675. Alice Cooper / Pretties For You. 1969. 2.5/5

The road leading up to the Alice Cooper Band coming together, and then releasing their debut album, is one of many varied paths and distinct differences in the way each member got there. Vincent Furnier, who would eventually come to take on the moniker of Alice Cooper as his own, guitarist Glen Buxton and bass guitarist Dennis Dunaway, came together in high school as a part of the cross-country running team, forming an act for an end of session show. Dressed to resemble the Beatles, and performing parodies of their songs, they won the contest, and this convinced them to start a band for real. The problem was, Buxton was the only one who really knew how to play, so they bought instruments from the local pawn shop and he proceeded to teach them. This first group, the Spiders, played around for two years, at which time they graduated from high school, having also recorded their first single “Why Don’t You Love Me”. The band’s other guitarist was then replaced by Michael Bruce who had been a football player for a rival high school, and a second single, “Don’t Blow Your Mind” was released in 1966. While making regular trips to other cities to play gigs, the band changed their name to Nazz, recruited Neal Smith as their new drummer, relocated to Los Angeles, and released a third single.
By 1968, they discovered that the name Nazz was being used by Todd Rundgren, and along with believing that they needed a gimmick to increase the power and marketability of their music, they decided they needed another change. An urban legend suggested that the name the band came up with to change to, Alice Cooper, had come via a seance with a Ouija board. Furnier many years later in an interview suggested this was false. Instead, he said, "What if we sounded like we were somebody's aunt?" It was kind of like the all-American, sweet little old lady name. And I wasn't Alice Cooper. I was just the singer in the band Alice Cooper, like Manfred Mann. Pretty soon everybody called me Alice, they just assumed that the singer's name was Alice. So, at that point, I legally changed my name to Alice Cooper. It was a total outrage at the time. Now it's a household name".
After a gig in 1968 where most of the audience had left after hearing the band play just ten minutes, they were approached by music manager Shep Gordon, who felt they could turn that promotion into a positive. The band auditioned for Frank Zappa, turning up at 7am rather than the 7pm Zappa had actually organised. This actually impressed him enough to sign the band to a three album deal. And thus became the start of the Alice Cooper Band, and their debut studio album, “Pretties for You”

This is where it all began for the Alice Cooper Band, and it is mostly unrecognisable from the material that made them famous, and from what the namesake lead singer went onto in his solo career. It is an interesting step back in time to listen to, hearing the kind of music that was prominent when the Alice Cooper Band started back in 1968, to the material that has been published through the various decades that followed.
This is a very psychedelic album, much as was the style in the late 1960's. Most of the album is very much influenced by the differing styles of the age. In places, and on some tracks, the music is almost Beatles-esque from that era, especially from the sound they were putting out with “Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”, the experimenting that was going on in both music and sideline habits, but it is also reminiscent of that era's Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa and other 'flower power' artists. On almost every level, it is a real effort to get through this album in a normal setting. Unless you are a big fan of the style and genre of music that this is composed in, then It just isn't the kind of album you will put on for enjoyment value to listen to. Now, perhaps if you dropped a couple of tabs of acid beforehand, you just may get a great deal more out of it! In general, with this kind of psychedelic mish-mash, it would have to be the norm.
When listening to the album, there is some information that you need to know upfront before you diss it or dismiss it. In an interview in latter years, the band's manager at the time Shep Gordon has stated that the album actually contains mostly what was recorded in one long rehearsal session. Zappa had left his brother in charge of recording, was then told later that afternoon that the album was done, and Zappa himself never listened to the end product. The only track on the album not a part of that session was a live recording of the song “Levity Ball”. Gordon suggests the band had no full songs written, and that what is put down on this album is what was done on the spot in many instances. With that knowledge in mind, it does make what you hear when you listen to the album can be taken with a different perspective. There is so much going on in all of the songs, and it doesn't always feel as though there is any rhyme or reason to what is being played. In some songs, such as "Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio" it feels like they are just doing a Spinal Tap free form jazz experimentation. It sounds just like a rehearsal room jam session which they ended up liking and putting on the album. Drums, guitars, bass, even the harmonica, all seem to be coming in and out as the musician pleases. That's not to say it's bad, but you really need to be in the right frame of mind to listen to it. And with the information in that interview, you can know relate exactly to that.

Much of the experience of the Alice Cooper Band, especially in these early days, was the stage show, and the antics that occurred during live performances. As a result this first studio album doesn't really convey to the listener what they would have been missing visually, and in this respect it would be easy to just write this off and dismiss it. But to do so would be hasty. Given an ability and desire to sit back and listen to the album a few times, you can find plenty to appreciate here. Once you are acquainted with the methodology of the structure of the album, it becomes easier to relate to, easier to accept the meshing of instruments in a random kind of noise, easier to come to terms with the fact that Alice sounds a little spookily like John Lennon in places (“10 Minutes Before the Worm” in particular), and easier to find where all of this develops from this starting point into what soon became a band that took hard rock by storm, with songs like "BB on Mars" and "Reflected" especially sounding this way. "Reflected" was eventually reworked and became recorded as "Elected' a few years later, so the roots of what the band became are certainly present here.
I discovered Alice Cooper in the mid-1980's, and eventually went back to the original albums of the Alice Cooper Band, all of which are far different from the modern version of the solo artist. And this album was more so than the others. It’s another planet, another universe. Nothing about this album really corresponds with anything you would know after this. But I persisted with it initially, because I love Alice and I admire the original band. And it is still weird. Even this past week or so reliving it for this podcast episode, it has been a battle. I still get snatches that I enjoy, and I can appreciate it for what it is in the time it is from. But I just am never going to reach for it when I have the urge to listen to an album fro this band. There are so many many better albums than this one.
For those who are familiar with Alice Cooper's later work, listening to this for the first time would be like hopping into a different dimension. And though you may never come to really like this album, it is certainly worth listening to it if for no other reason than to see what progression was made through the years by this most enduring artist. It’s a trip, in many senses of the word.