Alice Cooper
Having influenced everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Motley Crue and Kiss, Alice Cooper—who was born Vincent Furnier (Alice Cooper, according to Ouija board legend, was a 17th century witch reincarnated as Furnier)—first launched his band on Straight Records in 1968.
The CREEM Archive presents the magazine as originally created. Digital text has been scanned from its original print format and may contain formatting quirks and inconsistencies.
Having influenced everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Motley Crue and Kiss, Alice Cooper—who was born Vincent Furnier (Alice Cooper, according to Ouija board legend, was a 17th century witch reincarnated as Furnier)—first launched his band on Straight Records in 1968. After two albums that bombed, the band moved to Detroit, where they signed with producer Bob Ezrin and made their breakthrough record, Love It To Death. A combination of shock-rock tricks (chopping up dolls, live boa constrictors and at least one good execution per show) and taboo lyrics eventually worked together to launch a number of odd hits including “School’s Out,” “Elected,” “Under My Wheels,” “Hello, Hooray,” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”
As the novelty of macabre makeup and bizarre stage numbers began to fade in the mid-’70s, Alice tried prime time television (Alice Cooper—The Nightmare), and became a welcome guest on the Las Vegas Strip. During this strange detour, Alice landed three Top 20 hits, including “Only Women Bleed,” “I Never Cry,” and “You And Me.”
The end of the 70s saw Cooper committing himself to a psychiatric hospital for treatment of alcoholism (detailed on his album From The Inside). LPs like Special Forces followed, and currently the 42-yearold legend of freak rock is on tour with his Constrictor album, tons of blood and a cockamamie Frankenstein monster to boot. It’s a dirty, rotten job—but somebody has to do it. And who better than Alice?
