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The last Alice Cooper album of the 70s is a tour-de-force of slick hard rock. Co-written by fellow alcohol victim Bernie Taupin the album describes some of the characters Alice met during his stay in hospital and originally came in a fabulous fold out sleeve that depicted them. There are lots of Cooper classics on offer including the sexy 'Nurse Rozetta', the romantic 'How You Gonna See Me Now' (based on a letter Alice wrote to his wife from hospital), 'Serious' (which Alice has mentioned as one of his favourite songs ever) and the stunning epic closer 'Inmates (We're All Crazy').

November 17th 1978

From the Inside (Cooper, Taupin, Wagner, Foster) [3:55] Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills (Cooper, Taupin, Wagner) [3:38] The Quiet Room (Cooper, Taupin, Wagner) [3:52] Nurse Rozetta (Cooper, Taupin, Foster, Lukather) [4:15] Millie and Billie (Cooper, Taupin, Roberts) [4:15] Serious (Cooper, Taupin, Foster, Lukather) [2:44] How You Gonna See Me Now (Cooper, Taupin, Wagner) [3:57] For Veronica's Sake (Cooper, Taupin, Wagner) [3:37] Jackknife Johnny (Cooper, Taupin, Wagner) [3:34] Inmates (We're All Crazy)(Cooper, Taupin, Wagner) [5:03] LYRICS

Musicians

• Dick Wagner - Guitars
• Steve Lukather(Toto) - Guitar
• Rick Nielsen(Cheap Trick) - Guitar ('Serious')
• Davey Johnstone - Guitar
• Jefferson Kewley - Guitar
• Jay 'Wah Wah' Graydon - Guitar
• Kenny Passarelli - Bass (as mentioned on 'Easy Action'.)
• David Hungate - Bass
• John Pierce - Bass
• Dee Murray - Bass
• Lee Skiar - Bass
• Rick Shlosser - Drums
• Dennis Conway - Drums
• Michael Ricciardella - Drums
• Jim Keltner - Percussion
• David Foster - Keyboards
• Fred Mandel - Keyboards
• Robbie King - Keyboards
• Marcy Levy - 'Millie'
• Backing Vocals - Kiki Dee, Bill Champlin, Flo and Eddie, Tom Kelly, Davey Johnstone, Bobby Kimball, Marcy Levy, Sheryl Cooper, The Totally Committed Choir.

Sleeve Notes

Produced by David Foster

Executive Producer - Shep Gordon

Engineers - Humberto Gatica, Keith Olsen, David De Vore, Tom Knox, Howard Steele

Recorded in Hollywood California at: Davien Sound studios, Cherokee Recording Studios, Hollywood sound Recorders Inc, Sunset Sound and Crystal Sound-Hollywood

Synthesizer Programing - Jay Graydon, Steve Porcaro

Strings conducted by Frank DeCaro

Photography - Alan Dockery

Front Sleeve Photo - Lauren Kinde

Album Concept and Design - Pacific Eye and Ear

Known Releases

Country	Format	Number	Date	Chart	Label	Notes
USA	LP	BSK 3263	12/78	68	Warner Bros(cream label)	Fold Out Sleeve Inner Sleeve
USA	LP	BSK 3263	12/78	68	Warner Bros(cream label)	Fold Out Sleeve Inner Sleeve Promo
USA	Cass	?	12/78	68	Warner Bros
USA	8track	M8 3263	12/78	68	Warner Bros
USA	CD	264452			Metal Blade
UK	LP	K 56577	12/78	61	Warner Bros	Fold Out Sleeve Inner sleeve
UK	LP	K 56577	12/78	61	Warner Bros(cream label)	Fold Out Sleeve Inner sleeve Test Pressing
UK	Cass	K 456577	12/78	61	Warner Bros
Australia	LP	BSK-3263	12/78	12	Warner Bros(Cream Label)	Foldout Sleeve Inner sleeve
Australia	LP	BSK-3263	12/78	12	Warner Bros(White Label)	Inner sheet Promo
Australia	CD	WAR 9260642	90		Warner Bros
Brazil	LP	?	12/78		Warner Bros(Cream Label)	Inner sleeve in Black and white
Taiwan	LP	MH-7412				Lyrics on reverse No fold out
France	LP	WB 56577	12/78		Warner Bros(Cream Label)	Foldout Sleeve Inner Sleeve
Germany	LP	WB 56577	12/78		Warner Bros(white Label)	Foldout Sleeve Inner Sleeve
Germany	CD	WEA 926064-2	12/90		Warner Bros	French/German
Germany	Cass	WEA 926064-4	12/90		Warner Bros	French/German
Italy	LP	W 56577	12/78		Warner Bros(Cream Label)	Foldout Sleeve Inner Sleeve
Japan	LP	?	12/78		Warner Bros(Cream label)	Foldout Sleeve Inner Sleeve Obi One Sheet insert
Japan	LP	P-10661-1W	?		Warner Bros (White Label)	Promo Foldout Sleeve Inner Sleeve Obi One Sheet insert
Japan	CD	WPCP 3496	9/97		Warner Bros	Forever Young Series
Mexico	LP	GWEA-5321	79		Warner Bros(Palm Tree label)	Called 'Desde Adentro' Titles in Spanish and English Foldout sleeve Inner sleeve Two Stickers printed on cover
Philippines	LP	?	?		Warner Bros(Cream label)
Russia	CD	?	2008		?	Cool CD cover reproducing the original LP cover

The Cover

The Characters:

Veronica is the dog. ('For Veronica's Sake')
Alice is in the Quiet Room ('From the Inside', 'The Quiet Room', 'How You Gonna See Me Now')
The blonde in the blue dress ('Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills')
The nurse fixing the picture ('Nurse Rosetta')
The black guy looking up her skirt ('Nurse Rozetta')
The couple on the bench are ('Millie and Billie')
The gambler in the wheelchair ('Serious')
The soldier with the umbrella ('Jackknife Johnny')
The three in the upper right corner ('Inmates(We're All Crazy)')

The doctor pictured on the album cover is in fact Joe Gannon.

The picture Nurse Rozetta is hanging is a picture of Ned Kelly, a famous Australian bushranger. Its a painting called "Death of Constable Scanlon" painted in 1946 by Sidney Nolan. It shows Ned Kelly presumably killing Constable Scanlon. The original was in the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia.

Elwood P. Dowd (as mentioned in the cover notes) was the character played by James Stewart in the film "Harvey". Dowd was an alcoholic and Harvey was his 6 foot invisible friend. Oh, and he was also a rabbit. The quote on the sleeve notes on 'From The Inside' ("I've wrestled with reality for 34 years, and I'm glad to say that I've finally won out over it") is taken from this film.

Marvel Comics released a comic based on the album, Marvel Premier 50. In it, some of the albums characters were given names. The blonde in the blue dress (Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills) becomes Ms.Tiffany Sleek, The croucher is Jerome (He has a fetish for Nurse Rozetta's feet), the Doctor becomes the Deadly Doctor Fingeroth and Veronica is a Snake!

The Songs

Bernie Taupin is best known as being Elton John's lyric writer. He is credited as co-writing the 'From The Inside' album. Alice possibly met Bernie while both were recovering from alcoholism.

Brian Nelson (July `95) on Taupin`s involvement:
Not a whole lot to this story. They had been friends for awhile and more importantly-drinking buddies. As Alice tells it, they had talked about working together for a long time but if anything, their drinking also slowed them down. So, when they had sobered up. the time was right. My understanding is that Bernie's contributions on the 'From The Inside' album were minimal, however.

'No Tricks' was on the B-side to the 'How You Gonna See Me Now' single. The female voice is Betty Wright (she had a hit called "Mister Big Stuff").

The characters on 'From the Inside' are loosely based on the inmates Alice met at the New York mental hospital where he went for alcohol detox.

'Serious' was originally called 'I Take That Seriously'.

Brian Nelson: 'How You Gonna See Me Now" is based on an actual letter Alice wrote to Sheryl while in the hospital.

Brian Nelson (June `97): The 'Lizzy Borden' line in 'Inmates' is an old nursery rhyme which is in turn based on a real event. Her name was Elizabeth Borden (Lizzy she was called). She was charged with the murder of her parents but found NOT GUILTY. It took the jury about an hour to acquit her. Their bodies were found hacked as if by an axe, but no murder weapon was ever found. The case was never solved. Lizzy was a young woman at the time.

Brian Nelson (June `95): On some of the original lyric sheets, there are a few references to 'Candy'. The candy references were in regards to Alice's idea to call an album "Eating Sweets Can Make You Violent."

A lavish party was put on for the launch of the album. The guest list included: Billy Preston, Wolfman Jack, Burton Cummings, Kiki Dee, Al Stewart, Peter Noone, Cheryl Ladd, Betty Wright, Cheech & Nudie, Debby Boone, Timothy Leary and Al Kooper.

Rick Shlosser on his work on 'From The Inside'

'I did that album quite a while ago, so it's a little difficult to remember, but I know I played on Nurse Rozetta, Serious, How You Gonna See Me Now, and possibly For Veronica's Sake and Jacknife Johnny. There was one other song I did that was the B side of the 45 single (that tells you how long ago this was) How You Gonna See Me Now. It was a duet with Alice and Betty Wright about junkies, but it wasn't on the album ('No Tricks'). I do remember that Alice sang his butt off on the duet.'
(Rick Shlosser, Sept 2005)

The Tour

Mad House Rock 1979: "Ultra Latex" band:

Setlist

Brian Nelson (June `95): 'Dead Babies' and a song that was only performed on this tour called "All Strapped Up (AC/Mandel)" are not on the 'Strange Case of Alice Cooper' concert video. Don't know why 'Dead Babies' ain't on it - but 'All Strapped Up' was the song they did with the long-fuse bomb which was performed almost completely on the 'Magic Screen' and probably didn't work well in the video.

['All Strapped Up'] is an original Alice Cooper composition. I'm not sure if it was written for "From The Inside" and didn't make it on or if it was written especially for the show - maybe a little of both. Anyway, it was only performed on that tour during a bit with the magic screen. It ain't that great of a song and I don't have any high quality recordings of it - just bootleg - so it won't be on the box set.

"I believe I was in the video that played on the magic screen during the concert.  It was filmed in the garden of an old hospital in Los Angeles, now gone.  I was the production assistant on this job and worked for a short time for Alice's company Black Widow and for Alive Enterprises.  During the video, Alice was in a straight jacket being chased around the garden by 4 hospital orderlies (his dancers, including his wife).  Three of us were in costume in the garden as hospital inmates.  I was the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The producer, Joe Gannon, was Napoleon.  One of Alice's roadies was dressed in a chicken outfit.  Just before we started to film, Alice handed me a bag of potato chips and told me to be eating them during the filming because "you have to be getting away with something".  Alice was a very nice, smart, funny fellow.  His wife, Sheryl, was also always as nice as could be.  I was quite young then, and Alice (his friends called him Vinnie) always called me "Kid".  I know that there were a lot of still photos taken that day.  There were also a lot of nuns in habits around that day during the filming (they worked at the hospital), and they were having a great time watching everything that was going on.  When Joe Gannon showed up in his beautiful Rolls Royce, one of the nuns said to me:   "That must be the Producer!"  Too bad there is apparently no copy of the film available."
(Gary Gam, 2007)

'Jackknife Johnny' and 'For Veronica's Sake' were played a few times at the beginning of the tour (inc. Grand Forks).

In Milwaukee, during the band solos in 'School's Out', they went into 'YMCA' by Village People, much to Alice's dismay.