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1972 saw Alice Cooper on top of the world, but while they could have recorded a collection of short hit single material, they continued to do it their way with another true classic mixing the hits with more complex material. Everyone still remembers the title track of course but material like 'Gutter Cats Vs The Jets' and 'My Stars' should have once and for all rid the band of any suggestion they were anything less then world class. 'Blue Turk' showed a jazz influence, while 'Gutter Cats...' and 'Grande Finale' highlighed the influence of film and musical theatre. Another essential release with not a bad moment.

June 1972 (July in UK?)

School's Out (Cooper, Bruce, Buxton, Dunaway, Smith) [3:26] Luney Tune (Dunaway, Cooper) [3:36] Gutter Cat Vs. The Jets (Buxton, Dunaway, Bernstein, Sondheim) [4:39] Street Fight (Cooper, Bruce, Buxton, Dunaway, Smith) [0:55] Blue Turk (Bruce, Cooper) [5:29] My Stars (Cooper, Ezrin) [5:46] Public Animal #9 (Bruce, Cooper) [3:53] Alma Mater (Smith) [3:39] Grande Finale (David, Bernstein, Ezrin, Cooper, Smith, Dunaway, Buxton, Bruce) [4:36] LYRICS

Musicians

Sleeve Notes

Produced By Bob Ezrin for Nimbus 9 Productions

Recording Engineers - Roy Cicala and Shelly Yakus

Recording Technician - Danny Turbeville, Frank Hubach and Dennis Ferrante

Recorded and Remixed at The Record Plant, New York and Alice Cooper Mansion, Connecticut.

Photography by Robert Offer (Desk) and Roger Prignet(Band)

String and Horn Arrangements - Bob Ezrin

Album Design - Wilkes & Braum, inc.

Jacket concept - Sound Packaging Corp.

Known Releases

The Cover

The album ran into problems due to the inclusion of a pair of paper panties (in pink, white or blue) which were included in initial copies of the LP in place of the usual inner sleeve as apparently they failed to comply with Trade Commission standards. According to 'Billion Dollar Baby', Shep Gordon was well aware of this fact and had in fact gone as far as anonymously calling the customs guards to inform them of the fact in case they had forgotten!

The Hard Rock Cafe in Berlin has the actual school desk that was photographed for the SO album cover. The signatures one the desk engraved by each band member personaly

The Album

From a private E-mail:

"Well, I believe I just ran across it two weeks ago. The film in question is called "Angels in Disguise", released 25 Sept 1949, it is the 15th film in the Bowery boys series, there were 48 films all together. I almost fell off my couch when I heard it, my quest in life was over, I had found it, was quite giddy at the moment but no one to share it with. The phrase Alice quoted is not quite accurate but does convey the idea of 'wise up'. Here is the setup to the line 'slip' delivered.
The boys are recouping back at their local hangout - Louie's Sweet Shop after dealing with some gangsters(a common theme early in the series). They are sitting in a booth(4 or 5 of them) trying to figure out what next to do in dealing with these gangsters. 'Sach' and 'Whitey' get into exchanging one word lines between them. 'Slip' and 'Sach' are sitting next to each other facing the entrance to Louie's shop. 'Slip' Mahoney notices that the gangsters are just about to walk into the shop to confront them when 'Sach' says "books" in his argument with 'Whitey' 'Slip' says "speaking of books, school is out" in reference to the gangsters coming in and to 'wise up'. So now you know, yes, he said 'school is out' not 'school's out' but close enough.
(Jim Roberts, August 1999)

In 'Alma Mater', Alice sings about both Camelback and Cortez high school`s. This is because although everyone but Neal wanted it to be sung "Cortez" both times. Neal wanted "Camelback" (his alma mater) put in there. Neal went to Camelback, the rest went to Cortez.

When asked about the jazz influence on 'Blue Turk' Dennis Dunaway had the following to say:
"Occasionally the band warmed up for rehearsals with our own brand of beatnik type Jazz. I can't say that Brubeck was an influence, or that I was aware that Ezrin was a fan, but in those days, he was one of the only Jazz players to get airplay on mainstream radio, and his Jazz was the cool kind, which is what we aimed ours to emulate. Glen was on the same wavelength with the session horn players that Ezrin had called in. They were the genuine deal and Glen loved their ability to play by sheer feel, which they all did together when they laid down the solo tracks.
For the AC Billion Dollar Babies album, however, I did write a serious follow-up to "Blue Turk" called "Green Grotto," which I have a cassette with Ainsley Dunbar, Bob Dolan, and myself playing it. It never got recorded in the studio though.
(Dennis Dunaway, April 2007)

Miss Axelrod was (is?) a real teacher the Coop had in school at Cortez High School in Phoenix.

In the song 'Gutter Cat Vs. The Jets' when performed live, Alice makes reference to 'A Clockwork Orange' when he sings "I'm Singing In The Rain"

"Dick Wagner was another guitarist we brought in -- for 'My Stars' as it happens, which is pretty complex with all those chord changes.
(Bob Ezrin)

On "School's Out", the words "Klaatu barada nikto" occur in background vocals near the end of "My Stars". 'Klaatu barada nikto' are from the Science Fiction classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

Alice held a press party to celebrate the British success of 'School's Out' at Chessington Zoo, south of London. The stripper they had booked for the party wasn't very good, so the heavily-chested Stacia, the exotic dancer for 'Hawkwind', decided to takeover.

Sounds - 23rd December 1972:

Alice Cooper had a store all to himself for his Christmas shopping in New York last week.
Alice, with snake, Yvonne and members of his group, had the run of Alexander's Department store in Manhattan one evening for their Christmas shopping. The store's Father Christmas was on hand to assist and , among other things, Alice bought 22 rag dolls, 10 blue meanie dolls, twenty packs of playing cards and fifty-seven albums, all of which were original motion picture soundtracks from old Humphrey Bogart and Bela Lugosi films.
Meanwhile Yvonne curled up on a Monopoly Board so Alice bought the game for her.
Alice also bought a sable fur coat, and played table tennis with an unidentified table-tennis champion called Mr Ping Pong. The winner took the fur coat, and Alice won.
After the shopping spree, it took six people half an hour to load all the presents into an 18 foot long van.

A common question is "why are there only four band members in the photo on the 'School's Out' cover (and yteh sngle pic sleeves)." Actually Dennis IS there, in the trash can, but its very hard to see him in the final pic.

For the 'School's Out' tour alice changed his makeup design to the now classic 'clown' make up style he is most famous for. When asked why they changed it Dennis Dunaway replied "Simple, it was easier to apply and showed up at a greater distance."

The Tour School's Out (North America) 1972

Setlist