment, who considered them to be rabble rousers who were disrupting society.

Eventually, Cooper himself split with his original bandmates, but continued to tour under his own name (having legally changed it from his original birth name of Vincent Furnier), further accelerating his career; in the early 1980’s, his career began to fizzle, and he struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, but, halfway through that decade, he united with a new lineup of musicians and fully embraced the wave of heavy metal that was prominent at that time, releasing four of his best albums in as many years.

I have had the fortune to see Alice Cooper in concert no less than four times, and he never disappoints with his elaborate live performances. He still is able to provide the same thrills as he did at beginning of his career, despite his now advanced age, and I hope that he still has many more years remaining before he decides that it is time for him to retire.

What does everyone else say about this? How do you feel about this year being Alice Cooper’s 50th anniversary?