Customer Reviews

Live Alice Cooper Show

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This live album gets a lot of flack, but I have always liked it. There is debate over whether it was actually recorded live (or just recorded "live in the studio") and no dates or venues are listed as to where it was recorded. Although sources indicate it was recorded august 19 and 20, 1977 at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. (According to the Illustrated Collector's Guide to Alice Cooper by Dale Sherman). You can't ask Alice either-he was too drunk to remember. It doesn't really matter to me. This is a collection of some of Alice's best songs all done differently than they appear on their original albums. It has an isolated vacuum-packed sound, and many of the songs are done more softly, and with more piano than they originally appear (which may be part of why the album gets a bad rap). These versions should be familiar to anyone who has seen the Welcome To My Nightmare show-they aren't very different from those versions.

Highlights for me include the sprawling and jazzy version of EIGHTEEN (4:58), complete with alternate lyrics, thundering guitar, and jangling saloon piano. Guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter provide some ear splitting licks at the end of this song. ONLY WOMEN BLEED (5:47) sounds very good. The new band seems perhaps more comfortable with the material that they originated than the stuff from the original band.

I love the version of I NEVER CRY (2:51). It is rougher and without all the frills of the studio version, but no less sad and sweet. It has perhaps a bit of a country flavor, and Alice is in good voice.

BILLION DOLLAR BABIES (3:13) sounds great! It has a good hard edge and a booming baseline. Wagner and Hunter show off their guitar prowess yet again. I don't think Alice could do a bad version of this classic if he tried.

DEVIL'S FOOD/BLACK WIDOW (5:41) is much the same as the version on the Welcome To My Nightmare video, complete with Wagner and Hunter dueling guitars, and piped in Vincent Price monologue. Alice even botches the lyrics a bit, but who cares?

YOU AND ME (2:19) sounds excellent. The US#7 hit shows off Alice's superb crooning voice and his band's virtuosity.

The medley of I LOVE THE DEAD/GOES TO HELL/WISH YOU WERE HERE (6:31) is another highlight. You can almost visualize Alice acting out these songs where he is sentenced to Hell and given the guillotine-you even hear the thwack of the blade coming down!

If there is a weakness to the CD it is UNDER MY WHEELS (2:30) and SCHOOL'S OUT (2:19) which don't rock as hard as they may have with the original band. This may be because the new band, being comprised of polished studio veterans couldn't quite capture the garage band feel of the originals. They can't resist squeezing in an unnecessary riff or solo here and there-which I think is just about right for a live album.

This CD seems to be perhaps at its best when handling the softer more sentimental songs that Alice was becoming known for during this period. And therein lies the rub. If you are a fan that wants the hard grungy live sound of the Killer/Billion Dollar Babies period you'd probably do better to check out the deluxe Billion Dollar Babies CD with previously unreleased cuts from that period. This is from The Welcome To My Nightmare/Alice Cooper Goes To Hell/Lace and Whiskey period which yielded three hit ballads and several tunes with creepy atmosphere, and that period is well represented here. This isn't the original band-as magic as they were, it was over and this CD is a showcase for Alice's second band. And I think it kicks major butt.

People claim they dislike this CD, but when I play it I hear a lot of energy and power emanating from these songs. It always gets my blood pumping!

"THE ALICE COOPER SHOW"

REVIEW:

This may not be as classic as KISS' "Alive" or The Who's "Live At Leeds," but it is an entertaining live album nonetheless. Produced by Brian Christian and Bob Ezrin, "The Alice Cooper Show," which was recorded live at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, suffers mainly from being too short. Many songs compiled for this live release are actually shorter than there studio versions. Unfortuantely, there are far too many classic Cooper tunes that are NOT featured here; such as; "Ballad of Dwight Fry," "Elected," "Hello Hooray," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "Welcome To My Nightmare," among others. However, the album does boast some solid live renditions of "Under My Wheels," "Only Women Bleed," "Sick Things," "Is It My Body," and "School's Out".

MUSICIANS:

Dick Wagner ... Guitars/Vocals
Prakash John ... Bass/Vocals
Steve Hunter ... Guitars
Pentti (Whitey) Glan ... Drums
Fred Mandel ... Keyboards

INTERESTING FACTS:

1. Released in November of 1977, the album would peak on the Billboard Top 200 at #131.

2. The album was recorded during The King of the Silver Screen Tour which was a tour in support of his 1977 studio album, "Lace & Whiskey."

3. Alice, who was contractually obligated to deliver the studio a live album, has publicly expressed his displeasure with this release.

PACKAGING:

Nothing fancy. It features a very underwhelming cover and the booklet features only three live shots of Alice along with song credits, musician credits and the typical "NOTES" page that accompanies most Warner Bros. 1970s releases.

APPROX. RUNNING TIME:

Only a disappointing total of 38 minutes and 5 seconds.

FINAL ANALYSIS:

While it is far too short and not very representive of the true enery and gothic spectacle of his live shows, "The Alice Cooper Show" is an entertaining enough live album. I'd give it ***1/2 out of 5.

"The Alice Cooper Show" was recorded in 1977, two years into Vince Furnier's (Cooper's) solo career.
A lot of reviewers like to knock this album, and it's true that "The Alice Cooper Show" isn't everything that it could have been. The production is sorta flat with very little seperation of the instruments, and Alice's vocals aren't always particularly inspired.

But it would be wrong to call this a bad record, in fact it's a pretty good one.
Opening with the driving (!) rocker "Under My Wheels", it includes a fine "School's Out", a tough "Is It My Body", and a gritty, slow "I'm Eighteen".
Furnier also performs a really good "I Never Cry", and the equally sappy "You And Me" is nice as well ;o)
The band is good, too, and fans of early Alice Cooper should enjoy this flawed but ultimately enjoyable live album. It's not bad at all, actually, sort of like a good bootleg...

I saw this show, and this is the exact sound and show. This isn't some faked record, but a true in person affair. Some may feel this cd doesn't cut, but that's only because there aren't the great routines to see along with the music. Alice is an audio/visual event. True, it was Coop as Vegas showman during this period, but even that schtick he played to perfection. It's a fine cd.

I read on other reviews that this disc sounds live in studio. Trust me, it's live. That was my first AC concert and I was surprised at the soft mix and low volume in concert. Too bad that the other songs played in that show have been edited out, ie, King Of The Silver Screen, Lace And Whiskey and It's Hot Tonight.

I'M A GUITARIST OF 30 YEARS AND STILL ENJOY GRINDING THE OLD STRATOCASTOR,ESPECIALLY WHEN I REDISCOVERED THIS BATTLE ON STAGE. MAN THESE GUYS REALLY HAVE SOME FUN. IF YOU ARE A GUITAR PLAYER YOU'LL DEFINATELY UNDERSTAND MY EXCITEMENT FOR THIS LIVE DISPLAY OF ROCK N ROLL. I HAVE HEARD THESE SONGS DONE ON SO MANY DIFFERENT A.C. RECORDINGS BUT NEVER THIS AWESOME. TRUST ME , THIS IS A GUITAR PLAYERS DREAM............. D.MAPLE

As a avid lover of live albums, this album is 70's live albums in there prime. the alice cooper show is comaprable to the other live albums of the 70's like kiss alive and rush all the worlds a stage. If you are looking for clarity and polished sound this album is not for you but if you like live music this album should be in your collection.

Not near as good as his more recent 'Fistful Of Alice' live CD(see my review).The reason I'm giving this release a three-star rating is because I remember just how thrilled I was when it first came out.These days,you'd better be a major Alice Coooper fan,almost a nut to fully appreciate this reissue.'The Alice Cooper Show' was apparently recorded off his 1977 'Lace And Whiskey' tour.Overall,the live mix is okay,but it's sort of weak.At least that's what I thought.Tunes that were decent to experience all over again were the opener "Under My Wheels","Sick Things","Is It My Body","Billion Dollar Babies","Devil's Food","I Love The Dead" and "School's Out".There are three ballads here,"Only Women Bleed"(that's okay to still hear)and two that I'm SO glad he doesn't perform anymore."You And Me" and "I Never Cry".Yeah,I know.I've spoken to so many long time Cooper fans,that swear the first time they heard this song,THEY almost cried.

If you appreciate spectacular musicianship, this is the album for you. Hot, tight and searing performances from the same brilliant musicians who played on Rock N Roll Animal by Lou Reed. "The Alice Cooper Show" album was recorded live in 1977 at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, featuring Cooper's killer backing band: Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter on guitars (a worthy side note: Wagner and Hunter were recently honored by GIBSON.COM as #25 TOP 50 GUITAR SOLOS OF ALL TIME - Sept 2010); as well as the great Prakash John on bass, Whitey Glan on drums, Ray Colcord on keyboards. Lethal band. Also highly recommended: the same musicians playing live on Rock N Roll Animal, Lou Reed.

hay algo mejor que un concierto de alice? me hubiera gustado algo mas agresivo, pero para comprender los 70's es verdaderamente un testimonio agradable...recomendable para el que quiera olvidarse de sus sufrimientos

This might be one of the more unusual reviews you'll read. I don't have this CD, but a friend of mine let me borrow it because he was impressed by the guitar work. Well, it wasn't anything that great to me--not bad--but not something you would purchase the CD for. The sound quality, for one, isn't that good at all. What's especially annoying, though, is that half of these songs are, well, half of these songs!

I mean, the medley of I Love the Dead/Go to Hell/Wish You Were Here clocks in at 6:31, as opposed to playing all three songs in full, which would be about 15 minutes. Fine, lots of bands do medleys on live albums this way, but what about "I Never Cry" chopped down to under three minutes?

Or, even worse, "School's Out" missing a verse and chorus, bringing a 3:30 song to 2:19! "You and Me", a five minute song in its entirety, also 2:19.

Again, this is probably something you won't see in many reviews, but it's significant, because it makes it seem like he's just trying to rush through these songs and just get them overwith. It's like those K-Tel albums from the mid 70s where all the songs were edited into bite-size 2-minute bits.

The other problem is that the album as a whole is only about 40 minutes. Come on, even if you don't want to put a double live out there, you could at least release something that's 45-50 minutes and, even on vinyl, the sound quality would not really suffer. I think most fans would have preferred a double album, though. Who goes to a concert that's 40 minutes long? And how many classics are missing from this album, too?

This reeks of contractual obligation.