Alice Cooper - Love It To Death (1971)

Versions:
LP
LP (Signed)
CD

Tracklisting:

Side One:
1. Caught In A Dream
2. I'm Eighteen
3. Long Way to Go
4. Black Juju

Side Two:
1. Is It My Body
2. Hallowed Be My Name
3. Second Coming
4. Ballad of Dwight Fry
5. Sun Arise

Best Tracks:
Second Coming/The Ballad Of Dwight Fry
I'm Eighteen
Is It My Body

Currently listening to:
LP

Love It To Death is probably still one of my favourite albums.

I'd always known Alice Cooper. I remember 'Poison' being everywhere when I was very young. My Mum - who is not into music at all - only ever had one tape that she played in the car, and one side of that was Welcome To My Nightmare. I became aware, however, of Alice Cooper - the band - on the same documentary series that introduced me to The Stooges and Patti Smith. There was something about 'I'm Eighteen' that seemed worlds apart from the Alice Cooper that I'd grown up with. And, of course, it was very much what I was into at the time. I promptly bought a cheap vinyl copy from my beloved Old Reynella record shop and played it to death (pun regrettably intended).

Love It To Death is more than just another early 70's rock album. It's subtly more sinister than Black Sabbath, it rocks harder than Bowie and is far less pompous than Led Zeppelin. Taking their cues from The Stooges and The Doors, Alice Cooper (the band, as well as the guy) create a world of their own, most notably the stretch on Side Two, from 'Second Coming' onwards. This includes what is unquestionably Alice Cooper's best song in the form of 'The Ballad of Dwight Fry' (and concludes - oddly, enough - with a cover of Rolf Harris' 'Sun Arise'). While the duo of 'Second Coming' and 'Dwight Fry' foreshadow similar ideas explored later in Alice's career (think 'Years Ago' and 'Steven' from Welcome to My Nightmare), here they are free of gimmicks (while still in it's infancy, the Alice Cooper gimmick was present at this time, however) and feel like a more sincere statement than much of the band's work after this. The high drama of 'Black Juju' recalls The Doors' more theatrical moments (and The Stooges' 'We Will Fall'), while the wonderful 'I'm Eighteen', 'Is It My Body', 'Caught In A Dream' and 'Hallowed By My Name' prove that they can rock with the best of them.

When I was 18, I met Alice Cooper. He was doing a record singing at The Muses in Rundle Mall and, of course, I took along my vinyl copy of Love It To Death to get signed. I was one of the first in line and, after exchanging pleasantries, I handed him my record. "Oh, wow!" he says, "You got a thumb!". Uh, what? I was a completely starstruck and hadn't expected much an exchange. So, I was a little taken aback. Not realising what he meant, I asked him what he'd said. "You got a thumb!" was his enthusiastic response. "Oh...uh....OK. Thanks", was the best I could muster and as I started to walk away, he kept on. "No, I really mean it. You got a thumb! That's a collector's item!". I thanked him again and, looking down at the record, finally realised what he meant. Once I got home, I checked my CD version and, sure enough, no thumb. Turns out, the thumb was airbrushed out of American copies of the cover, deemed too phallic and obscene. While original copies of the American thumb version may well be collector's items, I've never seen an Australian pressing without the thumb. So, I highly doubt that it's the collector's item that the great man promised it would be.

Oh, and we were on the Channel 7 news together, too. My best mate Alice Cooper and I. They have have filmed the signing. I never saw it, sadly.