We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago….
Johnny Rotten called it “the greatest rock album of all time”. Lester Bangs gave it a rave review in Rolling Stone saying ” it brings all the elements of the bands approach to sound and texture to a totally integrated pinnacle”. He also said you can’t take it all seriously. Not the makeup or the macabre stage show or the songs with titles like “Dead Babies (actually a song about the horrors of child abuse) and “Halo of Flies.”
The album was “Killer” the 2nd 1971 LP from Alice Cooper. The band, fronted by Vincent Furnier (aka Alice) does rock hard and moves from the simplistic rock of “Under My Wheels” to the more proggy, aforementiond “Halo of Flies” which was supposedly their answer to King Crimson type songs.
A big part of the appeal of this is the guitar work of Glenn Buxton and Michael Bruce. Bruce also contributes alot of the lyrics on the record. Buxton’s guitar crunches and wails. Tunes like “You Drive Me Nervous” stand out for me. “Desperado” has Furnier channeling his inner Jim Morrison. The song is reportedly a tribute to his dead friend. The title track also works well. “Be My Lover” was more radio friendly but never really was a big hit.
One reviewer mentioned that the “disturbing tracks fit perfectly and the work rewards them as being the most notorious and and misunderstood entertainers, throughly despised by grown ups.”
Unlike Rotten and the punks that will champion the nihilistic a few years later, and mean it, I think Alice Cooper always had their tongue planted firmly in cheek, even as they worked to horrify the more staid members of society.
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