Which songs do you think just don't work well LIVE?

evil syd · Post by **evil syd** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 11:50 pm

Alice can perform any song and it is entertaining but certain songs just don't work as well when you're just listening to them live. Most of the time the Coop is quite successful!
Here are a few:
"School's Out": Why? good question, Syd! Well, I never thought the song works well without the kids. The children bashing the school gives it that edge. When it's live its sounds pretty mediocre. Maybe he should insert a kid soundtrack.
"Poison": I love that female chorus just giving that "aaaaaaaah". Guys singing "Poison" as a chorus loses the feel.
"Vengeance is Mine" Slash just owned that song.
"Feed My Frankenstein" another case where the guitarists in the studio version just owned it. The sound effects are quite cool too! The song works well visually so I never want it leave the set.
Frankencoop rules!

Daggers & Contracts · Post by **Daggers & Contracts** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:47 am

Everything he writes has good imagery and (for the most part) a good if not great story. It's involves the problem of presentation. How to incorporate all of the facets into a performance & make it exciting plus dovetail with the rest of the show. Whew!

evil syd · Post by **evil syd** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:51 am

Daggers & Contracts wrote:Everything he writes has good imagery and (for the most part) a good if not great story. It's involves the problem of presentation. How to incorporate all of the facets into a performance & make it exciting plus dovetail with the rest of the show. Whew!

but I'n talking in terms of sound.

Daggers & Contracts · Post by **Daggers & Contracts** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 2:08 am

evil syd wrote: but I'n talking in terms of sound.

Precisely why I never listen to an artists material the day I'm going to their show - raises your expectations of what it "should" sound like. Prime example - Judas Priest, their "Live" album Unleashed In The East put them on the map in America. After that their studio work didn't sound that much different than going to a show. Sure, they had the resources to make better albums and they did. A local radio station (back in the day) knew when a show was letting out of the Arena and would play a set of songs from that artist for the audience that was sitting in traffic leaving the show. Ever seen the video Heavy Metal Parking Lot??? Worth a search!

wind_up_toy · Post by **wind_up_toy** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 6:12 am

Cover songs!

darkmenace · Post by **darkmenace** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:55 am

This is just me but:

Welcome to My Nightmare - I like the studio version more than just about any version I've heard live.
Hello Hooray - Maybe I've never liked a live version because he has never played the whole song.
Go To Hell - Again studio version always trumps live version.
Special Forces
Brutal Planet

On the other hand I think some songs are enhanced one way or another live. My favorite live Alice song is Billion Dollar Babies. Others are:
Dirty Diamonds (solid live song)
Poison (a great live song)
Eighteen (I loved the original band versions with long guitar parts and loved Alice changing the words: "Mom and Dad's got me drinking beer...or whiskey")

recoop · Post by **recoop** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:56 am

The only song I have heard Alice play live that I didnt think cut it live was "the world needs guts" in about 1986 at Wembley (not keen on the recorded version either)...I would have paid extra to hear ACs current line up do the complete version of Hello Hurray (probably my favourite song of all time and I love the middle float away guitar section which is never played)...I am not keen on Feed My F live musically and am not keen on the Hammer Horror excess theatrics on that one for some reason...When I last went to an Alice concert was amazed at clones with the technical progress allowing the continual feedback/echo? sound (feedback/echo not correct term)..99% plus has worked for me live which is nice to reflect on.

While Heaven Wept · Post by **While Heaven Wept** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:15 am

Poison - Alice struggles with the high notes and sings an alternative melody on the chorus.

Teenage Lament - Way too high for Alice now, see Fistful of Alice.

Brutal Planet - The band has always played this too fast. See Brutally Live.

It's The Little Things - Feels a bit rushed and Alice sounds out of breath.

All in my opinion ofcourse. I could list so many songs that Alice performs fantastically.

Crazy Little Child · Post by **Crazy Little Child** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 12:06 am

A couple of folks have already mentioned "Poison", and i would agree. Most of the Trash stuff, in fact, with all it's slick keyboards & backing vocals tends to sound pretty weak live (having recently watched "Trashes The World"... where he even employed a female backing vocalist for those songs, but it still didn't really float).

evil syd · Post by **evil syd** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:28 am

wind_up_toy wrote:Cover songs!

I also agree on that. Why mess with perfection? Lemmy told me that when I asked him if he would ever cover Hendrix songs.I wasn't too crazy about Coop's tribute set from the last tour. I prefer his own material. Although, I did like his recent version of "Hello Hurray" live.

wind_up_toy · Post by **wind_up_toy** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:32 pm

I consider Hello Hooray to be an Alice Cooper song.

dadascot · Post by **dadascot** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:50 pm

For me sex death and money, gimme ( although I liked it in the album) and wicked young man don't work so much live. I liked the covers last year but the two songs that worked really well live were caffeine and he's back.

darkmenace · Post by **darkmenace** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 6:45 pm

Generally I agree about Gimme but my favorite version was live at Montreux.

wind_up_toy · Post by **wind_up_toy** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:42 pm

Hey Stoopid didn't work for me live either.

Inmate · Post by **Inmate** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 3:11 pm

wind_up_toy wrote:I consider Hello Hooray to be an Alice Cooper song.

Same. The main song I can think of is Poison, because of the backing vocals.

AlongCameASpider27 · Post by **AlongCameASpider27** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:31 pm

I am the opposite...I feel that there are certain songs that sound better live than the studio recording and for me the best example is Dirty Diamonds...LOVE that one live...especially the Theater of Death DVD recording...its the best...so much energy behind it!

evil syd · Post by **evil syd** » Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:14 am

AlongCameASpider27 wrote:I am the opposite...I feel that there are certain songs that sound better live than the studio recording

I never said that I didn't find some songs better live. For example, "I'm Eighteen" live at Montreux. "Devil's Food" on Theatre Death. There are lots of them! I just find it would be more interesting to list the songs that aren't so good live, hence this thread.

HORRORHOLIC · Post by **HORRORHOLIC** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:35 pm

I completely disagree with Schools Out and Go To Hell. I've always liked Schools out better live. I've never really liked the studio version of Go To Hell all that much, but the live version is always one of my favorites.

I do agree with Feed My Frankenstein. It usually just sounds really off in my opinion. I used to not care much for the live version of Poison but I like the way it's sounded for about a decade or so now.

On a side note, one song I always felt sounded much better live (and a song I love anyway) is Pick Up The Bones. It literally gave me chills listening to it and I was edited it out of the Brutally Live cd!!

evil syd · Post by **evil syd** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:07 am

HORRORHOLIC wrote: Ir was edited it out of the Brutally Live cd!!

Dude, I agree with you about "Go To Hell", and it is a shame about "Pick up the Bones" because it is a brilliant song. I would love to see him put that right back into his set.

darkmenace · Post by **darkmenace** » Mon Apr 07, 2014 4:03 am

I also thought Pick Up the Bones was a good live song and good theatrical piece which might be played again on a future tour.

Which songs do you think just don't work well LIVE?

Which songs do you think just don't work well LIVE?

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