Album Guide

Clouseau, Pierot, Spade and Moto hang up your shoulder holsters and put away your magnifying glasses. A new number one super sleuth has appeared on the scene, Alice Cooper.

His latest Warner Bros. LP, Lace and Whiskey, turned up more spills and chills than a Mickey Spillane novel. With the cunning of Miss Marple and the cleverness of Charlie Chan, Alice made Lace and Whiskey the realization of all the facets of his illustrious career.

One of Alice's most carefully planned projects, Lace and Whiskey was the first of Alice's albums to follow no theme or concept except that each cut was a musical clue to the Alice Cooper that has puzzled and amused millions since the beginning of this decade. The album took a year to compose and record and composing credits were shared equally by Cooper, master producer Bob Ezrin and guitarist Dick Wagner. Recording began in Toronto in June of 1976, and continued in New York and Los Angeles, where the album was mixed in mid-March.

Lace and Whiskey implemented the talents of a variety of musicians Cooper has been associated with on his previous solo albums, including Dick Wagner, who has an international reputation as one of the finest composer/guitarists in contemporary rock and roll. Wagner shared guitar credits with Steve Hunter, while Prakash John, Tony Levin and Steve Babbit played bass. Drummers Jim Gordon and Alan Shwartzler appeared along with Al McMilllan and Joey Chirowsky's distinctive keyboard work.

Lace and Whiskey contained three basic musical directions. The first was Alice's special brand of heavy-metal rock grandeur, which includes "It's Hot Tonight," "My God" and "Road Rats." "My God" was of special note to those of you aware of Alice's strict religious upbringing. Underlined by the sound of a turn-of-the-century pipe organ and backed with an Ezrin-arranged chorus of the California Boys Choir, "My God" contained actual lines from Alice's childhood preaching.

There's also plain and simple rock and roll, as represented by a cover version of "Ubangi Stomp" and the R&B influenced "(No More) Love At Your Convenience." The ballads on Lace and Whiskey had a strong Broadway sound, distinctively Bob Ezrin, particularly "I Never Wrote Those Songs," a fascinating appraisal of Alice's inner-musings about the "other guy" who once outraged and shocked the entire world with his antics. The album's single, "You and Me," was a simple, plaintive, working man's statement about his life with his lady.

Alice Cooper was born Vince Furnier under mysterious circumstances in Detroit in 1948. His family moved to Phoenix when he was 11 where he proceeded to grow into an archetypal teenager; track star, school clown and journalist. In his senior year at Cortez High School, (which Alice immortalized in "Alma Mater") he appeared in a Beatie wig with guitar in hand for a skit by the Lettermen's Club in the school cafeteria. The skit was a joke, but it laid the foundation for a philosophy that was to eventually make him the most popular and unconventional entertainer of the 1970's.

At the age of 18 Alice and his band began periodic trips to Los Angeles while he attended college in Phoenix. Eventually the lure of the tinsel town on the Pacific took him away from school and made the Cooper group full time Los Angeles citizens. Alice lived there for two years, sleeping in a coffin, living in motels and mansions, inexplicably dressing in women's clothing and wearing makeup while other glitter rockers were still in grade school.

It wasn't until five years later, after Alice had moved to Detroit, that he met Bob Ezrin who was responsible for the production work on the first smash single from the Cooper group, "Eighteen." There's been a lot of mascara under the eyelids since then, including gold albums, three of them platinum, sales of over 14 million records and a tune called "School's Out" which became one of the biggest selling singles in the history of Warner Bros. Records. There was also the legendary "Billion Dollar Baby" tour, a 56 city-62 day blitz of the U.S.A. that grossed over $5 million and made Alice Cooper a household word.

After Alice's "Billion Dollar Baby" tour the Coop relaxed for a year and wrote his autobiography for Putnam's, "Me, Alice." Alice soon returned to the studios to begin work with Ezrin on Welcome to My Nightmare, an elaborate project that became a record album, television special and eight month tour. His following album, Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, spawned a gold single for "I Never Cry." While at work on Lace and Whiskey, Alice has been taking professional dancing and acting lessons, making guest spot appearances (as in the upcoming Mae West film, "Sextette") and playing lots of golf.