The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

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VinceRaven
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The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by VinceRaven » Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:07 pm

Unless someone on here wins a colossal amount of lottery money, this has no chance of ever happening. However, if such a thing ever did see the light, what could be in it?

The obvious things would be the four albums remastered plus the El Paso and Glasgow Apollo gigs.

On DVD or Blu-ray (Haha!) the Capitol Theatre gig & French TV Special, with a few other TV clips thrown in such as the Tom Snyder Show and the Riverside interview.

A delicious booklet of interviews with people who were there at the time and rare and unseen photos.

Anything else?

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by Si » Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:15 pm

Reproduction 'For Britain Only" 12" in the vinyl box?
Zipper advert in good quality
There's also some demos from the period that should be in the archives. Not sure if there are any unreleased songs, but there are demos of some of the album songs.

You could put together a really nice set if there was any money in it.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by VinceRaven » Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:59 pm

Si wrote:
Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:15 pm
Reproduction 'For Britain Only" 12" in the vinyl box?
Zipper advert in good quality
There's also some demos from the period that should be in the archives. Not sure if there are any unreleased songs, but there are demos of some of the album songs.

You could put together a really nice set if there was any money in it.
Demos?! That sounds very interesting. From which album(s) are they.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by Si » Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:03 pm

VinceRaven wrote:
Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:59 pm
Si wrote:
Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:15 pm
Reproduction 'For Britain Only" 12" in the vinyl box?
Zipper advert in good quality
There's also some demos from the period that should be in the archives. Not sure if there are any unreleased songs, but there are demos of some of the album songs.

You could put together a really nice set if there was any money in it.
Demos?! That sounds very interesting. From which album(s) are they.
SF, Zipper at least. Possibly FTF as well. I know a couple exist so I assume there are probably a few more. How interesting they may be is another matter.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by VinceRaven » Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:14 pm

Si wrote:
Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:03 pm
VinceRaven wrote:
Sat Mar 21, 2020 9:59 pm
Si wrote:
Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:15 pm
Reproduction 'For Britain Only" 12" in the vinyl box?
Zipper advert in good quality
There's also some demos from the period that should be in the archives. Not sure if there are any unreleased songs, but there are demos of some of the album songs.

You could put together a really nice set if there was any money in it.
Demos?! That sounds very interesting. From which album(s) are they.
SF, Zipper at least. Possibly FTF as well. I know a couple exist so I assume there are probably a few more. How interesting they may be is another matter.
Cheers. Interesting enough to please fans of the period I'd wager.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by pitkin88 » Sun Mar 22, 2020 1:31 am

Hi Vince. I started a similar thread aways back but seeing as we are all in quarantine...

The Special Forces acetate has a lot of different mixes. A few of the 45's from this period have different mixes: I Am The Future is one. It's oddly never been established if the mono singles are true mono mixes or stereo fold downs. It's well worth having a look at the discography here especially the 45's.

The two songs from Monster Dog probably should be included. Not sure if he was sober then but they were similar in tone to The Black Out Years.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by pitkin88 » Sun Mar 22, 2020 1:41 am

I wish I had my vinyl available but I dont. A clean ending to Talk Talk would be nice without the bleed in to Clones.

Who Do You Think We Are has 2 diff versions.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by pitkin88 » Sun Mar 22, 2020 1:44 am

The intro or part of the intro used at the Special Forces live shows would be great to have.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by mestreech » Sun Mar 22, 2020 4:20 pm

pitkin88 wrote:
Sun Mar 22, 2020 1:44 am
The intro or part of the intro used at the Special Forces live shows would be great to have.
I hope that intro is on the forthcoming 2 vinylset from Glasgow.
I really like your idea of a Blackout box.
However the chances are almost zero as Alice /managment / recordcompany have NO interest in making money (or losing) from archival releases.
I do hope the RSD Glasgowset will sell good and I know from the recordstore owners overhere in the Netherlands that this title is well pre-ordered so there is maybe little hope.
I still find it very strange that very small labels can make profit from obscure titles with great reissues (complete with demo's / unreleased stuff and video). But they put out boxes with nothing fancy and useless in it.
Nobody is waiting on stickers / posters / reprints of a programm etc. Just give us a nice book(let) and the music and the fan will pay for it.
There are demo's, different acetatemix from SF etc and all in possesion of WB and/or Alice so what's the big deal here.
If you see the boxes of Fleetwood Mac all offered for a very reasonable price and they have all in it so it is possible.
Maybe if I win the big jackpot but it is a shame that his legacy is so poor treated.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by Dannorama » Sun Mar 22, 2020 5:16 pm

Well, that's five of us who are in. Sounds like a green-light to me. Not sure what the hold-up is...? :8):
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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by pitkin88 » Sun Mar 22, 2020 6:20 pm

Paging Mr Barlow.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by Toronto Bob » Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:56 am

mestreech wrote:
Sun Mar 22, 2020 4:20 pm
it is a shame that his legacy is so poor treated.
I agree

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by mr.barlow » Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:21 pm

I'm here in quarantine which gives me enough time to gasbag it on this one!

First off, I I were to hit the Powerball megamoney lottery I will promise everyone on this site that I will spend whatever is necessary to get this done. It's been my mission since I was a mere lad and a beardless youth to find out everything there is to know about these albums and their creation, recording, the tour, etc.

Everything I've read posted by others is right on the mark and should be included. But I would try and make this as definitive as possible. However, the problem with this is the loyalty people who worked with Alice have to him and getting them to open up.

We all know this was an awful period in Alice's personal life and career and reading between the lines it's a period he would just as well forget.

All of the people involved from 1980-1983 are still around with the exception of Erik Scott and Dick Wagner.

Erik had a treasure trove of info from SF and especially Zipper. Most of it was not too flattering looking at it from today's perspective. The SF tour from all accounts was an absolute insane undertaking and just sheer madness. I don't think that those anecdotes will ever see the light of day out of respect for Alice.

At any rate, Duane Hitchings was brought in to be Alice's writing partner for SF and it ended up not going as planned as Alice's work habits were suffering. Thus quite a few of the songs on the album being leftovers from FTF, and the fake "live" Generation Landslide added to it to fill up a side. To get an interview with Duane about how they went into the project, how the songs unfolded and how it all started to fall apart would be the ultimate "get" for any full documentation of the album. Mike Pinera is still going strong but I think he had limited input on writing the album, however, he did co-write the best song on the album, "Vicious Rumors".

I have shared a lot of the info I got over the years about Zipper in this forum over the last few years. It was ROCK BOTTOM for Alice. I have never heard anyone other than Wagner talk publicly about what went on during this time, and now that Erik Scott has passed away I'm guessing we never will hear anymore. Also, it's my opinion that anyone still around associated with that album would not say a word out of respect for Alice.

Which brings us to Dada. Alice's masterpiece. For all intents and purposes there were three people involved in making that album. Alice, Wagner and Ezrin. I don't think Alice will ever go into detail about it, Wagner is gone which leaves Ezrin.

If a box set were to ever be released it would be imperative to include the Wagner Podcast in which he goes into detail about the album and songs. That is the holy grail of info about that album (at least at present). THANK GOD those guys got him to open up about it before he passed away. Also, I would include the parts in Wagner's book that details how the album came about, was written and recorded.

That leaves Ezrin. He was responsible for getting the whole thing together and getting it finished. Of all of the great music and albums Ezrin was responsible for with Alice Cooper (both original band and solo), this is the ONE album I would love for him to go into expansive detail and giving us everything he could.

I'm hoping as time continues to elevate this album to getting the respect it deserves that mindsets will change and we can get some more info from those involved who are still with us. Now If I do win that billion dollar lottery I will pay (or bribe) anyone who will take the money to talk. That includes Alice and Shep.

But I'm in quarantine and can't get out to buy a ticket so it will have to wait at least another week or so!

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by pitkin88 » Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:55 pm

Unlike a lot of artists who have been addicted to hard drugs, I think Alice still feels a lot of shame about what He did to himself and his family. His young children saw him like this which is just appalling. He looked very uncomfortable when Steve Jones mentions blow when interviewing him on Jonseys Jukebox.

I believe a limited box set could sell enough to make a profit and with all, bar Monster Dog, being on Warner it shouldn't be a mammoth task. I do wish Alice had a curator as the work certainly deserves more than a casual repress with little or no additions.

As well as Wagner's quotes I would love to hear from Ezrin and RTB. He'll i would love to hear from anyone involved.

The bottom line for me is the music. Yes the drugs were a big part of it but they shouldn't overshadow things. He took on the alcohol abuse with FTI ( although in a very watered down and whimsical way ) so there could be hope. More likely we might see this happen when Alice is no longer with us.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by mestreech » Tue Mar 24, 2020 12:23 am

I think a lot of us fans would like to be Alice's curator for free.We are not in it for money just to get more music and give Alice and the ACgroup the legacy they deserve.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by pitkin88 » Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:12 am

Agreed!

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by VinceRaven » Tue Mar 24, 2020 11:14 am

Totally agree with the point that we're paying the price for Alice being one of the most popular people in the industry. Nobody wants to embarrass, shame or upset him, which is understandable and commendable.

That combined with the very bad feelings he still so clearly has about that period means we're never likely to hear much more about it.

It's a real disappointment for those amongst us that have a passion for that era but there you go.

Would be nice if any existing demos were to be unleashed though. Alice has stated that he's proud of lyrics from that time and does seem to appreciate that there are those of us that love those albums, so maybe one day.

Maybe one Record Store Day?

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by pitkin88 » Tue Mar 24, 2020 5:01 pm

I was wondering about trying to reach out to some people to see if we could ask some questions. Richard Podolar is 84! He has a website but it's so old in makes the shiny dime look state of the art.

Bill Cooper, who engineered Special Forces, might be an option.

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by mr.barlow » Wed Mar 25, 2020 5:16 pm

pitkin88 wrote:
Tue Mar 24, 2020 5:01 pm
I was wondering about trying to reach out to some people to see if we could ask some questions. Richard Podolar is 84! He has a website but it's so old in makes the shiny dime look state of the art.

Bill Cooper, who engineered Special Forces, might be an option.
You're a bad man. A very bad man!

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Re: The Blackout Box - Wishful Thinking

Post by Si » Wed Mar 25, 2020 5:30 pm

If Anyone wants to try and do interviews with any of these guys I'm happy to post up the results with the other interviews. Just saying.... :)

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