Detroit Stories Alice Cooper

• 1 Rock 'n' Roll 04:43
• 2 Go Man Go (Album Version) 02:40
• 3 Our Love Will Change the World 03:39
• 4 Social Debris 03:05
• 5 $1000 High Heel Shoes 03:29
• 6 Hail Mary 03:14
• 7 Detroit City 2021 (Album Version) 03:19
• 8 Drunk and in Love 03:51
• 9 Independence Dave 02:56
• 10 I Hate You 02:34
• 11 Wonderful World 03:20
• 12 Sister Anne (Album Version) 04:47
• 13 Hanging on by a Thread (Don't Give Up) 03:36
• 14 Shut up and Rock 02:09
• 15 East Side Story (Album Version) 02:52
• Total Runtime 50:14

Info for Detroit Stories

„Detroit Stories” ist nach der Stadt benannt, in der die Erfolgsgeschichte der ursprünglichen Band um Alice Cooper begann. Soundtechnisch folgt das Album der „Breadcrumbs”-EP, die letztes Jahr erschien und ist eine Hommage an die turbulenteste und härteste Rock ‘n’ Roll-Szene ist, die es je gab. Alles begann im Jahr 1970, als Bob Ezrin, damals ein erst noch flügge werdender, aufstrebender Musikproduzent, ein Farmhaus am Stadtrand von Detroit aufsuchte, um mit der Band um Alice Cooper zu arbeiten. Diese hatte Los Angeles hinter sich gelassen, da sie das Gegenteil der dortigen Flower-Power- und Hippie-Szene mit ihren Idealen von Liebe und Frieden verkörperte. Alice Cooper scharte seine deutlich düstere Gang in Detroit um sich; in der Stadt, in der nicht nur er selbst, sondern auch Genres wie Hard Rock, Garage Rock, Soul, Funk und Punk geboren wurden. Was folgte, war viel harte Arbeit: täglich 10 Stunden arbeitete Bob Ezrin zusammen mit der Band daran, deren Signature-Sound zu definieren. Sobald sie einen Song perfektioniert hatten, schallte lauter Applaus aus der Psychiatrie von der anderen Straßenseite. So entstand der klassische Alice Cooper-Sound, wie ihn heute alle kennen. „Los Angeles hatte einen eigenen Sound mit The Doors, Love und Buffalo Springfield”, sagt Alice Cooper selbst. „In San Francisco gab es The Grateful Dead und Jefferson Airplane. In New York The Rascals und The Velvet Underground. Aber in Detroit wurde wütender Hard Rock geboren. Alice Cooper mit dem gitarren-lastigen Hard-Rock-Sound und der krassen Bühnenshow hat einfach nirgendwo in den USA reingepasst, weder musikalisch noch imagetechnisch. Detroit war der einzige Ort, an dem Außenseiter wie wir reinpassten. Und als die Leute noch rausfanden, dass ich im Osten von Detroit geboren wurde… waren wir zu Hause angekommen.”

50 Jahre später nahmen Alice und Ezrin in einem Studio in Detroit gemeinsam mit einer Vielzahl legendärer Detroiter Musikern das Album „Detroit Stories” auf und lassen damit den Geist der Stadt wieder aufleben. Wenn die „Breadcrumbs”-EP von 2019 den Weg zur Stadt geebnet hat, dann braust „Detroit Stories” wie ein amerikanisches Muscle Car direkt über die Woodward Avenue. Entdecke Detroit Stories, wie sie immer schon erzählt werden sollten.

"Los Angeles hatte seinen Sound mit The Doors, Love und Buffalo Springfield", sagt er, "San Francisco hatte die Grateful Dead und Jefferson Airplane. New York hatte The Rascals und The Velvet Underground. Aber Detroit war der Geburtsort des wütenden Hard Rock. Nachdem Detroit nirgendwo in den USA hineingepasst hatte (weder musikalisch noch vom Image her), war es der einzige Ort, der den gitarrenbetonten, harten Rock-Sound von Alice Cooper und unsere verrückte Bühnenshow anerkannte. Detroit war ein Zufluchtsort für die Ausgestoßenen. Und als sie herausfanden, dass ich in Ost-Detroit geboren wurde... waren wir zu Hause."

"Alice Cooper wirkt auf "Detroit Stories" echt wie ein Mittzwanziger, der mal eben 15 kompositorisch absolut wasserdichte Classic-Rock-Songs mit Arschtritt-Faktor heraushaut. Muss man haben!" (Andreas Schiffmann, musikreviews.de)

"Detroit war Heavy Rock", sagt Alice Cooper und macht so klar, welche Spielart auf dieser Scheibe dominiert: Rock(’n’Roll) pur!" (Good Times)

Alice Cooper, Gesang
Wayne Kramer, Gitarre
Paul Randolph, Bass
Johnny “Bee” Badanjek, Schlagzeug
Motor City Horns

Alice Cooper (vocals; born February 4, 1948), Glen Buxton (guitar; born November 10, 1947, died October 18, 1997), Michael Bruce (guitar, keyboards; born March 16, 1948), Dennis Dunaway (bass; born December 9, 1948), Neal Smith (drums; born September 23, 1947).

Before the world heard of KISS, the New York Dolls, Marilyn Manson or Ozzy Osbourne, there was Alice Cooper, the original shock-rock band. With their penchant for ghoulish stage shows and a gender-bending wardrobe, this five-man group brought the element of theater to the world of rock. That alone would securely cement their stature as innovators. Yet they backed up their penchant for outrage with rock-solid music. Beyond the visuals Alice Cooper was a musical powerhouse, incorporating melodic hooks and complex progressive-rock passages into a foundation of catchy, riff-driven hard rock delivered in Cooper’s menacing, take-no-prisoners voice. Many of their songs – including “I’m Eighteen,” “Under My Wheels,” “Be My Lover” and “School’s Out” – remain anthems of the classic-rock era.

During their Seventies heyday it was impossible to be indifferent about Alice Cooper. They were one of the first acts of the modern-rock era that forced people to sit up and take notice, engendering curiosity and controversy in equal measure. The controversy began with the group’s very name. Alice Cooper was the both a band name and stage handle of its lead singer (born Vincent Furnier), suggesting a flamboyant sexual dualism that America was not yet ready to accept. Reportedly, the name surfaced during a session with the Ouija board.

Onstage, Alice Cooper brought a new level of visual theatrics to arenas with their gory array of props, which included a guillotine, electric chair, boa constrictor and fake blood. Their musical set pieces included Cooper’s beheading and electrocution. Their bleakly humorous explorations of the dark side were a far cry from the Woodstock ideals of peace and love. “We were the group that drove a stake through the heart of the love generation,” noted Cooper. The group was even deemed objectionable behind the Iron Curtain. According to Pravda, the Russian state newspaper, “Alice Cooper’s singing makes the blood run cold.”

They even jump-started the punk-rock movement that took root in Britain, inspiring the likes of Johnny Rotten (a.k.a., John Lydon). “I’ve referred to the Sex Pistols as ‘musical vaudeville’ and ‘evil burlesque,’ and for me there was definitively Alice Cooper influence there,” Lydon reflected.

Alice Cooper was banned, censured and lambasted by the establishment, all of which further fueled ticket sales to their concert spectacles. Their 1973 tour broke box-office records previously held by the Rolling Stones, and raised the bar for touring rock bands. After Alice Cooper, fans came to expect more from the concert experience. They wanted to see a show.

The roots of Alice Cooper extend back to Cortez High School in Phoenix, Arizona, where the core members came together as music aficionados with a shared yen for the macabre and surreal. They weren’t necessarily alienated misfits, as three members of the Earwigs – the first group in the Alice Cooper lineage – were high-school track stars who ranked among the fastest milers in the state. Dunaway, original drummer John Speer and Alice Cooper himself (known as Vince Furnier to his friends) could run a 4:30 mile, according to Cooper. Renaming themselves the Spiders, they scored a regional hit with “Don’t Blow Your Mind.” They changed names again to the Nazz and moved to Hollywood in 1968 with the idea of making it nationally. The final name change to Alice Cooper came when they learned there already was a Nazz – the Todd Rundgren-led group from Philadelphia – in existence.

The Alice Cooper band comprised vocalist Cooper, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith. Frank Zappa signed them to his Straight label. Zappa was attracted to the way the group flouted conventions, both socio-sexual and musical. Alice Cooper’s first two albums, Pretties for You (1969) and Easy Action (1970), were strange even by Sixties psychedelic standards, but hold up today as monuments to the group’s undaunted pursuit of the bizarre.

However, Alice Cooper himself regards those records more as products of the group’s Nazz era and considers Love It to Death the first real Alice Cooper album. This release marked the group’s debut on Warner Bros. and the first of four with producer Bob Ezrin. (He would also go on to produce Alice Cooper as a solo artist.) With his cinematic and colorful production style, Ezrin came to be regarded by Alice Cooper as their George Martin (the Beatles’ producer). He taught them to focus, edit and tighten their more sprawling conceptual numbers. Released in 1971, Love It to Death was a tour de force of misfit fantasies and adolescent angst whose key number, “Eighteen,” gave Alice Cooper its first hit and an indelible classic about the anxieties of late adolescence. (Source: www.rockhall.com)

This album contains no booklet.