Killer: A Tribute To My Neighbor Alice
I have some pretty cool souls in my ‘hood. And more than one rock star. But none bigger than Alice Cooper. He is actually much different that most people think; a great father, a community leader in several ways (some pretty public, some not really known as well), producer of the spring play for the local grade school, and a guy I often have seen at school functions where our kids go.
Oh, and he has been one kick ass rock and roll motherfucker since, well, a long, long time ago. First time I saw him, I was a kid and my mother, who was a high school teacher, took me to a school dance where a band called the Spiders played. They went on to become Alice Cooper and the Billion Dollar Babies.
Tonight Alice was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Long overdue. Cheers and salute dude!
Remember the Coop!
Under My Wheels – Alice Cooper
One of the few songs I still remember how to play on the guitar!
He’s well-remembered around Ann Arbor and the southeastern corner, and still followed on radio, by some old townies I often run into.
I know the Hall started with a backlog, but it does seem past due for him; guess they figured a mensch would wait patiently —Congratulations, Alice.
Alice, if you’re reading this, Thanks for the uncountable thousands of hours of entertainment you have given me.
Boxturtle (“Schools out” came within 8 votes of being our class song in High School)
Probably time to organize a Bangladesh or LiveAid concert for Japan. No matter how successful, it will be a drop in the bucket of need. But Japan will need every penny and our continued attention.
I don’t suppose events in Japan will ever make disaster capitalists – inherently the predators among the human species – realize that what goes around comes around, that tumbrils and more roll for everyone eventually, and that we’re all in this together for however long we and our children are here. Thankfully, they don’t comprise the majority. To a revolution in thinking.
He just did a benefit in Tucson, along with Jackson Brown and Crosby and Nash for a fund to assist the Giffords shooting victims.
Somehow, the image of Alice Cooper and Jackson Brown on the stage at the same time does not compute. Alice doing a cover of ‘The Pretender’?!? Jackson doing a cover of ‘Welcome to my Nightmare’?
Boxturtle (C&N backstage, shaking their heads while passing a joint)
I’m delighted. My suggestion was aimed at top artists around the globe, not just in Arizona.
Heh. I’ve crossed paths with him exactly twice in the mid-80s.
The first was waiting for a sandwich in the Deli/Liquor store that Herb Drinkwater used to have on Scottsdale Road and Shea. One of those “mutual nod of acknowledgment” things, only I knew who he was!
Second was I just happened to stop at the light at Tatum and Lincoln going eastbound and, voila, he was driving the car in the next lane. I waved.
Funny story. Back in the late 80s, Paradise Valley was one of only a couple of places in the US with photo radar speed enforcement. I was for a couple of years fighting it hard on everything from technical to constitutional grounds. Had a friend who was this totally hot and quite successful commercial real estate girl who got a ticket and decided she hated the whole deal so bad she wanted to try to get rid of it. So I went to town on the Town of Paradise Valley. After one deposition I took, the attorney for PV pulls me in his office and show me their prize photo radar catch. Alice Cooper and Glen Campbell driving down Lincoln Blvd. together in the front seat with big grins on their faces. Turns out that Alice and Glen had already been good friends and golfing buddies; but back then it was kind of shocking and hilarious.
AC arrived on the scene after I had embarked on other occupations, so, I mostly did not know that group. When the kids were teenage, somehow they had a video of an AC set on television. It was pretty amazing that even after the rhythm guitarist tossed a white sheet over AC during some kind of treble up-fret riff, AC still was arpeggiating and melodizing fairly flawlessly, though entirely casperlike under the fabric. I am not quite sure of what his genre of rock and roll was. I seem to recall it was okay rock and roll. That was about 5+ years after the Rolling Stones had started donning get-ups for their performances, I think; but, maybe I simply did not follow the scene much. GlenC the popular music vocalist had one song I played a lot, too; but it was a glum plaintive which I always thought simply reflected the epoch in which it was written; still, Glen*s version was the best lyrically and arrangementwise.
As for bmaz*s mention of current repertoire, I would say it*s important to play the [keys and] strings, and the instant in time; though I suppose it helps to have distinct tunes with names. I have trouble sometimes imagining how Coltrane or Charles Lloyd created names for some of their abstract works; it always seemed sort of purposeless, like a name on a boat. Let it have its license and proof its fees were paid and up to date in the current year. Then just play.