Article Database

Muscle of Love Review

Author: Janis Schacht

Alice Cooper — Muscle Of Love
(Warner Brothers)

At this point everything Alice Cooper puts out sounds very similar. Muscle Of Love sounds a great deal like Billion Dollar Babies which sounded a great deal like School's Out which sounded like the album before that, etc. This is to say, a great deal of time and effort goes into the production, the musicianship, the packaging and the concepts... but most of the melodies sound exactly like the last batch.

What makes Muscle Of Love unique? Well, it comes in a plain brown corrugated carton (value for money?). Inside are strange, somewhat perverted photos of Alice and Co. in sailor suits, plus a highly confusing flyer which doesn't even get the order of the songs straight. And there, in between the rough and tough "Never Been Sold Before" and the honky tonk "Crazy Little Child" there's this ballad (of sorts). If you don't listen to the words it sounds very gentle and quiet and lilting. It's kind of like a Lou Reed ballad... only the unscratched surface is harmless. Inside are puss-filled ugly sores.

If you want to boogie, then flip the album over and get into "Working Up A Sweat." As enunciation is not one of Alice's specialties, it's a little hard to tell just what everybody is singing about, but it does sound rather mean.

This is the album that features all those famous and classy back-up singers. There's Liza Minelli on "Teenage Lament" and "Man With The Golden Gun" and The Pointer Sisters on "Teenage Lament" and "Working Up A Sweat." Other contributors to "Teenage Lament," the best song on the LP, include Ronnie Spector and La Belle. How's that for a chorus line-up?

"Muscle Of Love" really cooks. They say that the muscle of love is the heart, but that isn't the way our friend Alice would think, is it? "Man With The Golden Gun" is Alice Cooper's answer to "Goldfinger" and "Live And Let Die"... now, when he gets the film together he'll really be in business.

Muscle Of Love is a magnificent effort from the only American act to be able to put theater back into rock and roll. It's always a good experience putting one of Alice Cooper's albums on.

Rock and Roll Sexindex

"In two years, it's not going to be bi, homo or lesbian sex. Sex is just gonna be sex. And all sex is healthy." — Alice Cooper, September 1973

Author: Circus Magazine Staff

Love makes the world go 'round, but in the world of rock and roll, love is most often spelled S-E-X. Literature, painting, film, and other arts can titillate and inspire the mind, but no form of entertainment gets those joyful juices running like a hard rocking band. Even the term "rock and roll," in fact, was originally black slang for America's favorite nighttime sport. No wonder parents and clergy alike campaigned to nip the swelling force in the bud. The growth of rock in the Seventies shows that the music of passion is here to stay, however, and it's now being explored, flaunted, projected and erected in ways that would make the hip-grinders of the Fifties gasp. In grateful acknowledgement of the musical tide that keeps all our blood running eagerly, Circus has undertaken to compile this index of sex in rock and roll.

Ace: Although "to ace" in jazzman's lingo usually means to help a musician get a gig, it also means to introduce a guy to a chick he's been admiring from afar: "Thank you, sis, you aced me fine this time."

Action: This all-purpose word refers to any heavy activity, but specifically that energetic work-out between a man and a woman, or a fast-jamming band.

Alice Cooper: The King (or Queen?) of Menace brought new depths of raunch to the already sex­filled pits of rock and roll. The whip flipper was the first to put snarling sado-masochism to music. Alice passed the bump and grind musical test when he chopped up female torsos and the soft little bodies of children and babies. And his smooth boa constrictors wrapped around his legs have become the longest and most obvious phallic symbol ever erected in rock and roll. Yet when Alice's band hit the rock stage way back in '68 no one was quite sure which sex Ms. Cooper descended from, and the crowds went coo coo to the transvestite capers of Alice in Dragland. Meanwhile backstage, Alice's publicists were trying desperately to keep the Master of Evil's girlfriend Cindy away from the public. They felt that Alice should keep his sex undefined and as artificial as a painted up zombie­gone-berserk raping a manikin with a rubber hot dog. Alice was to present a parody of sex, the thrill without the threat, to all the little girl fans who might be frightened of real raging foaming-at-the-mouth manhood on the loose. Alice acts out the goriest and horniest sexual fantasies, at the same time of defusing the violence of the actual experience. Yet when the news got out that Alice was a real clean-living kid who believes in going steady, no one was disappointed.

The Allman Brothers Band: Those boys brought sweet southern soul and lots of sexy home cookin' to the world of space rock. Even though they have no direct sex in their act (preferring just to play their hearts out) a mystique has grown up around them. "Lord I was born a ramblin' man," typifies their tough-ass, vinegar and lightning, motorcycle and sunny skies kind of rough masculinity. If the Brothers weren't out wrecking their bikes or "drinking a little sauce" and writin' a tune, they were busy sweet talkin' the ladies. Usually there is one woman at home but it doesn't always stop the love 'em and leave 'em Allmans from revving up romance in the hearts of gals everywhere "The gypsy flies from coast to coast / knowing many, loving none / bearing sorrow, having fun / but back home he'll always run — to sweet Melissa."

They're reputed to be the best lovers in the rock business.

Ass: In rhetoric there is a technique of naming a part of the body to represent the whole. In the vocab of rock 'n raunch, that anatomical section most generally used to represent the whole person or self is, you guessed it, the ass. How many times have you heard, "Gotta get my ass outta here," "Gotta get some ass," and other variations.

-assed: This suffix attached to any noun or adjective serves to intensify its importance. For example: "a big-assed bottle of champagne"; "they slapped a bad-assed fine of $75 on us."

"Baby Let Me Bang Your Box­": An unaired hit of the 50's by the Penguins of "Earth Angel" fame. The "Box" referred to a piano; it is revealed late in the song. Today, occasional songs are scratched from the airwaves, or altered to protect the innocent. But conditions are nothing like they were when thousands of sexy tunes were banned by municipal authorities and D.J.'s alike.

Beach Boys: The Beach Boys always had a breezy style, whether they were catching the air in a convertible (Shut Down, Little Deuce Coupe) or on a surfboard (Surfin' U.S.A., Surfer Girl). Their Southern California was a Garden of Eden where it was always summer, the sun always shone, and there was never any sweat about scoring, as in "Girls on the Beach" ('The girls on the beach are always in reach') and "I Get Around" ('We never missed yet with the girls that we meet'). The beach was one big toasty blanket for these sun lovers rolling in the dunes (they weren't just playing bingo), while a car was for cruising the Strip and snuggling under the steering wheel at the drive-in.

Starting with Pet Sounds in 1966, though, the simple jaunty melodies became more heavily orchestrated and the love style more tender, wistful, and sincere ("God Only Knows," "Caroline, No," "Wouldn't It Be Nice"). Composer Brian Wilson was growing up.

Whether fresh-faced or adult, the Boys are always clean, healthy, good-natured, complimentary to their girls, and presentable to mom and pop. But they're not too icky. They'll probably stop at second or third base if the lady insists, but aren't scared to "go all the way" if given a chance.

Black Oak Arkansas: Cross a rooster with a bull, dye the results blond, and you've got Jim Dandy Mangrum of Black Oak. Mangrum says sex is healthy and good for you, and the way he prowls and stomps around the stage ought to convince anybody to turn in his wheat germ and get going on the real stuff. While the band churns out their special brand of Ozarks "hot 'n nasty" music, Jim Dandy holds a washboard between his thighs and whips it with thimbled fingers in a manner which should have women turning in their washing machines all across America. Mangrum wears his pants so tight that everyone in the first 40 rows knows exactly how much love he has to give, and the ram on his belt buckle leaves little doubt about where his strength is when push comes to shove. The Black Oak show itself actually comes to a climax when guitars are smashed over Jim Dandy's head.

Black Sabbath: Satanism and sex were always connected, back from the earliest days of mankind when young virgins were offered to the God of Death as sacrifice. "Rosemary's Baby" brought that all up to date, and the question was asked if housewives weren't turned on by the devil raping the lively Mia Farrow or not. Black Sabbath seems to say that black sex is hot, and if you don't believe it, just take a look at Ozzie on stage. From his solid muscles and pouting nipples to his macho-tattoo, Ozzie is all ball to his fans. His little boy face helps the overall illusion, to make Black Sabbath into one of the hottest bands ever to reach the rock and roll stage.