Alice Cooper

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alice Cooper, 2019
Alice Cooper, 2012

Alice Cooper (born February 4, 1948 in Detroit , Michigan ; born Vincent Damon Furnier ) is an American rock musician . Originally, Alice Cooper was the name of the band that Furnier was a singer. The band existed under this name from 1968 to 1974. At first it was commercially unsuccessful until the Canadian record producer Bob Ezrin became aware of them. By working together, the band achieved their international breakthrough on the one hand with the albums School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies and on the other with their lavish stage shows. After the band broke up, Furnier took the name Alice Cooper and continued his musical career as a solo artist.

Due to their penchant for gruesome stage shows, the band is considered to be one of the pioneers of today's lavish stage shows in rock music . Through the provocative lyrics of the songs and the spectacular and theatrical performances, during which Cooper was often put in a straitjacket and simulated his execution by beheading or on the gallows, the band, and later he as a solo artist, reached a stage especially in the 1970s and 1980s Mass audience and influenced numerous musicians and bands such as Ozzy Osbourne , King Diamond , Marilyn Manson , GWAR or Lordi . In March 2011, the original Alice Cooper Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their services to rock 'n' roll .

biography

Band phase (1964–1974)

In 1964, Alice Cooper founded his first group, The Earwigs , back then as Vincent Furnier . The band was known regionally and played Beatles songs. A year later the band changed their name and became The Spiders ; the band played covers, primarily Rolling Stones and Yardbirds pieces. In 1967 the band changed their name again and became The Nazz . In order to avoid confusion with Todd Rundgren 's group of the same name , the name was changed to Alice Cooper in 1968 with the following line-up:

In 1968 the band met the musician Frank Zappa and released the albums Pretties for You and Easy Action on his label Straight Records in the following two years ; however, both were not very successful. Then the band developed their classic sound together with producer Bob Ezrin .

From 1970 the band developed their characteristic stage show with singer Cooper at the center. With an unprecedented amount of laser effects, costumes, make-up and props from the torture chamber, the band put on glaring horror shows on their tours, during which Cooper handled a boa and shed large amounts of artificial blood in straitjackets was put, tortured in other ways and, as a "climax", simulated his execution by hanging or beheading. For critics, the spectacles were proof of how hard a band “has to work hard these days to achieve the shock effect that Elvis once triggered with a simple swing of the hip”. Sometimes the calculated provocation worked out well, and Cooper's shows called the city officials to the scene, the concerts were only released from the age of 18 due to "youth risk". The result: In their most successful times, Cooper tours were regularly sold out. In an interview, Cooper said of his stage shows, “I have no references to Satanism . I play the bad guy sometimes, the villain, but he ends up getting killed every time. At the end there is resurrection , it's Alice in a white tailcoat. [...] We perform a classic morality play . My pastor came into the performance once and said that he had seen a figure somewhere between good and bad , with the good prevailing in the end. This is what the Bible teaches in the Book of Revelation : Satan lifts his head, but he will be destroyed. "

After the band had their first major success with the hit I'm Eighteen from the album Love It to Death in 1971 and continued to cause a sensation with the follow-up album Killer , the final hit in 1972 with the concept album School's Out and the top 10 hit of the same name Breakthrough. The follow-up album Billion Dollar Babies (1973) was even more successful and made the Alice Cooper Group one of the largest and most important rock groups of its time. Big hits on this album included Elected and No More Mr. Nice Guy . The less successful album Muscle of Love (1973) was followed by the (never officially declared) dissolution of the band in the following year, in order to give all members time for solo projects, all of which - with the exception of singer Alice Cooper's (including Welcome to my Nightmare ) - were never published. The band later reunited for a short time under the name Billion Dollar Babies. Their only album was Battle Ax , which was released in 1977.

Solo career (since 1974)

Alice Cooper, 1977

Alice Cooper continued his career as a solo musician and was able to officially change his name Vincent Furnier to Alice Cooper in 1974 after a dispute over the rights to the band name Alice Cooper. From then on he changed the musicians accompanying him at regular intervals.

From now on, artistically, he wanted to focus even more on concept albums and a strongly visual stage show at his concerts. With new musicians he succeeded with his successful album Welcome to My Nightmare (1975) and the subsequent tour, the ballad and single Only Women Bleed became a hit. The following albums, with the exception of Alice Cooper Goes to Hell (1976), were less successful.

In addition, Cooper became a heavy alcoholic in the years that followed . He was able to successfully complete withdrawal therapy in 1978. He processed his alcoholism and the impressions of this clinic in the album From the Inside , which was released in the same year and which he wrote together with Elton John's songwriter Bernie Taupin , who is also alcoholic. It is Cooper's most personal album, and he calls it his “classiest-sounding album”. However, through working with Taupin, Cooper came into contact with cocaine and developed a strong addiction to the drug.

In 1981 there was also a relapse into alcoholism, which also affected his musical work. The next four albums between 1980 and 1983 are mainly characterized by bizarre lyrics and were not very successful. Alice says she has not suffered a relapse since 1984. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Cooper said of his alcohol problem: “God had taken this greed for alcohol from me. [...] For the doctors, I was the classic alcoholic, but this is not a medical, but a spiritual matter. I grew up in a Christian community. My father and grandfather were priests, and my wife's father too, by the way. That's why there were people who prayed for me, for me, for the epitome of the non-Christian. […] These prayers were answered. You must have tremendous willpower, people say when they talk about my abstinence. But that's not true. I am weak and fallible like everyone else, but this greed has been taken from me. "

For the following two albums, Alice Cooper teamed up in 1986 with guitarist Kane Roberts , who acted as musical director at concerts. The albums again went much more in the direction of modern hard rock and are based on contemporary music by bands like Bon Jovi and Aerosmith . In addition to Roberts, bassist Kip Winger was one of the musicians who supported Cooper at that time . Cooper's return to the stage was in Detroit on October 31, 1986, and the concert was broadcast live on MTV.

Alice Cooper achieved renewed worldwide success in the summer of 1989 with his album Trash and the single hit Poison . The album, which was produced by the then extremely successful producer Desmond Child , also features numerous guest musicians (for example musicians from the bands Aerosmith and Bon Jovi). This successful period was also reflected in Alice Cooper's guest role in the movie Wayne's World (by and with Mike Myers), in which he appeared with the song Feed My Frankenstein from his album Hey Stoopid (1991).

In 1994 Cooper brought out the classic concept album The Last Temptation for a long time . The album is darker than the previous albums and is more based on his works from the 1970s. In 1997 the live album A Fistful of Alice was released , which was recorded in Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina .

In 1999, The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper was released , which included outtakes from 1965 to 1999. The next albums Brutal Planet (2000) and Dragontown (2001) deal with the grievances on earth (opening line from Brutal Planet : “ We're spinning 'round on this ball of hate ”) and are musically much heavier than all previous works. The concept based on three albums has not yet been completed. Part of the atmosphere of these concerts is captured on the Brutally Live DVD .

Alice Cooper at Nova Rock 2016

Since the Brutal Planet tour in 2000, Alice Cooper's daughter Calico (born May 19, 1981 ) has also appeared in the shows, just as her mother Sheryl (1975, Welcome to My Nightmare Tour) had done earlier. She plays various roles, such as a nurse , a dominatrix or even Britney Spears , and as Paris Hilton lets her handbag Chihuahua bite her throat. In 2005 his son was there too and played a few characters on stage.

In September 2003 the album The Eyes of Alice Cooper came out, which, contrary to expectations, is not the third part of the Brutal Planet trilogy. The album is based on the classic garage rock of the 1970s.

On July 4, 2005, the album Dirty Diamonds was released , which is both musically and songwriting (technically) more sophisticated than its predecessor. The line-up of the musicians changed only slightly. In January 2006 a new Cooper piece was released: Mankind from the soundtrack of the horror film Bloodrayne . After the almost two-year Dirty Diamonds tour around the globe, the shock rocker was back in the studio in spring 2008 to record his new work Along Came a Spider .

Ryan Roxie (guitar), the musician who was in the service of Alice Cooper from 1996 to 2006 and thus longer than any other musician before him (apart from Eric Singer, who has been with the company since 1990), announced his temporary retirement in March 2006 Alice Cooper Band to take care of his family and solo career. Since then Keri Kelli (formerly with Slash's Snakepit , LA Guns and Pretty Boy Floyd), who played together with Roxie in the band Dad's Porno Mag, has been on stage with Alice Cooper and was seen with him for the first time in Germany in June 2006 . Former Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow bassist Greg Smith also played with Alice Cooper for many years, but was replaced by Chuck Garric.

To this day, Alice Cooper goes on tour regularly. A tour in Germany took place e.g. B. with Deep Purple in February 2006 and with Whitesnake in November and December 2008. He also owns a restaurant called Cooperstown in Phoenix, Arizona . He also moderates the radio program "Nights with Alice Cooper", which is broadcast by numerous radio stations around the world, in Germany on Radio Bob . He spends his free time playing golf , his three children and his wife, to whom he has been married for over 30 years. On December 2, 2003, he was awarded a star on the legendary Walk of Fame .

Alice Cooper, who was close friends with Groucho Marx , the head of the Marx Brothers , and Salvador Dalí and is friends with Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney , wrote an autobiographical book in 1976 in collaboration with author Steven Gaines entitled Me, Alice (The Autobiography of Alice Cooper as Told to Steven Gaines) . Only a small number of copies have been published of this book, which makes it a valuable collector's item.

Alice Cooper live in Bucharest, 2011

In 2007 he appeared as a guest musician at Tobias Sammet's Avantasia . He sang in the song The Toy Master from the album The Scarecrow . In 2008 his autobiography Golfmonster was published , also in a German edition.

On August 5, 2010, Alice Cooper performed for the first time at the Wacken Open Air Festival under the motto A Night to Remember , and in 2011 he released Welcome 2 My Nightmare , an album that revisits the story about the character of Steven that began in 1975 picks up and lets him experience new nightmares.

For the No More Mr. Nice Guy Tour 2011, Cooper brought his former guitarist Steve Hunter into his band, but he left in early 2012 due to a planned solo project. He was replaced a few months later by Ryan Roxie, who had played for Cooper for many years.

For 2012/2013 he announced another European tour after 2011 on Facebook. In 2014 he wanted to publish a cover album , which u. a. Should contain songs from The Doors , John Lennon , The Who and Jimi Hendrix .

The current band: (June 2014)

Since 2014 Cooper's stage guitarist: Nita Strauss

In 2015, Cooper formed the band Hollywood Vampires with Joe Perry from Aerosmith and actor Johnny Depp . The band name goes back to a group of musicians who worked on the solo album Alice Cooper Goes To Hell . Cooper gave the group that name back then. After their first live performances in late 2015, the group went on a worldwide tour with a project album in mid-2016. In 2019 the studio album Rise was released .

Trivia

Appearances in film and television

Other

Mock beheading of Cooper
  • Alice Cooper was a guest at Wrestlemania 3 and accompanied wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts to his match.
  • Alice Cooper is a passionate and exceptionally good golfer - in June 2008 he said in a radio interview on Radio RST that he almost always played par. He has a handicap of 2.
  • Contrary to his image, Alice Cooper is a devout Christian who goes to church with his children every Sunday morning. He is also Chairman of the Christian Foundation Solid Rock Foundation , for which he also collects donations.
  • Alice Cooper sings the role of King Herod on the complete recording of the 1996 production of the hard rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar in London . He also took on this role in the award-winning New York production of the musical from 2018.
  • On the LP Welcome to My Nightmare , the US film star and stage actor Vincent Price (1911-1993) spoke the intro to the song The Black Widow . Cooper and Price have been close friends ever since they worked together.
  • In addition to some well-known guest appearances on releases by various bands ( Guns N 'Roses - The Garden ; Twisted Sister - Be Chrool to Your Scuel ), Cooper also spoke the intro of The Great Milenko of the Insane Clown Posse .
  • He had himself beheaded on stage by a guillotine (Trivial Pursuit). James Randi was hired to realize the illusion .
  • His song I am the Future is the theme song for the 1984 film Die Klasse .
  • His song He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) is the title track of the horror film Friday the 13th (Friday 13th) Part VI (Paramount Pictures / MCA Records (C) 1986)
  • Alice Cooper is one of the sponsors of the famous Hollywood sign . He sponsored one of the Os in memory of Groucho Marx .
  • In 1995 the author Neil Gaiman and the illustrator Michael Zulli published the comic "Alice Cooper - The Last Temptation ", based on the album The Last Temptation . In this, the fictional character Alice Cooper appears in the role of a soul-collecting variety director .
  • From October 22, 2009 to December 31, 2010, Alice Cooper advertised an electronics retail chain. His successor on January 1, 2011 was Michael Buffer .
  • For his financial support, Cooper was awarded an honorary doctorate "Doctor of Music" by the Christian-liberal Grand Canyon University in Phoenix ( Arizona ) in May 2004 .
  • Cooper has hosted the radio show "Nights with Alice Cooper" since 2004, which is broadcast by more than 100 stations worldwide. In Germany she can be heard on the Hessian radio station Radio Bob under the name Die Alice Cooper-Show since September 2013 .

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US USTemplate: chart table / maintenance / charts non-existent
1969 Pretties for You - - - - US193 (6 weeks)
US
First published: August 1969
1970 Easy action - - - - -
First published: June 1970
1971 Love It to Death - - - UK28 (7 weeks)
UK
US35
platinum
platinum

(38 weeks)US
First published: Jan 12, 1971
Sales: + 1,000,000
killer - - - UK27 (18 weeks)
UK
US21st
platinum
platinum

(54 weeks)US
First published: November 1971
Sales: + 1,000,000
1972 School's Out DE3 (36 weeks)
DE
AT8 (12 weeks)
AT
- UK4 (20 weeks)
UK
US2
platinum
platinum

(32 weeks)US
First published: June 1972
Sales: + 1,000,000
1973 Billion dollar babies DE9 (28 weeks)
DE
AT4 (16 weeks)
AT
- UK1 (23 weeks)
UK
US1
platinum
platinum

(50 weeks)US
First published: February 25, 1973
Sales: + 1,035,000
Muscle of Love - - - UK34 (4 weeks)
UK
US10
gold
gold

(21 weeks)US
First published: November 1973
Sales: + 500,000
1975 Welcome to My Nightmare - - - UK19th
silver
silver

(8 weeks)UK
US5
platinum
platinum

(37 weeks)US
First published: February 1975
Sales: + 1,260,000
1976 Alice Cooper Goes to Hell - - - UK23 (7 weeks)
UK
US27
gold
gold

(32 weeks)US
First published: June 25, 1976
Sales: + 500,000
1977 Lace and whiskey - - - UK33 (3 weeks)
UK
US42 (16 weeks)
US
First published: April 29, 1977
1978 From the inside - - - UK68 (3 weeks)
UK
US60 (11 weeks)
US
First published: November 1978
1980 Flush the fashion - - - UK56 (3 weeks)
UK
US44 (17 weeks)
US
First published: April 28, 1980
1981 Special forces - - - UK96 (1 week)
UK
US125 (5 weeks)
US
First published: August 31, 1981
1982 Zipper Catches Skin - - - - -
First published: August 25, 1982
1983 Dada - - - UK93 (1 week)
UK
-
First published: September 28, 1983
1986 Constrictor - - - UK41 (2 weeks)
UK
US59 (21 weeks)
US
First published: September 22, 1986
1987 Raise your fist and yell - - - UK48 (3 weeks)
UK
US73 (15 weeks)
US
First published: September 28, 1987
1989 trash DE16
gold
gold

(53 weeks)DE
AT4th
gold
gold

(16 weeks)AT
CH10
gold
gold

(28 weeks)CH
UK2 (12 weeks)
UK
US20th
platinum
platinum

(43 weeks)US
First published: July 25, 1989
Sales: + 1,585,000
1991 Hey stoopid DE7 (21 weeks)
DE
AT5 (12 weeks)
AT
CH7 (16 weeks)
CH
UK4th
silver
silver

(7 weeks)UK
US47 (13 weeks)
US
First published: July 2, 1991
Sales: + 60,000
1994 The Last Temptation DE18 (12 weeks)
DE
AT24 (8 weeks)
AT
CH13 (11 weeks)
CH
UK6 (5 weeks)
UK
US68 (3 weeks)
US
First published: July 12, 1994
2000 Brutal Planet DE23 (4 weeks)
DE
AT49 (1 week)
AT
CH66 (4 weeks)
CH
UK38 (1 week)
UK
US193 (1 week)
US
First published: June 6, 2000
2001 Dragontown DE54 (1 week)
DE
AT75 (1 week)
AT
CH98 (1 week)
CH
- US197 (1 week)
US
First published: September 18, 2001
2003 The Eyes of Alice Cooper DE78 (1 week)
DE
AT72 (1 week)
AT
- - US184 (1 week)
US
First published: September 23, 2003
2005 Dirty Diamonds DE71 (1 week)
DE
AT66 (1 week)
AT
- - US193 (1 week)
US
First published: July 4th, 2005
2008 Along Came a Spider DE26 (4 weeks)
DE
AT37 (5 weeks)
AT
CH37 (3 weeks)
CH
UK31 (1 week)
UK
US56 (2 weeks)
US
First published: July 29, 2008
2011 Welcome 2 My Nightmare DE26 (2 weeks)
DE
AT25 (2 weeks)
AT
CH49 (2 weeks)
CH
- US22 (3 weeks)
US
First published: September 13, 2011
2017 Paranormal DE4 (6 weeks)
DE
AT8 (5 weeks)
AT
CH3 (4 weeks)
CH
UK6 (3 weeks)
UK
US32 (1 week)
US
First published: July 28, 2017

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

literature

  • Dennis Dunaway and Chris Hodenfield: Snakes, Guillotines and an Electric Chair - My Adventures with the Alice Cooper Group . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2016, ISBN 978-3-85445-602-5 (Original edition: Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! ).

Web links

Commons : Alice Cooper  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. laut.de: Alice Cooper biography
  2. rockhall.com: Biography at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  3. rockhall.com: Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  4. a b c "Without music we would only be a puppet theater" ( Memento from July 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Interview with Alice Cooper in the Süddeutsche Zeitung
  5. a b Super Duper Alice Cooper - Welcome to his Nightmare, documentary film by Sam Dunn, Eagle Vision 2014
  6. http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=192429
  7. http://www.n-tv.de/folk/musik/Alice-Cooper-und-die-Hollywood-Vampires-article15912321.html
  8. The Hollywood Vampires. Retrieved July 22, 2019 .
  9. www.hollywoodvampires.com: Welcome. Accessed July 22, 2019 .
  10. Alice Cooper Sheds Some Light on His Dark Shadows Cameo , accessed May 4, 2012
  11. BBC Interview 2010
  12. James Randi and Alice Cooper
  13. ^ Hollywood Sign Trust , accessed April 29, 2010
  14. ^ Nights with Alice Cooper
  15. Alice Cooper on Radio BOB!
  16. Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US