Unknown Soldier

Album Pick of the Year

Overview
After the commercially disappointing Muscle of Love, which effectively spelt the end of the Alice Cooper band, Alice Cooper then took the band name and launched his own solo career, and came up with the concept nightmare album Welcome to My Nightmare. The album would be a concept piece, about a child called Steven who surprisingly has a dream and then a nightmare! Alice Cooper’s previous band often known as the ‘Billion Dollar Babies” had been unceremoniously dumped as Alice Cooper (as he will now solely be referred to) decided that Muscle of Love had failed because “they” the band couldn’t hack it anymore! So for the recording of 1975’s Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper hired Lou Reed’s backing band from his Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal album to shuffle up his musical array. Some of these artists like Steve Hunter and Dick Wagener (whose Ursa Major album has been featured on my ‘albums that missed the cut’ section) had previously worked with Alice Cooper anyway. But the biggest inclusion was surely the return of producer Bob Ezrin to Alice’s fold (he was like a band member) Bob Ezrin had been missed on Muscle of Love, which by the way was actually a decent album and nowhere near as bad as it was made out to be. Bob Ezrin was certainly vital to Alice Cooper and in many ways, his relationship with Alice Cooper was about as important as Jack Douglas’ relationship with Aerosmith! Alice Cooper for his solo career, now ejected the grittier edged material of his previous releases and focused this grit in a concept piece that revolved around a dark theatrical setting, whilst keeping both a cabaret and humorous appeal. In fact the nearest he’d been to cabaret had been on the 1972 School’s Out album, but that album had been completely different to Welcome to My Nightmare in almost every important aspect. In terms of image, Alice Cooper always went in for a certain amount of authenticity in his stage shows and aesthetics, but he surely surpassed himself on Welcome to My Nightmare with the services of Vincent Price, the American horror icon of all those classic AIP productions, who did a voiced monologue on “Devil’s Food”. The Welcome to My Nightmare album cover, is ranked on Rolling Stone’s best 100 album covers and whilst I don’t necessarily think the album cover is one of the best ever, it’s still an album cover that always strikes me and in many ways kind of mirrors Marvel comic covers and characters of the time, such as the X-Men villain Arcade who comes to mind. So successful was the album, that there was a “Welcome to My Nightmare” TV special later on in the year and a must for any Alice Cooper fans.

Alice Cooper- Vocals
Dick Wagener- Guitar
Steve Hunter- Guitar
Tom Levin-Bass
Prakash Jon- Bass
Bob Ezrin- Keyboards/Synthesizers
Pentti ‘Whitey’ Glan- Drums

Production- Bob Ezrin

Album
Welcome to My Nightmare- With its gentle guitar intro, Alice enters in with a subdued singing effort, before he and the song then liven up, and provide us with enough punch for an opening track. Devil’s Food- Starts off with a hard rock guitar intro and the song quickly sets itself out to be a heavy track in general. The song is more or less accompanied by the backing band chanting “Devil’s Food” in the background, before Vincent Price takes centre stage and leads us into…. Black Widow- Alice now takes over from Vincent Price and uses his now famous monologue style, before the song goes through some various styles. Some Folks- A cabaret sounding track, which has a humorous Alice Cooper in top form on the song and the song could’ve easily been on his School’s Out album. Only Women Bleed- A ballad about a woman in an abusive marriage and the song became one of Alice Cooper’s biggest hits. It has been covered by many notable artists over the years. Department of Youth- After a gruff rocking start, the song moves into lighter melodic territory and was another single off album, and it also features children vocal backers. Cold Ethyl-A vibrant sub 3 minute rock-out tune and one of the punchy highlights on the album and a concert staple over the years. Years Ago- The song where the dream starts to get more eerie and interesting, and forms part of a great trilogy of tracks together…… the song then ends with a cry out for the main character of the concept ‘Steven’. Steven- The showpiece track on the album, with its subtle musical array and Alice Cooper putting out some of his most diverse singing, truly a classic! The Awakening- With a spooky opening ambience, this songs forms an integral part of the sandwich that sits either side of “Steven”. Escape- A more pick-me-up track to finish this fine album.

Verdict
Prior to the release of Welcome to My Nightmare, Billion Dollar Babies had been the crowning achievement of Alice Cooper, but it would be safe to say that Welcome to My Nightmare would match that album in every way, as for whether it was better read on! Welcome to My Nightmare is a concept album, so the album generally follows a logical storyline, even though a number of songs could be changed position wise and others don’t really seem to be part of the concept at all. Alice Cooper though, cleverly starts out with the more rocking numbers from the beginning and in the title track and “Devil’s Food” he certainly pleases his existing fan base sufficiently, and even on the cabaret sounding track “Some Folks” there is still some dominant heavy guitar playing. The rocking fare then continues right through to some of the later tracks, like the excellent “Cold Ethyl” a real album highlight. But where this album comes into its own, is through its pivotal part on the b-side with a trilogy of songs that consists of the eerie “Years Ago” the epic “Steven” and finally the finale sounding “The Awakening” with its spooky sounding start. The whole balance of the album is further enhanced, by the positive sounding and pick-me-up styles of songs like “Department of Youth” and the album closer “Escape”. As with most of Alice Cooper’s compositions, the majority are jointly written, with both Bob Ezrin and Dick Wagener taking big turns on the writing credits. The backing array of musicians also tick the right boxes and Bob Ezrin’s production and effects are done to a superb level, this of course would come under greater scrutiny on Alice Cooper’s following albums though. The single aspect that is so great about Welcome to My Nightmare, is that this was an album and style that Alice Cooper had spent almost half a decade building up to. The man had shock and horror appeal in his blood, and like the Tubes it was done in a theatrical way, rather than in a downright shock for pure attention format that some later artists would employ. Finally as a huge Alice Cooper fan, the lyrics and vocal style of the man have always been impressive, but on Welcome to My Nightmare he even exceeds his own high standards and the album overall just pips ahead of Billion Dollar Babies as his very best.

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