Album Guide

Following the critical success of last year's Brutal Planet, Alice Cooper is back to take listeners on an equally fantastic voyage. Far from leading you down a path you've been before, though, he mines new, considerably darker territory with his latest release, Dragontown (Spitfire Records).

Few artists possess The Coop's skill for narrating tales of moral decay and retribution. But while Dragontown has a concept, it isn't a “concept album” in the traditional sense, much less the sense normally associated with Alice Cooper. “I realized that Brutal Planet had only covered about half of what I wanted to cover. Now it's time to go Deeper, as I describe it in one of the songs,” Alice says. “The heart of Brutal Planet is Dragontown, which is really a place of consequence. It's where the worst of the worst are. Dragontown is an album about life's pure failures and the descent they find themselves in.”

Sounds like a place Alice has visited once or twice himself, doesn't it? But this trip is hardly an exercise in nostalgia or, um, hero worship. There are no heroes in Dragontown, and Alice proves it with the characters he's created to take you there. Even his time-tested ability to shock is taken to some unlikely extremes: he's not just portraying rock and roll's most notorious villains, he's portraying its heroes as well. “Everyone thinks there's a rock and roll heaven and all these wonderful guys are there. I don't think so,” he says. “I picked out specific people that I was pretty sure weren't qualified for a rock and roll heaven. I think they're in another place—and that place is Dragontown.”

Who does Alice condemn to his musical netherworld? The melody lines that infuse the title track evoke the image of shamanic showman (and legendary Alice Cooper drinking buddy) Jim Morrison of the Doors, while “It's Too Late” bids a musical farewell to his friend John Lennon. The most musically surprising song—and the one most likely to piss people off, Alice laughs—is the lovingly sarcastic hard-rockabilly “Disgraceland,” which recalls the tragic, fatal gluttony of Elvis Presley. “No one has ever been in as desperate a situation as Elvis was. I had a big problem with alcohol and when it got too bad, I got sent to a hospital,” Alice says. “Somebody should have sent him to a hospital, but nobody loved him enough to do that. I didn't write that out of disrespect for Elvis. I knew him. I got his sense of humor and I think he would have loved the song,” Alice laughs.

Dragontown isn't just peopled with the rich and famous. Listeners will also make the acquaintance of less-celebrated denizens who are just as fatally flawed. Sure to stir up controversy are the sexual indiscretions of “Sister Sara,” a fallen angel that Alice likens to Nurse Rozetta from 1978's From The Inside. “Sister Sara took the vows and she blew it. She realized that she couldn't live up to those vows, and she turned into something totally different. She's a very frail character, she's very mortal.” When Alice introduces her to the “Triggerman,” the Oprah-bashing “Fantasyman,” and “The Sentinel,” who Alice calls “one of those guys who sits around soldering C-2 bombs all day, deciding he's going to be the judge, jury and executioner,” you realize she's in pretty good company.

In bringing these characters to life (if you can call an eternity in Dragontown “living”), is Alice playing the Devil or is he playing Devil's advocate? Maybe a little bit of both. “I think Dragontown is a cautionary tale. Alice is sitting back and commenting on it all. He's saying, ‘I don't care this way, I don't care that way. Just look how messed up we are. In the end we're all going to end up in this place, so let's not be shocked about it.' But we keep refusing to see it.” Maybe Dragontown will change that, because with this new album, Alice Cooper once again gives his fans an eye-opening experience.

You've been witness to his nightmares and you've followed him down to hell. Now it's time for another little joyride. If you want to see how the other half lives, drop by Dragontown. Alice would love to see you again.