The Lace and Whiskey Era

[tuneylune]

I actually like "Ubangi Stomp"

I feel a ban coming....

Sorry about that

[Ted Sallis]

Awhile ago I listened to Ubangi Stomp and 2 or 3 other songs on L&W; to me the former song sounded awful but the other songs, while not good weren't as bad as I expected them to be. As an apology has been made, perhaps tuneylune can be given a 'suspended sentence?'

Ted

[Shoesalesman]

I actually like "Ubangi Stomp"

I feel a ban coming....

[Babysquid]

I wasn’t there at the time so have no contemporary experience of it however and old workmate told me how Alice had gone from originally being perceived as genuinely subversive to, by the late seventies, being seen as no more dangerous than an episode of Scooby Doo.

[revinkevin]

That sums it up rather nicely.

[Toronto Bob]

I got the album a couple years after it came out and essentially my distaste for the album as a whole remains. It has some moments like IHT/RR/L&W I even like Damned if You Do and King of the Silver Screen, but there are too many weak tracks and the production is just too glossy, like adult contemporary music. Not sure if a re-mix would cure its' ills.

At the time of the album's release and the subsequent tour I recall my older cousins had kind of had it with Alice. His Hollywood Squares stuff didn't help matters. That tour didn't sell out either - Alice fan support, just like his music, was going soft. I absolutely loved Goes to Hell, L&W was the first album of Alice's that I didn't love - I tried but just couldn't get there.

Looking back, take the title track and It's Hot Tonight (I think they were written at the time of GTH) and put them on Goes to Hell and scrap L&W the album completely would have been a better choice.

[Agrophile in Texas]

I bought it on the day of its release and was so, so let down. And despite giving it chance after chance over the decades, it's still a nope for me.

It's over produced (I'd call it the worst work Ezrin's ever done (that I've heard), except that I own Amazon Beach, and yowch!), but even the tunes I've heard live or redone, striped of that gunk, don't do a lot for me; so, I have issues with the songwriting.

The first 3 tracks I'm apathetic to - I flat out dislike Damned if You Do, King of the Silver Screen, Ubangi Stomp and (No More) Love at Your Convenience. Only the 2 ballads at the end are enjoyable, but again, the production... I would have rather had Alice's voice up front, the choir, behind him, on "My God", for example.

I was okay with this period overall, I like ballads. I was listening to Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel in the 60s and enjoy songs like "Never My Love" from the Association, so it wasn't that much of a stretch for me to get into those slower ones, and Coopers solo 70s LPs overall. The other 3 releases I number as favorites, but L&W, from the producing to the songwriting, leaves me cold.

[cooperrocks]

I bought it on the day of its release and was so, so let down. And despite giving it chance after chance over the decades, it's still a nope for me.

It's over produced (I'd call it the worst work Ezrin's ever done (that I've heard), except that I own Amazon Beach, and yowch!), but even the tunes I've heard live or redone, striped of that gunk, don't do a lot for me; so, I have issues with the songwriting.

The first 3 tracks I'm apathetic to - I flat out dislike Damned if You Do, King of the Silver Screen, Ubangi Stomp and (No More) Love at Your Convenience. Only the 2 ballads at the end are enjoyable, but again, the production... I would have rather had Alice's voice up front, the choir, behind him, on "My God", for example.

I was okay with this period overall, I like ballads. I was listening to Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel in the 60s and enjoy songs like "Never My Love" from the Association, so it wasn't that much of a stretch for me to get into those slower ones, and Coopers solo 70s LPs overall. The other 3 releases I number as favorites, but L&W, from the producing to the songwriting, leaves me cold.

Good post. I have said for years the two albums I would like to hear remixed are Constrictor and Lace and Whiskey. With Constrictor, I would love to hear that album with real drums. With Lace and Whiskey, I would like to hear Alice's vocals brought up and a remix of the instruments, turn the guitars up a notch.

[Dannorama]

Since we are talking about that era, let's go back one album and discuss "Goes to Hell." This has always been W2MN to me. They even go as far as referencing Steven on the sleeve. Regardless, I think the album stands up pretty well. In the plus column, we have Alice doing some big vocal work, the instruments sound great, and half of the songs are pretty good. Minuses? Jettison that damn percussionist. He overplays everything, and he's way too loud. This album came at a good point in my fandom, and it will always get a high ranking from me. This was also the first time (twice in one week) that I was able to see him in action. The Rock Music Awards performance was top-notch, but his Tony Orlando appearance was kind of cheesy, even to my 13 year old eyes. Doesn't matter! I loved this album then, and I still do.

[Dannorama]

Well crap. Just noticed that the Tony Orlando link is bad. HERE is the correct one - In case you feel compelled.

[Keith1980]

the only song on here i am totally sick of is you and me i love the rest of the album i just wish i could find a good live concert of this show with king of the silver screen and others all i can seem to find is Saginaw and its mostly old songs with goes to hell and you and me lol

[Si]

... i just wish i could find a good live concert of this show with king of the silver screen...

As far as I can tell there simply isn't a good recording of it. There are very few recordings from the L&W tour and what there are, apart from Saginaw and Anaheim, are pretty poor.
Interestingly it seems KOTSS wasn't actually sung live by Alice, but by Dick Wagner while Alice took part in the theatrics. This could be why it wasn't included in any of the Saginaw broadcasts. A shame.

[Keith1980]

oh wow thanks for the info. Still a pity tho. What do you know about a good audio recording of Madhouse Rocks with all straped up in it. I have a radio broadcast but it cuts out serious and some other things

[Si]

oh wow thanks for the info. Still a pity tho. What do you know about a good audio recording of Madhouse Rocks with all straped up in it. I have a radio broadcast but it cuts out serious and some other things

Yeah, that's another one. Very few FTI show recordings around and the few with All Strapped Up aren't very good.

[Keith1980]

i got a radio recording with interviews of alice at breaks from the El Paso show flush the fashion tour. I dont know if this is normal for all recordings of that show. but it is really messed up

gutter cats vs the Jets at the end of the song before street fight should start it is cut and repeats "when your a jet"
billion dollar babies is cut and i love the dead starts then BDB stats up again and cuts out to ILTD and labled as one song

[VinceRaven]

the only song on here i am totally sick of is you and me i love the rest of the album i just wish i could find a good live concert of this show with king of the silver screen and others all i can seem to find is Saginaw and its mostly old songs with goes to hell and you and me lol

There's a fairly poor standard audience audio recording of the June 23rd 1978 Philadelphia show that has the entire set, plus the fake commercials. Might well be others that have the entire set but that's the one I know of.

[Si]

the only song on here i am totally sick of is you and me i love the rest of the album i just wish i could find a good live concert of this show with king of the silver screen and others all i can seem to find is Saginaw and its mostly old songs with goes to hell and you and me lol

There's a fairly poor standard audience audio recording of the June 23rd 1978 Philadelphia show that has the entire set, plus the fake commercials. Might well be others that have the entire set but that's the one I know of.

There are six audience recordings (inc Philly) that I know of that include that song: one is a recording of KOTSS only, while the others are the full show - but ALL of them have very poor audio as I recall.

[Spot and Jerome]

the only song on here i am totally sick of is you and me i love the rest of the album i just wish i could find a good live concert of this show with king of the silver screen and others all i can seem to find is Saginaw and its mostly old songs with goes to hell and you and me lol

There's a fairly poor standard audience audio recording of the June 23rd 1978 Philadelphia show that has the entire set, plus the fake commercials. Might well be others that have the entire set but that's the one I know of.

There are six audience recordings (inc Philly) that I know of that include that song: one is a recording of KOTSS only, while the others are the full show - but ALL of them have very poor audio as I recall.

Just stumbled upon this one, personally I had never heard any live recording of this song and the audio is not that bad: https://youtu.be/8A8Tpt9prEE?si=QR7q8nx9e5m9T79k

[Keith1980]

any idea why cooper didnt sing this song?

[Si]

any idea why cooper didnt sing this song?

As i said above, I think it was to do with the theatrics happening on stage. Same way as Michael Bruce used to sing I Love The Dead during the guillotine.