Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
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Artist: Alice CooperBrand: Billion
Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2001-02-06
Music Label: Rhino
Soundtracks:
- Hello Hooray
- Raped and Freezin'
- Elected
- Billion Dollar Babies
- Unfinished Sweet
- No More Mr. Nice Guy
- Generation Landslide
- Sick Things
- Mary Ann
- I Love the Dead
Free Music Notes for Billion Dollar Babies
Free Music Review: Billion Dollar Motts
Hit: 5 Stars
In Phoenix, Arizona, in the late sixties there was a rough little garage band known as `The Earwigs', playing whatever gigs they could get with a certain Vincent Furnier on lead vocals. By 1969 and countless name changes the quintet had settled on the name `The Alice Cooper Band''. As expected, the lead singer started to get called Alice. The band's fame started to spread with the release of their first album 'Pretties For You'. There was certainly no overnight stardom, more a slow, but inevitable rise to the very top of the tree.
By 1972 Vincent Furnier changed his name by deed poll to Alice Cooper and the Alice Cooper Band had their first global number one hit with 'School's Out'; brilliantly timed to be released when all the schools broke up for their long summer holidays. With its lyrics of unbounded joy and anti-teacher rants 'School's Out' captured the imagination of a generation of school kids. Everybody loved the Alice Cooper Band, unless you happened to be a parent.
By the time of the release of this, their sixth album `Billion Dollar Babies', the Alice Cooper Band was one of the biggest bands in the world and had 25 Gold Records, album sales of over 50 Million, plus sold-out stadium tours to prove it.
The band was every teenagers dream. The band members themselves were disastrously young, too brutally good looking, too clever by half, way out of control, preened around the country in their own customized jet (booze and cards in the front, girls in the back), willing to take any chance they were given, and most importantly enough street savvy to fill every young head on our little planet. The songs weren't bad either.
Opening with the frothy-mouthed Broadway burlesque of 'Hello Hooray', the band announces their arrival and greets their audience, a celebration from the musicians to thank their fans for where they now are; together with their fans one mighty gang. Not one to ever dodge issues, the next song 'Raped and Freezin' is a Stonesy rave-up involving a guy who gets picked up and raped by some `old broad down from Sante Fe' and winds up naked in Chihuahua, Mexico. You can imagine how much this would of been appreciated by the older generation. But it's all very tongue in cheek with the singer at his sassy best, and the south-of-the-border Spanish guitar mantra at the song's end is pure class.
The next song was the first single to be released from this collection, 'Elected', which was put out the previous year to tie in with the American Presidential Elections. Not a trick did our boys miss out on. Naturally the song was a huge hit.
The title track remains an all time classic, including its surprising vocal duet with flower power idol Donavan and Alice, although it's Alice who gets to sing the gleeful:
''If I'm too rough, tell me,
I'm so scared your tiny little head is going to come off in my hands".
`Billion Dollar Babies' has wonderful guitar riffs from Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton, although Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, two of rock 'n' roll's top session guitarists, were brought in to give some experience to the studio guitar sound. This was also partly due to the failing health of Glen Buxton, who is tragically no longer with us. The rhythm section of Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith really come into their own on these songs.
On this thirtieth anniversary release of `Billion Dollar Babies' you get two discs, one with the original recording cleaned up by original producer Bob Ezrin from the master tapes, and a second one with selected live tracks from the `Billion Dollar Babies' tour that followed this release, where the band leaves you in no doubt they certainly can cut it live. There are also several studio outtakes on the second disc, showing that at the time the band had plenty of material still left in the bank.
'Generation Landslide', 'No More Mr. Nice Guy', plus the title track were three more hit singles for the band, while 'I Love The Dead' and 'Sick Things' would become stage favorites. 'Unfinished Sweet' gives the band room to breathe, while giving the stage show a vehicle for the band's theatrics during their spectacular act, especially with its snippets of West Side Story themes.
'Mary Ann' is perhaps the album's only not instantly memorable song. It's a pithy ballad that pumps sexual irony to the point of persona self-immolation. On the surface the song is a ballad of pure ear candy for girls, but the last line pitches a curve ball by revealing the protagonist's true love interest. Mary Ann is as much a man, if not more so, than Alice himself. For sheer cheek alone, Mary Ann scores a point.
A great album beautifully repackaged with loads of sleeve notes and photos all tucked away in a snake skin wallet. Unfortunately though you cannot remove the Billion Dollar note tucked inside as you could in the original vinyl release.
Sadly the next year's 'Muscle of Love' album was the band's last as egos got in the way. The newly named Alice crawled away to form yet another band, while the others carried on as "The Billion Dollar Babies'', but none of them ever came close to these heights again.
Executed by Mott the Dog
Guillotined by Ella Crew
Billion Dollar Babies Poster
No Description AvailableNo Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: COOPER,ALICE
Title: BILLION DOLLAR BABIES
Street Release Date: 02/06/2001
Genre: ROCK/POP
The original Alice Cooper band was one of the finest hard-rock units of the early '70s. Billion Dollar Babies may not be the Cooper band's best album, but it was the final release of a quartet of extraordinary Bob Ezrin-produced hard-rock records (rounded out by Love It to Death, Killer, and School's Out), and it captures the moment when the band was at its peak. Including three hit singles in "Hello Hooray," "Elected," and "No More Mr. Nice Guy," the album--from Donovan's exciting cameo on the title track to the closing "I Love the Dead" (probably the prettiest ode to necrophilia ever recorded)--still sounds terrific. And the packaging, production, music, and imagery has inspired followers as diverse as the Sex Pistols, Marilyn Manson, and Hole. --Bill Holdship
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