Customer Reviews

Pretties for You

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First off, I am not a Cooper completist. "Trash" is just what it says it is. "Love is a loaded gun" is a loaded pile of MTV poserism. The earliest release by the band is, hard enough to believe , some of the STRONGEST material, in a musical context. This is the only truly experimental, progressive phase of the band before becoming a heavy metal spectacle. Being a fan of the psychelelic and prog genres, I know a good one when I hear it.

Here is the story. AC were a struggling band. Flat broke getting by only from stiffing every motel in Detroit. On to LA, things were no better. Frank Zappa met up with AC at a party where it was learned Mr. Z. had started his own record label , Bizarre/Straight. AC wanted to record an album.
When Frank witnessed the band on stage, he noticed that each time they played, they would send the audience away in a fit. To the point of a ghosttown. The stage show at this time was so
offensive and disgusting it made the later AC stage extravaganza seem mild. No big budget theatrics, instead the likes of a transvestite crying "nobody likes me" and then having a temper tantrum like a 2 year old, lying on his back repeating 4 letter f- words until every single audience member had enough. Zappa saw SOMETHING, we can only imagine what, in this.
Zappa offered them a tryout for a record deal, and to his surprise one morning, they snuck into his basement studio and began playing-- loud. A naked, alarmed Zappa rushed out of bed and gave them the deal on the account THEY STOPPED PLAYING RIGHT THEN!
The budget was microscopic and the scheduling was rushed. The band DID NOT have any say in the production. Ya'll can blame
Zappa for the lackluster sound.
One of the things Zappa found interesting was that he realized he would have a challenge trying to transcribe much of their music on paper. It was full of odd time signatures, on a dime changes, sputters, and things that gave it charachter. It is the perfect example of something that sounds like junk until your band tries to play it. It takes some skill to keep it all together. Trust me on this. It is a lot harder than it may seem. None of this music is orchestrated in notation, moreover none of it was developed over time in a studio and none of it was played with real enthusiasm to a crowd on stage. It is literaly taking green amateurs and giving them a couple of hours in a studio and thats that.
Aside from the multitude of musical detail on this album, admittingly hard to notice at first due to the rushed pace of recording (sloppiness)and the lack of studio polish (live in studio, few overdubs), there is some great songwriting. A lot of the ideas are quite off the wall, but there is a definate mixing of emotions within the songs, typical of a lot of the psych music. It is SUPOSSED to be that way! NOT a result of bad songwriting. This was recorded at a time when in LA about the hardest thing around was Spirit or Amboy Dukes. Maybe the likes of Zeppelin coming through on the radio. Or Cream. That's about it.

Pretties is just oozing with that lovely "am I happy or sad?" , manic-depressive, so-on-dope- I'm confused mixed up emotional ambiguity. It's about putting some feeling in music rather than just playing what sounds "acceptable" to a beat. It is a testament to how records were sometimes made back then. Totally honest. This is what they were all about. Not a money making,
picture posing machine they later became.
They take risks. Neal Smith never again assaulted his drums like this. Those twin gibsons are never again given so much freedom. And those vocal harmonies are great! Alice REALLY sings in his REAL voice. It's like a pop album gone bad in some places. A times it sounds like Revolver era Beatles on bad acid! None of that nasal whining. But not all of this album is atonal disonant weirdness. There are a few beautiful songs too. Apple Bush with the help of George Martin could have been home on Sgt. Pepper. Reflected is actually better than the rehashed Elected. And Living is such a toe tapper. It sounds like the Beatles. It does. A fantastic song, a hundred times better than I'm 18. And I really like No Longer Umpire and BB on Mars (great titles by the way), these are go happy and almost giddy sounding, but yet disturbing. A technique AC would touch on later in songs like Dead Babies or I love the Dead, only this is much stranger. Twisted! Brilliant! Levity Ball souds like a live recording with a hand held tape recorder that was in a toilet down the hall-- terrible sound. Not a very good song, I'm afraid, either.
Yes it took me a while to warm up to this album, but after a some time I have realized its brilliance. It is probably my
favorite AC album.
This is one of the most underappreciated classic albums from the US underground scene. We can't always have sparkling production, motivated producers, or even seasoned musicians when making an album. It is the substance and the effort that makes it. Not to be judged comparably to say, Killer, but rather as some great material that was unlike anything else at the time, in true garage rock fashion. Stay away if you must have that studio polish or if some timing issues ruin your day. If you appreciate the avant-garde or late 60's experimentalism, this one is a must.

By the way, AC were not into drugs. They only drank alot. And the cover of the album was taken from an original painting Zappa had hanging in his living room. Also, there are no Cooperisms on here , no "sick things" such as necrophilia, mental illness, etc. so if you are in love with Alice the persona, get a scrapbook and enjoy the wallet size cut out pics from your original LP press of BDB (great album packaging by the way), this has nothing to do with black leather. Alice has blond hair and is in a green mini dress in the back cover photo.

Take a pinch of Alice Cooper, stir in a big helping of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, and add just a touch of Gentle Giant and you kind of get "Pretties For You". Only the late 60's could have produced this music. I found both "Pretties For You" and "Easy Action" back in the late 80's on CD, reissued by the Retro label, and I guess those are the disks being offered here used. The production on "Pretties" is okay, but some of the songs sound as if they were recorded in a steel tank. Sometimes that actually helps the feel of the cd though, you know you are hearing the band in it's raw form. It's obvious there is quite a lot of talent in the band at this stage, but there isn't much focus. It's also kind of cool to hear bits and pieces of songs on "Pretties" that will turn up again on later recordings, the most obvious being "Reflected" later becoming "Elected" on Billion Dollar Babies. If you are a die-hard fan of Alice Cooper than I highly recommend "Pretties For You", or if you like Zappa or Beefheart and haven't heard this disk pick it up. But if you are a casual fan, stick with the Warner Brothers releases.

First of all, what's my uncle Bob doing on the album cover? haha, it looks JUST like him!

Anyway, Pretties for You is an extremely underrated album because I went in expecting nothing but total noise, or hit and miss songwriting- instead it's completely wonderful from start to finish. Not only that, but it's melodic the entire way, and quite diverse. Sure, it's different from the rest of Cooper's future albums, but that's NOT a bad thing (as much as I love the rest of his 70's career).

"10 Minutes Before the Worm" sounds like psychedelic Pink Floyd (the early years) and that's a GREAT thing in my book, because that means a wonderful vocal melody. "Swing Low Sweet Cheerio" has really good guitar jamming and harmonica playing that reminds me of Country Joe and the Fish quite a bit. The other long song on the album, "Fields of Regret" has a similar vibe, but a bit heavier during the guitar jam.

"Today Mueller" reminds me of the progressive rock band Gong and the opening two tracks from the You album. Also sounds a bit like the indie rock band Of Montreal as far as whacky songwriting goes. I guess this is where the Zappa connection really reveals itself.

"Living" sounds just like the Beatles or the Byrds. It's AWESOME! Ok, "No Longer Umpire" sounds a little like filler, but it's so short and melodic enough that it really doesn't matter. The vocals on this one are a little rough to listen to.

"Levity Ball" is just very very odd. The songwriting is a tad weak here, thanks to a predictable vocal melody and bizarre instrumental jam in the middle of the tune, but I find myself loving it anyway. The vocal melody reminds me of early Who for some reason. "B.B. on Mars" has more psychedelic vocals that I instantly fall in love with. Psychedelic music is just a perfect way to write a good vocal melody. I guess I was born to like that kind of music.

"Reflected" doesn't sound like "Elected" a whole lot to me. This version is really dated sounding but in a GOOD way, because the late 60's had great vocal melodies, and this is no exception. "Apple Bush" is a really good power pop song, that reminds me of the mid 60's period of the Beatles. Actually it reminds me more of the Hollies thanks to Alice Cooper's vocals which resemble the Hollies a LOT.

"Earwigs to Eternity" has another great vocal melody. Man, this album is LOADED with those! Not particularly fond of the closing song, "Changing Arranging", but it's good enough I suppose.

Overall, people shouldn't be afriad to give this album a chance- it's just as good, or even better, than classic mid 70's Alice Cooper.

Not that I blame the Alice Cooper Group for the sound on this album. But it is indicative of the 60's. Too much reverb on things that should sound closer.. Well, to avoid technobabble, it sounds awful, but the musical genius is there. Now, remember when listening to this album, the guys had NO time to prepare their material for studio recording. They just went in. This is RAW Alice Cooper Group, not polished, not tarnished, right out of the womb. Despite the technical recording flaws of this album, the music is created in so many different veins it's disgusting. The band even throws in some ethnic sounds into a psychadelic rock. This album is often overlooked, and dismissed as garbage, without a musician's viewpoint. A conossieur of music will tell you that the intricacies of this album have never been heard since then. Not from ANY so called Rock Star of these days. It is my recommendation that anyone who wants to know the REAL Alice Cooper Group, buy this album. This is what they were all about. 'Nuff Said.

On the first listen this record spoke to me. It was also a life saver thru high school. Like my short attention span it was all over the place. I loved/confused words with their sound and meanings. It fit with my ambiguity about everything. A listen again takes me right back. .

The debut of the original Alice Cooper Band. Today everyone thinks of Alice as the man, but from 1969 through the mid-70's The Alice Cooper band was just that a band with Alice as their frontman. Consisting of Alice on vocals, Dennis Dunaway on bass, Glen Buxton on guitar, and Mike Bruce on Guitar and keys, the Alice Cooper band began their career in Arizona, but it was when they moved to Detroit that things really started to take off for them. At the time of this album the band were protégés of Frank Zappa and signed to his label. The music is very different from latter day Cooper. A little psychedellia, a bit of metal, a bit of garage rock, and like most other bands of their day a Beatles influence. Some of the songs on this album remind me of early Pink Floyd. Highlights include the 6 minute plus "Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio" with it's instrumental workout. "Fields Of Regret that sounds almost something like the Doors might do. "Levity Ball" which would be the first of many Alice Cooper songs with the subject of cross dressing as its main subject. "Reflected" would eventually resurface with different lyrics as "Elected". The version I have is the re-mastered re-issue from 1989, but the sound is still very spotty. The album was not recorded very well. Overall this is not essential Alice Cooper, but gives a good look at the band's early potential.

No need to get long-winded and describe this album-it is one of the Greatest albums of all-time. This album helped me get through High School.

This is nothing like Alice Cooper's early-70s hit albums. This is a slice of weirdness from their late 60s "underground" period. Some of the tracks are lovably bizarre: "Earwigs To Eternity" and "BB on Mars" are good examples, but the real reason to get this are two bona fide garage rock classics: "Living" and "Changing Arranging". These are rollicking fuzzed-out nuggets of garage psychedelia at its best.

Alice Cooper's first album "Pretties for You" was produced by Frank Zappa , and it shows ... This is one of the rawest , weirdest , most amazing recording ever , a true tribute to the wild Los Angeles rock scene of the late 60's , and a total trip ... This the bands' live set recorded in the studio by Zappa cheering them on to be themselves ... Although it is far from being polished , this album has some real gems , such as "Fields of Regrets" , one of the heaviest song ever recorded , heavier than Sabbath or any other band's sound at that time ( 1968 ) ... Check out also " Titanic Overture " , which is like ( the 1941 movie )Casablanca's opening theme on acid ... The whole album is either a mess or a masterpiece , depending on if you "get it" or not , but one thing is for sure , it is one of the most "in your face" albums ever , one of the greatest psychedelic album , and an important album that documents the beginnings of one of the most influencial rock band in the history of rock... Essential !

to me the sound on this album very much resembles the sound that will latter be focused and solidified by Bob ezrin starting with 1971's Love it to death. It is true that the sound here is much more psycodelic then the origional bands famous sound, and it's not as hard. but the Alice attitude and potential is here. I would venture to say that this record is closer in sound to the latter albums of the origional group then Easy action is. The one down fall of this album that they corrected on Easy Action is the fact that many of the tracks here are underdeveloped. there are many 1 to 2 min ideas here but for the most part the songs here are underdeveloped masterpieces. I think Ezrin saw that.

when ezrin set his mind to making these guys into a force to be recond with I think he took the sound from this album, made it up to date withthe early seventies hard rock, but kept the feel and added in the more matured writing style of Easy Action. This album in my opinion is much more the Alice Cooper band we all know and love then people give is credit for.

and the sound on this remastered CD release isn't all that bad. I was very happy with this album and would suggest it to anyone who loves the origional group and the first couple solo albums, if you are more of a fan of the 80's and 90's alice including trash, dragontown and the recent eyes of then you may not care for it. but then again you wouldn't care for much of the origional stuff anyway.