Alice: Biography overdue?

[A_MichaelUK]

>If there is no mystery to Alice, then why is there so many questions to be asked?

As mattcoddington indicates, there's a difference between an unanswered question and a "mystery".

>it would be interesting to me to have some of those questions answered.

Now you've demoted your "mystery" to the status of mere "questions".

>So, there is at least ONE mystery....why is that poster so rare?

Why would it NOT be?! Almost every artifact connected to every Public Service Announcement that Alice has been involved with is hard to find.
Why does that mean there is a "mystery"?!

[While Heaven Wept]

>I do have a transcript of the Bob Greene 'Billion Dollar Baby' but haven't read it and from what I've been told it isn't worth reading.

It gives a very good flavour of that tour and for all it's faults (of which there are a few), it's not exactly a piece of fiction.

Yeah i really enjoyed reading that book for what it was, certainly helped me get a feel for those days (having not been fortunate enough to have been born earlier!).

[RemarkablyInsincere]

Interesting question. I'm not sure if I'd rather see an "authorized" or "unauthorized" biography.

Over on the MelodicRock.com Styx message board, a guy by the name of Sterling Whitaker posts. He wrote an excellent 'unauthorized biography' about Styx called "The Grand Delusion". Took him years of research. He offered some very interesting insights into the process over the course of time... i.e. who wants to talk, willing to talk, can't talk, etc.. etc...

Anyhow, after that project had been completed and ran it's course a couple years back, he threw out a question asking what other band/artist people would like to see a book written about. Journey was a popular answer from the MC community. Whitaker seemed to think that unlikely as he wouldn't be able to get enough cooperation from various parties (keep in mind he didn't receive cooperation from all the various parties in Styx, but Journey is different beast with all their drama). I suggested Alice Cooper and he seemed to think it might be a feasbible idea since it really hadn't been done (although Golf Monster was very new at that point). He did qualify his answer by saying it's also dependent on the cooperation/access he can get from various parties related to the artist.

I have no idea if he decided to pursue an Alice Cooper book or not... or if he's working on another project now. Perhaps I should ask him.

[mattcoddington]

I suggested Alice Cooper and he seemed to think it might be a feasbible idea since it really hadn't been done (although Golf Monster was very new at that point). He did qualify his answer by saying it's also dependent on the cooperation/access he can get from various parties related to the artist.

I have no idea if he decided to pursue an Alice Cooper book or not... or if he's working on another project now. Perhaps I should ask him.

i am a firm believer of keeping it in the family.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

i am a firm believer of keeping it in the family.

Nothing wrong with that, however I think if you want multiple sides to the story, sometimes you might be better served with an impartial party if by "keeping it in the family" you mean Alice and management.

If you simply mean, an Alice Cooper expert writing the book, then that would be even better.

I like both types of books... I would love to see an authorized biography but it would be great if the original members had significant involvement.

An unauthorized biography is likely to be less sanitized although the perspective will be different and is highly dependent on the types of sources you can secure.

[mattcoddington]

Nothing wrong with that, however I think if you want multiple sides to the story, sometimes you might be better served with an impartial party if by "keeping it in the family" you mean Alice and management.

no, i am referring to someone who is at least knowledgeable in alice cooper lore.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

Nothing wrong with that, however I think if you want multiple sides to the story, sometimes you might be better served with an impartial party if by "keeping it in the family" you mean Alice and management.

no, i am referring to someone who is at least knowledgeable in alice cooper lore.

I get ya... I actually went back and edited while you posted after I re-read it.

I would agree, someone very knowledgeable and interested in Alice Cooper would ultimately do the best justice to the story.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

After my first post, I shot Sterling a message about an AC book and got this reply:

I have been so busy with We Will Rock You and with Long Live Rock that I have not done much of anything else in the last while. Funny you should mention Alice Cooper; Dennis Dunaway is the guest for this coming Sunday's Long Live Rock on Blog Talk Radio (www.blogtalkradio.com/longliverock). As busy as things are for me right now, I would imagine it will be a while before I start another book in earnest.

Thanks for your interest. I hope all is well.

Sterling

[Malchik]

I don't really care to see anymore Alice Cooper biographies myself. I'm happy with the down and dirty "Me, Alice" and the more contemporary "Golf Monsters". I guess in hindsight maybe I'd like to see an updated Prime Cuts. Prime Cuts always bored me because some prime (heh) people were left out. Prime Cuts always felt somewhat lacking to me in comparison to say the Beatles Anthology biography, which included ample amounts of info from many people, including many conflicting stories back to back, leaving the viewer to use his imagination.

I wouldn't want a motion picture myself. There hasn't been one released yet I truly cared for.

[mattcoddington]

I don't really care to see anymore Alice Cooper biographies myself. I'm happy with the down and dirty "Me, Alice" and the more contemporary "Golf Monsters".

both of which are autobiographies. this discussion is about biographies.

I guess in hindsight maybe I'd like to see an updated Prime Cuts. Prime Cuts always bored me because some prime (heh) people were left out.

time constraints, obviously. what people would have made it less boring?

[steven_crayn]

I do have a transcript of the Bob Greene 'Billion Dollar Baby' but haven't read it and from what I've been told it isn't worth reading.

I'd consider it essential reading.

They wouldn't!

Link

[dadascot]

As to the Aice biography, just prior to reading golf monster i read both the U2 and Rolling Stones "in their own words" biographies. To my surprise i loved both these books for the same reason, they concentrated mostly on the music, gave insights to the recording sessions, the writing sessions and what was going on creativly within the band at that time, as opposed to the usual 'I snorted my dead dad' rubbish. I think that this may be part of the reason that i was slightly dissapointed by Monster Golf which re-told many of the anecdotes that us long time AC fans have heard many times, my brother (who is not an AC fan) loved the book and found it hilarious. I was really hoping for a lot more in-depth info on the music, how he picked the musicians what he felt worked and particuarly the early eighties albums. perhaps an indepth bio would help re address the deficiences.

[A_MichaelUK]

>As to the Aice biography, just prior to reading golf monster i read both the U2 and Rolling Stones "in their own words" biographies.

That type of book tends to be a 'cut and paste' job with the content taken from interviews which already exist. Brian Nelson (and I might add, I as well) tried hard to get lots of quotes from Alice included in the box - set book.

>my brother (who is not an AC fan) loved the book and found it hilarious.

>I was really hoping for a lot more in-depth info on the music, how he picked the musicians what he felt worked and particuarly the early eighties albums.

Unfortunately, there's generally a limited audience for that.

Exactly. A lot of these books are aimed at the general rock audience.

[mattcoddington]

Brian Nelson (and I might add, I as well) tried hard to get lots of quotes from Alice included in the box - set book.

if i remember correctly, brian even posted on the original sickthings list asking for our favorite alice quotes.

[A_MichaelUK]

>if i remember correctly, brian even posted on the original sickthings list asking for our favorite alice quotes.

That's pretty funny. In 1992, he asked me to send him as many as I could find that I thought were suitable. I spent ages going through every single article, radio and video interview I had. It took ages as you can imagine and when that was done, I had to type everything out and send them to him to have a look at. The project got delayed as everyone here probably knows and he lost the many pages of material I sent because in 1996 or so, he asked me if I could do the same thing again (which I didn't find amusing). He also asked me to choose one quote from all the ones I had sent, which would be the definitive quote about Alice Cooper and I was pretty interested to see he did use one of the ones I chose (the one about "western society" and "the last taboo" or something).

[A_MichaelUK]

>if i remember correctly, brian even posted on the original sickthings list asking for our favorite alice quotes.

That's pretty funny. In 1992, he asked me to send him as many as I could find that I thought were suitable. I spent ages going through every single article, radio and video interview I had. It took ages as you can imagine and when that was done, I had to type everything out and send them to him to have a look at. The project got delayed as everyone here probably knows and he lost the many pages of material I sent because in 1996 or so, he asked me if I could do the same thing again (which I didn't find amusing). He also asked me to choose one quote from all the ones I had sent, which would be the definitive quote about Alice Cooper and I was pretty interested to see he did use one of the ones I chose (the one about "western society" and "the last taboo" or something).

[mattcoddington]

the quote i submitted was about alice's fear of technology, mainly personal computers.

of course it didn't get chosen.

[WickedYoungMan]

I do have a transcript of the Bob Greene 'Billion Dollar Baby' but haven't read it and from what I've been told it isn't worth reading.

I'd consider it essential reading.

They wouldn't!

Link

I'm not going to swear to it, but I thought these were said to be forgeries at one time?

[mattcoddington]

I'm not going to swear to it, but I thought these were said to be forgeries at one time?

i believe that book is owned by jeff jatras. all autographs are real.

[While Heaven Wept]

Jeff Jatras....that's a name i havent heard in a while