Out Demons Out! : Pretties For You

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Out Demons Out!

Pretties For You

In late 1971 Creem Magazine sent Lester Bangs out to write an article on the raging new rock force that was Alice Cooper, from which these pictures appeared.  It didn't hurt that the band spent a short tenure in the Detroit rock scene - where Creem Magazine was located - sharing bills with The MC5, Stooges, SRC, and The Frost (whose guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter later joined the band).

Before Alice became a trailer park rock god he earned a lot of bonus airline points playing the drag queen card, wearing falsies, Dolly Parton wigs and just queening out.  On the right is a still from the legendary "Ballad of Dwight Frye" song where's he's institutionalized in a strait jacket. In the next picture he's doing a bizarre Salvador Dali "Persistence of memory" routine.  He ended up meeting with Dali who adored Cooper to the point of creating a hologram of Alice.

Here's Alice in body stocking and heels to the left, and tearing the poster to the "Love It To Death" album on stage to the right.  Early footage of Alice Cooper perofrming live can be seen in Frank & Eleanor Perry's movie "Diary of a Mad Housewife" where chickens aren't killed, but pillows are ripped open and the goose feathers are tossed around in a hail of pflug.  When my band used to tour the driver got to choose which cassette tape we had to listen to while they drove. I had three guitar players; when one drove we had to listen to Neil Young & Crazy Horse, when the other drove we had to listen to the third Velvet Underground album, the real terrible one with songs like “I’m Set Free”, “Jesus”, and “I’m Beginning To See The Light”, yuck, and the third one played a tape that had Alice Cooper’s “Love It To Death” on one side and “Killer” on the other side. Guess who played the best guitar?

Here's Alice consolidating his queeny image by having his hair done at the beauty parlor.  He also had The Cockettes perofrm and appear at several events and shows around this time. I think Alice and Frank Zappa tried pretty hard to downplay any drug involvement because they were creepy guys from Laurel Canyon and at the time (1970-1971) every straight in LA thought if you had long hair and came from the Canyon you were Charles Manson, so eventually they went out of their way to brag about how average they were. Too bad. By the time "School's Out" was released (1972) our private party was over.

All photos by Ric Siegel, 1971

Posted by Andy 7

Labels: alice, cooper, drag, glam, outrageous Read more at blackhairedboy.blogspot.com

 

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Early Alice Cooper Band demos (Pretties etc)

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/madcapslaughing/

James @ madcapslaughing yahoo group referred us to this:
"Check out these amazing early demos of the Alice Cooper Band on youtube. This link will take you to a version of "Fields of Regret" that is in an early formative stage with different lyrics. There are more demos from "Pretties" as well as "Love It To Death" and "Killer." All in all an extraordinary find as none of this has surfaced before. Versions are very different from what was eventually recorded for the albums. (with the exception of "Reflected" which is a different mix and edit) It's real interesting to see how they worked. There's some studio chatter on some of the tracks too. This was when the name Alice Cooper meant a band called Alice Cooper not just an individual. Everyone in that band contributed to the overall sound.
Whoever produced "Pretties" really wrangled some intense performances out of those guys. Some of the demos in comparison are downright mellow! Check it. -- James"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H1ODwyC00k




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKaRQI9sx8Y




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfWhmFY6rpM

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuaAxs04fAQ




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbdGK5HWa64


Live in studio


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPKqHJ80-Fo


Love It To Death demos:
Is It My Body #1
Is It My Body #2(My Very Own)
Sun Arise
I'm Eighteen
Instrumental Jam
Second Coming
Black Juju


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOrFlGWaMPU



The Alice Cooper band performs "Lay Down and Die Goodbye" at the "Midsummer Rock Festival" on June 13th 1970.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6T-4X0EZ9A




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2wz2yu09qA


This is footage of the Dali piece, "Alice Cooper's Brain." Dali and Alice were great friends in the 1970s because they were both artists.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq9bEzADxyk