Alice Cooper
Love It to Death

THE REVIEW

If they put my head in a guillotine, that’s fine, but if they put a needle nearby, I faint on the floor (Alice Cooper).

Finally, my persistence in hunting AAA vinyl records from the golden age of rock has paid off: I’ve scored two records I’ve been looking for a long time, which at least share the same cover aesthetics: photos of cocky-eyed American lads flaunting ostrich boas around their necks, shoes with enormous platforms on their feet, and shamelessly women-like makeup on their faces: the self-titled “New York Dolls” and the reviewed “Alice Cooper” (the band, which consisted of Vincent Fournier on vocals, Glenn Buxton on lead guitar, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar and keyboards, Dennis Dunaway on bass, and Neal Smith on drums). Maybe one day I’ll talk about the “dolls”, but given the different reception of the two works I proudly presented with the vinyl displayed in the "Listening" section of the DEB (10 to 3 for the New Yorkers), I decidedly opt to advocate for Alice.

Although there would be much to tell*, this time I will not talk about the vicissitudes of Vincent Fournier because if you don’t know them, you’re the ones at fault, but you can easily remedy this given how much narrative about the character exists on the web. Nonetheless, for legitimate proselytism towards this psychotic lover of excess who, in 1971, decided to drive a stake through the heart of flower power, I’ll quote two of his statements: “The girls started talking to me and I got attached to the spotlight. That’s why I got into rock 'n' roll, for fame and sex”; “The hippies wanted peace and love. We wanted Ferraris, blondes, and switchblades.” Vincent's true nature was that of a guy born in the right era to dream of becoming a rockstar, also endowed with an irony and sarcasm out of the ordinary, unmistakable signs of a sharp mind. Evidence of this is the fact that, at a certain point, it became clear to him how the massacre game he initiated with his early works had reached such a level that it would be hard to backtrack, and he switched, indeed, to mockery, thus beginning his solo career. But that at the time of “Love It To Death” he was “serious”, trying to shock the audience not only with gruesome live shows, which would remain a trademark throughout his career but also by openly narrating mental discomforts, phobias, necrophilia, and homicidal urges in rock cocktail shaken with infernal rhythms and catchy choruses is beyond doubt. Ceremony and desperation share the same sky; riffs and melodies share the same ground.

As the needle is placed on the vinyl, it kicks off strong with “Caught in a Dream”, written by Bruce, demonstrating that at the time, Alice Cooper was a band in every sense. The lyrics (Well I’m runnin’ through the world/With a gun in my back/Tryin’ to catch a ride in that Cadillac/Thought I was livin’/But you can’t never tell/What I thought was heaven/Turned out to be hell) almost