is It Time For Alice To Experiment A Bit Like Bowie?

[pitkin88]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw

This is a very hard slog at 10 mins ( or even at 2 mins ) but would you prefer Alice to try something different than the current covers and re visiting albums? At this point there is not much to lose. He really doesn't play much off any recent albums he releases anyway.

[mestreech]

I don´t think Alice should do that. His fans wouldn´t like it.
I also would like Alice to play different sets but Alice does experimental / NO

[jacknifejohnny]

Hard work that, an understatement Pitkin, thing Bowie was done after StationToStation. Don't think he ever recovered his mojo after that Tin Machine project.Saying that, I think that he has an aura about him that Alice doesn't. Maybe the answer to your question is somewhere inbetween, Bowie went off to far and maybe Alice became to commercial, in trying to follow current trends. Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins come to mind in the same manner, loved Gabriel, but he's been hard work over the last decade or more where Collins turned to the pop world.

[jacknifejohnny]

.....and yes, I do think he should mix it up more, although I always come away from his recent shows, 3 years or so, feeling I've seen a good show, there is always that niggling feeling in the back of my mind saying "IT'S TIME TO CHANGE IT UP", not a couple of songs here and there, but the whole show, but as time is clicking away, my choice would be a new album and a small theatre tour with the original band, greedy sod ain't I. think I might have gone off the topic a bit here .

[patrick]

personally I don't think so : David Bowie aka Ziggy aka Aladin Sane aka The thin white duke aka so many other things and styles that everyone thinks something else when hearing DB..
Alice stands for...Alice !
The times he did something "else" wasn't always accepted well, even by his fanbase..He still delivers what people expect him to do, even with the Hollywood Vampires (which I like) he's still Alice...
just my opinion of course.

[pitkin88]

I don´t think Alice should do that. His fans wouldn´t like it.
I also would like Alice to play different sets but Alice does experimental / NO

Well there are fans who like the early psych, the hard rock and the dumb metal. Maybe it's time to try some new stuff. I'm not suggesting he try Bowies 10 minute dirge but maybe step off the beaten track a bit. I really liked the Hallows Grave with Blue Coupe which harkens back to the 70's. I'd really like an album with out comedy songs.

[mr.barlow]

I'd love for him to resurrect the Special Forces era character and look. Alice now nearing 70 it would make for an extremely disturbing visual.

Just the thought of him doing "I Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills" in that get up in 2016 would be something to see.

The one project that I would like him to do is a complete video production for Dada. One that is heavy on weirdness. surrealism and the avante garde.

[jettrainfan]

The one project that I would like him to do is a complete video production for Dada. One that is heavy on weirdness. surrealism and the avante garde.

I've had a similar idea, but it would be in the style of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" where there is minimal talking and the story is told through the songs.

[recoop]

Referring back to original question,Alice has experimented a fair bit in his career musically- e.g. DaDa, Special Forces, Lace and W with indiviuals songs from I'm Always Cnsing Rainbows to Brutal Planet to Crazy Little Child. I think the difference is that Alice Cooper has always been the central concept and that is not going to change. Bowie(whose music I generally like) has chosen to have many different characters and is a better poseur( I don't mean this negatively- It's show business). Alice references vaudeville, surrealism and one or two other movements where Bowie has swallowed a dictionary of the avant garde. I wouldn't want Alice to experiment a bit like Bowie and in this particular video example definitely not. Good question though.

[patrick]

Somehow Bowie manages to stirr up things with whatever he does : when The Next day came out, you simply could not not know it. It was a subject even in the regular, non music press.
Looking at the singles Alice produced in the latest years, I sometimes had the feeling that he (and his management ) just didn't care that much.
Of course we are biased, but there have been several potential hits on different records that just weren't released or pushed as singles.. ( again, potential hits in my opinion of course..) Love is a loaded gun seems to have been a single, but I never ever heard it on the radio, eg.
So I don't think Alice would get the same amount of attention if he went experimental...

[concolz]

DB's new song is 'Low'-meets-Radiohead; po-faced artyfartiness. In its own way, every bit as predictable as AC's 'classic' rock on 'HVs'.

Would I like Alice to 'experiment'? Yes. But it's not going to happen. Alice is locked into a particular modus operandi, and that will now play out until the final nightmare. Take it or leave it. (I've chosen the latter.)

[Maaki]

Bowie experiences almost a fashion industryesque like worshipping be default. Whatever he does is always miraculous. Not many people have the freedom he has.

Alice should in my opinion experiment. He has been very good at changing directions all through his career. I do not know him personally so I only have a feeling that this is due to his superb intelligence that makes him versatile as well as adept at different things and furthermore able to feel what is working at the time. For this reason I like Trash whereas many others don't, at all.

I think Alice would do great jumping straight to 2010's. Unfortunately as others have pointed out some or even many of his fans wouldn't like it, since guitar based rock is dead and well cold in 2010's commercially and - well - artistically as much as rock ever was art to begin with.

My guess is Alice would do great - and I mean chart topping great - in a collaboration with a current top producer-DJ. Far lesser artists have.

[Swinger]

Somehow Bowie manages to stirr up things with whatever he does : when The Next day came out, you simply could not not know it. It was a subject even in the regular, non music press.

The Next Day managed to get a lot of press since it was his first album in 10 years and it was suddenly announced when there had been no indication that he ever planned on returning to music. No interviews about making the album before it was announced, nothing. Same thing with Blackstar as far as I know, suddenly announced. Add in the fact that he doesn't tour, and haven't in over 10 years, with makes him even more elusive.

If Alice quit touring and didn't relase music for 10 years then maybe he'd get better press as well, but would we really want that?

[darkmenace]

If Alice quit touring and didn't release music for 10 years then maybe he'd get better press as well, but would we really want that?

No, it wouldn't be the same. Bowie is respected by a broader base of people as an artist. "Where Are We Now?" was a pensive song with an interesting video. It retained Bowie's aura of mystique which Alice does not have.

Alice has become a lovable gimmick to most people. This is one of the reasons that Hollywood Vampires didn't have much impact. Music fans in general aren't interested in Alice's covers of song because they don't think of Alice as a musician, but as a showman.

Back to topic, I've wanted to see Alice evolve for a long time, and he makes minor changes here and there. He seems very comfortable with his image as-is and he'll probably ride it into the sunset.

[Babysquid]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw

This is a very hard slog at 10 mins ( or even at 2 mins ) but would you prefer Alice to try something different than the current covers and re visiting albums? At this point there is not much to lose. He really doesn't play much off any recent albums he releases anyway.

Yes I'd like him to do something out of the box. I actually really like that DB song.

[A_MichaelUK]

From patrick:
"Looking at the singles Alice produced in the latest years, I sometimes had the feeling that he (and his management ) just didn't care that much."

Which ones are you referring to? Generally, it's record companies that decide that.

>Love is a loaded gun seems to have been a single, but I never ever heard it on the radio, eg.

Which country are you referring to? It was a small hit in some places and besides, things had already started to change by then (in America) for the reason that has already been mentioned.

[patrick]

you're right, I still overestimate the importance of radiostations..
Alice has always been well received here (belgium, ie) , but I guess the latest single I heard must have been Hey Stoopid..

[Swinger]

If Alice quit touring and didn't release music for 10 years then maybe he'd get better press as well, but would we really want that?

No, it wouldn't be the same. Bowie is respected by a broader base of people as an artist. "Where Are We Now?" was a pensive song with an interesting video. It retained Bowie's aura of mystique which Alice does not have.

Fair point, but that aura of mystique was certainly helped by disappearing from the musicbiz for 10 years.

[Saint&Sinner]

I think alice experimenting is always good. I think if he soaked up some more of the European metal scene he could put it through the "alice lens" and twist it into something that works for him.
As mentioned i think alice can experiment but probably not to the lengths bowie did.
I think the issue is that alice has a comfortable band and not an exciting one that will challenge him and bring out the best of him like kane back in the 80's or dick in the 70's.
His band are too safe, the setlist is safe the style they play is safe (classic rock and roll) i prefer it when he shakes up the style like in the 80's and 90s and what he should have done in the 2000's but failed to do so.

Also in terms of singles the no brainer single for welcome 2 my nightmare should have been what baby wants. Its great and if he had a super sexy/dark video that could have been huge. My 2 girls hate my music for the most part but they listen to that song independently of me, their friends like it too! a real missed opportunity there.
Instead we have the safe and boring bite your face off.

Imagine what alice could do with jeff loomis or john 5 someone like Gus G. Any of these guys could really make something special with alice.
As much as i like Tommy tommy tommy and chuck (not seen/heard nita yet so no idea what she brings to the table) they need to get fresh blood in there and then let the write with him and bob ezrin.

[darkmenace]

Also in terms of singles the no brainer single for welcome 2 my nightmare should have been what baby wants. Instead we have the safe and boring bite your face off.

I agree. Seeing where Kesha and Alice were friends, she would have agreed to participate in a video. So many videos were made for ACAS, which for me wasn't a good album, it's too bad there weren't any moody, atmospheric ones for W2MN, which had far greater sales potential.