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Thread: Super Duper Alice Cooper!

  1. #1

    Super Duper Alice Cooper!

    Alice Cooper is still a billion dollar babY!

    Can't wait for this DVD! The deluxe edition includes a professionally filmed Live concert from 1971. GOLD DUST!


    Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 at 11:56 am



    By Peter Covino

    A&E Editor

    Way before Kiss and Twisted Sister and dozens of other “shock rock” bands featuring guys with long hair and makeup, there was
    Alice Cooper.
    Alice Cooper, the man, aka, Vincent Furnier, as well as Alice Cooper, the band, is back in the new documentary Super Duper Alice Cooper.
    This is much more about Furnier than the band, but the two entities, are pretty much inseparable, even though Furnier was the face and soul of the band. And it almost killed him.
    Super Duper Alice Cooper, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival Thursday and opens in select theaters nationwide April 30, including Central Florida.
    It has been deemed the first ever “doc opera,” a catchy name, for a documentary featuring songs, and while an interesting film, it isn’t exactly ground-breaking.
    Alice Cooper fans will find it all interesting, but if they have been there pretty much from the beginning (way back in the early 1970s), I doubt if there is really anything new here. But for the casual fan, or if you were just too young to remember, the film is a great place to catch up on all you missed.
    With lots of photos and some film as well, Super Duper Alice Cooper takes you back to the place of his and the band’s birth, Detroit. Furnier, the son of a preacher, and sort of pale and sickly, could hardly have been envisioned to be a shock rock pioneer, the kind of guy your mother warned you about, back in the day.
    Furnier and some friends decided to spoof the new No. 1 band at a high school talent show, as Beatlemania took hold, and like many other kids, they were Beatles fans. The high school loved it, and the earliest roots of Alice Cooper, minus the makeup and snakes, was born.
    They were not an overnight success. The band went through several name changes, before settling on Alice Cooper, a name settled upon after a Ouija board session revealed Furnier had once been an English witch named Alice Cooper. Yes, there probably are some things even Alice Cooper fans did not know about the band contained in the film.
    When it came, success did happen rather quickly, and soon they became one of the hottest acts in America.
    And with it, the shy kid from Detroit, discovered alcohol. And after licking that, there was cocaine.
    In between, Alice Cooper, the man, became too big for Alice Cooper the band, and Furnier became a solo act, and even become respectable for mom and dad, appearing with Jack Benny, and on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
    While Super Duper Alice Cooper does feature concert versions of the band’s biggest hits, as well as Cooper during his Welcome to My Nightmare solo days, it is not a concert film.
    Along with film clips and photos, there are interviews with some of the most important people in his life, including bandmates, and other musicians of the era such as Iggy Pop, Bernie Taupin and Johnny Lydon of Sex Pistols fame.
    Central Florida theaters showing Super Duper Alice Cooper include the Epic Theatres of Clermont (2405 U.S. 27) and Epic Theatres in Deltona (939 Hollywood Blvd.)
    You can check out the trailer for the film at http://youtu.be/65LiL6R9L3I.
    A special pre-recorded “Keep Calm & Just Ask Alice” question and answer session and welcome with Furnier will be included with each screening.
    More music
    You won’t find Don’t Ask Me Questions: The Unsung Life of Graham Parker and the Rumour in theaters, but you will find this contemporary of Alice Cooper’s (well maybe Alice is a bit earlier) on DVD.
    Parker and his band just might be the best band from the era that you never heard of, unless you were a fan, as I was. The British rockers never hit it big, but were a critical favorite.
    Available from Virgil Films (and iTunes) the DVD features one of those hardest working men in show business you sometimes hear about. Inspiring everyone from Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, as well as Bruce Springsteen, Parker has never gone away.
    He and the band are featured in interviews and playing (and they still sound quite good) as they are today, as well as performing some 30 years ago. Parker, now 59, continues to rock on, remaining true to the spirit of New Wave, that he helped get started.
    Also featured in the music documentary are interviews with Springsteen, musician and record producer Nick Lowe and filmmaker Judd Apatow, who cast Parker as himself in the hit comedy This Is 40.
    Last edited by Rufus; 04-25-2014 at 12:06 PM.

  2. #2
    Member davis's Avatar
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    That looks fascinating. I definitely want to see it.

  3. #3
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    I'm currently listening to Alice Cooper's syndicated radio show. I love his swtyle as a DJ - as a musician, never felt tempted to own any of his/their music, though there are a few decent songs in there.

    He has just informed the listeners that today is Arbor Day, so go and hug a tree. And, apparently, it's also World Penguin Day. The banks, apparently are not closed for the occasion, which seems a bit disrespectful to the penguins, though they probably won't notice. (He didn't mention ANZAC Day, but I'll forgive him for that since that's only observed in Oz and NZ).

    These are what he calls his "fun and freaky factoids", though I think they are not factoids, they are true facts, just incredibly trivial facts.

  4. #4
    All Things Must Pass spellbound's Avatar
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    Thanks. Looking forward to seeing it.
    We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
    It won't be visible through the air
    And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973

  5. #5
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    This is another Banger films production so you kinow it is going to be good. I am probably one of the bigger Alice fans on this forum so really looking forward to the film.

  6. #6
    What I find amazing is that a Live recorded concert has been unearthed that was filmed in 1971. I'm a massic ACG fan & had no idea this even existed! It sure gives hope what might be unearthed from an archival view point for any band if the time & effort is put into researching stuff like that!

  7. #7
    I wonder where the 1971 concert was filmed. I saw them around that time on the School's Out tour (Captain Beyond opening) at the Hollywood Bowl and, during the Billion Dollar Babies tour, in San Bernadino. Saw the Welcome to My Nightmare show at the LA Forum- That was cool, with Alice jumping out of a video screen at one point. Good band.

  8. #8
    This will be sweet! Yeah, I've most of it all before but it's fun to see again.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof View Post
    I wonder where the 1971 concert was filmed. I saw them around that time on the School's Out tour (Captain Beyond opening) at the Hollywood Bowl and, during the Billion Dollar Babies tour, in San Bernadino. Saw the Welcome to My Nightmare show at the LA Forum- That was cool, with Alice jumping out of a video screen at one point. Good band.
    I'm pretty sure I have that Hollywood Bowl 1971 (or is it '72?) show on a soundboard recording, so it could very well be the same one on film.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  10. #10
    Cool! He was still doing the guillotine trick at that time. School's Out was the current album, I think. It came out with panties around the vinyl in early copies. Could have been '72. Saw Rick Wakeman's Journey at the Bowl, too.

  11. #11
    Does anybody remember the concert video with Alice Cooper, Iggy, Mountain and Traffic? Saw that on local TV in LA in the early 70's. Alice did Black Juju. Iggy smeared peanut butter on his chest and writhed around in the audience.

  12. #12
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof View Post
    Cool! He was still doing the guillotine trick at that time. School's Out was the current album, I think. It came out with panties around the vinyl in early copies. Could have been '72.
    Yeah, School's Out was summer '72. (And the title track was thee summer single that year.) My copy didn't come with the panties, though--it had the record in a plastic inner sleeve.

  13. #13
    Member WytchCrypt's Avatar
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    Definitely into AC from "Billion Dollar Babies" to 1980's "Flush the Fashion"...loved his stage theatrics, Vincent Price speech in Black Widow, and 2 guitar rock attack with Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter and Bob Ezrin producing. Some great stuff there.
    Check out my solo project prog band, Mutiny in Jonestown at https://mutinyinjonestown.bandcamp.com/

    Check out my solo project progressive doom metal band, WytchCrypt at https://wytchcrypt.bandcamp.com/


  14. #14
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof View Post
    Does anybody remember the concert video with Alice Cooper, Iggy, Mountain and Traffic? Saw that on local TV in LA in the early 70's. Alice did Black Juju. Iggy smeared peanut butter on his chest and writhed around in the audience.
    Lester Bangs, "Of Pop & Pies & Fun":

    A friend and I were getting stoned and watching the TV eye’s broadcast of the Cincinnati Pop Festival the other night, when a great (i.e., useless) idea struck us. Most of the show was boring, concentrating on groups like Grand Funk (endless plodding version of "Inside Looking Out" with lead singer writhing and barking and making up new lyrics like "Oh little honey I need your love so bad... c’mon, give it to me... oh little mama" etc.) and Mountain (Felix Pappalardi spinning off endless dull solos in a flat distillation of the most overworked elements of Cream’s and Creedence’s sounds, while fat buckskinned Leslie West thumped bass and reacted to Pappalardi’s piddle with broad, joyously-agonized mugging, grimacing and grinning and nodding as if each and every note out of Papa’s guitar was just blowing his mind like no music he’d ever heard before). Well, I watched all this monkey business with one eye scanning the bookshelf for a likely volume to pass the time till Iggy hit the tube, and when he did it was fine—not as good as watching Carlos Santana squint and Cunt Joe spell out "FUCK" in Woodstock, mind you, but a fine video spread anyhow—but the part of the show that intrigued us the most came in Alice Cooper’s set (who, however gratingly shrill their amphetamine-queen hysteria, certainly can’t be accused of taking themselves seriously—come the revolution, they don’t get offed with Pappalardi and West and George Harrison and all them other cats), when Alice crouched, threw his billowy cape over his stringy mop like a monk’s cowl, exposing his hormone-plasticized torso, and crept duckwalking like some Chuck Berry from a henbane nightmare to the apron of the stage, where he produced a pocketwatch, set it hypnotically in motion, and started chanting in a calm conversational tone: "Bodies... need... rest..."—repeating it at same tempo till finally some (genuinely wise) wiseacre a few bodies into the crowd piped up, "So what?" Good question. What if somebody said "So what?" when Richie Havens started into his righteous "Freedom" number? Of course, the question is stupid since three dozen devout Richie Havens fans would promptly clobber the boorish loudmouth, if not off him completely (in line with the temper of the times, in which case he’d be post-mortemed a pig). But nobody gives a shit what anybody sez to A.C. least of all A.C. who was probably disappointed at not soliciting more razzberries from the peanut gallery, except that a moment later he got his crowd reaction in spades when some accomplished marksman in the mob lobbed a whole cake (or maybe it was a pie—yeah, let’s say it was a pie just for the sake of the fantasy I’m about to promulgate) which hit him square in the face. So there he was: Alice Cooper, rock star, crouched frontstage in the middle of his act with a faceful of pie and cream with clots dripping from his ears and chin. So what did he do? How did he recoup the sacred time-honored dignity of the performing artist which claims the stage as his magic force field from which to bedazzle and entertain the helpless audience? Well, he pulled a handful of pie gook out of his face and slapped it right back again, smearing it into his pores and eyes and sneaking the odd little fingerlicking taste. Again and again he repeated this gesture, smearing it in good. The audience said not another word.

  15. #15
    There are actually several pieces of footage from '71 on YouTube, but, on a quick glance, I'm not seeing complete shows.

    As I write this, I'm recalling a videotape I have from '71, which I believe is Detroit.

    I'll look for it and follow up.

    Bottom line is that ANYTHING live from this period is great.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  16. #16
    The live DVD is from Montreal '72, not 71.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    There are actually several pieces of footage from '71 on YouTube, but, on a quick glance, I'm not seeing complete shows.

    As I write this, I'm recalling a videotape I have from '71, which I believe is Detroit.

    I'll look for it and follow up.

    Bottom line is that ANYTHING live from this period is great.
    Follow-up. I have a VHS tape with footage from The Stony Pony and Detroit '71. The Stone Pony is single-cam and crappy; some is on YT. Since I don't have my VHS hooked up currently, but my memory tells me that the clips shown in the promo are from that Detroit show.

    I also found this clip from the Detroit Tube Works show, which is live in the studio. Reelin in the Years only has this song from that show. But, I think these shows were about 30 minutes. I have a Johnny Winter one that is interview and studio jams.



    There's also this from Montreal



    Here's a couple tracks from that era in glorious quality.



    Sorry, I usually don't dump so many videos into a post.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  18. #18
    ^^^^keep 'em coming!

    Their's some great threads about this release & the deluxe edition over on the UK Sick Things fans web site.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof View Post
    Cool! He was still doing the guillotine trick at that time. .
    He is still doing the guillotine trick 40 years later in his live shows.

  20. #20
    The Lester Bangs rant above is describing the concert video that I was trying to remember- I think they dubbed it "Midsummer Rock". Alice was smashing the cake into his face and it was good.

    In the 90's I rented a condo in Palm Springs. Where else do you see streets named after Gerald Ford and Bob Hope? In the condo were several pictures of the owner posed with Alice Cooper on the golf course.

  21. #21
    I've definitely seen that Tube Works show before.

  22. #22
    What I am more intrigued about is the period when Alice Cooper put out their first two LP's on Straight. There's a song "Reflected" that was adapted later into "Elected". Certainly they came from another world than Zappa, but this is a period that I've never read too much about. They had some good songwriters and found their true voice with Killer and Love It To Death- radio friendly but dangerous and much smarter than they put on. Alice was the William Castle of Rock.
    Last edited by Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof; 04-25-2014 at 06:38 PM.

  23. #23
    I hate the fact that he used that cruddy AKG mic for vocals. It had a flat windscreen, a design that promoted overmodulation if you sang directly into it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WytchCrypt View Post
    Definitely into AC from "Billion Dollar Babies" to 1980's "Flush the Fashion"...loved his stage theatrics, Vincent Price speech in Black Widow, and 2 guitar rock attack with Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter and Bob Ezrin producing. Some great stuff there.
    Do yourself a favor and buy Love It To Death, Killer and School's Out. IMO, Alice began to jump the shark after School's Out. Love it To Death and Killer are his two most creative albums, IMO, and certainly proggy. He started to become a parody of himself with Billion Dollar Babies. I enjoyed Welcome To My Nightmare, as he had superiuor guitarists on that album, but he didn't have that aura of evil he had around the time of LItD and Killer.

  25. #25
    Member Guitarplyrjvb's Avatar
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    Billion Dollar Babies is GREAT! Don't leave that one out!

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