The Alice Cooper Show 1977

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Toronto Bob
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Re: The Alice Cooper Show 1977

Post by Toronto Bob » Sat Jan 30, 2021 12:13 am

cooperrocks wrote:
Mon Jan 25, 2021 11:33 pm
I never disliked that album, I just didn't think it had much edge. And I knew a few people who were into let's say KISS Alive (I was never a big KISS fan myself) and others that became fans of a band because of a live album. I know of a person or two whose first exposure to Alice was the Alice Cooper Show album and they just didn't think it rocked that much. One of those cases where the album cover looked tougher than the sound of the album. So they missed a lot of years of really knowing Alice's music, then some said years later when Alice came back with Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell they liked those albums and started checking out the earlier stuff and realized they really really liked all or most of it.
Some good points. Back in the seventies I was introduced to many artists through their live albums. KISS/Rush/Jethro Tull/Nugent. Those live albums had character and often when I eventually heard the original studio renditions of the songs - they sounded wimpy, not the powerful versions that appeared on the live record. I can't imagine anyone preferring the live versions of the songs found on TACS compared to their studio counterpart - with the notable exception of I'm Eighteen.

Toronto Bob
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Re: The Alice Cooper Show 1977

Post by Toronto Bob » Sat Jan 30, 2021 12:16 am

Ted Sallis wrote:
Sat Jan 23, 2021 9:22 pm
Toronto Bob wrote:
Tue Jan 19, 2021 7:55 am
...as is - I think of it as one of the 70's worst live albums by a major artist. Down there with Deep Purple's "Last Concert in Japan" and Black Sabbath's "Live at Last" technically an 80's live album but with recordings made in the 70's
I haven't heard Last Concert in Japan so I won't comment on that but I would consider Live at Last - although not originally a Group-sanctioned release - to be considerably superior to Alice's mid to late 70's live album. LAL was recorded in early 1973 near/at the tail end of Sabbath's tour in support of their Vol.4 album and though I've never considered it to be perfect, it was made in their prime period in the 70's and contains solid live versions of some of their great songs from that decade.

Alice's live album was recorded and released several years after what I consider his prime period in the 70's had ended and therefore contains several inferior songs from his solo career. In addition, he recorded the album with a band which (unlike LAL) hadn't written or played on the original studio versions of all of the songs - in particular, the ACG songs. So in my view, Alice's live album from the 70's can't compare to Sabbath's.

Ted
I was listening to the New Jersey 1975 concert in the car yesterday - I like that one much better, that would have made a great double live 1976 release and they could have given that the cool title of "We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll" :grin:

Paul
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Re: The Alice Cooper Show 1977

Post by Paul » Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:07 pm

I love live albums. The best ones contain versions of songs that are much better than the studio versions - Kiss Alive, Deep Purple Made In Japan, Hawkwind Space Ritual, Judas Priest Unleashed In The East etc Whereas The Alice Cooper Show the studio verions are better. If I want to listen to Child In Time or Highway Star I put on Made In Japan not In Rock or Machine Head. If I want to listen to Sick Things I listen to the Billion Dollar Babies studio version rather than the 61 second live version on The Alice Cooper Show.

On the subject of Black Sabbath's Live At Last, I think it's great. Rough and ragged, but that's how Sabbath sounded in the 70s.

Ted Sallis
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Re: The Alice Cooper Show 1977

Post by Ted Sallis » Sun Jan 31, 2021 6:24 pm

In some cases I very much prefer live versions of songs over the original studio recordings, i.e. those on Kiss Alive! In the case of Made in Japan and BDB, I really like both the live and corresponding studio renditions.

If the ACG had recorded and released a live album prior to going their separate ways, that may have delayed The Alice Cooper Show album from being released when it was. Of course if Alice had released a live album a few years later (in the early 80's) there's no guarantee it would have been much better.

Ted

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Si
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Re: The Alice Cooper Show 1977

Post by Si » Sun Jan 31, 2021 6:46 pm

Ted Sallis wrote:
Sun Jan 31, 2021 6:24 pm
Of course if Alice had released a live album a few years later (in the early 80's) there's no guarantee it would have been much better.
The Glasgow 1982 album would suggest it would have been.

But this makes me think, we actually DO now have an ACG live album (a few actually).

It's interesting to consider the way things have changed. Back in the 70s and into the 80s live albums were real moments in a bands career, and as has been said in several cases the absolute pinnacle of a bands career (Strangers In The Night, Live and Dangerous, CT at Budokan, Made In Japan etc).
Nowadays they're just fillers and have FAR less importance to an artists career. They are simply documents of a tour, often with a film, which are pretty much expected to appear at regular intervals - basically bonus revenue or a souvenir for fans (depending on your point of view).
They just aren't special any more, with YouTube allowing anyone to see a show whenever they want.

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Re: The Alice Cooper Show 1977

Post by Ted Sallis » Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:11 pm

Si wrote:
Sun Jan 31, 2021 6:46 pm
Ted Sallis wrote:
Sun Jan 31, 2021 6:24 pm
Of course if Alice had released a live album a few years later (in the early 80's) there's no guarantee it would have been much better.
The Glasgow 1982 album would suggest it would have been.

But this makes me think, we actually DO now have an ACG live album (a few actually).
I'm not familiar with the Glasgow 1982 album; if I heard it, my previous post above likely would have been different given Si's comment about that album. Yes, there are a few ACG live albums which cover different periods (Live at The Whiskey, Killer Live in St. Louis, most of the bonus tracks on CD 2 of the BDB Deluxe Edition). All of them were released long after the Original Group had disbanded - a live album released in 1974, for example, might have delayed the decision to release a live album by Alice in 1977.

I certainly agree that back in the 70's and part of the 80's, many landmark/pivotal live albums were released and yes, things have changed so much between now and then largely due to the advent of social media.

Ted

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