MJs Sing-Along Blog: Seahawks won the Super Bowl, Woo Hoo!

[Mighty Jack]

Alice gets funky! This sounds a bit like Peter Gabriel (actually it pre-dates Sledgehammer by 3 years). An obscure number from the DaDa album, It’s about a vampire and his Renfeld (Wiki says it’s about cannibalism, but I don’t buy it. The lyrics talk about draining the blood from a victim). Cooper double tracks himself - singing in different octaves (does anyone know of there’s a technical term for that?), which gives a cold, mechanical sound to the vocals that doesn’t add a lot of bite. Still, I dig its groove, and as it reaches its end the song builds with female backing vocals and a growing horn section to add some kick to the track.

[Mighty Jack]

Oh lord did this song cause a stir, Ann Landers went on a tirade, the 700 Club zeroed in on Alice as the devil incarnate. I remember seeing Pat Robertson talk about this on his show, and reading the lyrics on screen – "One thing, no lie/Ethyl frigid as an Eskimo Pie/She's cool in bed/Well, she ought to be 'cause Ethyl's dead." Hearing that earnest voice and watching that indignant expression was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on television.

Alice said that Ann was taking it way to seriously, and now that Coopers a Christian, Pat has forgiven him (does that mean he now approves of Ethyl?)

Ethyl is sick and twisted, but it’s also a hoot and a great rockin’ number from “Welcome to my Nightmare”. Dig those killer guitar licks from Hunter and Wagner. Plus there’s cowbell… enough cowbell to keep Christopher Walken satisfied.

[Mighty Jack]

The opening track to "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell" is a little over produced (like most of the album) there’s a lot of layers on the vocals. And the tune is more camp than blood curdling horror. "You'd poison a blind man's dog and steal his cane/You'd gift wrap a leper and mail him to your Aunt Jane/You'd even force-feed a diabetic a candy cane/You can go to Hell!”

Producer Bob Ezrin came up with the idea of the song while in a taxi cab, tapping the seats to find the beat. Later, he and Alice hashed out the song and guitarist Dick Wagner added the heavy metal character.

While the songs (and album) lack the shock values of the previous LP, Go to Hell is a good hard rocker, a crowd pleaser at concerts.

[Mighty Jack]

We now to turn to two star-crossed psychopaths for our Halloween enjoyment “God made love crazy so we wouldn’t feel alone” – it’s a pretty ballad with not so pretty lyrics. From the album “From the Inside”, Alice performs a duet with Marcy Levy (aka Marcella Detroit, who would later gain fame as a member of Shakespeare’s Sister). I love the little twist as she sings about their kids, most couple’s dream of having babies, but Millie cries… ”Billie I dream of our children/They're frightening and gruesome and sad/And I don't want them growing inside me/They're no price for the love that we have”. With lyrics like that, and the clever bit about their guilt being well concealed in the trunk of the ’66 Olds. M&B make the perfect guest for your holiday party.

[Mighty Jack]

I haven’t visited the original Cooper band in a while, so it’s time to go back in time for an all time disturbing classick… one that upset a lot of folks when it was released. While I’m not sure a cautionary tale about the perils of bad parenting makes for fun Halloween listening – the song does gives off an eerie vibe, Cooper softly cooing -- "Little Betty ate a pound of aspirin/She got them from the shelf up on the wall/Betty's mommy wasn't there to save her/She didn't even hear her baby call." always sends a chill down my spine. And as Ed Masley from the Arizona Republic wrote, “Reality was always part of Cooper's Little Shop of Horrors. That's what made it stick.“

[Mighty Jack]

While both of these songs are prime Halloween thrillers, it’s the brilliant monologue from Vincent Price -which binds them together- that makes them special. I love his delighted chuckle as he describes Widow mating rituals. And as the music grows, the actor in all his glory shows off his chops by building the drama and insanity right along with it…

"If I may put forward a slice of personal philosophy, I view that man has ruled this world as a stumbling, demented child king long enough. And as his empire crumbles, my precious black widow shall rise as his most fitting successor!"

It is delicious indeed. (Forget Thriller, this is the Vincent Price performance for the Holiday

[Mighty Jack]

The album, "The Eyes of Alice Cooper" was recorded primarily live in the studio and took 2 weeks to finish. So there’s a garage band feel to the record… with this odd gothic chiller thrown in to mix things up. The title is apt, "House" has a haunted, lonely sound to it. Would fit right in with the "Steven" trilogy in "Welcome to my Nightmare". Alice’s daughter Calico plays the theremin on this one.

[Mighty Jack]

As with "Dead Babies", our next song draws from the theater of the real. Mans darkest side is examined unflinchingly on the album "Brutal Planet", none as much as the powerful and haunting "Pick up the Bones": A song about genocide, which is based on a true story about families returning home to find body parts of relative scattered about.

In all his years of examining nightmares, Cooper has never written anything so horrifying. The first time I heard it caused my mouth to dry and my skin to crawl. The melody is strong; it gathers steam and every bit of Alice’s frustration and anger builds with it. He screams out his lyrics with a desperate, raw emotion that brings the sorrow of the situation to life.

[Mighty Jack]

Weird number about split personalities - Cooper sings it in a child like way, summoning up all the 'unstable' he can. When Alice first whimpers, "I must be dreaming/please stop screaming" it sounds like he’s doing all he can to keep from losing it all together. Later, with the line about putting "pennies on your eyes", he sounds completely insane. Steven is one of those epic nightmare songs, and a close cousin to the "Ballad of Dwight Fry". Starts off with a rather John Carpenterish tinkling of piano and later explodes into a full orchestra. I had a friend named Steven, the track freaked him out. lol - this is one of my all time favorites from the Coop.

[Mighty Jack]

Necrophilia is addressed again in this sick comedy. The 50s style sing-a-long chorus lets us know that Alice is having fun, but the macabre lyrics are creepy to the max... "I love the dead before they're cold. Their bluing flesh for me to hold. Cadaver eyes upon me see. . . . Nothing." Or how about... "I never even knew your now-rotting face." "While friends and lovers mourn your silly grave, I have other uses for you, darling." This is a horror film in song

[Mighty Jack]

I’ll do two tonight then close the list. I wanted to post "Tag, Your It", an ode to Halloween-style movies. Alas, youtube doesn't have it, so I’ll do this weird one from the "DaDa" instead. On the AC boxset notes, Bob Ezrin called the lyrics "Edgar Allen Poe" like, and noted the darkness and the disjointedness... the near schizophrenia of the tune. I agree with Bob when he said that there was real genius in the lyrics. They truly bring the strangeness to life.

[Mighty Jack]

With “Second Coming: These two songs should stick together so that’s what I’m doing. I’m not sure if Second Coming is actually about Jesus, or a crazy guy who thinks he’s Jesus, but it connects to the classic Fry so I’ll go with the later.

The lyrics on both are brilliantly descriptive and Alice’s voice is full of character. “Second Coming” closes with a marching drum before giving way to a tinkling piano. A little girl asks where her daddy is? From here we get one of Cooper's top 2 or 3 songs, a grand straightjacket opera with Alice giving one of his most theatrical performances. He coos his lyrics softly at the start, and then the cracks begin to appear. His madman delivery of “Sure like to see that little children/she’s only 4 years oo-old/I’d give her back all of her play things/Even, even the one’s I stole” - and the halting vocals before full out panicked scream "I GOTTA GET OUT HERE!" Producer Bob Ezrin said they buried Coop under a pile of chairs when he sang this, in order to give him a sense of claustrophobia.

The tune continues with a skewed, surrealistic lead guitar solo, and then snakes back to the verse - “…I saw a man that was choking there/I guess he couldn’t breath”, AC sings childlike.

Not everything on this Halloween list would make my all time top 10, but Dwight Fry is a given. Genius song, pure genius.





And while I could go on, I think I’ll stop here. Happy Halloween everyone.

[Mighty Jack]

So many movies, so little time. For all I've watched I've only scratched the surface. Too many film movements to explore, too many directors to study... and then the trials of trying to hunt them down.

I find Stuart Cooper's Overlord at Blockbuster, put it in my Que - yay! No yay, it says Unavailable. Yeah, thanks for getting my hope up, dickweeds.

Check the city library, nope. County library? Nope. Amazon rental? Nope. Buy it, for $30? Nope, I don't think so. Guess I'll call the other video store.



Suzhou River - they call it Hitchcockian, like Vertigo. Must see it... GRRRRRR, no one has it.

The Moon's Our Home - old Henry Fonda - no, nobody has it? Aaahhh Fork me!

Can I at least get the uncut version of the Leopard (One of Eastwood's favorites). YES!

Can I at least get Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits? YES!

How about some Louise Brooks? You got G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box? I'll take it!



Robert Altman's impressionistic Images? Yeah, I'll give it a go.

That'll do for now.

But my mind is on the one's I can't find. Want turns them into something great in my mind. "I bet they are wonderful" - Should I try to find and buy them used... but what if I don't like them? It has happened before, you have a stack of unloved purchases. It's a crap shoot, even for highly praised movies.

Be patient, wait, look around. You have other's you want to see.

I peak at my wish list...

Lord it's a novel. (like "War and Peace" only longer)

I wonder if I'll ever get to them all?


I wonder if I'll even be able to find them all!

[Mighty Jack]

I spent a lot of money on comic books these past few weeks (too much in fact), because DC launched the new 52, and they affected me like bubbly champagne. I got a little light headed and impulsive. Some of the titles were weak, some were amazing - and the buzz it created was unlike anything I’ve felt in years. It took me back to a time when comic books were among my favorite things in the world (rather than the casual diversion they have become).

The zenith years came during my teens. Today they call it Comic Wednesdays, back then you got ‘em on a Friday. And every Friday after school (and later, after work) I’d head down to my local shop and pick up a huge stack. In those years $10 would buy you just about everything for the month.

Once I got home I’d lay the comics neatly on my bedroom floor, side by side. My brother would soon come knocking – He’d take my rocking chair, I’d relax on my bed and for the next few hours we’d pour over the books (replacing each comic back in it’s spot on the floor). Afterwards we’d sit a spell, look over the covers and talk about what we’d read, the great art, the great story (and vice-versa) and what we were looking forward to next month. My brother was Joe Cool, he never stepped into a comic book shop. Never talked comics around his friends. My room was his comic book sanctuary; it was the place where he could geek out. We had some nice brotherly bonding.

After he would head out, I’d put on a record - and for the next 35 to 40 minutes, rock in my chair and stare at all the comic book covers that I had lined up. I thought they were marvelous works of art: From the drawings to the title headings typography and blurbs... little masterpieces of composition and design. And when the album ended, I’d gather them up and file them in the long box.

I haven't performed this ritual in well over 30 years. Yet I suddenly felt a nostalgic pull. Maybe it was the joy and excitement of checking out the new 52... whatever, I took my DC titles from the past month and placed them on the floor. I put on a CD and rocked in my chair and for the next 40 minutes, stared at comic book covers. A little smile worked its way in the corner of my mouth, "It seems like only yesterday when I last did this." The only thing missing was my brother and the geek talk in this comic book sanctuary of mine.

[Mighty Jack]

Many moons ago I blogged about using automatic writing as a tool to shake the creative cobwebs loose. I mentioned turning those improvised scribblings into a song proper. Which I did – I sat down and rewrote and smoothed out the rough spots until I had the words just right. And then I faced the daunting task of finding music to accompany those lyrics.

I needed something melancholy, something that had the breath of desperation and sadness. As well as beauty and longing -- imperfection and perfection -- and the sense of the inevitable. That this couldn't last. We were coming to our end, and were clinging to the last vestiges of the relationship.

I remembered that it never stopped raining that November. And there was flooding that barred access to the freeway that led from Portland to Seattle. We were isolated and it felt like it was just she and I against it all.

I wanted these ideas and feelings present –even if only hinted at- not only in the words, but also in the voice and music. I wanted it infused in the tone of the guitar, in the somber vocals, in ghostly backing voices. I wanted my bass to sound as if it were drowning. It wasn't enough to have music, the music had to tell the story as much as the lyrics did.

Sometimes I get too close to these things to objectively know if I succeeded or not (it might take years before I can hear it clearly) – So this might be melodramatic mush and I’m not aware of it at this point. At the risk of shaming myself…

Click title to listen

Restless November
Restless November we sought cover from your rains
And hid under tangled limbs
I numbered her freckles and blemishes
I note the gentle swell of her breast
We breathe the same air, and laugh at how serious we’ve become

I brush an errant lock of her hair
And whisper something mawkish and trite
She smiles and takes her eyes from mine
So sad and beautiful
This is ash and Earth; this will crumble in my hand
Restless November, won’t you hold me in this dream

This is ash and Earth; this will crumble in my hand
Restless November, hidden in my fortress made of sand


Well then, I hope that wasn't too...