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Alice in the Studio

Question

What's Alice Cooper like in the studio? Ask Bob Ezrin, his producer.

HOLLY WOODRUFF
Normal, III.
Member, Circular Famous Interviewers School

Answer

He's an expert theatrician in the studio. He's an actor.

His studio craft is totally distinct from his stage craft. He takes a lot more time on each piece of material, and tends to be much more analytical. He's not so much reacting to the feel of an audience as he is just being clinical about what he's doing. Alice is quite a clinical performer. He thinks a lot about what he does. He always has a clear idea of what he's going for.

Alice is really, really a natural, nice dude. He's really a good-time Charlie. He's always having fun. He always tells jokes. He's got the longest list of one-liners I ever heard in my life.

But when he gets down to working in the studio, he and I have a very separate and unique relationship from any of the other ones we have under other circumstances. It's quite a bit quieter. Not that he closes himself off. He likes audiences. He likes to have lots of people in the session when he's singing; it's just a lot more studied than what he does on stage. It's not so much off the cuff.

On the tune "Billion Dollar Babies," Donovan and Alice really got off working against each other. They did those vocals standing side by side, live. You can hear it. They were watching each other's moves. There were some places where I had to duck tracks because of giggles between the two of them.

Alice is really performing in the studio. He goes through motions and gyrations and facial changes. We light his studio — it's like a movie set almost.

To get the performance on "Elected" I had a full-length mirror placed in front of Alice on an angle so that he could see his entire body in reflection. And he did a performance that was just Music Man. Solid Robert Preston. Arms waving in the air, his face moving — everything about him changed. He became a candidate for election.

BOB EZRIN
Producer,
Nimbus Nine Productions

Alice Has a Hit Too

KHJ (LA), WIXY (Cleveland), CKLW (Detroit), WKBW (Buffalo) and KILT (Houston) have all gone on "No More Mr. Nice Guy," as of last week's 45 Hootenanny. The single jumped on national charts at #85 withastar in Billboard, #82 withasquare in Rec World and #73 withabullet in Cash Box. We're so proud of the LP, too — it's #1 in Cash Box, #1 in Record World and #2 withastar in Billboard.

Two Peas in a Pod

When introducing his holographic portrait of Alice Cooper in New York's Knoedler Gallery, Salvador Dali had this to say about (himself and) Alice, "Dali only makes exhibits for people who can understand nothing, people such as you. Today nobody understands anything. Alice Cooper is the best exponent of total confusion." Alice had this to say about (himself and) Dali: "Dali is possibly more confusing than I am. I never understand anything he says. Maybe that's why we get along so well." Probably so.