Alice Cooper - Prince Of Darkness

There are some albums I can never figure out why the hell I picked it up, other than being a dumb stupid teenager. This album falls totally in that group. This album is made up of the two MCA Alice Cooper albums. Those would be 1986's Constrictor which I have covered in great detail, so I'll just be copying and pasting those write-ups into here. The other songs come from 1987's Raise Your Fist And Yell, which oddly I have never reviewed. It's one of my favourite albums. Then there's one live track, which I'll get to shortly.

The compilations title track is one of those songs I have a love/hate relationship with. As an adult I find it very well written and executed. It really is a well done song, with a cool guitar solo too. As the kid who heard it for the first time when it came out in 1987, I thought it was boring and bland. It didn't rock hard enough for me. But really, it's a good song. I still have no issues skipping it at any second, though. In fact this is the only song on Raise Your Fist And Yell that doesn't give me little tingles every time I hear it.

Roses On White Lace is one of my top five Alice Cooper songs of all time. I mean this song is just the most amazing example of why Alice Cooper is easily accepted as Metal. I mean this song is just totally bad ass Metal. It's the horror story of blood and violence that those insane censor hungry parents were trying to warn everyone about, and Alice enunciated every syllable with crystal clarity. This was one of those moments where it was the truest most pure form of Alice Cooper as the master of shock, and then going one step further. If this song had come out in the 1970's all hell would have broken loose. "I saw you wedding gown/The prettiest dress/I came into the room that night/And made such a mess/In my own way, I lovingly kiss the bride/With your ring in your hand/Your eyes and your mouth open wide/In my eyes/Blood drops look like roses on white lace/They won't wash away/In my mind they're roses on white lace/Straight from the heart/So dead upon the bed/You hurt me in the deepest way/I'm crippled inside/I took your evil skin away/It's all cut and dry/I saw you tonight and carefully took your hand/With some smears on my cheeks/I knew that you would understand/In my eyes/Blood drops look like roses on white lace/They won't wash away/In my mind they're roses on white lace/Straight from the heart/So dead upon the bed, still searching for your head/They're never gonna find your face/It's hidden away/I found a very special place for you used to play/In my own way, I lovingly kiss the bride/With your ring in your hand/Your eyes and your mouth open wide/In my eyes/Blood drops look like roses on white lace/They won't wash away/In my mind they're roses on white lace/Straight from the heart/Blood drops look like roses on white lace/Crimson and sweet, stained on the sheet/Roses on white lace, pretty in red, dripping and wet/Roses on white lace, spilled on the walls, dark in the hall". Oh yeah, the music makes yours truly feel like a pathetic wannabe everytime I pick up an instrument.

A big lightning strike and a wicked awesome guitar barrage open up this album, which then moves into a solid paced Hard Rock riff. Teenage Frankenstein, is a song that is meant to appeal to a younger audience, at least in concept, and as the "Weird Kid" it was kind of a theme song for me. The first verse for example sets up the idea, "I'm the kid on the block / With my head made of rock / And I ain't got nobody / I'm the state of the art / Got a brain a la carte / I make the babies cry / I ain't one of the crowd / I ain't one of the guys / They just avoid me / They run and they hide / Are my colours too bright / Are my eyes set too wide / I spend my whole life / Burning, turning", but the second verse drives home a mentality I still carry to this day. "Got a synthetic face / Got some scars and a brace / My hands are rough and bloody / I walk into the night / Women faint at the sight / I ain't no cutie-pie / I can't walk in the day / I must walk in the night / Stay in the shadows / Stay out of the light / Are my shoulders too wide / Is my head screwed on tight / I spend my whole life / Burning, turning". You can remove the teenage part of the song and it still fits for so many people I know, including myself.

Constrictor ends with He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask). As I already mentioned, this was the theme from Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. As a kid I loved this song so much more than I do now, and the main reason is due to all the keyboard work on this song. As a kid I thought it was really cool, and I still think it sounds awesome, but now a days I'd much rather hear more guitar instead. The cool part is how well the lyrics sum up the concept of the movie, right down to the "baby." "You're with your baby / And you're parked alone / On a summer night / You're deep in love / But you're deeper in the woods / You think you're doin' alright / Did you hear that voice / Did you see that face / Or was it just a dream / This can't be real / That only happens, babe / On the movie screen / Oh, but he's back / He's the man behind the mask / And he's out of control". I would still love to see Alice perform this song live, because it is wicked cool and the only song from this album he ever breaks out. But, sadly he only breaks it out for the Swedish. That might have something to do with it being a number one hit there, and they didn't even get the movie at the time.

The main reason I can think of as to why I bought this album is for Billion Dollar Babies, and the fact that it's marked as being recorded in 1976. Not really much of a good reason, but at this moment in time I'm looking at it a little differently. If the year is right, that means most likely it was Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter playing guitar. I mention this because very sadly Dick passed away recently, and I consider myself blessed for getting to meet him and hear him play live in a very intimate setting. So now I'm listing to this song and paying very careful attention to the solo, and thinking, oh hell yeah. For this little treasure, as long as it is Wagner, I'm very happy to have this silly little album now.

Lock Me Up has a killer drum opening, and is yet another reason I love Raise Your Fist And Yell so much. Spoken, "Alice Cooper/You have been accused of mass mental cruelty How do you plead?/Guilty!" Then the singing starts, "Don't wanna be clean / Don't wanna be nice / The whip's gonna crack / My leather is black and so are my eyes / I'm gonna be rough / I'm gonna be mean / I'm here to the end, my sick little friend / I'm back in your dreams / You can take my head and cut it off / But you ain't gonna change my mind / If you don't like it you can lock me up / Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh, / If you don't like it you can lock me up / Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh, / Cover your eyes or cover your head / You'll never know what hit you 'til your covered in red / Screaming bloody murder 'til the barricades bend / Sweatin' in the fog 'til the end / It's gotta be loud / I want it to roar / I want it to blow everyone at the show right off of the floor / I'm in for the kill / I'm back with a rage / I want them to write in the paper each night how I bloodied the stage / If you don't like it you can lock me up / Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh, / If you don't like it you can lock me up / Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh, / Lock me up or shut up / Cover your eyes or cover your head / You'll never know what hit you 'til your covered in red / Screaming bloody murder 'til the barricades bend / Sweatin' in the lights 'til the end / If you don't like it you can lock me up / Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh, / If you don't like it you can lock me up / I wanna be hot / Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh, / If you don't like it you can lock me up / I wanna be cool / Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh, / If you don't like it you can lock me up / I wanna be sick / Woah, oh, oh, oh, oh -real sick". Then there's the music. At the core it's a bit of the basic Metal, but when you pay attention to the speed that's really going on in this track you can't help but wonder why this album didn't do better, and the simple answer is that it was ahead of it's time. Seriously, this album was a fully digital masterpiece. It was one of those albums that reminds you why Alice is The Master.

Simple Disobedience is one of those songs that is just as relevant today as it was twenty-five years ago, maybe even more so today. "Now all your complex little schemes that form your master plan / Are scrambled up and that is something you just don't understand / A cyclone of confusion rips right through your holy troops / The very thing that weakens you gives power, gives me juice / And all the hungry outlaws have taken up a stance / Simple disobedience / Yeah, all the hungry outlaws have taken up a stance / Simple disobedience / Take your laser microscope and try to find an answer / No antidote or drug to cure our special strain of cancer / It spreads its revolution wide from cell to cell to cell / Your kingdom's like your body, it dies and goes to hell". Now even with all this raw anger waiting to spill out, it's the guitar work that really makes this song powerful. Kane Roberts' fills, and just general playing is so mean. This was a great way to end side one of the cassette, or vinyl picture album (I still own this one).

Thrill My Gorilla, is one of those songs I don't know how to take. "Sukie honey, weren't you right there with me / I seem to remember chasing you from tree to tree / Those prehistoric nights are coming back to me / We must have been the first / To go down in history / Where were you when the monkey hit the fan / Thrill my gorilla / Where were you when monkey turned to man / Thrill my gorilla / We lay on our skins, original sins / Ah, ah, ah, ah yeah / We touch, we feel / We scream, we squeal / Thrill my gorilla / Thrill my gorilla". Clearly you can't take this song serious, but at the same time you kind of want to. To be honest I would have loved to have heard the Ramones do a cover of this one. This song has their type of vibe to it.

As a kid Life And The Death Of The Party had little to no meaning to me. As an adult I love this song. It's so dark and beautiful. This is truly a Love Metal song, and could easily be Goth Metal, if say Type O Negative had covered it. "You walk into the room, everybody stares / The talking stops, there's a silence there / The room is yours, you own it now / You're in control and everybody down here knows / You got a place in my heart, I don't want you there / But you come and you go, like a millionaire / You take a walk right across my soul / You're in control and everybody down here knows / You're the life and the death of the party / You got my heart right by the throat / You're the life and the death of the party / When the stage lights rise / You start and stop the show / You love me bad, you love me good / You're unimpressed, that's understood / I lost it all, you knew I would / You're in control and everybody down here knows / You're the life and the death of the party / You got my heart right by the throat / You're the life and the death of the party / With your head held high /You start and stop the show / It's just one night / It's just one time / It's just one hotel room / It's just another dream / That can't come true / You're the life and the death of the party / You got my heart right by the throat / You're the life and the death of the party / When the stage lights rise / You start and stop the show". Aside from the part about "being in my heart" and not wanting them there, I would say that this song also reminds me of a certain editor I know, but not in the negative context that it seems to be protrayed here. Like I said this song is Love Metal.

Freedom is the lead off track from Raise Your Fist And Yell, and it did it's job perfectly. It really gets the blood pumping and energy flowing. It's not one of my faves from that album, but it is a really good song on this album. But it brings me to the perfect ending for this album's review.

See, the biggest problem with this album is the way it is put together, the track order is silly, and considering this an album released in the age of the compact disc, it could have easily had one more track added to it for better balance. It should have went five tracks, Billion Dollar Babies, then five more tracks. Then there's the track list, as you can tell from some of the copy and paste these tracks are in completely different order. I do think Freedom should have followed Billion Dollar Babies to lead off the second side and Life And Death Of The Party could have easily been the closer. However, I notice as I keep trying to arrange the tracks on this album, it's almost impossible to put these in any great order. Most of these tracks worked best in their order on their respective albums. Which means this album is great in a mix, but not so good as a solo play.

As a quick last thought, I love the production on the Raise Your Fist And Yell material, and would rate it very highly, but the live track, plus the Constrictor material has me holding it at seven, just because I won't use decimal points. So, you can hear the production as seven point five.

8/10 - content

7/10 - production

6/10 - personal bias

Ronnie James Dio - This Is Your Life

I am far from the worlds biggest Dio fan, but I love the man's voice, and over the course of his career he laid down some killer songs. As the Vocalist of Rainbow, Heaven And Hell, or during his solo time. Ronnie was a brilliant lyricist and his vocal performance was fantastic. There are songs on this album I had never heard before, but I can totally picture Ronnie belting them out.

This album is a tribute to the man that made Metal what it is today. It features some of Metal's biggest names, some of it's newer acts, and a few names that I need to check out after listening to this album. However, what I expected and what I got from this album are two completely different things. For example the one song I could not wait to hear and had me the most excited let me down the most. Mainly because the idea I had in my head and what I really got didn't match.

On the other hand there were some songs I expected very little from and instead was very pleasantly surprised. One thing that people might notice very quickly is that the keyboards are missing from a good chunk of songs. Out of fourteen songs only three have either, keyboards, piano or organ. Which is where some of the coolest parts of this album comes from.

The album kicks off with Anthrax performing Neon Knights. If you don't already know, this is a song from when Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. I may have mentioned before, or maybe not, it's only Sabbath with Ozzy. When it's Dio, it's Heaven And Hell. While I don't like the legal bullshit that forced that to be an official change, to me it honestly was two different bands. All that aside, I actually never really cared for this song. I don't mind this cover, and this is well done, but I was never a big Anthrax fan either. I will say that this was an acceptable way to open the album.

The Last In Line performed by Tenacious D follows that up. And while they are often viewed as a joke band, becuse they have a good time and aren't afraid to show some whimsy, they deserve to be on this album just as much, if not more than any other group. First off Ronnie graced a Tenacious D album, secondly this is a group that truly loves Dio. You can tell by how well this cover is done. I mean Jack Black really gives a brilliant vocal performance. Even the recorder solo is killer. Yes that's right, Kyle Glass busts out the recorder on this track. I would have sworn it was a flute, but the liner notes say different.

I have never heard of Adrenaline Mob. I'm not sure if they were just thrown together for this album, or if it's a side project, and I'm confused because I recognize some of the band members from other places. Either way they deliver the first song on the album to make me stand up and go "Oh! Fuck! Yeah!" I mean they come flying through with one of my favourite songs from Dio/Butler/Iommi, Mob Rules. Russel Allen, who's name doesn't ring a bell, delivers a fantastic vocal performance. You know he loved this song when he went at it. The rest of the band tears it up big time, and does Heaven And Hell proud.

Okay, there's this guy that's in Slipknot and sings some song about glass doing some side project. I can never remember his name, but he always ends up as the butt of a joke for that glass tune. So I wasn't expecting much from Rainbow In The Dark. Then I notice that there's no keyboard. If you check out the liner notes this song is two guitars, a vocalist and a drummer. Aside from the drummer sounding like he's got a click track up his ass, this is a really tight track. Corey Taylor's vocals do do the song justice, but it's the guitar work that makes it awesome.

Never heard of Halestorm before this album. I was informed that it was a female vocalist doing the song and went, "Okay, I can see that. Then Straight Through The Heart kicks in and Lzzy Hale kicks in with her vocals and I'm totally floored. I expect vocals that sound like your normal female Metal vocalist, which is to say very operatic. Instead what I hear is this bad ass growl and snarl Rock vocalist that just tears into the song with the rest of the band, and just brings it home. I mean they really really kick this one out. Enough to say I should look into them.

Starstruck is performed by Motorhead, with Biff Byford (Saxon). This is a great track, that works well. But to me this song is a filler. It's one of those tracks that made sense for this combo to use, but it's a filler all the same.

The Scorpions performing The Temple Of The King makes sense to me. They are the right band for this song, and they do it very well. However, this is not one of those songs that I would have picked either. It's a little too mellow and laid back for me. The Scorps own this one, though.

Egypt (The Chains Are On) is performed by Doro. If you look in the liner notes you'll see it was recorded in 1999. I have no idea if this song was a leftover from a recording session, or was taken from an album, or who knows what. Either way it works, and while it's a bit slower in pace it really brings this song to life. However, this was the type of female vocals I was talking about earlier, but it works really well. It's a little more Lita Ford 80's Metal female vocalist, but that's clearly okay for this song.

Typically I find Killswitch Engage a little screamy, and their music a bit typical of the genre, but that's not to take anything away from them. They just aren't my thing, but they are decent musicians and I can respect what they do, and that's exactly what I must say with Holy Diver. This song is their's, and there's no doubt about it. The vocals are impressive and well done, and the music is totally heavy octane. This is the exact kind of thing I love to hear on tribute albums, a band giving their take on a song, not just a faithful cover.

Catch The Rainbow is performed by a mixed group of musicians. Glenn Hughes lays down just the vocals, with a very soulful, almost easy listening styled sound. Craig Goldy handles the guitar, Rudy Sarzo's on bass, and Simon Wright plays drums. Scott Warren is one of the few keyboardists on the entire album, and he also provides the string arrangements. As for the song itself, it's very pretty and I would put it on in mixed company, because this is the kind of song that chicks would enjoy. At least based on the females I live with. It's not the kind of tune I would normally listen to outside of this album.

I is a Heaven and Hell song that I just didn't know. It's another song made up of a mix of musicians. Oni Logan lays down some very solid vocals, in fact when he does the chorus you would think Ronnie James Dio himself was part of the recording. Rowan Robertson delivers some killer guitar. Jimmy Bain's bass does what bass is supposed to do on a post original group Sabbath, and the same can be said for Brian Tichy's drums. This is one of those songs that inspires me to search out more Dio/Iommi/Butler team-up albums.

Man On The Silver Mountain is my favourite song to feature Dio on vocals. It helps that Ritchie Blackmore is the guitarist of Rainbow, which is the band this song originally comes from. Now if you know much about names, if you were told that Doug Aldrich (guitars), Jeff Pilson (bass), and Vinny Appice (drums) made up the core of this band, with Scott Warren providing Hammmond B3, you'd know this song should be pretty solid musically, and you would be right. Then I tell you Rob Halford is the vocalist, and you should pretty much be ready to shit yourself with shear anticipation. Then you listen to the song, and because of a completely unfair expectation you have already set, the song drastically fails and blows your listening experience to shit. Okay that's a little dramatic. It's still a pretty good song, it's just that you expect so much when you see Halford is performing a Dio track, and then you have to remember that the older a dude gets the harder it is to hit those crazy notes that you expect.

The Ronnie Rising Medley performed by Metallica was yet another let down, because what I expected and what I got were two different things. Let me start with they should have got Bob Rock to produce the song. I went into this song expecting something like the Merciful Fate Medley, and got what feels more like a live track with the audience totally stripped out. It's the production that really kills this song for me. I love the arrangement, and the way most of Ronnie Rising Medley is put together, I just don't care for the sound of it.

The album finishes with This Is Your Life which is a Dio track, sung by Dio. I'm not sure what the entire story is behind this song being on the album, but it is a bit of a melancholy way to finish up the album.

All in all it's a pretty good album. I like it in a mix, and it's not bad on repeat full album listenings. I don't know if it's one of those albums I'll still be listening to a decade from now, but you never know. It's also a shame there weren't more newer bands. That makes me worry about the quality of what's out there nowadays.

7/10 - content

7/10 - production

6/10 - personal bias

Alice Cooper - Muscle Of Love

Some albums never get the respect they deserve for so many different reasons. I mean sure Muscle Of Love is the most tame and boring album the original Alice Cooper group released, but that's for very good reasons, none of which had anything to do with bad music writing.

Let me start by saying that I hate the fact the the track list on the back of my CD does not match the actual order. At first it seems like the sides got mixed up during the digital printing, but by the time track three kicks in that theory goes out the window.

Then we get into all the behind the scene problems with this album that makes it a lesser album to many fans. To start with this is the only album from the original band on the Warner Bros. label that wasn't produced by Bob Ezrin. The liner notes for other albums may say different, but everyone will say Bob did those too. Muscle Of Love is another story though. This album is listed as being produced by Jack Richardson and Jack Douglas. They did a great job, but you can hear the difference between this album, and the previous four, Love It To Death, Killer, School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies. This album sounds too polished, with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood romancing a Broadway production. Every song on this album sounds like a broadway tune, or a Hollywood soundtrack tune.

There are some other major issues with this album as well. You can tell the band wasn't recorded together. Other albums sounded more live off the floor, where as this one sounds like it was held rigorously to a click track. I know from books I've read that this was a very dark period for the original group. Part of it was the vocalist becoming the center point, part of it was the lead guitarist's health falling apart. But with all that stacked against them, they still managed to pull off a cool album.

The album opens with Big Apple Dreamin' (Hippo). This song has that total New York Groove. I mean this song musically captures what I think of as New York, to the fullest extent. It's particially the great American Dream, and part dirty debauchery, all for the viewing world's audio pleasure. Then for those that can't hear it in the music, the lyrics spell it out. "We're so young and pretty, we're so young and clean / So many things that we have never seen / Let's move from Ohio, sell this dam' old store / Big Apple dreamin' on a wooden floor / Skyscrapers and subways and stations / Staring up at the United Nations / New York is waiting for you and me, baby / Waiting to swallow us down / New York, we're coming to see what you're made of / Are you as great as you sound / Heard about them massages, and all those dirty shows / I read somewhere some places never close / While we waste time on yokels, comin' through the door / Big Apple dreamin' on a wooden floor / Skyscrapers and subways and stations / Staring up at the United Nations / New York is waiting for you and me, baby / Waiting to swallow us down / New York, we're coming to see what you're made of / Are you as great as you sound / New York is waiting for you and me, baby / Waiting to swallow us down / New York, we're coming to see what you're made of / Are you as tough as you sound / Oh, New York is waiting for you and me, baby / Waiting to swallow us down, whoo-oo / New York, we're coming, to see what you're made of / Are you as tough as you sound / Yeah, New York is waiting, baby / Waiting to swallow us down, / New York, we're coming, see what you're made of / You can't be as tough as you sound / Oh, New York, you and me, baby / Waiting to swallow us down, / New York, we're coming see what you're made of / Are you as great as you sound / Oh, New York, Oh, New York we're coming / Oh, we're coming to see what you're made of / Oh, you can't be as tough as you sound / Me and my baby, we're coming / Oh, we're coming / They're waiting for you and me, baby / Oh... (Fading out dialog)". On a side note I should mention that the drum riff used for most of the song is one of my favourite warm ups for starting a jam session. It totally gets the vibe going.

Never Been Sold Before is a great track in it's very honest portrayal of what I would think it's like to become a prostitute, during that first experience. "You ask me, babe / "Can you work tonight?" / I've been up, babe / Since broad daylight / I just can't believe that you're selling me / You never sold me before / I just can't become your lousy whore / Oh yeah, I'm stacked nice / They really like my style / Fifty bucks, babe / Can't even buy my smile / I just can't believe that you're selling me / You never sold me before / I just can't become your lousy whore / I find I come around just to / Lay this money on you, babe / I'm sick of streets, chicks and dicks / And I'm, I'm really sick of you / Oh oh, I've never been sold before / And I'll never be had again / Oh oh, I've never been sold before / And I'll never be had again / I just can't believe that you're selling me / You never sold me before / I just can't become your little whore / No, no, no, no / I've never been sold before / And I'll never be had again / Oh oh, I've never been sold before / And I'll never be had again / Oh oh, I've never been sold before / And I'll never be had again / Oh oh, I've never been sold before / And I'll never be had again / Oh oh, I've never been sold before / And I'll never be had again / Oh oh, I've never been sold before / And I'll never be had again". And I find it more interesting to hear it sung by a man, with a perspective that seems very male to me. This rings of 53rd and 3rd to me, just more complex, and less raw and edgy.

I love Hard Hearted Alice. I mean I totally dig this quiet, distant, sad, dreamy song. I love how it builds and builds into a giant center piece to establishing the concept of what it's really like to be the character/band Alice Cooper. When the song is being sweet and gentle it's the guys that have been battered and bruised still trying to be starry eyed. Then when it gets all heavy and crazy, it's the band on stage. The same band you can see in Good To See You Again Alice, go watch it. On any other album this song would have become a fan favourite I think.

Crazy Little Child is a show tune. This is some guy up on stage with a piano telling the story of being a mobster. You'd find this song in the musical Chicago, or Showboat, or what have you. I mean seriously, this song totally shows the original group's love of musicals.

Working Up A Sweat is one of the most fun songs on the album. While the content many may find childish and predictably about sex, lyrically it shows how lazy music has become. "Aw, When you touch there, honey / Makes my blood perspire / You got my body flaming / Like a California fire / Pulsing, pounding, pushing / No longer in control / Heatwave in my brain / Smolder in my soul / You got me workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / I've been playing all night long / Time I was gettin' home / But I've got no place to get / Spontaneous combustion / Scientific fact / But your approach to friction / An unnatural act / Bells I hear ain't fire drills / I hope you understand / It's a bona fide five alarmer / Melting in my hand / You got me workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / I've been playing all night long / Time I was gettin' home / But I've got no place to get / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / Yeah, yeah / I've been playing all night long / 'Bout time I was gettin' home / But I've, ooh / Dante's famed inferno / Was a trip to hell and back / But you and a bottle in a cheap hotel / Screams pyromaniac / Bandages came off today / Really feeling sick / The hardest part's explainin' / All those blisters on my - nose! / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / I've been playing all night long / Time I was gettin' home / But I've got no place to get / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / I've been playing all night long / 'Bout time I was gettin' home / But I've, ooh / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat / Workin' up a sweat". It says so much without ever really saying what it's really saying.

If you were to ask me to list some of the greatest guitar riffs of all time Muscle Of Love would end up in the top ten for sure. In fact this is the most underated and overlooked Alice Cooper song to ever be released. Even I have a bad habit of forgetting about it from time to time, just because of the albums I have it on. If this song had been on any other album released by the orginal group it would have been a major player, and would probably be a live standard now a days, instead it barely ever gets played. I think I've only seen it played live once. I seriously could not boast about this song enough musically. Lyrically, well that's another story. In fact the original demo for this was called No Respect For The Sleepers, and if those lyrics were attached to this music, it may have turned more heads for the right reasons.

The Man With The Golden Gun, while not being a James Bond song, was an honest attempt to become one. While in the theaters to see Live And Let Die, I believe they saw in the end credits that this would be the title of the next Bond movie, so they really tried to get the movie's title track. Sadly it didn't go to plan, because this is a great song that was much better than the one that ended up in the opening title sequence.

I have never liked Teenage Lament. Since I got my first copy of Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits, I have always found this song weak, thin, and really fucking whiney. I just could never relate to this song on any level. It's like they were trying to do a more grown up and sophisticated version of I'm Eighteen, but it just falls flat. I never understood how it made the Greatest Hits album, and after listening to this album I still don't get it. It's the worst track on this album as far as I'm concerned.

Woman Machine finsihes up the album. This really is a fun and sexy sounding song, that has a real sci-fi edge to it that would have been more brought to life if handled by Ezrin. The way this song was done it sounds like a generic track you'd find in the back ground of a movie instead being the title track that it could and should have been.

While it would never end up on one of my favourite albums list, it is still a really great collection of songs to listen to. Only one should be skipped if you ask me, and the rest are just so cool. Most people never ever seem to realize just how talented the original band was, even when a good part of the album, is in fact other musicians playing and writing as well. As I mentioned at the very start the lead guitarist was really sick at the time.

Bottom line, if you really love love Alice Cooper you really should own this album and enjoy it. If you are time era specific with your Alice this album may not be right for you. After all it is a little different than you'd be use to.

7/10 - content

7/10 - production

8/10 - personal bias