SickthingsUK

As mentioned on the newspage there will be a video/cd/10"vinyl out from this song.
What I really don't understand why they keep giving us the livesongs from Columbus.
Aren't their really better choices ?

Obscure choice for a single, IMO.

live version of Public Animal #9, what's bad about that?

Boring song. Fleudian slip.

A song from the ACG era that Alice wrote entirely himself, then ACG bassist Dennis Dunaway rediscovered it and updated it with Alice for his latest solo album. Quite an interesting history. I haven't heard the song yet but it will be interesting to reflect upon the quality of it when I do hear it.

Ted

Ted Sallis wrote:A song from the ACG era that Alice wrote entirely himself, then ACG bassist Dennis Dunaway rediscovered it and updated it with Alice for his latest solo album. Quite an interesting history. I haven't heard the song yet but it will be interesting to reflect upon the quality of it when I do hear it.

Ted

You haven't heard it yet???????????

mestreech wrote:You haven't heard it yet???????????

To explain (for those of you unaware): I am not now nor have I ever been a fan of 'Alice-solo'. Nothing I've heard that he's put out since 1975 has been good enough in quality to make me want to rush to listen to anything new he produces.

Ted

Ted Sallis wrote:

mestreech wrote:You haven't heard it yet???????????

To explain (for those of you unaware): I am not now nor have I ever been a fan of 'Alice-solo'. Nothing I've heard that he's put out since 1975 has been good enough in quality to make me want to rush to listen to anything new he produces.

Ted

I knew you felt that way and I mean no disrespect in my own thoughts, but I have a few. One, why are you (and no I don't think anyone wants you to leave. You contribute a lot)) on this board? It is one thing to like a certain era, but if you haven't liked anything in over 40 years, then new tours, new albums, etc isn't something that is going to interest you. Once again I mean no offense. I just know I used to be on an Ozzy Osbourne board because I was once a fan and now I am not. There is no right or wrong answer to best era(s)of Alice, but I can't imagine not at least giving new work a chance unless someone (not aimed at you) has a predetermined assumption of how an album is going to sound. Personally I wish Alice would do a heavier Brutal Planet like album again, but that is my only wish and unlikely to happen.

Two, I personally prefer solo Alice slightly to the original band (I know I will get slammed by someone) but I listen to it all and try to give each album a legitimate chance. The new album is much more old school (with some modern elements). I actually seem to be in the minority but while I think Paranormal has its moments with the exception of Along Came a Spider, it is my least favorite of the 2000 to present albums. I love talking Alice's entire career but if the discussion was only about the pre 1975 albums, I would get bored quickly because Alice has had such a long and great career.

Three, The Sound of A has a Pink Floyd like feel to it.If you are a fan of Floyd, I think most will like the track. If not, probably not so much (I think it is one of the stronger tracks on the new album).

I know my post is a bit of a ramble. I just think there are some great songs on every Alice album even the ones I don't like as much and encourage you to explore the entire catalogue. It is one thing to perfect a certain era, but I think (And this isn't aimed at anyone) when you only limit yourself to a certain period you are going to be disappointed more often than not. Times change, bands evolve, etc.

Fantastic vid and selection - Coop is very diverse musically - this is a great " other side " of Coop music to get out , Hope this means he will perform it live !!

cooperrocks wrote:I knew you felt that way and I mean no disrespect in my own thoughts, but I have a few. One, why are you (and no I don't think anyone wants you to leave. You contribute a lot)) on this board? It is one thing to like a certain era, but if you haven't liked anything in over 40 years, then new tours, new albums, etc isn't something that is going to interest you. Once again I mean no offense. I just know I used to be on an Ozzy Osbourne board because I was once a fan and now I am not. There is no right or wrong answer to best era(s)of Alice, but I can't imagine not at least giving new work a chance unless someone (not aimed at you) has a predetermined assumption of how an album is going to sound. Personally I wish Alice would do a heavier Brutal Planet like album again, but that is my only wish and unlikely to happen.

Two, I personally prefer solo Alice slightly to the original band (I know I will get slammed by someone) but I listen to it all and try to give each album a legitimate chance. The new album is much more old school (with some modern elements). I actually seem to be in the minority but while I think Paranormal has its moments with the exception of Along Came a Spider, it is my least favorite of the 2000 to present albums. I love talking Alice's entire career but if the discussion was only about the pre 1975 albums, I would get bored quickly because Alice has had such a long and great career.

Three, The Sound of A has a Pink Floyd like feel to it.If you are a fan of Floyd, I think most will like the track. If not, probably not so much (I think it is one of the stronger tracks on the new album).

I know my post is a bit of a ramble. I just think there are some great songs on every Alice album even the ones I don't like as much and encourage you to explore the entire catalogue. It is one thing to perfect a certain era, but I think (And this isn't aimed at anyone) when you only limit yourself to a certain period you are going to be disappointed more often than not. Times change, bands evolve, etc.

You're not the 1st person to ask me (and/or others here) why am I here when I only like ACG era material and/or another era, etc. To put it quite simply, if this website/these Forums were exclusively devoted to Alice's solo career, I quite certainly wouldn't be here. And yes I do understand that you weren't inferring that I/others should leave in asking your question.

I for one am not going to 'slam you' because you prefer solo Alice slightly to the original band, because that's your choice.

If you would get bored only discussing pre-1975 era material here, that's just the way you are; many others might feel the same way, but I'm sure that there are others like me (and this has also been discussed here before) who don't get bored only discussing the ACG era as there's so much for us to discuss.

Thanks for letting me know The Sound of A has a Pink Floyd like feel to it; I'm a particular fan of PF from when Roger Waters was with them. I'll try to discern that feel when I listen to the song.

Re. exploring the entire catalogue (and further to my previous explanation further above), I've heard quite a bit of that catalogue, certainly enough to draw my conclusion regarding the general quality of Alice's solo material, etc. And re. by only limiting myself to a certain period being disappointed more often than not, that ties in to what I just previously typed. The big disappointment I have is that the Original Group broke up and never fully reunited; I feel virtually no disappointment in limiting myself to listening to the Original Group era material only.

Ted

Wow! 2 Very good posts!
Both interesting to review.
Respect

It's a really good song, but I think it's the wrong choice for a single. It's too 'quirky' and atmospheric, and I can't really see it being played live

If it's a re-recording of an old song, I wonder if we will ever hear the original Alice Cooper Group version

I agree good song but not really single material, but then none of his last few singles have received much, if any, airplay so why not? As I understand it the song was only on cassette in very early demo version which Dennis kept.

Definitely a good post, Ted. You are right, if we only discussed the original band I would definitely get bored. I enjoy talking all eras of Alice and as I said, the original band is not my favorite era. Don't get me wrong. The original band is some good stuff, but I much more enjoy stuff like Dada, The Last Temptation, Brutal Planet, etc than the original stuff.I know it has been discussed before but it bares repeating, I think it depends on what you grew up on. I love the 70's but I grew up on 80's hard rock so I would rather listen to something like Raise Your Fist and Yell to the Muscle of Love. I prefer a guitar style like Kane Roberts or Nita Strauss to that of the original band (just personal preference).

I will put it this way. Any time I introduced Alice to a younger generation, I can usually get them to really like the more metal, hard rocking stuff but I seldom have any luck getting them to like much of the original band or even early solo Alice.

Concerning the Paranormal album, that is where I am torn because I tend to find myself (with a few exceptions) like the more modern sounding stuff on the new album like the song "Paranormal" more than something like "Dead Flies." The production on some of the songs I don't care for (that was my major issue with Along Came a Spider, potentially good songs but the production wasn't that good in my opinion), to me some of the tracks felt like a lack of progression while some of the songs were simply awesome.

For me, the tour this year was special because I enjoyed hearing "Pain" for the first time live and it was great to hear "The World Needs Guts" live again for the first time in about 30 years. I love it when he plays stuff you don't hear on tour every year.

dadascot wrote:As I understand it the song was only on cassette in very early demo version which Dennis kept.

There's a Blabbermouth article about the Premiere by Alice of the accompanying video for the song; it mentions in the article that Dennis updated the song with Alice for release on his last studio album so if the demo version dates from 1967 and the ACG played on it, it's too bad it didn't manage to emerge on the Old School box set.

I'd certainly like to hear the demo if it's an ACG recording from 50 years ago and I'm pretty sure a great many others here would like to as well.

Ted

I love the song and video, it's quirky and atmospheric Alice and I like that better than cliche horror Alice. The video is among my favorites of his entire career.

Thrilled at the choice of Sound of A but would have preferred Fireball, which is the best song on the album and when I play it for others they love it too. Fireball also tells a story that would be cool to portray on video.

But no complaints. Sound of A is my second favorite song on Paranormal and between the two songs it's why I'm so glad Dennis Dunaway was involved. His contributions make the album.

Ted Sallis wrote: I'd certainly like to hear the demo if it's an ACG recording from 50 years ago and I'm pretty sure a great many others here would like to as well.

I predict the original demo will have different lyrics and different song structure. As Alice moved in to his solo career his rock songs usually adopted a somewhat rigid structure (he even imposed this structure on Seven and Seven Is compared with the original version). The early song arrangements by the band were all over the place and I'll bet Sound of A was the same way.

I also think modern Alice added more of the violent lyrics (sound of a gun, etc) as he has moved towards a rigid horror caricature of himself ever since he got sober. To me early Alice (band years) had a broader image (more punk, more glam, more surrealistic) than later.

From Ted Sallis:
"so if the demo version dates from 1967 and the ACG played on it,"

Apparently, it was just Alice and an acoustic guitar.

>it's too bad it didn't manage to emerge on the Old School box set.

Nobody alerted us to the existence of this recording.

Thanks for your informative reply, cooperrocks. To let you know, I also grew up on 80's hard rock (to a certain extent). You state that you would rather listen to something like Raise Your Fist and Yell (more/rather than) Muscle of Love - I completely understand as that's your preference. Mine is the opposite. It's the same with the guitar styles and introducing Alice to a younger generation; regarding the latter, if they really like the more metal, hard rocking stuff Alice does as opposed to the ACG material, that's their preference too which could be based in part on their age, other music they listen to, etc.

I had to google "Dead Flies" as I wasn't sure if it was an Alice solo song or if you'd made an error and combined the song titles of 2 ACG songs from the Killer album. I see now that it's the former.

Ted

A_MichaelUK wrote:From Ted Sallis:
"so if the demo version dates from 1967 and the ACG played on it,"

Apparently, it was just Alice and an acoustic guitar.

>it's too bad it didn't manage to emerge on the Old School box set.

Nobody alerted us to the existence of this recording.

Thanks for letting me know as I was curious as to who was on the recording, and I figured that could be the reason for it not being on Old School but thanks also for confirming.

Ted

darkmenace wrote:I predict the original demo will have different lyrics and different song structure. As Alice moved in to his solo career his rock songs usually adopted a somewhat rigid structure (he even imposed this structure on Seven and Seven Is compared with the original version). The early song arrangements by the band were all over the place and I'll bet Sound of A was the same way.

I also think modern Alice added more of the violent lyrics (sound of a gun, etc) as he has moved towards a rigid horror caricature of himself ever since he got sober. To me early Alice (band years) had a broader image (more punk, more glam, more surrealistic) than later.

Thanks for your analysis of how Alice changed song composing and song structure-wise from the ACG to his solo career. Pretty much all of what you state seems quite accurate to me.

Ted