Alice says he had nothing to do with "Killer" and "School's Out" remasters

[Rock10]

https://blabbermouth.net/news/alice-coo ... -with-that

[Si]

https://blabbermouth.net/news/alice-coo ... -with-that

Which is what some of us have been trying to explain to certain people for years

[steven15322]

A lot of artist don't.

[pitkin88]

Interesting that Alice thinks Scarlet and Sheba was once in the stage show.

[Rock10]

These albums are too important for Alice to not be involved in remastering.

[scotty]

I love Alice so much but I really think he would be forgiven if he didn’t do some of these songs he claims he absolutely must do. I could still rock out if “I’m 18” or “ no more mr nice guy” or even “ schools out” had one rest from one tour. I feel from reading so many posts from many different sites that the fans are ready for a changed up set list. And it doesn’t have to be a crazy set list like stuff from the first two albums or the blackout era. Just some second level stuff that he has done before in concert but not revisited in a while like caught in a dream, gutter cat vs the jets , sick things, muscle of love, guilty , etc.
I’m glad to hear it sounds like he’s going to be doing a few songs off the new album

[Si]

People suggesting even School's Out could be rested aren't being realistic. It's by far his biggest and most important song. It will never be dropped and it shouldn't be.
Other essential songs would probably be Poison, I'm Eighteen and Feed My Frankenstein - all because of their instant recognisability to the average rock fan and/or significance to his career.

Beyond that I think everything is fair game to be rotated in and out. You do not need ALL of them in every show. You drop NMMNG one year, and B$B the following year etc. As long as every other song is a recognisable classic, ie following a deeper cuts with a hit, it will not effect how strong the show is. I mean, if he doesn't feel Elected, a huge hit, is essential it's hard to make a case of most others. Many of his best songs are rarely if ever played live.

Having said all that I think one section he's kinda stuck with now is the guillotine/I Love The Dead centrepiece.
Whether he likes it or not there kinda has to be an execution, and the Guillotine is the only one that works. It's iconic. You could argue so is the gallows, but the fact is at Alice's age the gallows would now be physically very hard to do every night, much harder on his 75+ year old body than the guillotine where he just has to lie down and wait for the short drop. We're all kinda stuck with the guillotine I think, unless they come up with something new that's as visually effective.

Another thing that I've always thought is of you are doing a deeper cut, add some theatrical twist to it to illustrate the song. That in itself gives a visual interest to an audience who may not know the song, and also plays into Alice's famous theatrical live shows. Doesn't always have to be something big or expensive. Adding Snakebite and using the snake for it is a perfect example of how he often does this. A large percentage of the audience probably don't know the song very well, but the snake keeps their attention. Dirty Diamonds worked the same way with him throwing out the necklaces. Hardly an essential song but it worked live very well.

In the end Alice saying he has like 15 essential songs he has to do at every show sounds great in interviews, but the reality is a little different. As long as around half the show is the predictable big hits I think the rest of the setlist is up for grabs! The Brutal Planet tour featured lots of new songs and didn't suffered for it! You can't create new stage favourites if you don't play them enough!

[patrick]

Must be hard to chose from all of those albums and...to please everyone.
I would add to Si's list, as an example, Nurse Rosetta and Pick up the bones which were brought with theatrical elements and afaik well received.. but didn't come back in the setlists if I am not mistaken..
On the other hand, I thought that My Stars /Raped and Freezin' only pleased the die hards.. (Saw very little reaction around me when it was played on the last tour..)
And the classicks NMMNG, Poison, SO are always well received....So I don't expect big changes, the formule seems to work as it is ...

[lordcatfish]

Very much in agreement about the essential songs. I've long thought that there's only really 4-5 essentials (18, School's Out, Nice Guy, Poison, probably Feed My Frankenstein), so if you did them, along with 5-6 others from the pack of well received songs (eg Dwight Fry, Under My Wheels, B$B, Nightmare etc), then you could leave space for 10 or so slots to pick from new songs, deeper cuts, and the death sequence. As long as it flows well and there's no loss of momentum, I think that'd be OK.

[Pitta]

Interesting that Alice thinks Scarlet and Sheba was once in the stage show.

He told that he thinks it could be a good stage song.

[pitkin88]

These albums are too important for Alice to not be involved in remastering.

This is not the first remastering of these two albums. Steve Hoffman did both some years back. Most artists aren't involved with remasters. Ezrin wasn't involved with the Hoffman ones. Michael Bruce offered to be there for one and Hoffman turned him down. For Alice it's not worth the time and money I'm sure.

[Rock10]

These albums are too important for Alice to not be involved in remastering.

This is not the first remastering of these two albums. Steve Hoffman did both some years back. Most artists aren't involved with remasters. Ezrin wasn't involved with the Hoffman ones. Michael Bruce offered to be there for one and Hoffman turned him down. For Alice it's not worth the time and money I'm sure.

Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath were involved in theirs. Some artists were dead when their remasters were done.

[Rock10]

Alice's setlist is much better than most of the bands I listen to, even though I agree with some things above.

[pitkin88]

These albums are too important for Alice to not be involved in remastering.

This is not the first remastering of these two albums. Steve Hoffman did both some years back. Most artists aren't involved with remasters. Ezrin wasn't involved with the Hoffman ones. Michael Bruce offered to be there for one and Hoffman turned him down. For Alice it's not worth the time and money I'm sure.

Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath were involved in theirs. Some artists were dead when their remasters were done.

Probably hard to be there if you are dead.

[Toronto Bob]

Alice's only connection with his back catalogue is playing the songs live. I'm fine with that, what is a drag is that for what ever reason, rare and uncirculated live material has been slow to be released and it seems the people who may have possession of that material have been shut out or otherwise unable to contribute. We do get tasty morsels once in a while
but the missed opportunities have been numerous.

I'm a fan of old live concerts from the 60's thru to 1982 is where my interests lie so a full concert included in a remasterred release of every album from PFY through to Special Forces would be enough to make me happy. Throw in a few demo/alt studio versions from the album and I'd be thrilled. Doesn't seem like a big ask

[Si]

Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath were involved in theirs. Some artists were dead when their remasters were done.

Does everyone understand that while some artists OWN their back catalogue recordings, and so can do what they want with them, Alice Cooper doesn't! This limits how much power they have to get things done.

Metallica and Maiden both own everything they have ever recorded. They can do what they like and have full control over everything. With Sabbath I believe Iommi is on some sort of crusade as regards the mid-period albums and actively pushing to get things done with the albums he doesn't actually own.

Alice and co can only get involved in any reissues if the record companies who own the recordings invites them to be involved. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. And the level of involvement can vary greatly from something like the 'Old School' box set where they (the band and/or their associates) had a lot of involvement, to things like the B$B Quad just released where they seem to have had no involvement at all, and didn't even know it was coming out until it was announced.

This is why you sometimes hear stories about people taking a archive release to get it signed and Alice (or any of them) commenting that they've not seen it before. You can see from Dennis' answers in his forum that he often has no knowledge something is coming out until someone points it out to him or it arrives on his doorstep.

Then add in that Alice personally isn't that interest in looking backwards to 30-50 year old records. He's happy to leave all that in the hands of "experts" and get on with new projects. When asked to contribute he does, but he doesn't actively take an interest as such. He leaves that to other people who are more interested in that stuff.
In your Sabbath example he would be Ozzy, who also doesn't seem to be that interested and leaves all that stuff to Tony who is. With Zeppelin (who own everything themselves) its Page who is hands on everything, while Plant is only involved when asked. So Alice's position isn't really that unusual.

[del]

Thanks Si, I was starting to type a much weaker version of your post.

Looking to next year, IF the ACG album comes out and IF a film/drama comes out about the group that would surely be the time for a plan to align and capitalise on both with ACG appearances, specials etc. That would be the time to push the back catalogue, early recordings, etc and for Alice to engage. A big IF though..

[Babysquid]

This is not the first remastering of these two albums. Steve Hoffman did both some years back. Most artists aren't involved with remasters. Ezrin wasn't involved with the Hoffman ones. Michael Bruce offered to be there for one and Hoffman turned him down. For Alice it's not worth the time and money I'm sure.

Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath were involved in theirs. Some artists were dead when their remasters were done.

Probably hard to be there if you are dead.

They were probably there in spirit

[steven_crayn]

People suggesting even School's Out could be rested aren't being realistic. It's by far his biggest and most important song. It will never be dropped and it shouldn't be.
Other essential songs would probably be Poison, I'm Eighteen and Feed My Frankenstein - all because of their instant recognisability to the average rock fan and/or significance to his career.

Beyond that I think everything is fair game to be rotated in and out. You do not need ALL of them in every show. You drop NMMNG one year, and B$B the following year etc. As long as every other song is a recognisable classic, ie following a deeper cuts with a hit, it will not effect how strong the show is. I mean, if he doesn't feel Elected, a huge hit, is essential it's hard to make a case of most others. Many of his best songs are rarely if ever played live.

Having said all that I think one section he's kinda stuck with now is the guillotine/I Love The Dead centrepiece.
Whether he likes it or not there kinda has to be an execution, and the Guillotine is the only one that works. It's iconic. You could argue so is the gallows, but the fact is at Alice's age the gallows would now be physically very hard to do every night, much harder on his 75+ year old body than the guillotine where he just has to lie down and wait for the short drop. We're all kinda stuck with the guillotine I think, unless they come up with something new that's as visually effective.

Another thing that I've always thought is of you are doing a deeper cut, add some theatrical twist to it to illustrate the song. That in itself gives a visual interest to an audience who may not know the song, and also plays into Alice's famous theatrical live shows. Doesn't always have to be something big or expensive. Adding Snakebite and using the snake for it is a perfect example of how he often does this. A large percentage of the audience probably don't know the song very well, but the snake keeps their attention. Dirty Diamonds worked the same way with him throwing out the necklaces. Hardly an essential song but it worked live very well.

In the end Alice saying he has like 15 essential songs he has to do at every show sounds great in interviews, but the reality is a little different. As long as around half the show is the predictable big hits I think the rest of the setlist is up for grabs! The Brutal Planet tour featured lots of new songs and didn't suffered for it! You can't create new stage favourites if you don't play them enough!

School’s Out, Eighteen and Poison will never be and should never be dropped.

Only Women Bleed should always be played live too, as it was #1 single in Canada.

[pitkin88]

Yeah Canada is such a huge market.