The Life & Crimes of Alice Cooper [BOX SET]

Alice Cooper

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 20, 1999)
• Original Release Date: April 20, 1999
• Number of Discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B00000IL67
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #37,387 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Don't Blow Your Mind

2. Hitch Hike

3. Why Don't You Love Me

4. Lay Down and Die, Goodbye [Original Version] - The Nazz

5. Nobody Likes Me [#][Demo Version]

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Hello, Hooray

2. Elected [Single Version]

3. Billion Dollar Babies

4. No More Mr. Nice Guy

5. I Love the Dead

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. It's Hot Tonight

2. You and Me [Single Version]

3. I Miss You - The Billion Dollar Babies

4. No Time for Tears [#]

5. Because - Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, Alice Cooper

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) [#][Demo Version]

2. He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) [Movie Mix][#]

3. Teenage Frankenstein

4. Freedom

5. Prince of Darkness

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This tribute has most of the right ingredients: fancy packaging, excellent liner notes by Sex Pistol John Lydon), and 84 tracks licensed from 21 albums spanning 1965 to 1998. The opening disc begins with four rare Yardbirds-influenced garage-band singles from the Spiders and the Nazz--the bands that geeky Vince Furnier and his pals Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, and Dennis Dunaway formed in Phoenix, Arizona. The band's subsequent L.A. years are chronicled via nine tracks from their first three albums. Suddenly, in the tracks from Killer such as "Under My Wheels" and "Dead Babies," the grandiose Cooper sound is there in all its mock macabre glory. The downside to this set is that the group's 1971-74 heyday gets short shrift. Surely there's a slew of unreleased outtakes and alternates from Killer, School's Out, and Billion Dollar Babies? By 1974's Muscle of Love, the creative juices had run dry. When he sacked his original band following that album's release, his fate was sealed. While his first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, has a number of high points, the band chemistry was missed. The last two discs chronicle his slide into self-referential hell. Connect-the-dots hard-rock workouts such as "Hey Stoopid" and "Feed My Frankenstein" couldn't hold the panties that came wrapped around the original School's Out record. A decently complete career survey--albeit one that's light on the classic period--this box is ideal for newcomers to the Cooper legacy or for those who want just a taste of shock rock in their collection. --Robert Baird

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice in the Box, September 16, 2004

By	Graboidz (Westminster, Maryland) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This is a must have for all Alice Cooper fans. "Life and Crimes" is a four disk set that, in chronological order, showcases the genius that is Alice Cooper. You get quite a bit of the original Alice Cooper band's material from their 7 records together. I have seen other reviewers state that not enough disk space is given to the original band's material, but 2 of the four disks in the set are basically devoted to the Alice Cooper band years. You get all of the hits, "Eighteen", "School's Out", "Billion Dollar Babies" etc. but what I loved about this box set, is that for the first time I was able to hear the songs like "Don't Blow Your Mind" and "Hitch Hike", songs released when the band called themselves The Spiders. You get to hear how Alice and crew took a song called "Respect for the Sleepers" and re-tooled it into "Muscle of Love". You get a demo track "Call it Evil" that is lousy in production value, but as a fan, you can enjoy just the raw sound of the band at work. Alice's old bandmates even get a track "I Miss You" from thier Battle Axe album when they performed as The Billion Dollar Babies. There are so many unreleased and forgotten gems on disk 2 & 3, it's almost like discovering a new Alice Cooper album. You get Alice's great cover of the Beatles "Because" from the "Sgt. Peppers" movie he did with the Bee Gees. There are two songs from a Flash Gordon rock-opera that Alice performed, "I'm Flash" and "Space Pirates". A nice surprise are two songs from the fantastically awful horror movie "Monster Dog" Alice starred in, "Identity Crisis" and "See Me in the Mirror". Also in this set is the song that made it onto the Special Forces LP jacket, but not onto the record, "Look at You Over There (Ripping the Sawdust from my Teddy Bear". There is a great version of "Road Rats" from the "Roadie" soundtrack that sounds so much better than the Lace and Whiskey version, as well as a cleaned up version of "I Am the Future". And ending disk 3 you get "Hard Rock Summer" from the Friday the 13th soundtrack, that is just a great hair metal jam. On disk 4 there is a demo version of "He's Back" that was re-worked into "Trick Bag" off of Contrictor, plus the movie version of "He's Back" from the Friday the 13th soundtrack. Disk 4 also features quite a few songs that were attached to live albums or best-of's, "Is Anyone Home" and Alice's version of "Fire".
If you go beyond the music, this box set has a great, informative booklet, with forward by Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, and liner notes from Alice and bandmates about each of the songs. There are tributes to Alice from everyone from Dick Clark to Rob Zombie. As an Alice Cooper fan, this box set was just a great treat. If you are a fan of any of the Coop's music, pick this up! Hopefully, now that Alice has released 3 more studio albums since this box came out, he will have enough extra material to produce another box-set in the near future. Possibly with a song or two where he reunites with the surviving members of the original line-up?? We can only hope.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The absolute best Alice compilation ever!, November 4, 1999

By	Clayton D. Blakey ([e-mail]) (United States) - See all my reviews

I have been an Alice fan since the early 70's and have anticipated the arrival of this set since it was first mentioned in the mid 80's.

Listening to all the songs on the discs brought back many memories of my youth and the AC concerts I attended. Every song came back to me as if I were rocking out to them yesterday (I may have been!)

These are timeless classics and besides being the master showman, Alice is the master lyricist. Having been involved in writing lyrics to every song on his 20 some albums is a great accomplishment in itself. The boxed set includes 80 songs and he could easily produce Life and Crimes part II with others from his vast repertoire.

It is a truly great set. If I had to pinpoint any problem problem with it it would be that it did not include more from his former bands' album [Billiion Dollar Babies Battle Axe] or some Michael Bruce solo tunes.

Alice is the living legend and this is one box set all fans of rock and roll should have. Even if you are not a fan... you will definately be one after listening to this great set.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So far this one's the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, September 6, 1999

By A Customer

Finally, Alice releases a boxed set that he was planning to release years ago. Worth the wait I always say! He's my all time favourite and I was his biggest fan in highschool. I'm also seeing him in concert at the Orpheum theatre, and I know it'll be alot of fun! The set contains 4 CD's! The first one opens up with "Don't Blow Your Mind" that he wrote in the late 60's with his band the Spiders! Sounds alot like a cross between the Stones and The Beatles. Then he formed a group called the Nazz and there's a track called "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye(Original Version)", to which he later released on his 1970 album "Easy Action", the song was remastered to mostly an instrumental track. There's alot of unreleased material on this one which makes this box set really special. I really like a track on here called "Nobody Likes Me" which was released a year before he got signed up to a record company. I also like "No Tricks"(with Betty Wright). There's alot of tracks on here that was used on motion pictures. My favourites are "See Me In the Mirror" and "Identity Crisis" both from his first lead starring direct to video motion picture "Monster Dog", both songs never released until now! I also like "Hard Rock Summer" and the motion picture version of "(He's Back) The Man Behind the Mask",both from "Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives." "Under My Wheels"(with 3 of the Guns N' Roses members) is a masterpiece from the documentary "Decline of the Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years." "I Got A Line On You" from "Iron Eagle 2" is a great stompin' rocker! There's a track on here that was just released on this set called "Hands of Death"(featuring additional vocals and instruments by Rob Zombie) a real killer track that introduces the Coop to the dark grunge world!!!The box set also features a booklet that shows pictures of him in concert and meeting others stars and in the studio, plus many more photos and the story of him and his history of albums, movies, and his gory stage shows. One of the pictures feature him and his band the Spiders, where they all look clean cut with short hair. An early Beatles type look! I hope that he still makes studio albums and keeps on rocking no matter how old he is! Long live the Coop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!