During the US tour that followed to promote the “Lace and Whiskey” album, it became clear that Alice was becoming consumed in his alcoholism, and that something needed to be done in order to rectify the situation. At its peak, it is rumoured that Alice would drink two cases of beer and a bottle of whiskey every day, something that was not sustainable to healthy living. Once the tour was completed, Alice himself decided something had to be done, and he had himself hospitalised at a sanatorium for treatment. This was not a rehab centre, it was an actual hospital where people with severe mental illness were treated, which gives you an indication of how serious Alice felt about his problem. It was during this time that his record label released the live album “The Alice Cooper Show” to keep the fans happy during his time out of action.
Once he had sobered up and was released from his place of improvement, Alice decided to use his experience in the hospital as the inspiration for his next album. Creating characters from people he had observed during his time in the sanitarium, Alice began to piece together a story based on his time away which would become the concept for his next album, titled “From the Inside”, an album that was to be the beginning of the next phase of Alice’s career.
When it came to creating and writing his new album, Alice tracked down a friend who had experience in writing and creating wonderful and inspiring songs and albums. That person was Bernie Taupin, best known as the lyricist for Elton John. Alic said in an article for Ultimate Classic Rock in November 2018:
“Bernie was my best friend before I went into the hospital, so when I came out I said, ‘Bernie, I’ve got a wealth of material. We have to sit down and write this. It was sort of like dueling with each other. And we’d always try to leave the other guy with one unrhymable last word, you know? So Bernie and I would sit there and I’d tell him about characters like Jackknife Johnny, a Vietnam vet and I’d say, ‘Ok, here’s the story – he married a girl, he came home, everybody rejected him and then on top of it they rejected him because he brought home a Vietnamese girl,’ and so it just started right there. And pretty soon we’d written a whole album like that.”
Alice Cooper is one of the masters of writing albums with entire concepts locked into the songs. His track record in this respective is almost unparalleled. And while some people love the story aspect of his music, others find it a hinderance. What they want is great songs, ones they can sing out loud and move around to. That probably isn’t the end game here on “From the Inside”. Because yes, Alice does deal with the characters he has come to know, and while he doesn’t preach or push a message on this album, the whole concept is one that is one that is taken seriously – indeed, more seriously than you would expect from an Alice Cooper album. While there is an element of tongue in cheek here on some of the material, a lot of it is brought to the album as a much more serious concept. And look, perhaps it is only me, but there is a lot of Elton John in the song “Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills”. I mean you can almost hear Elton singing it. And the obvious connection between he and Bernie Taupin may well be the only reason I hear it, but it is there all the same.
So the quiet introspection of songs such as “The Quiet Room” and the ballad “How You Gonna See Me Now” are from this part of Alice Cooper that had found its way into his music, the ballad that was then released as a single in order to gain radio airplay. Then there are the songs that are basically on the characters in this play that Alice and Bernie have created, such as “Nurse Rozetta” and “Millie and Billie” and “Jackknife Johnny”, that really flesh out the story that is based on Alice’s real life experiences.
So, about the music. OK, it's not as cutting edge as some of his previous work. In some ways it is some of his more mainstream stuff. There are elements of funk being interwoven into some tracks, the synth and keys adding in another dimension as well. For the first time, there are a lot of guest musicians coming in and being a part of the recording, instrumentally as well as being a part of the songwriting process. And the album feels a lot less lighter than his usual hard rock shock rock genre. Whether that was the feel he was looking for, or was the natural influence of co-writer Taupin, who can tell. Overall though, the songs don't have quite the hard feel of his best work from the 1970's. The songs skip along well, and their stories are still interesting, and the music still finds a way to essentially be Alice.
Alice Cooper has released an incredible number of albums, so many so that it would be impractical if you loved every single one of them. And there are also several different eras of Alice’s music, which all makes for an interesting time if you ever try to listen to all of his albums in chronological order.
Having discovered Alice Cooper through both his original albums and his late 1980’s albums at around the same time, I always felt I had had a well rounded classroom of his music, so when it came to the time that I began tracking down the albums of his that I didn’t know, which essentially was the albums after “Welcome to My Nightmare” and before “Constrictor”, I felt I was in a good headspace to appreciate them for what they were. Well... that did prove to be a challenge...
“From the Inside” was no different to the other albums of that era from 1976 through to 1983. When I first got the album and listened to it... it just felt like there was something missing. Something that these other Alice albums had that this (and these) didn’t. And in the long run it was simply that the attitude in the music probably wasn’t there like I had expected or wanted it to be. And let’s face it, it had some tough albums to live up to. “Welcome to My Nightmare”, “Billion Dollar Babies” and the like. So my initial reactions were non-plussed. I certainly didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t sure I loved it either. The range in the genre map of the songs for me was a bit too varied, and I just wasn’t endeared to the whole album. This album had two points in time where I gave it a fair hearing, before it found its way back onto the shelves.
Come to the present day, and having dived in once again for this podcast episode, I don’t think much has changed. When I have had it on at work or in the car, the odd song catches my attention, and then the album returns to a type of monotony. On the other hand, when I went home and sat in the Metal Cavern, and played it on my stereo and just let it and the story wash over me, I found it far more enjoyable. Not to the point of those great Alice Cooper album, but I enjoyed the layout of the album much more when I was really listening to it from start to finish, and not just tuning in for individual songs. And there are many Alie albums that I must say I find exactly the same – not renown for individual tracks, but if you take the time to have the album envelop you without distraction, the true feeling of the album comes to the party. For me, it isn’t one of his greats, but it isn’t without its charms either, and it certainly isn’t the worst album you’ll hear today.
“Bernie was my best friend before I went into the hospital, so when I came out I said, ‘Bernie, I’ve got a wealth of material. We have to sit down and write this. It was sort of like dueling with each other. And we’d always try to leave the other guy with one unrhymable last word, you know? So Bernie and I would sit there and I’d tell him about characters like Jackknife Johnny, a Vietnam vet and I’d say, ‘Ok, here’s the story – he married a girl, he came home, everybody rejected him and then on top of it they rejected him because he brought home a Vietnamese girl,’ and so it just started right there. And pretty soon we’d written a whole album like that.”
Alice Cooper is one of the masters of writing albums with entire concepts locked into the songs. His track record in this respective is almost unparalleled. And while some people love the story aspect of his music, others find it a hinderance. What they want is great songs, ones they can sing out loud and move around to. That probably isn’t the end game here on “From the Inside”. Because yes, Alice does deal with the characters he has come to know, and while he doesn’t preach or push a message on this album, the whole concept is one that is one that is taken seriously – indeed, more seriously than you would expect from an Alice Cooper album. While there is an element of tongue in cheek here on some of the material, a lot of it is brought to the album as a much more serious concept. And look, perhaps it is only me, but there is a lot of Elton John in the song “Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills”. I mean you can almost hear Elton singing it. And the obvious connection between he and Bernie Taupin may well be the only reason I hear it, but it is there all the same.
So the quiet introspection of songs such as “The Quiet Room” and the ballad “How You Gonna See Me Now” are from this part of Alice Cooper that had found its way into his music, the ballad that was then released as a single in order to gain radio airplay. Then there are the songs that are basically on the characters in this play that Alice and Bernie have created, such as “Nurse Rozetta” and “Millie and Billie” and “Jackknife Johnny”, that really flesh out the story that is based on Alice’s real life experiences.
So, about the music. OK, it's not as cutting edge as some of his previous work. In some ways it is some of his more mainstream stuff. There are elements of funk being interwoven into some tracks, the synth and keys adding in another dimension as well. For the first time, there are a lot of guest musicians coming in and being a part of the recording, instrumentally as well as being a part of the songwriting process. And the album feels a lot less lighter than his usual hard rock shock rock genre. Whether that was the feel he was looking for, or was the natural influence of co-writer Taupin, who can tell. Overall though, the songs don't have quite the hard feel of his best work from the 1970's. The songs skip along well, and their stories are still interesting, and the music still finds a way to essentially be Alice.
Alice Cooper has released an incredible number of albums, so many so that it would be impractical if you loved every single one of them. And there are also several different eras of Alice’s music, which all makes for an interesting time if you ever try to listen to all of his albums in chronological order.
Having discovered Alice Cooper through both his original albums and his late 1980’s albums at around the same time, I always felt I had had a well rounded classroom of his music, so when it came to the time that I began tracking down the albums of his that I didn’t know, which essentially was the albums after “Welcome to My Nightmare” and before “Constrictor”, I felt I was in a good headspace to appreciate them for what they were. Well... that did prove to be a challenge...
“From the Inside” was no different to the other albums of that era from 1976 through to 1983. When I first got the album and listened to it... it just felt like there was something missing. Something that these other Alice albums had that this (and these) didn’t. And in the long run it was simply that the attitude in the music probably wasn’t there like I had expected or wanted it to be. And let’s face it, it had some tough albums to live up to. “Welcome to My Nightmare”, “Billion Dollar Babies” and the like. So my initial reactions were non-plussed. I certainly didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t sure I loved it either. The range in the genre map of the songs for me was a bit too varied, and I just wasn’t endeared to the whole album. This album had two points in time where I gave it a fair hearing, before it found its way back onto the shelves.
Come to the present day, and having dived in once again for this podcast episode, I don’t think much has changed. When I have had it on at work or in the car, the odd song catches my attention, and then the album returns to a type of monotony. On the other hand, when I went home and sat in the Metal Cavern, and played it on my stereo and just let it and the story wash over me, I found it far more enjoyable. Not to the point of those great Alice Cooper album, but I enjoyed the layout of the album much more when I was really listening to it from start to finish, and not just tuning in for individual songs. And there are many Alie albums that I must say I find exactly the same – not renown for individual tracks, but if you take the time to have the album envelop you without distraction, the true feeling of the album comes to the party. For me, it isn’t one of his greats, but it isn’t without its charms either, and it certainly isn’t the worst album you’ll hear today.
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