SickthingsUK

As times goes by, I find myself growing more and more fonder of "Goes To Hell". "Guilty" and "Wish You Were Here" are awesome rockers! ......But I still think "Chasing Rainbows" sucks! But I really like this album a lot! I'm guilty!

It was as disappointing a follow up as MOL was to BDB's. It also had two of the worst Alice songs to date: Gotta Dance and I Am The Coolest.

top album. i love I Never Cry and Wake Me Gently, the fun of GIve The Kid a Break, the dark humour of the title track. cracking stuff.

When I saw it on the shelf in 76, the recycled BDB photo for the cover was a let down.

evil syd wrote:As times goes by, I find myself growing more and more fonder of "Goes To Hell". "Guilty" and "Wish You Were Here" are awesome rockers! ......But I still think "Chasing Rainbows" sucks! But I really like this album a lot! I'm guilty!

Funny, I've gone the opposite way. It's got some good tracks but mostly it feels like a lion with its teeth pulled.

I love all eras of Alice and actually slightly prefer much of Alice's solo work to even the original band, but I always thought this was one of Alice's weaker albums at least compared to WTMN. There are a few really strong tracks on this album but I never thought the songs were there. It was a bit too mellow in too many spots for my personal liking and while Alice has always been about dark humor, most of these songs are more comedy than anything else.

I was introduced to this album by my older cousin, around the time of it's release. I only had to other AC records at the time. BDB and MoL, and I loved it. I thought it was a very wide ranging record and wasn't put off by You Gotta Dance at all. Still love this album but in retrospect I wish they would have worked in "IHT" (I read that it was written around that time) would have fit in and gave the album another heavier tune and drop one of the weaker tracks.

In my top ten. Cannot emphasize how excellent this album is. Great melodies, fond memories.

This album keeps creeping up my list of favorite Alice albums. The production is stellar! One of Ezrin's finest.

"I'm The Coolest" has always been one of my favorite Alice songs and contains one of my favorite Alice lyrics; "you can't leave a package like me sittin on no shelf".

I will agree that "You Gotta Dance" is the weak point of the album. I think it was written to be a part of the stage show, possibly to replace "Some Folks" for the dancing skeletons routine--which I think would have also have been a mistake.

"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" I always figured was Alice tipping his hat to vaudeville. I remember my father upon hearing me play this song ask "Is that Alice Cooper?" He then said "my God that was your grandmother's favorite song when she was younger!". My grandmother was born in 1899! Yes--she actually saw it performed in vaudeville houses!

For me 'Goes To Hell' would be in my top ten ACG / Alice solo recordings. Probably squeezing in at number ten!

Even though a radical departure from the ACG sound and a much softer tone compared to WTMN I personally think it highlights his talent in his writing ability and story telling accompanied by great lyrics within a wide diversity of songs and styles.

I agree there definitely appears a tip of the hat to vaudeville and Hollywood and 'You Gotta Dance' would never be at the top of my play list but as an album I think it is very underrated. A real shame that it never appeared in its entirety as a stage show such as WTMN as I think it could have been a visual delight and the songs and theme could have been demonstrated in a very 'Broadway' style show.

I love it. Honestly, I think the "storyline" is more cohesive than its predecessor and I really love the musical diversity. I don't mind "You Gotta Dance" and I love "I'm The Coolest". Those early years of Alice's solo career might be a bit on the cabaret end of the spectrum but I appreciate that Alice, Bob and Dick wrote without much regard for maybe what was expected.

padre_sliprat wrote:When I saw it on the shelf in 76, the recycled BDB photo for the cover was a let down.

was there a specific reason for that, rather than new art?

killer wolf wrote:

padre_sliprat wrote:When I saw it on the shelf in 76, the recycled BDB photo for the cover was a let down.

was there a specific reason for that, rather than new art?

No doubt cost played a part.

I always thought the back cover art would have made a great front cover as it would have represented the tone and style of the album much better than the garish green recycled Alice.

Alice has had many major album cover fails over his career including the new album Paranormal, while at the same time has given us some of the best like School's Out, Welcome To My Nightmare and Dada.

I can somewhat forgive the MCA covers as the material somewhat matches the covers and the budget was slim, b ut Goes To Hell was likely made with a great budget as Alice was coming off a huge success with WTMN.

But it could be the case that after Shep found away around Warner Bros to release WTMN on Atlantic, WB may have had the knives out for Alice. I often wonder if WB slowly pulled the rug out from Alice and tanked his career after that end around by Shep.

yeah WB tanked his career

It was no secret that the relationship between Shep and the label was never the best from day one. The WTMN end-around also deprived WB of one of Alice's most successful albums.

It's apparent that Alice's albums started becoming more uneven after WTMN and his personal life and addictions were also doing incredible harm to his career. I'm not blaming WB but I am saying that the label may have put up with another artist in similar circumstances had they had a better relationship.

It's my opinion that if WB had properly backed Flush The Fashion and dumped some money into it and heavily promoted ALice's new persona it could have been a huge hit and Alice could have navigated the early 1980s with ease. But then again--he was getting himself into some major problems with the freebasing. I think at that point, WB decided to pull the plug on a relationship that was never that great in the first place.

But in the end--it all comes down to money. Alice was no longer worth the investment considering the risk involved. He was becoming an unreliable wreck. To me the 1980-1983 years are my favroite period, but I think it would be safe to say that Alice would just rather forget them completely.

Thank God he turned it around. I'm sure WB was glad too as it has done wonders for the back catalog--especially the original band albums.

My take on GTH- Side 1 works great for me. Wouldn't change a thing. For Side 2, I'd definetly replace
"Give the Kid a Break" and "Chasing Rainbows" with two solid rockers. "Give the Kid..." seems like his first foray into his humorous/ silly side of songwriting. Just doesn't work for me. Some amazing and overlooked songs like "I'm Going Home" and "Didn't We Meet". Great production and engineering although some tracks have a bit too much reverb on the drums. As for the cover, I think the green tinted BDB-era photo works well and the back cover, as Mr. Barlow stated, would've been a great front cover. The hit single, "I Never Cry" is plain fantastic and contains one of the greatest lines ever written- "Sometimes I drink more than I need."

mr.barlow wrote:I always thought the back cover art would have made a great front cover as it would have represented the tone and style of the album much better than the garish green recycled Alice.

Alice has had many major album cover fails over his career including the new album Paranormal, while at the same time has given us some of the best like School's Out, Welcome To My Nightmare and Dada.

I can somewhat forgive the MCA covers as the material somewhat matches the covers and the budget was slim, b ut Goes To Hell was likely made with a great budget as Alice was coming off a huge success with WTMN.

But it could be the case that after Shep found away around Warner Bros to release WTMN on Atlantic, WB may have had the knives out for Alice. I often wonder if WB slowly pulled the rug out from Alice and tanked his career after that end around by Shep.

I think it would have turned people off. It was Alice with no make up and he looks a bit too nice. I think it was another attempt to change his image. 75 -76 we started seeing him tanned and even sporting a mustache. Then we had him without make up again on LAW.

"Mustache Alice" would make a great name for a band!