Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter, and musician whose career spans five decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors, and baby dolls, he is considered by fans and peers alike to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock"; Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and macabre brand of rock designed to shock. Originating in Phoenix in the late 1960s after Furnier moved from Detroit, Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album Love It to Death, which was followed by the even bigger single "Schools Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies. Furnier adopted the band's name as his own name in the 1970s and began a solo career with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare. In 2011 he released Welcome 2 My Nightmare, his 19th album as a solo artist, and his 26th album in total. Expanding from his Detroit rock roots, in his career Cooper has experimented with a number of musical styles, including conceptual rock, art rock, hard rock, heavy metal, new wave, pop rock, experimental rock and industrial rock. Alice Cooper is known for his social and witty persona offstage.
Links To Peel[]
Peel was a fan of psychedelic rock and Cooper's early work comprised mainly of that genre. Cooper's music was regularly played on Peel's show in the early Seventies, but after the artist achieved his first UK number one single with "School's Out" in 1972, Peel gradually lost interest in his music as stylistically it moved away from its psychedelic rock roots and became more glam. Nonetheless, many alternative rock groups were influenced by Alice Cooper's psychedelic rock: Sonic Youth paid tribute by covering "Is It My Body" for an Alice Cooper Tribute EP. Peel played the track on his show on 06 October 1991 and commented afterwards:
- "I think only somebody that was completely demented would try to persuade you that that was Sonic Youth's most important work ever."
Shows Played[]
ALICE COOPER - School's Out (1972 UK TV Top Of The Pops Performance) ~ HIGH QUALITY HQ ~
(The list is incomplete. Please add further information if known.)
- 1970
- 14 March 1970: Reflected (LP - Pretties For You) Straight
- 30 May 1970: Still No Air (LP – Easy Action) Straight
- 06 June 1970: Mr And Misdemeanor (LP - Easy Action) Straight
- 20 June 1970: Return Of The Spiders (LP - Easy Action) Straight
- 1972
- 20 June 1972: Schools Out (single) Warner Bros.
- 30 June 1972: Schools Out / Gutter Cat Vs The Jets / Public Animal (LP – School's Out) Warner Bros
- 07 July 1972: My Stars (LP – School’s Out) Warner Bros
- 1973
- 21 August 1973 (A Touch Of The Moon): Killer
- Other
- Radio Luxembourg Tracklistings 6: Grande Finale (LP – School's Out) Warner Bros
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