Muscle of Love Album released 40 years ago

[pitkin88]

My second AC record, BDB being my first. Had already read the Bob Greene book before I heard the album, so I was familiar with the titles of the tracks but never heard the music.

My initial 12 year old boy reaction was "good but nowhere near as awesome as BDB". But many repeated listens onward it grew on me and became a real appreciated "other side" to BDB.

I have no issue with Woman Machine. I think there's a really cool lazy/heavy riff in there and Neal's parts are fantastic. An Ezrin treatment would of been interesting.

My only dislikes are small - don't care for the outro on Teenage Lament and didn't like the sweetener (horns) on MWTGG.

I like the fact that they didn't try to make BDB Part II but with hindsight, yeah they should of taken a break after getting off the road in June of '73. Release a deluxe live album for Christmas of '73. and come back sometime in '74, refreshed and worked out a better MoL album.

Still lots of love for MoL but the weakest of the "big 5" records.

Agree on a lot of your points and a double live would have been great!!

[A_MichaelUK]

>The aura of danger, outrage, and rebellion was nearly gone.

That is probably because Michael and Dennis didn't want to be tethered to a theatrical concept (as Michael more or less put it) or be perceived as being Alice's backing band.

[mraliceone101]

i love mol.....in my opinion just as good as bdb.........crazy little child is in my top 20 alice songs of all time the coops voice is rich and perfect on this tune......"lay dying on the floor with a smokin 44....he said i must admit the winos were righttttt"......yeah....

[sickthing]

>The aura of danger, outrage, and rebellion was nearly gone.

That is probably because Michael and Dennis didn't want to be tethered to a theatrical concept (as Michael more or less put it) or be perceived as being Alice's backing band.

Dennis always disagrees with the argument that the band wanted to move away from the theatrical.

[A_MichaelUK]

>Dennis always disagrees with the argument that the band wanted to move away from the theatrical.

Yes. I meant to attribute to Dennis the second part of my statement.

[Ted Sallis]

>Dennis always disagrees with the argument that the band wanted to move away from the theatrical.

Yes. I meant to attribute to Dennis the second part of my statement.

Neal also disagrees with the 'band wanted to move away from the theatrical' argument and he also didn't want to be perceived as being Alice's backing band.

Ted

[A_MichaelUK]

>Neal also disagrees with the 'band wanted to move away from the theatrical' argument and he also didn't want to be perceived as being Alice's backing band.

I agree but I think you and sickthing have misunderstood my statement. The thread is about the "Muscle Of Love" album and I was responding to the statement that darkmenace made which was about that album, not the band's disintegration. Michael and Dennis did make the statements I attributed to them in relation to that album. Your second point is correct though.

[steven_crayn]

The Battle Axe album the guys (minus Glen who wasn't interested) went on to do and the four shows were very theatrical

Dennis

"It was the new Alice Cooper album and the new theatrical stage production. It had futuristic Gladiators who fought to the death with axe shaped guitars. Alice was to oversee the battle until one gladiator fell, and then he was to encourage the crowd to motion "thumbs down." And then he would use the plexiglass Battle Axe with a jagged blade on it's headstock to finish off the fallen warrior in a splatter of blood. And then the hydraulic boxing ring would slowly roll back into the dramatically lit fog.

But rehearsals proceeded without Alice. We tried to roll with the punches but as expenses mounted it slid into a matter of survival. Michael was forced to take on the lead vocals. And since we could no longer rely on Warner Bros. (who had made fortunes off us), we had to scramble for management and a record deal. And the Alice Cooper name, which we had invested our careers in building, was no longer working in our favor. It was working hard against us. So we had to decide if we should sue our best friend"

[Ted Sallis]

...Alice was to oversee the battle until one gladiator fell, and then he was to encourage the crowd to motion "thumbs down." And then he would use the plexiglass Battle Axe with a jagged blade on it's headstock to finish off the fallen warrior in a splatter of blood..."

I never knew about Alice having been included in the stage concept for the BDB Band before. Interesting!

Ted

[mestreech]

Indeed interesting. However I'm very glad that Battle Axe didn't became the next Alice Cooper Group album as I like it but it is not nearly as strong as the previous ones.

[pitkin88]

Indeed interesting. However I'm very glad that Battle Axe didn't became the next Alice Cooper Group album as I like it but it is not nearly as strong as the previous ones.

Yes but with Alice on vocals and some song rewrites it could have been elevated. I like it much better than the god awful Lace and Whiskey.

[evil syd]

Dennis always disagrees with the argument that the band wanted to move away from the theatrical.

I met Dennis a few months ago at Chiller theatre and we discussed the theatrics. He said that guillotine sequence was even his own invention. He claimed that he always wanted the theatrics. I think it was more of a personal thing that we, the audience, might never know. But then again, he could be bullshitting, LOL!
Btw, I love MOL......classic!

[A_MichaelUK]

>He claimed that he always wanted the theatrics.

I think it is more accurate to say that he probably did not want to put on a show in the style of "Welcome To My Nightmare", which is what Alice did want, so that's at least one creative difference.

>I think it was more of a personal thing that we, the audience, might never know.

There is some truth in that, but not between Alice and Dennis, though.

[Ted Sallis]

Indeed interesting. However I'm very glad that Battle Axe didn't became the next Alice Cooper Group album as I like it but it is not nearly as strong as the previous ones.

Yes but with Alice on vocals and some song rewrites it could have been elevated. I like it much better than the god awful Lace and Whiskey.

I agree with pitkin88, and I believe that even without Alice's involvement, the Battle Axe album is far superior to any Alice solo album.

Ted

[TodayMueller]

"The aura of danger, outrage, and rebellion was nearly gone"

Excactly my thoughts.
Songs like TL74 and MWTGG make Alice Cooper a mainstream band, imo.
There are a few gems on it, like BAD and MOL and I do give it a spin now and again.

Battle Axe is no better,though. Way too much "love" on it.
"love is Rather Blind", "Shine your Love", etc. Looks to me like MB's influence, lots of that stuff on his solo efforts too.
And the futuristic stage concept was just as "safe" as Alice's tuxedo and dancers.

Imo, the sleazy bad ass R&R image and progressive music died with BDB. Very sad.

[patrick]

"The aura of danger, outrage, and rebellion was nearly gone"

Excactly my thoughts.
Songs like TL74 and MWTGG make Alice Cooper a mainstream band, imo.

Imo, the sleazy bad ass R&R image and progressive music died with BDB. Very sad.

But is it realistic to suppose that Alice or anyone else would be able to keep up the image of Sleazy bas ass RR for more than 40 years ?
Alice often said that the strenght of Alice Cooper was the humour behind it, but in the beginning everyone only saw the dangerous aspects of it ..
Either he would have stopped very soon ( at 27 ?) or make it clear that it was but an image, a character and go on for fourty more years, be it that in doing so he couldn't but lose this bad ass image
only my two pence in this !

[Mr.Bluelegs]

Never Been Sold is pretty sleazy as is MOL. Ezrin is sorely missed in the production and fleshing out some of the ideas. e.g.- Hard Hearted should've sounded epic. Great song that needed something to push it to the level of Hello Hooray. Still love the album- just minor complaints. As for Battle Axe, too bad they couldn't have compromised and had Maurice Escargot wielding that battle axe with machine gun-toting chickens on roller blades.

[A_MichaelUK]

>But is it realistic to suppose that Alice or anyone else would be able to keep up the image of Sleazy bas ass RR for more than 40 years ?

That is exactly the right question to ask and the answer is no.

>or make it clear that it was but an image, a character

He was doing that as early as 1973 or so (maybe earlier) because he realised it wasn't something that could be maintained. As has been discussed here before, that is partly why he started appearing on "Hollywood Sqaures" and letting it be known that her played golf. It was a risk to do that and it did hurt his career for a while but ultimately, it extended his career.

[patrick]

>or make it clear that it was but an image, a character

He was doing that as early as 1973 or so (maybe earlier) because he realised it wasn't something that could be maintained.

exactly.
somehow he mentioned it in Hard Hearted Alice: that is what "you" want to see..
and he said it again several times in other songs as well..(FTI e.g.)

[TodayMueller]

"But is it realistic to suppose that Alice or anyone else would be able to keep up the image of Sleazy bas ass RR for more than 40 years ?"

No, it is not.
But for a few more, I'm sure. Alice kept on living hard for a number of years. Glen could have returned, he looks and sounds pretty damn good on the Virgin footage.

I just wish we would have had a few more of those insanely awesome albums and shows.