Along Came A Spider Prequel

TeresofBlood · Post by **TeresofBlood** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:27 pm

This album has been called a sequel to Welcome to My Nightmare, but many of the songs don't quite fit the context of what Along Came A Spider is. I started going through Alice's catalogue to look for songs that seem to develop a caricature of of a self-destructive and violent man.

Side A: The Descent
Only Women Bleed
Deeper
Bad Place Alone
You're My Temptation
The Black Widow (minus the first 10 seconds)

Side B: Insitutionalized
The Quiet Room
Inmates (We're All Crazy)
How You Gonna See Me Now
Years Ago
Steven
The Awakening

Only Women Bleed sets up the abusive relationship. Deeper is the beginning of his descent into madness. Bad Place Alone is his nightmare world. You're My Temptation is exactly what it sounds like. The Black Widow is the devil in this nightmare.

I was unsure of Inmates and the Quiet Room should be switched around, but those represent his stay in the institution. How You Gonna See Me Now is foreshadowing that his wife might not accept him when he comes home. Years Ago begins his relapse into insanity, which continues with Steven. The Awakening is where he regains control and realizes he has killed his wife.

Anyone find this interesting?

TeresofBlood · Post by **TeresofBlood** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 5:54 pm

It needs a better opening track and the ending needs a little kick. The Awakening is slightly anti-climactic. I also feel like there needs to be something between How You Gonna See Me and Years Ago.

A_MichaelUK · Post by **A_MichaelUK** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 6:50 pm

>This album has been called a sequel to Welcome to My Nightmare

By whom?

A_MichaelUK · Post by **A_MichaelUK** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 6:55 pm

>songs that seem to develop a caricature of of a self-destructive and violent man.
Deeper
Bad Place Alone

Your interpretation of those songs is wrong, I think.

TeresofBlood · Post by **TeresofBlood** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:03 pm

I had heard that in the promotion a while back. The lyrics were used in the promotion: "The horror that he brings, the horror of his sting" and "Only Everyone Bleeds".

Also, there is a tie-in to something from WTMN that I won't spoil if you didn't listen to it yet.

A_MichaelUK wrote:>songs that seem to develop a caricature of of a self-destructive and violent man.
Deeper
Bad Place Alone

Your interpretation of those songs is wrong, I think.

The whole point is that the context changes based on the arrangement of the songs. Deeper represents his descent and Bad Place Alone represents the dark place in his mind. "You're a natural killer in a bad place alone." The chorus is perfect for what I am aiming at here.

I'm not saying the songs are all about this, but in the context of the other songs, it begins to seem this way.

hywel · Post by **hywel** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:10 pm

TeresofBlood wrote:This album has been called a sequel to Welcome to My Nightmare, but many of the songs don't quite fit the context of what Along Came A Spider is. I started going through Alice's catalogue to look for songs that seem to develop a caricature of of a self-destructive and violent man.

Side A: The Descent
Only Women Bleed
Deeper
Bad Place Alone
You're My Temptation
The Black Widow (minus the first 10 seconds)

Side B: Insitutionalized
The Quiet Room
Inmates (We're All Crazy)
How You Gonna See Me Now
Years Ago
Steven
The Awakening

Only Women Bleed sets up the abusive relationship. Deeper is the beginning of his descent into madness. Bad Place Alone is his nightmare world. You're My Temptation is exactly what it sounds like. The Black Widow is the devil in this nightmare.

I was unsure of Inmates and the Quiet Room should be switched around, but those represent his stay in the institution. How You Gonna See Me Now is foreshadowing that his wife might not accept him when he comes home. Years Ago begins his relapse into insanity, which continues with Steven. The Awakening is where he regains control and realizes he has killed his wife.

Anyone find this interesting?

do you have a day job?

hywel · Post by **hywel** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:11 pm

[quote="A_MichaelUK"]>songs that seem to develop a caricature of of a self-destructive and violent man.
Deeper
Bad Place Alone

Your interpretation of those songs is wrong, I think.

for once i agree.

Si · Post by Si » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:15 pm

I don't think TeresofBlood is suggesting Alice wrote them with this in mind, but rather suggesting how they *could* be put together to tell an ongoing storyl
Applogies if I'm wrong.

TeresofBlood · Post by **TeresofBlood** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:18 pm

Si wrote:I don't think TeresofBlood is suggesting Alice wrote them with this in mind, but rather suggesting how they *could* be put together to tell an ongoing storyl
Applogies if I'm wrong.

Thank you. That is exactly what I meant. I didn't say the songs ARE ABOUT a dark and violent man. I said when put together seem to develop an appropriate backstory for Spider.

And YES, I do have a day job. I'm a computer technician and when everything is working, I have a great deal of downtime.

A_MichaelUK · Post by **A_MichaelUK** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:24 pm

>I had heard that in the promotion a while back.

My guess is that you didn't.

>Also, there is a tie-in to something from WTMN that I won't spoil if you didn't listen to it yet.

That may be true, but I still think you're mistaken when you say it was announced that this new album is "a sequel" to "Welcome To My Nightmare". If you (or anyone else) can cite the source, that would be helpful.

>I'm not saying the songs are all about this, but in the context of the other songs, it begins to seem this way.

If you put it that way, you can make anything mean anything.

glamprincess · Post by **glamprincess** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:41 pm

TeresofBlood wrote:I had heard that in the promotion a while back. The lyrics were used in the promotion: "The horror that he brings, the horror of his sting" and "Only Everyone Bleeds".

Also, there is a tie-in to something from WTMN that I won't spoil if you didn't listen to it yet.

The fact that promos have lines from WtMN and the character Steven gets mentioned again does not mean that it is the sequel to WtMN. I honestly don't think it was meant to be a sequel but a new album to stand on its own.

Swinger · Post by **Swinger** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:47 pm

A_MichaelUK wrote: >I'm not saying the songs are all about this, but in the context of the other songs, it begins to seem this way.

If you put it that way, you can make anything mean anything.

In my opinion that's a part of all music. Different people interpret songs differently and there's never a right or wrong interpretation unless the band/artist directly says what it's supposed to be about and even then you sometimes feel that your own interpretation makes more sense to you.

Feezle-Nuts · Post by **Feezle-Nuts** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:50 pm

Poison was also mentioned in the promos.

TeresofBlood · Post by **TeresofBlood** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:57 pm

It may not be a sequel but it is an album that encompasses the same character as Welcome To My Nightmare and it takes place in the same universe. Is that a sequel? I don't know? Perhaps it is just another chapter from a common novel.

A_MichaelUK wrote:If you put it that way, you can make anything mean anything.

That's the whole point. I wanted to create something unique. In the context of the songs that I chose, they can only be interpreted a certain way. That is what I wanted. They can mean whatever they want in the context of the albums they came from, but here they fit perfectly into the story that I am crafting.

A_MichaelUK · Post by **A_MichaelUK** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:20 pm

>Different people interpret songs differently and there's never a right or wrong interpretation unless the band/artist directly says what it's supposed to be about and even then you sometimes feel that your own interpretation makes more sense to you.

I agree, although with "Deeper", it's a bit of a stretch to do that since the lyrics refer to "we" and "we're" and not to an individual, like the protagonist that TeresofBlood is referring to.

A_MichaelUK · Post by **A_MichaelUK** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:21 pm

>It may not be a sequel

But you said it was.

> but it is an album that encompasses the same character as Welcome To My Nightmare and it takes place in the same universe.

So does "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell", if you put it that way.

> Is that a sequel? I don't know?

But you said it was. I guess you can't cite that source I asked for.

TeresofBlood · Post by **TeresofBlood** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:28 pm

A_MichaelUK wrote:>It may not be a sequel

But you said it was.

> but it is an album that encompasses the same character as Welcome To My Nightmare and it takes place in the same universe.

So does "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell", if you put it that way.

> Is that a sequel? I don't know?

But you said it was. I guess you can't cite that source I asked for.

I've never been an huge fan of Goes to Hell. That album is about Steven as well too? Steven plays a major role in ACAS.

I thought I remembered Alice saying in an interview that this album had the sound of Brutal Planet, but followed the story of Welcome To My Nightmare. I don't remember where. It was long before I actually heard the album.

A_MichaelUK wrote:I agree, although with "Deeper", it's a bit of a stretch to do that since the lyrics refer to "we" and "we're" and not to an individual, like the protagonist that TeresofBlood is referring to.

If Dragontown is about hell, then Deeper must be about the descent into hell. Therefore my interpretation could not be too far off.

Gorehound · Post by **Gorehound** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:42 pm

I think Alice mentioned in an interview the album would be 'a little closer to WTMN', summat like that. I don't remember him saying it was a sequel. That's just from memory.

A_MichaelUK · Post by **A_MichaelUK** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:30 pm

>I've never been an huge fan of Goes to Hell.

You don't have to be.

> That album is about Steven as well too?

Listen to it and you'll find out.

>I thought I remembered Alice saying in an interview that this album had the sound of Brutal Planet, but followed the story of Welcome To My Nightmare.

I think you may have misinterpreted what he said.

>If Dragontown is about hell, then Deeper must be about the descent into hell. Therefore my interpretation could not be too far off.

How do you explain the use of "we", then?

TeresofBlood · Post by **TeresofBlood** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:51 pm

This is getting fun. "We" works because Along Came A Spider leads us to believe that Spider shares a cell with Steven or he is Steven and is schizophrenic.

I have always believed the Schizo thing. It makes more sense. With that in mind, "we" works well, because Deeper would be the first time he begins to explore this alternate personality.

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