Alice's Relationship with Warner

[tim10cc]

As I started collecting Cooper LP's in the late 80's it was hard to come across a few LP's. I had an awful time finding "Special Forces", "Zipper Catches Skin" & Da Da.

Warner was quick to throw a lot of the the Cooper albums 77-83 out print. That had to be a slap in the face to Alice.

Does anyone know how Alice's relationship with Warner these days ?

[A_MichaelUK]

>As I started collecting Cooper LP's in the late 80's it was hard to come across a few LP's. I had an awful time finding "Special Forces", "Zipper Catches Skin" & Da Da.

That may be because by that time, most albums were coming out on a different format instead.

>Warner was quick to throw a lot of the the Cooper albums 77-83 out print. That had to be a slap in the face to Alice.

I think "Lace And Whiskey", "The Alice Cooper Show" and "From The Inside" have always been available.

[Toronto Bob]

In Canada MoL, SF, ZCS and Da Da were the albums found in the delete bins. When the transition to cd came about MoL, FT, FTF, SF, ZCS and Da Da were a bit more difficult to come buy and you would have to pay the import price to acquire those title, usually in the $25-$30 range when the regular titles could be had for $15-$20 and the budget line stuff was $8-$12.

My FtF and DaDa are from Japan, SF, ZCS from Germany can't recall the country of origin for Mol and FTI but they are on Metal Blade Records.

[tim10cc]

I remember searching "Cut out" bends ..thats where I landed Flush the Fashion.

At the time though Warner had no interest in putting Ftf-SF-ZCS & Da Da out for domestic release. The first re-issues I saw released post 1976 on CD was Lace & Whiskey. It was back when they packaged the cd's in the large rectangular boxes and had some commentary from Alice on the back of it.

[tim10cc]

Finding from the Inside on LP for a while at least in St. Louis was a battle. The used copies never stayed on the shelves. I can't recall when I have went to a CD shop and seen any seen any copies Alice's music from 1978-1983. More recent I haven't seen any copies of Constrictor or Raise your fist and yell.

[A_MichaelUK]

> can't recall the country of origin for Mol and FTI but they are on Metal Blade Records.

That is a rather famous American company.

[homerx]

The Sony LP's were the Hardest to find I think. I would imagine it was the time of CD and mini disc being pushed. I have the entire collection now though.

Going to start get the 180g reissues now.

[departmentofyouth]

In 1986, when Constrictor came out, LITD, Killer, SO, B$B, ACGH, WTMN, ACGTH. & TACS were all reprinted readily available on Warner Bros LP & Cassette in the USA. The LP's were simple and unlike the original releases.

I was 14 & hand wrote letters to Warner Brothers and Brian Nelson asking if the others would be made available again. Warner replied with a letter that basically said "Thank You for your interest, enjoy!" ???

Brian wrote me and said "They were all deleted due to lack of sales & hopefully if more interest is generated, they will all be back in print soon! But in the meantime, shop the budget and cut out bins. All the Warner titles are out there and can still be found at reasonable prices. PFY & EA might be a little tough, but shop used bins for those."

He was right! After begging my Mom to drive me everywhere, I found em all (LP's & Cassettes that is) at various record and department stores in the cheap bins in Mid-Michigan. By the time RYF&Y came out, none were to be found anywhere until a few years later when they were finally re-issued on Japanese and German CD's (and a couple on Metal Blade in the US).

[tim10cc]

I still wonder what Alice's reaction to some of the albums pulled and out of print...others were issued and simple.

[A_MichaelUK]

>I still wonder what Alice's reaction to some of the albums pulled and out of print...others were issued and simple.

I wouldn't worry about it.

[tim10cc]

I am not worried, just curious....in the long run..it made collecting Alice over the years interesting and made me appreciate some of my finds more...I thought I would NEVER find a copy of Special Forces...I think that took about 7-8 months before landing a copy.

[A_MichaelUK]

> just curious....

I doubt he ever gave it a moment's thought as that would have been an issue for his management to deal with. It isn't as if those recordings were hugely successful, so it wouldn't have been that much of a surprise.

>it made collecting Alice over the years interesting and made me appreciate some of my finds more

That's good.

[tim10cc]

Sure these recordings weren't hugely successful in sales. I am sure hardcore Alice fans feel different as far as the albums go and wonder if met up to their expectations. I guess there was enough used copies of these recordings to go around and could easily be found at a used record store. The recordings to me as an Alice fan...I can give FTI & SF and ZCS a play from start to finish without complaints...So in my eyes they are successful

[Owepar]

I had the exact same experience as everyone else when I got into Cooper in '91. "Lace and Whiskey" and "From the Inside" were fairly easy to find on vinyl, but I couldn't find either on CD (despite the then-recent Metal Blade release of FTI). "The Alice Cooper Show" was easily found through mail-order CD clubs. Although I searched every time I was anywhere with music, I didn't find the four from the early '80s until three years later.

In 2011 Alice appeared on Joy Behar's CNN talk show, and he briefly mentioned his final WB releases:

"There's three albums I did that I don't remember doing. I don't remember writing them, I don't remember recording them, I don't remember performing them. And they end up being my fans' favorite albums! Which I go, 'Really? Cuz I kind of like these other ones that were the big hits.' And they go, 'No, no, no, these were the ones we liked!'"

So I surmise if the albums hadn't wound up becoming fan favorites, he'd never have given them a thought at all.

[A_MichaelUK]

>So I surmise if the albums hadn't wound up becoming fan favorites, he'd never have given them a thought at all.

I wouldn't go that far - he actually likes a lot of those songs despite what he said. In fact, he once had this idea of recording some of them again.

[Owepar]

I wasn't implying (nor do I think Alice was) that he readily dislikes his early '80s output. I guess the quote above might seem slightly out of context: he was telling Behar that hard drinking led to a period of his life which he simply has no memory of.

He's discussed how he likes songs such as "Former Lee Warmer" and "I Love America" in numerous interviews, beginning around the time that "Life and Crimes" was first announced in the mid-'90s. My point was only that since that's an era that's missing from his mind, he probably wouldn't have given the albums much further thought if fans didn't keep bringing them up.

This is from a 2008 interview with Rue Morgue:

Nightmare is pretty dark in places, but I think in some ways DaDa might be the darkest... Because of Former Lee Warmer -- I still don't want to know who he is. You know, he lives in the attic and they feed him, but what do they feed him? If you really think about that song, that song is one that I would not want to be listening to alone in the dark.

It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on "Dyslexia" though, since that seems to be the one song which is universally hated -- even more so than "No Baloney Homosapiens" (most dislike the latter but it kinda grew on me).

[A_MichaelUK]

>he was telling Behar that hard drinking led to a period of his life which he simply has no memory of.

I wasn't referring to that. I was referring your suggestion that
"if the albums hadn't wound up becoming fan favorites, he'd never have given them a thought at all." He actually has a pretty good grasp of the range of material he's written and recorded even if he has little memory of doing so. You're right in the sense that those songs aren't usually the first that he thinks about when putting together a set - list, but neither is it true that he'd have forgotten about them if they weren't as popular with some people as they appear to be.

>He's discussed how he likes songs such as "Former Lee Warmer" and "I Love America" in numerous interviews

Exactly, so I'm not sure why you think that "if the albums hadn't wound up becoming fan favorites, he'd never have given them a thought at all." That's my point.

> My point was only that since that's an era that's missing from his mind, he probably wouldn't have given the albums much further thought if fans didn't keep bringing them up.

I'm not saying there is no truth in that - just that those albums are not as outside of his awareness as you may think. I already gave the example that he had expressed an interest in recording some of those songs again. As you point out, he thinks some of those songs are really good, irrespective of whether others liked them or not.

>This is from a 2008 interview with Rue Morgue:

Another reason why your suggestion isn't wholly accurate.

>It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on "Dyslexia" though, since that seems to be the one song which is universally hated

That may be an exaggeration.

> even more so than "No Baloney Homosapiens" (most dislike the latter but it kinda grew on me).

That also may be an exaggeration.

[Owepar]

Wow, way to over-analyze.

[homerx]

take a look at Ask Alice vol.8 http://www.nightswithalicecooper.com/vi ... ice/page/2

[A_MichaelUK]

>Wow, way to over-analyze.

If you don't really believe your position was worth defending, you shouldn't have adopted it.