Alice Cooper is credited with being the first “shock rock” artist. His concerts and stage performances almost always feature memorable events by “shocking” the audience. More than just an act, Alice Cooper’s music earned him many fans.
Born in Detroit on February 4, 1948, as Vincent Damon Furnier, he moved with his family to Phoenix, Arizona where he spent much of his youth. Vincent has a rather unexpected religious upbringing. Both father and his grandfather were members of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Vincent attended Cortez high school in Phoenix, where he was a columnist for the school newspaper. His sarcastic articles were quite popular and even helped him make friends. Loyal readers, Glen Buxton and Dennis Dunaway, became his closest friends who would come influence his music career later. Furnier, Buxton and Dunaway spent much of their time and energy attempting to attract the attention of girls at their school. After donning wigs and performing Beatles songs in a school talent show they discovered music was a great way to gain popularity among their fellow students and particular the girls.
Michael Bruce joined them to form The Earwigs. Their musical influences included The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Eric Clapton and The Yardbirds. The group soon changed their name to the Spiders.
The Spiders released a single, "Don't Blow Your Mind," that became a hit on Phoenix radio stations, and changed their name again, this time to The Nazz. They soon left Phoenix and moved to Hollywood to pursue larger goals. Despite years of struggle in Los Angeles, The Nazz did manage to play opening acts for such bands as The Doors and The Yardbirds. In 1968, when Todd Rundgren named his band The Nazz, forcing the group to change their name once again, this time to Alice Cooper.
In 1969, the band Alice Cooper released their first album, Pretties For You, which sold reasonably well but was seen as an outlandish work at the time. One of the reasons was the legendary story that the band showed up still reeling from a night of heavy drinking to record the album. This legend helped play into the overall theme of craziness that the band embodied going forward.
Alice Cooper, the band, released five albums before they broke up in 1974 at which time Furnier became known as Alice Cooper. He released his first album, Welcome to My Nightmare in 1975 and it became a top ten hit. Alice Cooper has released more than 30 studio, live and compilation albums, and has sold millions of records worldwide. His onstage legend has never waned. The most outrageous and most talked about was the story that he bit the head off a chicken and drank its blood. This is a story he denies but it made headlines around the world and the legend of Alice Cooper grew.
Outrageousness is definitely part of why Alice Cooper became a mega star, but his music holds its own as well allowing him to become one of the top-selling artists of his time. Many bands have tried to parlay shock rock tactics to stardom but few have succeeded and definitely none to the extend Alice Cooper did.
No comments:
Post a Comment