Remember the Coop

I see that a new Alice Cooper CD is coming out soon called "Along Came a Spider". Good old Alice, must be over 60 and still going at it. Now those of us who are old enough to have been around in Cooper's heyday (circa 1971-1973) know that, well, things just will never be the same, especially without the original Alice Cooper Group. One cannot underestimate just how cool the Alice Cooper Group was back then. Other bands may have had some theatrics, but Cooper took it to a whole new level. Like other supergroups Zeppelin, Stones, etc, Cooper put out a string of great albums starting with Love it to Death, Killer, Schools Out, and Billion Dollar Babies that cemented his legendary status. The live shows were over the top. It all went to his head, and once he decided that he didn't need the band and went "solo", it was all over (although, I must admit, "Welcome to my Nightmare", with Hunter and Wagner (of Lou Reed's "Rock and Roll Animal" fame) on lead guitars, wasn't all that bad). Michael Bruce wrote a lot of the great songs, and you had drunken Glenn Buxton playing that white three pickup Gibson Les Paul SG. They all had hair down to their ass. I suppose my favorite out of all the albums is Killer. Glenn's dead now, but Bruce, Dunaway and Smith are still around, however Alice repeatedly admits he will never regroup the band. Shame. There must be some bad blood there somewhere cause I think the other boys would do it (at least Bruce has said so) Rhino has just re-issued the first two CD's Pretties for You and Easy Action, both not as heavy but containing some good stuff nonetheless like "Return of the Spiders" and "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye". Will I buy the new album?? Probably not. I'll just go listen to Love it to Death again. Bodies.....Need.....Rest.