It’s getting close to Halloween and in the Phantom household that means two things; the next few months will consist of horror flicks (almost exclusively) and listening to a lot of Alice Cooper. I have been a diehard Alice Cooper fan and ever since Halloween of 1986, when I first saw Alice’s video for "He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" on an all night marathon of the show Night Flight. After a very bountiful night of trick-or-treating, my friend David stayed the night at my house and we proceeded to gorge ourselves on sugary treats, and whatever horror flicks we could find on TV. We would occasionally flip over to Night Flight, they were showing horror inspired music videos and random clips from horror movies all night—this would also be my introduction to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, via a clip from the film featuring "The Time Warp". I should mention at this point that my friend and I were already big time horror fans—even at such a young age…hey it was the 80’s, parents were too busy with their money and themselves to worry about what their kids were watching on TV! By age 9 I had already seen all the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm St. movies (all that had been made at that point), so I was a huge mark for Jason and Freddy—as fucked up as it sounds, those guys were my as much a part of my childhood as Pee Wee Herman and Kermit the Frog—not like those characters were great role models either, one fucked pigs and one fucked himself in public. So needless to say, when Alice’s video came on, I freaked! Not only was the song featured in the latest installment of Friday the 13th, it was about Jason and featured my favorite machete wielding retard, in the flesh! My first thought was "This is awesome!" and my second thought was "Who is Alice Cooper?"

So the next day I Googled Alice Cooper and found out all about him—no, this was 1986, stupid!. There was no Internet, therefore no Google—I had to find out about Alice the old fashioned way…I went to the library, which didn’t help that much. I found out some basic info, but I truly discovered Alice by seeking out his albums and listening to his music (crazy, I know). Shortly after that fateful Halloween night, I went out and used my allowance to buy the album that featured, "He’s Back", which was Alice’s ’86 comeback album, Constrictor (on cassette, because the vinyl version wasn’t available). I was pleased to find "He’s Back" was not the only good song on the album, in fact the album was loaded with great tunes—albeit very cheesy, 80’s style tunes, but great none the less. It helped that the first track on the album was entitled, "Teenage Frankenstein", I was smitten with the album immediately. I wasn’t even upset that the two songs off which I’ve mentioned so far, along with (to some degree) "The World Needs Guts" were the only "horror" themed songs. While I was full-fledged 80’s horror kid, I was also a full-fledged 80’s metal head too. I was into bands like Kiss, Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Quiet Riot and Ozzy already (I wouldn’t discover the really heavy stuff for a few more years), so the fact that Constrictor pretty much rocked from beginning to end, was enough to float my boat.

As I mentioned, Constrictor was Alice’s "comeback" album after a 3-year hiatus. Prior to Constrictor, Alice left behind a string of failed albums that included 1983’s Da Da, and 1982’s Zipper Catches Skin (two of my favorites) and he even took a stab at acting by starring in the strange Spanish horror flick, Monster Dog. With Constrictor, Alice was back in full force and donning the iconic eye make-up once again (after ditching it for a new wave inspired look earlier in the decade) and bringing back the horror element to his live shows, which included among many things, a guillotine that "decapitated" Alice towards the end of the show. Ironically, that same Halloween night in ’86, MTV was showing an Alice Cooper concert entitled, The Nightmare Returns. At that point in the evening, I had no idea who Alice Cooper was, so I didn’t watch it—doh! It wouldn’t be until the next Halloween that MTV would show it again and I would witness an Alice Cooper show in all its glory. Seeing the concert a year later was a good thing because by that time I had already discovered most of Alice’s discopgraphy, including Love It To Death, Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome To My Nightmare and his Greatest Hits album from 1974.

Also during that next year, Alice would release his heaviest album to date (and one of my all time favorites), Raise Your Fist and Yell. It came out the following summer after Constrictor and I received it as a birthday present from my girlfriend (yes, I was 10 and had a girlfriend—yeah, I was a pimp)—In fact I still own that same vinyl copy and you can still see the imprint on the cover of where she wrote on the wrapping paper tag, "Love Nicky" (Aaaaaaaaaaw!). I didn’t think I could love Alice anymore than I already did, but Raise Your Fist and Yell blew me away. Not only were their songs entitled, "Prince of Darkeness" (featured in the John Carpenter movie of the same name), "Chop, Chop, Chop", "Time To Kill", but it also featured a cameo by Robert Englund as Freddy on the song, "Lock Me Up", where Alice is sent to prison for all his "crimes" and Englund plays the judge that sentences him. If that wasn’t enough, the last track on the album was a song called "Roses on White Lace" a gruesome little ditty about a bride being murdered on her wedding night.

From a technical standpoint, both albums are a mixed bag. I’ve been listening to both albums recently and have to admit the production on both is fairly dated, on Constrictor even more so. It wouldn’t be until 1989, with the release of Trash that Alice would get a much more upscale sound—production wise, with the help of 80’s hard rock guru, Desmond Child. Both Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell were produced by Alice himself and featured the guitar work of the ultra-buff, Kane Roberts. While being a proficient lead axe-man, Kane had a cool presence that suited Alice’s stage show, with his muscle bound Rambo inspired look and his guitar that looked like a huge machine gun. Surprisingly, another band member that played a key element to both albums with his outstanding backing vocals was none other than pretty boy, Kip Winger. Winger was Alice’s bass player and also played keyboards on a few songs, and although I was never a fan of his solo career, I have to admit that his backing vocals added a lot to overall sound of both albums. No where is it more evident that on songs like "Crawlin", "Not That Kind of Love", and "Freedom", just to name a few.

Both, Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell have been known to split Alice Cooper fans. There are the fans of the early years and then the fans that discovered him in the 80’s, like me—admittedly his 80’s sound was huge departure from his 70’s sound. Personally, I’m a fan of all his work, although I believe his last great album was Hey Stoopid back in the early 90’s. Not to knock his new stuff, of which I like—it just seems like a certain vibe is missing.

Even given both album’s dated sound, I still feel they are strong landmarks in Alice’s history. Most 80’s horror/metal fans will appreciate these albums, but I’m not sure how much they’d appeal to the newer generation.

Halloween may come only once a year, but whenever I listen Alice Cooper, I’m that anxious little kid trick-or-treating on October 31st all over again. I can almost smell that crisp autumn air already. J-j-j-ah-ah-ah….

Later, Freex!