Description

American 2018 press on green with black swirl vinyl

For this fourth album as a solo artist, in 1978, Alice Cooper parted company with long time producer, Bob Ezrin, and co-wrote this album with Elton John’s co-writer, Bernie Taupin. New producer, David Foster, was an odd choice, and would go on to produce the likes of Celine Dion, Air Supply, Barbara Streisand and Andrea Bocelli. This team delivered a third album in a row of mixed results for Alice. After releasing ‘Lace & Whisky’, Cooper had been treated for alcoholism in a sanitarium. This provided the inspiration for the thematic version of hell for this outing. Instead of characters in the netherworld, or the nightmare of an alcoholic stupor, or even the tortured souls of a film noir private detective, we have the stories of patients in an asylum. Yet, to call it a personal, introspective record would be a mistake. It remains heavy on theatrics, humour and characters. This pseudo concept album’s songs are based around two themes, a very personal look at what Alice himself experienced (From The Inside, The Quiet Room, How You Gonna See Me Now) during his stay and many of the other inmates and staff (Nurse Rozetta, Billie and Millie, Jackknife Johnny) that were there during his time. One repeating theme present in the album is the duality of Alice Cooper. If I’m not Alice Cooper… Then who the hell am I? In Alice’s own words the character of Alice Cooper was essentially the Captain Hook to rock and roll Peter Pans like David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust, so the character on stage and on album was rude, self absorbed and just plain mean. Something Alice didn’t realize was that he didn’t need to be that 24/7 and to help keep that character up he drank. He drank a lot. So when trying to get sober he had to see himself, Vince Furnier, for the first time in about a decade without the Alice Cooper makeup nor the fog of alcohol blurring who he was. This is explored in the song “From The Inside,” the first song on the album. Conceptually Alice is first admitted to the asylum, where he frantically asks “Where’s my makeup? Where’s my face?” Alice is scared of being left alone with the real him and wants to hide behind the character and the booze. This is the first time he will try and separate the stage character and the off stage persons of Alice Cooper, which sadly won’t be successful until his comeback in 1986 after he finally gets sober. As the album goes on Alice, after a couple stays in the Quiet Room, seems to get over his anxiety on “From the Inside” but his thoughts then turn to his wife Sheryl, who he met when she was a dancer on his “Welcome to My Nightmare” tour. She met him during the height of his fame and had only known him as Alice Cooper, the evil Captain Hook playing with snakes and decapitating himself on stage. “How You Gonna See Me Now” is a very touching and vulnerable look into Alice’s very private thoughts, wondering not only how is he going to cope with his new sobriety and attempts at separating the two people inside of him, but how will Sheryl? Is she going to like a more tame Alice? This is by far Alice Coopers most personal album and by far his most underrated album.

Track list:
1. From The Inside
2. Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills
3. The Quiet Room
4. Nurse Rozetta
5. Millie And Billie
6. Serious
7. How You Gonna See Me Now
8. For Veronica’s Sake
9. Jacknife Johnny
10. Inmates (We’re All Crazy)