It was three years between the release of DaDa and his following album, which became Constrictor. He had done some acting, and wrote a couple of songs for such shows, and appeared on the Twisted Sister track “Be Chruel to Your Scuel”. In 1985 he met up with guitarist composer Kane Roberts and began to write material together, which eventually became the basis of the Constrictor” album. Roberts’ guitaring was a much heavier version of what had come on Alice’s last few albums, and it was this that brought Alice Cooper back into prominence and focus. With the onset of heavy metal and the influence of the genre coming to the fore, Kane Roberts guitaring set the tone for the album and the ability for the music to grab the attention of the teenagers of the world. Along with the addition of David Rosenberg on drums, and a young Kip Winger on bass and backing vocals, Alice Cooper was ready to announce his return to the music scene in a big way.
The great thing about this album is that it is lively, it is up-tempo, it is fun. It’s gets you up and it gets you moving. All albums have a different mood and energy about them and this one mixes the best of Alice’s faux horror themes with his usual great story telling. The album is book-ended by the first kind of songs, with “Teenage Frankenstein” and “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)”. “He’s Back” was written for the soundtrack of ”Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives” as the main lead in song, and “Teenage Frankenstein” also appeared in the film. Both are atypical Alice songs of his second great era. Tongue is firmly planted in cheek, great lyrics and both songs create the atmosphere they are looking for. “He’s Back” is perfect in that respect, even now it completely reminds you of 80’s B grade horror films with the way it sounds, beautiful.
The song “The Great American Success Story” was written for the Rodney Dangerfield movie “Back to School”, but for some reason never appeared in it. The lyrics are all about the plot of the movie so it is strange that it eventually didn’t get used. I love that movie, and the song as a result.
When Alice writes an anthem, it is always a good one, and “The World Needs Guts’ is one of my favourites. He always writes them as though he is talking to you through the speakers. You can almost see him standing there pointing at you as he sings, calling on you to act.
From all reports, “Trick Bag” was a reworked version of the original demo of “He’s Back”, and if you listen hard to the start of the song you can actually catch some similarities.
The way I like to describe this album is that it is a party album. It fits that time in the mid-1980’s, and the mix of horror films, like the Friday the 13ths and the Nightmare on Elm Streets, and ‘coming-of-age’ teenage films of the time, films like “The Breakfast Club” and “St Elmo’s Fire”, the films where a bunch of school friends get together and party on. That’s how this album sounds to me, and what it reminds me of. It reminds me of those high school years and partying with my friends, in the lounge room, with the stereo cranking – and this is the album that comes to me. Where else would you stand around singing lyrics like you find on these songs, lyrics like “Where were you when the monkey hit the fan, thrill my gorilla!” and “But what’s that in your eyes, I’m no longer paralysed, here we go again” and “He’s got the time, he’s got the money, better get out of his way better watch out for him sonny”.
I absolutely adored this album when it first came out. At the time I knew who Alice Cooper was, and I knew some of his more famous songs, such as “School’s Out” and “Only Women Bleed” and “You and Me”, all of which had been radio hits when I was growing up. This was the first Alice Cooper album I actually owned outright, and the one that taught me how being fun and just a little silly with your lyrics and music could be a great thing.
I loved every damned thing about it, and to this day I will stand to defend its honour against those who consider it ‘average’ simply because it is the way it is. I am happy for people to rail against my thoughts of how good the album is. I understand when critics of it say the lyrics are hokey and dim-witted, that the music is very much tied to the era it was written and recorded, and that Alice had much more meaningful albums both before and after this one. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I completely understand why those of the earlier generation love the early albums, and why those of my own generation are much more enamoured by the glitz and glamour of Trash. And I also understand why those of the future generations find this album far too much like 1980’s hair metal to enjoy with any real substance.
But this album to me is a ripper, as is the follow up Constrictor. And both albums have to be taken from the point of view of the era and time they were written. Both saw the revitalisation of Alice Cooper both as a man and an artist. The great work of Kane Roberts and Kip Winger here is extremely undervalued. And while much of the material has that 80’s synth and keyboard as its basis, I can tell you from experience that when they are played live with 3 guitars taking that keyboard out of the mix, these songs rock as hard as anything else Alice and his co-writers over the years have written.
This was Alice’s comeback, and a great one it was. The Constrictor album was a catalyst for Cooper to make a triumphant return to the road for the first time since the 1981 Special Forces album, on a tour appropriately entitled The Nightmare Returns. This continues to be one of my all time favourite Alice Cooper albums. Indeed, it could well be my favourite. It is one I will continue to play under the day I am no longer here to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment