Pretties for you.... Easy action........

[Ted Sallis]

I like both albums, but both pale in comparison to the 5 albums that followed. Some of my favourite songs from them are Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio, Apple Bush, Changing Arranging, Mr. & Misdemeanor, Refrigerator Heaven and Lay Down and Die, Goodbye.

Ted

[Mr. Misdemeanor]

I like your handle, Ted. You a big Steve Gerber fan?

[Ted Sallis]

^^ Thanks - hardly anyone else has determined or known the origin of my alias. To answer your question, no; I just thought the name was cool so I also used it as an alias when I was a musician (a very long time ago).

Ted

[Daggers & Contracts]

^^ Thanks - hardly anyone else has determined or known the origin of my alias. To answer your question, no; I just thought the name was cool so I also used it as an alias when I was a musician (a very long time ago).

Ted

Somehow, someway, it all comes out.
Me? I was clueless

[zzz]

I absolutely love these two albums, almost as much as tge next 4 ACG albums. The Train Trip version of Swing Low is also great.

I understand why PFY if polarizing, but I don't see what's not to love about most, if not all, of Easy Action. Definitely seems like an early influence on noise rock to me

BTW, is there any info on the pre-Reflectex version of Elected? Last time I checked I don't think I could fund any info on the main site, but I could be wrong. It was floating around YouTube for awhile along with all those other ACG demos. It sounds like PFY-Era, but even rougher

[Ted Sallis]

BTW, is there any info on the pre-Reflectex version of Elected? Last time I checked I don't think I could fund any info on the main site, but I could be wrong. It was floating around YouTube for awhile along with all those other ACG demos. It sounds like PFY-Era, but even rougher

I recall listening to the pre-Reflected version of Elected on YouTube awhile ago. IIRC, that version dates from 1968; unfortunately I don't have any further info. about it.

Ted

[Logan]

I actually love these albums. I play them more than Alice albums from 1980 and on. When I first played "Pretties For You" it was around mid 70's and I was listening to Killer, Love It To Death, B$B even Welcome To My Nightmare then I played "Pretties For You". It confused me so much I felt like I was left on Mars w/ just a rubber band. I put the album on my shelf and didn't play it for sometime. But then I loved it and "Easy Action" just the same both amazing albums and love all the songs. I recently just played both albums 2 days ago.

[Shoesalesman]

Love both of them. Reflected & Shoe Salesman are my picks for faves from these two albums.

[Saint&Sinner]

I have always despised PFY, not my thing at all. Unfocussed and messy with very poor song writing/structuring.
Easy action is a huge step up from PFY but is a long way from being good. You can see the germs of ideas and you can see the direction the songs were moving in, but it needed the big push that the man, the myth the legend, Bob Ezrin brought to the table.
Easy action is definitely improved but i really cannot listen to them for more than a few minutes. Love it to death was a lightning bolt from the blue in comparison.
I still to this day do not own PFY on CD and only own it as a 2 vinyl collection with easy action. I own easy action on CD but the layer of dust is quite thick these days hahaha.

[Babysquid]

I love these albums too. In fact PFY I’d one of my favourite Alice lps. I still remember the first time I listened to it late one Saturday night huddled in front of my parents stereo in the dark. I love the whole strange atmosphere of the record. I was already primed for what it would sound like having already got Easy Action and being familiar with the “Freak out” compilations (although originally I didn’t know that these were early Alice), so it wasn’t really a shock to me. I can totally understand why other’s don’t enjoy these two albums and even more so when they’re part of a catalog as diverse as Alice (and the group) have put out. PFY isn’t exactly a companion piece to Raise Your Fist and Yell.

[Agrophile in Texas]

I like Easy and adore Pretties, without irony, without apology, and it makes me happy when I find fans who feel the same.

Yeah, PFY is raw and lo-fi, but that's no sin, there are plenty of great lo-fi albums out there (Bee Thousand from GBV) and I'd put this among them.

I dig the songwriting and enjoy playing these tunes on my guitar. I get a kick out of the unconventional key changes, shifting time signatures, eccentricities or uniqueness in the chords. I like the overall inventiveness in that, and the performances, the oddities, like playing above the frets at one point. Now, I'm into music like this, early Devo, Red Krayola and others - I enjoy the avant-garde, psychedelia, etc - so Pretties suits my taste to a T.

All told, there's not a track I dislike, and I rank it among my all-time favorite Cooper records.

[pitkin88]

I could live happily without ever hearing these 2 albums again. Production and sound is atrocious on both. They could use these at Guantanamo Bay to get confessions.

Alice doesn't sound like Alice and the band went from being a tight beat combo to a sloppy mess of Frank Zappa wannabees. Thankfully, Ezrin and common sense was just around the corner.

[jacknifejohnny]

Love Easy Action, think PFY has a couple of decent tracks

[steven_crayn]

BTW, is there any info on the pre-Reflectex version of Elected? Last time I checked I don't think I could fund any info on the main site, but I could be wrong. It was floating around YouTube for awhile along with all those other ACG demos. It sounds like PFY-Era, but even rougher

The original ‘Elected’ by The Nazz that predated ‘Reflected’, happened when Nixon ran for president in 1968. 4 years later when Nixon ran again, the version as Alice Cooper reached #4 in Britain.

Nazz version
https://vimeo.com/207650671

[Daggers & Contracts]

Thanks for the link Steven. I like how the image of Glen was used in the fade out.
The Nazz version showed that the song needed some work.

[KeithGale]

I have a great fondness for PFY and EA, a friend of mine had it as a gift when it was released as School Days and hated it (he didn’t mention it at the time) so I bought it from him. I listened to it continuously, at the time I only owned Killer, I felt I had to put the listening time in to get anything out. During that period, I knew all the lyrics and all the quirks, oddly I never compared it to Killer, I just treated it as a different phase of Alice Cooper and one that I should try to understand. Because of the time I put into the album, it gave me the attitude that persists today with any new Alice release, I will understand, and I don’t always comprehend why the album has turned out the way it has, as an example, I liked Welcome 2 My Nightmare, but I was irked by the cover and a couple of what seemed throwaway songs, but gradually I started enjoying the album as whole and because of it, it has become my mantra that I don’t compare Alice albums, I just try to get inside the feel of what they are trying to do. I still have a soft spot for PFY and EA, but I could have so easily just dismissed it as a ‘tragic waste of plastic’ Ha!

[Logan]

Your feelings about Coop's first two albums?
What are your favorite tracks? ("Nobody Likes Me")

I found these albums way after listening to LITD up to WTMN albums. The first time I heard PFY I put it back on my shelf for months wondering what the hell did I just hear. Then gradually went back and listened to it but now I love this album as one of my favorites because it's so different from what I was use to. I first liked "Levity Ball" right away on first spin. Now this includes "Fields of Regret" and "Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio" but the whole album is just amazing to me. As for Easy Action album "Still No Air" and "Return of the Spiders" I loved then just like PFY I enjoyed the rest of the album. I often play these albums.