Unfinished Sweets

Over the years there have been a number of projects that have been discussed by Alice but have failed to materialize. This page attempts to collect together some of those abandoned projects that never had the staying power or support to bear any fruit.

Spirits Rebellious

After signing with Hollywood Records for the release of A Fistful of Alice (1996) work began on a new album Alice called Spirits Rebellious. Alice described the work as "a gang warfare thing, on three different levels, socially, spiritually and there's a romance in it." ⁽¹⁾ The Hollywood Records deal didn't last long. Alice's next studio album wasn't released until 2000 and it wasn't Spirits Rebellious. Brutal Planet contained some of the socially conscious aspects that would have likely arisen within Spirits Rebellious, so the spirit of the project was still finding its way into other projects, but Alice was also writing songs with a deeper message about the state of society from his perspective.

In 2000, Alice began stating that he was going to be working on Spirits Rebellious as the follow up to Brutal Planet, describing it as "something I wrote a long time ago, but it connects so well to this" ⁽²⁾. Again, this didn't happen. The follow up to Brutal Planet was Dragontown (2001) and there were no gang warfare vibes running through this work. But it seems pretty apparent that Spirits, as a concept, was close to Alice's heart as he kept revisiting it during the early 2000's, and although it didn't ever materialize in its full form, it did materialize.

In 2003, Alice recorded a back to basics album, The Eyes of Alice Cooper. Eyes could be considered his first band album in quite some time, as it features his touring band at the time (Eric Singer, Eric Dover, Ryan Roxic, Chuck Garric, and Teddy "ZigZag" Andreadis) performing on all tracks. There are three cuts of interesting on Eyes, songs that might actually give a glimpse into what we could have expected from Spirits Rebellious. The blistering Spirits Rebellious, I'm So Angry, and Backyard Brawl. All of these songs could have fit well into a gang themed concept, especially considering how Alice is often fairly loose with songs lyrically within the concept. Spirits Rebellious has a lot in common lyrically with songs from The Last Temptation (1994), with lyrics that have the same kind of feel as Bad Place Alone, which would suggest it was written roughly around that period of Alice career.

"My sins cut deeper than the teeth on a saw
My attitude is bad and my nerves are raw
I'm a shotgun snake. I'm a jackel with claws
I was born with a chip on my shoulder on a stormy night"

With the recording of the Spirits Rebellious song it seemed Alice decided to ditch the idea of recording it as an album, so it wouldn't be surprising if he pilfered other material planned for that album around this time. The other two possible tracks are only guesses, there could even be more here or elsewhere, but Backyard Brawl fits well with its Gutter Cats Vs The Jets vibe. I'm So Angry could also fit when contemplating it within the romantic angle of the gang scene - this is often were Alice gets looser with the concept, the romance songs.

Notes

1. Metal Edge, April 1996
2. Metal Edge, October 2000