Alice Cooper Biography
Originally, there was a band called Alice Cooper led by a
singer named Vincent Damon Furnier. Under his direction, Alice Cooper pioneered
a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to
shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, heavy metal, and garage
rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines,
fake blood, and huge boa constrictors, all coordinated by the heavily made-up
Furnier. By that time, Furnier had adopted the name for his androgynous on-stage
personality. While the visuals were extremely important to the group's impact,
the band's music was nearly as distinctive. Driven by raw, simple riffs and
melodies that derived from '60s guitar pop as well as show tunes, it was rock
& roll at its most basic and catchy, even when the band ventured into
psychedelia and art rock. After the original group broke up and Furnier began a
solo career as Alice Cooper, his actual music lost most of its theatrical
flourishes, becoming straightforward heavy metal, yet his stage show retained
all of the trademark props that made him the king of shock rock.
Furnier formed his first group, the Earwigs, as an Arizona
teenager in the early '60s. Changing the band's name to the Spiders in 1965, the
group was eventually called the Nazz (not to be confused with Todd
Rundgren's band of the same name). The
Spiders and the Nazz both released local singles that were moderately
popular. In 1968, after discovering there was another band called with the same
name, the group changed its name to Alice Cooper. According to band legend, the
name came to Furnier during a ouija board session, where he was told he was the
reincarnation of a 17th-century witch of the same name. Comprised of vocalist
Furnier -- who would soon begin calling himself Alice Cooper -- guitarist Mike
Bruce, guitarist Glen
Buxton, bassist Dennis
Dunaway, and drummer Neal
Smith, the group moved to California in 1968. In California, the group met Shep
Gordon, who became their manager, and Frank
Zappa, who signed Alice Cooper to his Straight Records imprint.
Alice Cooper released their first album, Pretties for You,
in 1969. Easy
Action followed early in 1970, yet it failed to chart. The group's
reputation in Los Angeles was slowly shrinking, so the band moved to Furnier's
hometown of Detroit. For the next year, the group refined their bizarre stage
show. Late in 1970, the group's contract was transferred to Straight's
distributor Warner Bros., and they began recording their third album with
producer Bob
Ezrin.
With Ezrin's
assistance, Alice Cooper developed their classic heavy metal crunch on 1971's
Love It to Death, which featured the number 21 hit single "Eighteen";
the album peaked at number 35 and went gold. The success enabled the group to
develop a more impressive, elaborate live show, which made them highly popular
concert attractions across the U.S. and eventually the U.K. Killer,
released late in 1971, was another gold album. Released in the summer of 1972, School's
Out was Alice Cooper's breakthrough record, peaking at number two and
selling over a million copies. The title song became a Top Ten hit in the U.S.
and a number one single in the U.K. Billion
Dollar Babies, released the following year, was the group's biggest hit,
reaching number one in both America and Britain; the album's first single,
"No More Mr. Nice Guy," became a Top Ten hit in Britain, peaking at
number 25 in the U.S. Muscle of Love appeared late in 1973, yet it failed to
capitalize on the success of Billion
Dollar Babies. After Muscle of Love, Furnier and the rest of Alice Cooper
parted ways to pursue other projects. Having officially changed his name to
Alice Cooper, Furnier embarked on a similarly theatrical solo career; the rest
of the band released one unsuccessful album under the name Billion
Dollar Babies, while Mike Bruce and Neal
Smith both recorded solo albums that were never issued. In the fall of 1974,
a compilation of Alice Cooper's five Warner albums, entitled Alice
Cooper's Greatest Hits, became a Top Ten hit.
For his first solo album, Cooper hired Lou
Reed's backing band from Rock 'N' Roll Animal -- guitarists Dick
Wagner and Steve
Hunter, bassist Prakash
John, keyboardist Joseph
Chrowski, and drummer Penti
Glan -- as his supporting group. Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper's
first solo album, was released in the spring of 1975. The record wasn't a great
departure from his previous work, and it became a Top Ten hit in America,
launching the hit acoustic ballad "Only Women Bleed"; its success put
an end to any idea of reconvening Alice Cooper the band. Its follow-up, 1976's
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, was another hit, going gold in the U.S. After Alice
Cooper Goes to Hell, Cooper's career began to slip, partially due to changing
trends and partially due to his alcoholism. Cooper entered rehabilitation in
1978, writing an album about his treatment called From the Inside (1978) with Bernie
Taupin, Elton
John's lyricist. During the early '80s, Cooper continued to release albums
and tour, yet he was no longer as popular as he was during his early-'70s
heyday.
Cooper made a successful comeback in the late '80s,
sparked by his appearances in horror films and a series of pop-metal bands that
paid musical homage to his classic early records and concerts. Constrictor,
released in 1986, began his comeback, but it was 1989's Trash
that returned Cooper to the spotlight. Produced by the proven hitmaker Desmond
Child, Trash
featured guest appearances by Jon
Bon Jovi, Richie
Sambora, and most of Aerosmith;
the record became a Top Ten hit in Britain and peaked at number 20 in the U.S.,
going platinum. "Poison," a mid-tempo rocker featured on the album,
became Cooper's first Top Ten single since 1977. After the release of Trash,
he continued to star in the occasional film, tour, and record, although he
wasn't able to retain the audience recaptured with Trash.
Still, 1991's Hey
Stoopid and 1994's The
Last Temptation were generally solid, professional efforts which helped
Cooper settle into a comfortable cult status without damaging the critical
goodwill surrounding his '70s output. After a live album, 1997's Fistful of
Alice, Cooper returned on the smaller Spitfire label in 2000 with Brutal
Planet and Dragontown a year later. The Eyes of Alice Cooper appeared in
2003 and found Alice and company playing a more stripped-down brand of
near-garage rock. Dirty Diamonds from 2005 was nearly as raw and hit the streets
around the same time Alice premiered his syndicated radio show, Nights with
Alice Cooper. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide