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Phoenix Dude

Author: Luke Potter

Killer Alice Cooper (Warner Bros, BS 2567)

A concert by Alice Cooper is supposed to be pretty wild. Feathers, smoke, lights, the spearing of stuffed dolls, more ballet than Jethro Tull, straight jackets and even some music.

The records aren't bad either. For the most part Alice Cooper is screaming guitars and musicians, moaning moogs, heavy drums and as much stage stuff as your imagination can muster.

Coop is the kind of group parents hate and fear. They're loud, bold and challenging to the old mores of love, sex and manliness.

Just a bunch of the boys whooping it up in concert and on record.

Alice Cooper is not only the moniker of the group, it's also the name of the group's leader and singer.

Alice is a dude from Phoenix. The inside jacket is a calendar with a picture of him strung up in a hangman's noose.

It's reminiscent of the old calendars with pictures of Christ on the cross that hung in the kitchen.

Regardless of the looks, the music touches love, child neglectors, hired killers and the child-to-child relationship.

The last cut on side two brings you to the gallows and the just deserts of the wicked.

It's a sound reproduction of the final scene from the Capote film, "In Cold Blood."