by David C. Barnett
Over 40 years ago, a guy named Vince changed his name to Alice, leaving a trail of blood, severed heads and boa constrictors in his wake. In 2011, Alice Cooper was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Today, we recall the story of the adult who wrote the teen anthem that celebrated the end of the school year and the approach of summer.
Vince Furnier’s first stage costume was a Beatles wig. He and some buddies from the Cortez High School Cross Country team in Phoenix entered a talent show in 1964, doing their impression of the Fab Four. They went over so well, that they cut a record the following year. They called themselves the Spiders, and Furnier says they really took their stage image seriously.
"There was a giant web behind us. We wore all black. We didn’t just show up and stand-up on stage, we 'appeared' on stage."
And that became a key to the band’s success. Furnier says, they headed for Los Angeles and a name change.
"That was the point where I said, 'Let’s not be obvious. Let’s not call ourselves the Tarantulas. Let’s go the other way. Let’s go for something that sounds like a little old lady.' I said 'Alice Cooper' and that just kind of stuck.'"
The band found that the more confusing their image was, the more gigs they got. So, Vince Furnier dressed his little old lady character in black leather pants. He borrowed his girlfriend’s slip and threw some stage blood on it.
The Alice Cooper band’s first album. Pretties for You was released in 1969 on Frank Zappa’s Straight Records label. Zappa saw Alice Cooper as a bizarre comedy act, but the band’s first two albums tanked. Then, producer Bob Ezrin came in and took a song that was originally called 'I’m Edgy' and turned it into a commercial pop hit.
"He kept dumbing it down until it was a three-minute anthem for every kid that was 18 and an outcast," says Cooper. The result was the teen anthem: 'I'm 18.'
The band kept building its image, staging theatrical concerts which generally involved the character of Alice being executed, via hanging, electrocution or a guillotine. Once, he brought a live boa constrictor on stage. But, a key to his persona has always been a sense of humor: Cooper appeared on the Muppet Show, and in a Staples commercial, playing a father shopping with a sullen daughter for school supplies.
SOUND: Staples commercial
Daughter: I thought you said school was out forever
Alice : No, no, no. The song goes “school’s out for summer.” Nice try though.
"I think the shock value of Alice is over," says Cooper. "I don’t think you can shock an audience anymore, really. I mean, Lady Gaga shocking? I don’t think so."
Alice Cooper knows that “image” is just that, and he’s a bit bemused by some of the musicians who have followed in his footsteps.
"You get these bands that are, (growls) 'Oh-h-h, we are the Baby Eaters' 'We’re the Satan Worshipers' and all this. And then, you meet them offstage and they’re going, (meekly) 'Hello Mister Cooper, this is my mother. She made cookies for you.'”
After all these years, the person behind the lyrics, the black leather and the mascara, is still…a "nice guy".
