'Early press releases claimed that the name Alice Cooper was agreed upon after a session with a Ouija board, during which it was revealed that singer Vincent Furnier was the reincarnation of a 17th century witch named Alice Cooper. At the time Cooper and the band realized that the concept of a male playing the role of an androgynous witch, in tattered women's clothing and wearing make-up, would have the potential to cause considerable social controversy and grab headlines. Cooper stated in an interview that his look was inspired in part by the film Barbarella. "When I saw Anita Pallenberg playing the Great Tyrant in that movie in 1968, wearing long black leather gloves with switchblades coming out of them, I thought, 'That's what Alice should look like'. That, and a little bit of Emma Peel from The Avengers".
'The classic Alice Cooper group line-up consisted of singer Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier), lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. With the exception of Smith, all of the band members were on the Cortez High School cross-country team, and many of Cooper's stage effects were inspired by their cross-country coach, Emmett Smith (one of Smith's class projects was to build a working guillotine for slicing watermelons). Cooper, Buxton and Dunaway were also art students, and their admiration for the works of surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí would further inspire their future stage antics.
'One night, after an unsuccessful gig at a club in Venice, California called The Cheetah, where the band emptied the entire room of patrons after playing just ten minutes, they were approached and enlisted by music manager Shep Gordon, who ironically saw the band's negative impact that night as a force that could be turned in a more productive direction. Shep then arranged an audition for the band with composer and renowned record producer Frank Zappa, who was looking to sign bizarre music acts to his new record label, Straight Records. For the audition, Zappa told them to come to his house "at 7 o'clock." The band mistakenly assumed he meant 7 o'clock in the morning. Being woken up by a band willing to play that particular brand of psychedelic rock at seven in the morning impressed Zappa enough to sign them to a three-album deal.
'Alice Cooper's "shock rock" reputation apparently developed almost by accident at first. An unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper and a live chicken garnered attention from the press, and the band decided to capitalize on the tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous "Chicken Incident" at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969, was an accident. A chicken somehow made its way on stage during Cooper's performance; not having any experience around farm animals, Cooper presumed that, because the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly. He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away. The chicken instead plummeted into the first few rows occupied by disabled people in wheelchairs, who reportedly proceeded to tear the bird to pieces.
'In 1970, Alice Cooper appeared at the Woodstock-esque, Strawberry Fields Festival near Toronto, Ontario. Their performance created such buzz that their newly released album 'Love It to Death', skyrocketed from the bottom of the Billboard chart to #11 the following week. The band's trailblazing mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out in stark contrast to the bearded, denim-clad hippie bands of the time. As Cooper himself stated: "We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love. We wanted to see what was next. It turned out we were next, and we drove a stake through the heart of the Love Generation".' -- Crazyalice.com
'Dead Babies' live, 1971
'School's Out' live, 1972
'You Drive Me Nervous' 1972
'I Love the Dead' live, 1973
'Is It My Body' live, 1971
'Halo of Flies', 1972
'Black Juju' live, 1970
'Reflected', 1969
'I'm Eighteen' live, 1971
'Under My Wheels' live, 1971
'My Stars', 1972
'Sun Arise' live, 1970
'Elected', 1973
'Refrigerator Heaven', 1970
'Sick Things' live, 1973
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*
p.s. Hey. That possible day trip didn't happen, obviously, so here we go. ** David Ehrenstein, Hey. Oh, I knew there had to be something concrete behind the boyfriend phenomenon, ha ha. Yes, you should read Gluck. I think you'd really like his work. I'd start with 'Jack ... ', I guess. ** Empty Frame, Hey, man! You're heading back to Brighton? I don't know why I had it in my head that Berlin was your permanent new headquarters. Thanks a lot about the art pieces in 'SiH'. I'm sure I'll keep writing about art. It's one my favorite things to turn my nonfictional attention on. Between the novel, blog, and theater stuff, I just don;t have the space to do nonfiction these days, but I'm sure I will again. 'The Counterfeiters', awesome. Man, really sorry to hear about the ongoing gloom. Is it Berlin-related? Is that part of why you're bailing? I hope you start feeling as shiny as you are asap. ** Pilgarlic, That's cool about my books being sold in Atlanta. Yeah, I bet that's kind of an isolated incident as far as the South goes, barring the odd college town or two. My guess is that the book Barker was referring to in the interview was the 'Scarlet Gospels', but he wasn't any more specific than that. The guy is a huge multi-tasker, and he's good at it, but I think a lot of plans get lost in the shuffle. At the time of the interview, he was almost totally engaged in that children's book project, I forget what's called ... 'Ararat' or something like that? ... and painting. I think he was seeing himself as primarily a painter at that point. Anyway, I wish I had more scoop for you. ** Jeff, Oh, moving things. Hopefully not backbreaking things. Yeah, I mean having even an okay job right now is some kind of victory. I'll be curious to hear any tales you have to tell. ** Bill, Hey. Back's a little better, yeah. I think all the walking around Paris might be paying off. Have classes started now? How's that? Any particularly interesting students? ** Jax, Hey, Jack! I have tried that back fixing trick. It doesn't seem to impact this particular injury-ette, but I do think I'm on the mend now unless I do something stupid like, oh, bend over in the next day or two. The novel's real slow right now, partly due to the back discomfort, partly because my best friend is visiting so, of course, I'm hanging out with him during my usual writing times. You're doing Pirecetam, interesting. Like I said, I definitely feel the difference, but it's not dramatic. Just a sharpness, a steady decent mood, etc. I'm down to two 800 mg pills a day, will probably go down to one today or tomorrow. Glad you've been productive, whatever inspired that. Anubis, hm, I'll google it/him. I'm very weak on those kinds of gods/guys. I see what you mean about motivation, but that's not something I'm interested in including. To me the characters are fueled, but I try not to identify the fuel. I don't want readers to be able to go, oh, he's doing this because of that. I guess I see them more as very focused or obsessed and not interested in why. Ha, I remember when my books used to get reviews, mostly in gay periodicals, that were all 'I thought from the description that this book would be so hot, and it's so not.' ** Trees, Trees! Wow, you've been traveling a lot lately. Nice. Cool that the end of your rat story may be in sight. I've been sort of jonesing re: it. I don't know those bands. Hm, I'll see if I can find some sounds by them. You sound good, man. ** Allesfliesst, Hey. Yeah, wow, he sounds incredible. I'm going to try to track down the films he made. Ubuweb maybe? I'll have to ask Gisele and others here if they know his work. Well, I'm sure they know of him at least, even if he didn't show his work here. Thanks, man. Maybe I can find enough on him and learn enough in the process to do a Day. I'm angling for an extended life, long enough to finish my novel anyway, and at this rate, that'll be quite a while. ** _Black_Acrylic, I'm upswinging, so I think your vibes helped, thanks. I'm sending you mine, and I hope when you get back from the doctor, there'll be evidence that they weren't in vain. Yeah, give me a post doctor report, please. Nice haul there. I remember really liking that Mishima. Take care, Ben. ** Eli Jurgen, Yeah, digitize them please. I need to see your 'Schizophrenia' if nothing else. That song has one of my all-time favorite lyrics -- 'Her brother says she's just a bitch with a golden chain' -- and hearing your interpretation is imperative. Yeah, being anti-world is both expected and a sign of sanity. Car shows, interesting. I was just debating whether to go to this big imminent one in Paris and thinking how weird it was that I would even consider doing that. Maybe not so weird. What would be in my ideal painting? Gosh, that's a big question. How about ... pink paint. ** Plexus, That's a lot of suckage. At least your head probably won't suck by the time you see this. And maybe the weather won't either? Can't promise you less suckage on the job front, though. But confusing the reader is one of writing's ideals, isn't it? I guess it's how you confuse. Changing the only character's physical appearance constantly plus porn sounds like a pretty good method to me. I think porn where someone had sex with the same person and a dozen different people simultaneously would get rid of the big problem in porn where people do everything for about five more minutes longer than it's interesting to watch. Maybe that's just me. I chew my fingernails more than I chew pencils. Bite them down to nubs sometimes. Isn't fingernail polish toxic or something? Be careful. Being a writer has its phases of unhappiness too, but then you can write about the unhappiness, and it goes away sometimes. It's weird. My part in 'Avatar' was really small. You can't even freeze-frame me. No, I'm in this French film, kind of scandalous, I guess. 'Homme au Bain' or 'Man at Bath'. Lots of nudity and sex in it. I, however, remain clothed. Good question about MSWord. I have the same problem, of course. Could it be a sentient being? It's not as bad as the way the iPhone constantly spell checks every word in every text message you try to type. Anyway, I hope the sky and your head are great company today, Mr. Gabe. ** Pascal, Hey, P. I thought you might drop in for the Robert Gluck Day. Excellent. I've had that back problem you mention a few times. Poor us. This one's a comparative cake walk, and I think, I hope, it's fading away. Glad you're writing. I got a half-hour in yesterday, I think. ** Steevee, The 'mosque' thing is even big news over here now, although here the news it generates is all about the racism, a huge issue here anyway due to Sarkozy's Roma persecution. ** Jesse Hudson, Hey, Jesse! Thanks for chiming in on the Gluck. And for talking Sade to Plexus. I'm with you, obviously, Talk to you soon! ** Statictick, Appt. made, good news, whew. Cover stuff ... I'm blanking. What do you mean by 'cover stuff'? ** Oscar B, You interested in maybe a Pere Lachaise wander later on? ** Misanthrope, Thanks for leading Brendan astray. Just kidding. Sort of ;). Wait, you're going to be immortal too? Huh. Yeah, I guess that'll work. Your mom's wrong. Skinny but maybe not too, too skinny kicks flabby's ass. I think it's even scientifically proven and all that. ** JW Veldhoen, I guess broken ribs would qualify as a bad front. So, I've had bad front and bad back. Weed makes me paranoid. Maybe a beer. Oh, man, that's a lot of ill wind blowing over and from your relatives. I'm sorry, John. My back's a little better, if that helps. Oh, photoset, cool. Everyone, need I say more than the words photoset and JW Veldhoen to get you to click this? I thought not. ** Sypha, Thanks, James. The back seems to be getting bored with my ouches finally, thank goodness. Well, you know me, but I think the $100 was a compliment, so congrats. ** Brendan, You got some good suggestions. I'll especially second Nathaneal West. You're going to be immortal too! I'm going to be all old school and say that'll make us like Angel and Spike. ** 'Stoopid Slapped Puppies', Nick! You're back! How was Spain? How are you? Tell me every little thing that you can bear to impart, please. I did and do that crossed feet thing re: my back. It's kind of magical, no? I'm doing better, or my back is, I guess. Anyway, I'm so glad to see you, man. Tell me something good. ** Will Decker, I think I've managed to evade the osteopath. I'm a big fan of osteopathy, but my bank account isn't. I can't imagine what it would take to get me to go to the gym. I'd do yoga, I think. Maybe swimming. I'm still looking for a Rorem book. Not easy to find here. I'll order if necessary. ** Changeling, Oh, do you have among your roller skate collection the kind of shoes where you can walk normally but then you can also also rock back on you heels a little and glide along? I guess they're pretty common, but I saw this kid wearing them and doing that at the Natural History Museum the other day, and I'd never seen that before, and it seemed like, I don't know, magic. What does your housemate make on his knees on concrete floors? Art, fix go-karts, light fireworks ... ? Yeah, I understand at least somewhat about that dilemma re: appearance in your novel. I tend to make my characters all kind of look the same or vaguely the same. Or the important ones. And they all basically look like my friend George Miles, but sometimes I'll change the haircut or eye color a little. I guess he's, like, beauty to me, and it's true I do get people who say they can't get into my work because because they're not into guys who look like that, but I also find that having one basic model for beauty and repeating it from character to character can kind of erase the specifics of their looks and make them read as 'an ideal', and readers can make a mental switch and think of the characters as 'ideal' and connect them up with their own ideas of the 'ideal' looker when they're reading. This is probably just me, but I don't know that intentions need to be clarified or focused. Again, for kind of the same reasons. The more you specify what the characters' intentions are or where they come from, the more you're giving readers the chance to opt out, excuse themselves, you know? I tend to think the most important thing is to just make what the characters are doing seem very important to them or uncontrollable or something. And, in fact, the lack of explanation can be a real grabber, a mystery, a haunting thing, something that addresses how basically unknowable people really are. Again, if that makes any sense. ** All right, bye for now. Alice Cooper doesn't really mean much anymore, but back when that name was the name of a band rather than of a single guy, and in that band's early years, I think there was something very interesting and complicated and insinuating about their work, and that explains the post, basically. See you tomorrow.
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