In recently interviewing guitarist MICK MASHBIR on his new album Stungout On Strings, I threw in some last minute requests for Mick’s thoughts on the bonus tracks that make up the second disc of the Muscle Of Love deluxe version. It is well known that Mick played on both Billion Dollar Babies and MOL, as well as the accompanying tours. In my 2013 interview with Mick, he discussed this more in-depth, along with his first solo album, Keepin’ The Vibe Alive. So, below are some words from Mick on the Muscle Of Love alternates and demos from 2024.
Big Apple Dreamin’
My guitar is on the left and Mike’s is on the right. We shift roles between lead and rhythm guitar effortlessly. Its great to hear Bob Dolin’s parts so clearly.
Never Been Sold Before
Mike’s guitar is on the left I’m on the right. Mike plays great subtle variations and accents. Neal and Dennis really lock in during the outro with Dennis playing alot of bass runs.
Hard Hearted Alice
Acoustic guitars add feel to the verses. This track really shows off Bob Dolin’s keyboard skills
Crazy Little Child
How a bunch of hard rockers from the desert were able to capture a New Orleans Dixeland feel amazed me.
Working Up A Sweat
Dick Wagner steps in for the solo and kills it. No “Ricky and the Red Balloon” feel on that track!
Muscle Of Love
Mike is on the right and I’m on the left and center until the ride out when Mike moves to the center to solo through the outro. Classic Neal Smith drums.
Man With The Golden Gun
Bob’s Moog and B3 parts contributed a lot of the soundtrack feel to this track.
Teenage Lament
Rented acoustic guitars were delivered to the studio from S.I.R. and Michael’s acoustic part is featured on this track. Alice’s vocal delivery was subtle but really worked well in this context as a troubled teenager.
Woman Machine
This track had a very mechanical feel..as it should. The guitars provided the groove so Neal could play a lot more drum fills during the spoken word outro.
In 2007 MICK MASHBIR released his first solo album, Keepin’ The Vibe Alive. Mashbir, from Phoenix is a guitarist/songwriter, who in the 1970s played on 2 ALICE COOPER albums, as well as accompanying tours (1973-74), as well as Alice Cooper bandmember solo projects, and later with Flo & Eddie, and The Turtles. Mick has a new album out, digitally only (so far), titled Strungout On Strings, which includes a few tracks from his previous album, a few new ones, and some written and recorded in-between. (I’m kinda hoping for a CD (:-)) in the future). You can check out Strungout On Strings on Youtube (see link at the bottom, and give the songs a like).
Can you give me the basics on your new album? (when songs were written and recorded, title…)? I notice a few titles which were previously released as singles.
STRUNGOUT ON STRINGS is a compliation of songs recorded before and after KEEPIN’ THE VIBE ALIVE was released. It is varied in styles because as a guitar player I have played many styles beyond what I did with the ACG. I released “De La Vina”, “Now” and “Bottom Feeders” after KTVA because I wanted them to be available for all to hear. My love for guitar is not about one style. The title says it all. That’s why I’m still playing. The 12 tracks are; NOW, AMERICAN WEIRDO, BOTTOM FEEDERS, POINT DOOM, BORN TO ROCK, FLOAT, HERE IN THE FLESH, DE LA VINA, 1-900-4AGOD, MEMNOCHS BLUES, COMPASSION and HOLD ON.
Are there any special guests on this one?
“Born To Rock” featured my band the YARBLES. It was recorded at the Record Plant in LA. The drums on that track are the only live drums on the album. I programmed all the drums on the other tracks.
Is Bob Dolin (RIP) on any other tracks (aside from “Hold On”)?
Unfortunately no. The upside is that it forced me to upgrade my chops on the keys.
You included “American Weirdo” and “Hold On” from your previous album. I notice that “Hold On” plays out til the end instead of fading out. Is there anything else you altered on either track? Both make great singles btw. I always thought “American Weirdo” would’ve been a cool AC song way back.
“American Weirdo” was remixed, remastered and re-released because I felt it spoke to what is happening in America today. At heart it is a blues song, relevant in the 80’s and still relevant today.
The images in the accompanying video are symbolic of the political, economic, religious and social conflicts we as Americans are experiencing regardless of our race, chosen religion or political affiliation. The video shows it all.
“Hold On” was remixed, remastered and re-released as a tribute to Bob Dolin. His piano part in the coda was cut short by the fade out version on KTVA. I thought it was important for that to be heard in its entirety. His piano in the coda was one take. His overdubs..the cellos, violins and piano took about 3 hours. Funny thing about Bob, he really wanted to be a lead guitar player. The last time I saw him perform he playing lead guitar in a cover band!
“Hold On” is a song of struggle and hope. It helped a couple of friends of mine make it thru their dark and difficult times.
Can you comment on a few of the tracks, such as “Now” (from 2013), “Here In The Flesh”, as well as instrumentals “Point Doom”, “Float” (who’s playing keyboards on this one?)
POINT DOOM is a nod to my first band The Jaguars. We were playing Surf Instrumentals in the Arizona desert. It was written in the 90’s while I was living on Point Dume’ (Doom) in Malibu, California. The video features old school skateboarding.
NOW is auto-biographical history. I had never played a solo using the whammy-bar on my Strat so that is my first attempt. The video reflects the philosophy and reality that NOW is all we really experience in our lives. The video is a psychedelic take on time.
The lyrics of HERE IN THE FLESH were written by Curt Phillips (RIP). When I first met Curt he was in an Alice Cooper cover band so I think that’s what inspired him to write those lyrics. The lead was cut in one take on my Fostek 4 track cassette deck with my 58′ Sunburst.
FLOAT was a track that I created to jam to. I played piano and B3 organ. That guitar was my first take on the first jam. I thought “this works, this is a keeper.” COMPASSION and MEMNOCHS BLUES were both done the same way with the same results.
DE LA VINA was inspired by an Ayahuasca journey in the jungles of Los Angeles. Again, the video gives a little symbolic insight to the experience.
You’ve only put this out on Youtube so far. Will it be available on other streaming services.
It is available on about 35 other streaming services, some not available in the USA. Check out: Amazon, iTUNES, deezer, iHeart Radio, Pandora and Spotify.
Will there be downloadable or physical copies (maybe in the future)?
That all depends on the reaction to the initial YouTube release.
Who created all the videos?
All the videos were created by me. I wanted SOS to be an audio/video experience and that’s why “SOS” was initially released on YouTube. The videos are very symbolic in their nature letting the viewer interpret them as they wish.
Who created the cover art for this?
I created the art as well. It’s a nod to AI. I would never use AI for music, but since I’m not a practiced visual artist, AI is a handy tool.
There’s been a lot of activity from the original Alice Cooper group these last few years, notably the deluxe reissues of albums you played on and a live album from your time with them. I notice you were included in the extended liner notes to Muscle of Love, but didn’t see much in B$Bs. What did you think about these releases?
I am not familiar with the B$Bs reissue so I can’t really comment. I was not asked to participate so no free copy for me. ..lol
How did your inclusion (interview?) come about for the Muscle of Love release?
That was because Mike Bruce put me in touch with the incredible Jaan Uhelszki (founder/editor of CREEM magazine) who was doing the liner notes. She made sure I received a promo copy. I was impressed with the remastered sound and Alice not singing in character on “Crazy Little Child” isolated vocal…a real crooner.
In the Billion $ Babies release, Michael Bruce mentions your involvement in the early stages of what became “Raped and Freezin”. Do you recall that?
It was the first song we worked on at the first rehearsal…The Latin rave up at the end was our nod to the instrumental “TEQUILA”.
Have you kept in touch with any of the AC guys in recent years?
I saw Mike Bruce about 10 years ago if that counts as recent. He is the only person in the band that made any effort to stay connected.
Have you heard the new AC band album (any thoughts on it)?
I thought the relaxed, not so polished production that killed the feel of most of ACs solo stuff, really made it sound like ACG groups early records. I notice on Wiki there were 5 additional guitar players which dissapointed but didn’t suprise me.
What else are you up to these days? (still play live much?)
I’m writing and recording new material. I no longer gig.
The 50th Anniversary reissue of ALICE COOPER‘s biggest album – Billion Dollar Babies was recently released (a year late). Like the classic AC albums Killer and School’s Out (which came out last year) – this comes in a 3-LP edition (2CD), with bonus tracks, and an entire live show – All remastered, with lengthy sleeve notes inside, and other goodies! In this recent interview with drummer Neal Smith. Neal discusses these anniversary releases, the band live, the outtakes, Easy Action, and the band’s success in Canada! *Check it out and drop a note if you have the new B$Bs release.
How did these things (3LP sets) actually come about as far as who initiated the plan to get these out with the bonus material and particularly the live shows?
Well pretty much Warner Brothers puts these packages together, and the only thing that we’re involved in is, I know there’s an eight-page booklet that’s included in this Billion Dollar Babies Deluxe 50th Anniversary set, and Jaan Uhelszki. She’s an amazing writer, she used to work at Cream Magazine. So, we were all involved in those interviews, and I read the one that she did for the Killer 50th Anniversary album, she did a phenomenal job, I have a copy here, right in front of me, I haven’t opened it yet. When we did the Talk Shop Live interview – Alice, Mike Bruce, myself, and Dennis Dunaway, we opened it for the first time, and so I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, but we were involved in that. But as far as the recordings, they did these things up from the archives, and it pretty much is… and even the photographs on the inside that are new, that a lot of people haven’t seen before, they’re in total control of it, and that’s really how it comes together. And with COVID and the way things have been slow for the last couple of years, this album should have been out last year, obviously, in 1973 to 2023, but it’s like everything else, just a little back in its release date, so that’s why it’s out now. It’s a phenomenal package, and of course, there was a version that after it was released (where) we were asked to autograph some 12 by 12 flats that were included in some of the albums, and the only unfortunate thing about the whole process is that so far – and I know they’re working on correcting it, trying to make it work, but they’re not sending the albums to Canada or internationally, to the UK or Australia, but I understand they’re trying to figure out a way to work that out, and some very creative fans do have friends in the United States that they’re sending it to, and getting it to them. But at any rate, I think it came out great. I haven’t even listened to it, but I’ve seen the list of the songs, I guess on the vinyl side number three, of course I remember that really well, it was live in Texas, in Houston, Texas on April 28th, 1973, and that was when we were shooting scenes and recording for the movie, Good to See You Again Alice Cooper, and I know it’s been released before, but apparently they’ve just totally remastered it, remixed it, and it’s supposed to sound pretty amazing, so I’m excited to listen to that.
The live recordings, so do you keep any of those yourself, or does somebody have an archive of them, or is it just Warner Brothers that would have it?
Yeah, well the movie was released I think with Penthouse Magazine, I think they were the company that released Good to See You Again Alice Cooper, so whoever has the rights to it…. Bands never end up with their own, the record label actually owns the masters to all the music, now of course this wasn’t an official album because it was a soundtrack to Good to See You Again Alice Cooper, so I’m not really quite sure who owns it, but I’m sure that Warner Brothers and Rhino Records now have the rights to it of course for this album, and there’s a lot of outtakes as well.
Were you much of a collector of that stuff as far as keeping the band stuff yourself, like keeping tapes and stuff?
I mean I have quite a few copies of all of our original albums, the only thing that was out of the normal, I have one of the acetate test pressings for ‘Elected’, which is on about a 78 size record, which is almost like a 12 inch record, and that’s the only unusual one that I have that was played – those are test pressings that they play after they mix and master the music, and other than that, like I said all the tapes are owned by the record company, the record labels.
In the day you guys never released an actual live album, so I mean it’s kind of a plus for us fans that now with each of these releases there’s pretty much a live album attached to it.
Yeah, that’s right, there were a lot of live recordings back in the day, but for some reason even the Mar y Sol Festival, which I think there were some tracks on …well probably the Killer album, and I never realized that that was being recorded, so there are some of the very… I think there was one, the Medicine Ball tour show that was in Washington D.C., there was some live recordings there too. But you have to remember our stage show was pretty crazy, and if there were microphones, I mean even the microphones that were normally there, a lot of them got trashed, so that would be a little bit of an inconvenience, and the problem with recording all the tracks, especially around the drums, if they accept too many microphones, but there always, like I said, were microphones for the sound systems in the venue or a stadium wherever we played, but it’s really amazing, you’re absolutely right, that there weren’t more live recordings of those.
There were some, I actually have a cassette of one of our last shows that we did, the Billion Dollar Babies show at the Madison Square Garden in New York, after the original spring and summer tour, 1973, I have a cassette that is actually flipped over, I think through unfinished suite and is recorded on the other side, and it’s actually a great version, even though it’s just a mix of the board, so there are a few things that were around at the time, and again, that was just recorded by the sound engineers, so they would have a record of the sound and listen to it if they need to make some corrections or what have you, so there were very, very few things that were recorded for us, and that’s unfortunate, but like you say, it’s a great thing for the fans that there’s some live recordings on it. And they’ve been updated, because I gotta tell you, when we did the Houston, I think it was Dallas, or when things were done at the Houston in Texas in April of 73 there was a mobile unit, of course, that came to the Coliseum wherever we recorded that, and I was one of the first people in the band to go backstage and listen to the tracks, and boy did they sound like shit (haha), and I speak basically of the drums, and they were just raw coming off the session and live, but there’s so much they can do to make them sound great, and apparently, what I have heard of some of those tracks, even that have been released prior to this, they did a phenomenal job in getting the sound quality back, however they did it, and again, that’s a great thing, because that’s all I really care about when I hear these, because I know the energy’s going to be there, and it makes it sound more like what we’re used to hearing while we’re live on stage.
I was listening to the Billion Dollar Babies show, the live show earlier, and every time I hear like ’18’, it sounds very not stuck by the book, like obviously Alice adlibs some of the lyrics and all sorts of things. It sounds very spontaneous, so I’m curious, how much difference and changes and spontaneity went into your shows, as opposed to keeping everything exactly to the word and to the minute?
You have to remember that we started as a live band, we were getting standing ovations from our crazy finale, with the songs that we were doing off of Pretties For You, Easy Action, and these big shows like Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, and we did an awful lot live. So even in Vancouver, the big festival that was in the late 60s – early 70s, that we had played, and we could get standing ovations, and we didn’t have hit songs, but we wrote our songs for a live show. And recording an album is one thing, and playing songs in a live show is a totally other thing, and you have to remember that ‘I’m 18’ started off as an eight-minute song that we did live, back in the late 60s, before Bob Ezrin, with Nimbus Nine out of Toronto. Bob Ezrin produced it and cut it down to a three minute single, so we would take the dynamic of that, even when we played in the UK in 2017, and did five shows, the original band came out with Alice and did five shows over there – we changed, we actually made ‘I’m 18′ the opener of the set that we did, but it was elongated and a lot more dramatic for live, and we look at live totally different than in the studio, in the studio you’re trying to make a concise statement with one song, there can be album cuts of course, but still try to keep them between three minutes, three and a half minutes long, but you have the occasional really long album songs too, but live we really stretch everything out, almost every song we’ve ever done, to accommodate the fact that we just don’t go up there and play ’18’ for three minutes, even thinking about that just doesn’t make any sense to me, we knew how to use, and Michael Bruce was brilliant at this (and still is), of taking a song with the dynamics and changes and building it to a crescendo, and then boom, then we start the beginning of I’m 18, like a minute, minute and a half intro, so yes, we did change them, and that’s why it’s great to have some of these live songs. And we were also doing a lot of theatrics with the songs, so we needed more time to do the theatrics on stage, I always say that at the time we had costume changes, sometimes we would play tapes of the music, like we did Night On Bald Mountain when we were doing the, on the Billion Dollar Babies tour, when we went into what we call the dark part of the set, when there was, we all changed clothes into black from white outfits, and then we did ‘Sick Things’, ‘I Love the Dead’, and we did ‘Dead Babies’, so that was the dark side of the band live, and it has to be dramatic, we need time to, it’s very, it’s like Broadway, songs on Broadway are, you’ve gotta fit the theatrics in, and it’s all timing, and we did the same thing with our acts, so that’s why it’s great to have some of these songs that were actually recorded and now available for the fans to listen to.
There is a couple outtakes obviously that have been heard before, like ‘Slick Black Limousine’ and ‘Coal Model T’, were you guys much of a band that did extra stuff in the studio, or did you just do what was going to be on the album and that was it?
No, we would do the album and that was it, and there’s very, I mean that’s where there’s outtakes, I mean of course were in there, we did a lot of takes of songs, and all we were looking for was originally, I mean it was a whole different way to record that, the only instrument that had to be played correctly all the way through from the beginning to end on all seven or eight albums that we did, were the drums, everything else could be overdubbed and put out, but the drums had to be perfect from the beginning to end before we had an actual take, so that was a big part of it, and we spent a lot of time in pre-production outside of the studio, unlike other bands that would run up humongous bills in the studio while they’re writing the album, while they’re writing the song, and recording songs, we did all of our pre-production work out of the studio – Love It To Death and Killer at the Farm in Pontiac, Michigan, Bob Ezrin will come down, and then when we did School’s Out and Billion Dollar Babies, he came to our home and the mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, so we didn’t really do any extra songs, we went in the studio for ‘Slick Black Limousine’, and (I think) ‘Nobody Likes Me’, and those were the only two extra songs that we ever did, but they weren’t done in a session, they were done by themselves, intentionally as an extra to be available, whatever the hell we wanted to use it for at the time, but I think ‘Slick Black Limousine’, ‘Coal Black Model T’, whatever, there were two versions of it, and that was a progression, because sometimes we were, I mean Alice was always changing lyrics to songs, and that’s why even when we weren’t on stage live, Alice would ad lib and do different lyrics, lyrics also change as we did play things live, so that’s, to answer your question, no we did not, we went in to do six, seven, eight songs on the album, that’s what we did.
Now you’re up to, well three of these repackaged (albums) now, is there a plan to go back and possibly do Love to Death, or Muscle of Love?
Right now, I have not heard any plans to do that, that could change, but I know that they (Warner Brothers) were especially interested in Killer, School’s Out, and Billion Dollar Babies – three of our biggest albums. Although Muscle of Love is still, from my standpoint of playing it, and loving the album, I mean, the song ‘Muscle of Love’ is still one of my favorite songs, and we did it on the UK tour, and that’s a killer when we play it live on stage., And Love to Death of course was our breakthrough album, so I don’t know, you never know, I mean, these are all the 50th anniversary, I don’t know, maybe they’ll do a 55th anniversary, I hope I’m around for the 100th, but I doubt it, but I’m just happy that they have done these three.
Yeah, I just think it being the first in that series that kind of kicked off things, I wanted to ask briefly about Easy Action, because it didn’t dawn on me until recently that that album sold worse than Pretties For You, that didn’t even chart.
Yeah, Pretties For You I think broke on it 199 or 198 on the Top 200 album by Billboard, and Easy Action I don’t believe even got on the charts.
Is there anything memorable about Easy Action for you, like I look at a song like ‘Shoe Salesman’ and I wonder if anybody ever played that on the radio.
Well, I mean, the production of course was a little bit better, and anything we ever recorded we thought was gonna be a hit album, and we had David Briggs I guess who you know who worked with Neil Young, and so, but he was just hired, it wasn’t somebody that we searched for and really wanted him to record the album. I don’t even know how David Briggs got involved in producing the album, but obviously if you’re doing Neil Young in one session and Alice Cooper in the other, he really didn’t give a rat’s ass about our music.
Matter of fact, on the song ‘Lay Down And Die, Goodbye,’ he said “Oh well we’ll put on this psychedelic shit now.” So you know, he wasn’t enthusiastic or cared about it from the standpoint of it was just a gig for him to get through, record it, get it down, and get on with his life. So from that standpoint there was not chemistry in the production of it, although there was still some great music, great songs, we did them live, I mean I think ‘Return Of The Spiders’ is one of the songs to me that stands out other than ‘Lay Down And Die Goodbye’, but there was ‘Beautiful Flyaway’, I think Michael sang that song and played it on the album as well. But it was, you know there were some standout pieces that were, as our writing was changing from Pretties For You, but as always I agree 100% of the guys in the band have said that Pretties For You and Easy Action were just an extension of the band and Nazz, and as we became more Alice Cooper, the name Alice Cooper, the image Alice Cooper, what we were all about, even though we were, there were some signs of it in Pretties For You and Easy Action – ‘Fields Of Regret’, ‘Lay Down And Die Goodbye’, like I mentioned, you know the darker side of Alice Cooper didn’t really come out until along with the new songwriting, everybody was writing it a little more commercially, myself included and Dennis and Michael, the three of us that wrote most of the music to the songs, and then of course with the help of the amazing Bob Ezrin coming in and just solidifying those songs and making them happen.
But again, Easy Action was a great album, it was my idea to stand backwards because I had the longest hair in the band for the album cover, and so every band has a front picture of it. We always try to do something different obviously as any fan knows for our album covers, but with that one, I said let’s just turn around and Zappa liked the idea and so we went with that one. But you know, it certainly was produced by, like I said, the Pretties For You, it’s a stepping stone to Love It To Death, but it was good to have it, it didn’t. Commercially I think it sold probably about half as many copies as Pretties For You across the whole country, but it certainly was even establishing our reputation and the name Alice Cooper deeper in the underground world of rock and roll in North America.
Well, like I said, I like ‘Shoe Salesman’ and I love the packaging on that album, those black and white pictures on the inside, the gatefold…
Oh, on Easy Action, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The packaging was great and we always, even on Pretties For You, we always wanted the double gatefold, that was, without a question, that was what the band wanted. Obviously, the record companies always wanted to do a single sleeve, but we wanted the gatefold and it also was good, as you say, to build the image of the band with more photos of the band.
Well, I’m hoping there’s going to be more in the series. Is there any update on you guys doing anything with Alice as far as what’s going on there? Might be released?
Well, like I always say, you know, for the past almost 20 years now since the Hall of Fame, well not 20 years, since the year before the Hall of Fame, about 15 years now, we’ve always, well, since the band broke up we always share songs between each other. I mean, I’ve been coming out to Arizona since the early 90s and bring music with me, Alice and I get together, we play golf, hang out, and I hear what he’s doing, I’m always playing songs that I played for him and some of them ended up on the DeadRinger album in the late 80s and some of those songs ended up in different projects that Dennis and I have worked on over time.
And so, we’ve done that and it got even more productive and actually saw the light of day with the songs on Welcome 2 My Nightmare (the Sequel) and Paranormal and Detroit Stories, where ‘Social Debris’ was a song that Alice and I, that I actually started working on, that he and I started working on in 2016, a few years before Detroit Stories, and then we finished the song and it became one of the most played songs off of Detroit Stories, so we’ve been doing it for a long time. Dennis and Alice always create songs, Michael is out here, I’m in Arizona right now. And I come here for the winter, and it gives us an opportunity to write.
We’ve recorded, what, about eight or nine songs on those albums and we’ve done a couple of other recordings, so maybe someday we’ll have enough songs to put an album together, but right now we’re just working on the re-release of the 50th anniversary Billion Dollar Babies album and we’re always talking about doing more live shows, but we did the one in the UK, so we’re always thankful for that. We’re thankful for the chance that we’ve got, the original band, to play on Alice’s solo albums and get back together, just get that chemistry going again, because it’s always great. So we’ll keep our fingers crossed that one of these days we’ll have eight, nine, ten songs for an album and we’ll see what happens.
Well, hopefully there’ll be more. Like I said, I love, I think my favorite out of all those is that ‘Genuine American Girl’ from Paranormal I thought that was good.
Yeah, that was a song that I had written too. Yeah, that’s a great song. I mean, Bob Ezrin, again, did such an amazing job with the drums on that, all the instruments just sound fantastic. So that’s a great song, yeah, I agree with you 100%.
To me that was the standout song and it sounded like it could have easily fitted in that early Alice Cooper repertoire.
Yeah, yeah…
Lastly, everybody else has written a book. Are you planning on putting anything out of your own?
Well, I’ve been working on a book actually, it’s slowed down about the last ten years for me. I started it around 2000, 2001, and I’m up to about Love It To Death now.
But I’ve been traveling so much and then I retired from the real estate business and working on my Killsmith project. And to find out the updates on everything, my website – which is http://www.nealsmithrocks.com , and don’t forget I spell my name correctly – not like Neil Young (lol). I spell it N-E-A-L, so nealsmithrocks.com always has all my updated information on what’s going on.
And one of these days, I mean, I’m working on it, it’s just, when I come out to Arizona for the winter, I think ‘ Ah I’m gonna have plenty of time’. Then all of a sudden, I’ve been here three months and I’ve been so busy with the release of this. There’s always something busy going on with recording and like I say, I’m always working on my Killsmith projects as well.
I’m working on my next Killsmith album Hard In A Rock Place, which will be out later this year in 2024. So, I’m always keeping busy and when it comes out, believe me, everybody will know about it, but I am working on it. It’s a slow process, but I just, and everybody tells the stories a little bit differently.
And I’m coming from, obviously, a drummer’s perspective and it’s, the stories are out there. I mean, it’s amazing. We’re the band that should have never made it.
It’s kind of the whole thing, but there was an audience for a band like us. It was a huge audience, and we were like the kids that were shunned in school and all of a sudden, when they were younger, they just had no path. And even the emails to this day – 50 years after the band, people are just saying that that ‘You guys, you guys opened up a whole world for me that I never do realize in rock and roll’.
And many times, many cases, kids saying that we actually saved their lives. So I can understand that, but that’s what the internet, I think that’s the only thing I like about the internet is the fact that you hear all these stories that otherwise we would have never known about.
Thanks Neal, this has been great!
And my greetings to all the fans in Canada because Canada, from the first time we stepped on Canadian soil and played at the shows, especially at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, we were always treated like superstars. And Canada got it right away. and I don’t know why, but I’m very, very thankful.
I can’t tell you how, you know, I speak for the whole band, how grateful we were. And then to get Bob Ezrin, another Canadian, a huge person that also understood the band and was behind us 1000%. So, Canada and the fans mean a lot to me and to us and making Alice Cooper come alive and be successful. And we all are indebted to the Canadians up there. So, we love it… To death.
Billion Dollar Babies was Alice Cooper’s peak, as a band, massively huge at the time, and still (arguably) the most important in the AC catalogue (band or solo!). Released in March of 1973, it would be a #1 album in the US, the UK, and Finland, as well as #2 in Canada, and top 10 in a few others. The band’s previous album, School’s Out had given the #1 hit and most famous AC track ever – “School’s Out”, and the album was a big seller, but there were no further singles. The band reworked the song “Reflected”, from their 1968 debut Pretties For You in time for the 1972 presidential election, even making a promotional film out of it, though that featured more of the chimp than bandmembers (aside from Alice). “Elected” would be the first of 4 hit singles from Billion Dollar Babies, released September 13 of 1972., months ahead of the album. Credited to the entire band, “Elected” gave Alice Cooper their 2nd Top 10 hit in the UK, as well as being Top 10 in a number of European countries, And reaching #26 in the US the week of the election! The song would remain in Alice’s live set, post-original band, often being used as an encore. The song also picks up radio play every election year.
Record World, Sept 23, ’72 – Amidst a continually broadening sphere of activities, Alice Cooper has not neglected this election year, and has just released a new single, “Elected.” The music and lyrics of the song were written by all five members of the group. “Elect-ed” took ten days to record, with basic tracks recorded at the Cooper Estate in Greenwich, Connecticut. To add authenticity to the sound of “Elected,” Alice makes use of Will Jordan’s impersonation of Walter Winchell, as well as recorded portions of the Democratic Convention in Miami. Also, the record ends with Alice giving a campaign speech. In keeping with the laws pertaining to full disclosure of campaign funds and expenses, Alice wishes to note that the recording costs of “Elected” were $10,000, inclusive. Warner Brothers has initiated a national campaign for “Warner Bros. Elected Alice Cooper Days” September 18th and 19th, which will consist of promo men dressed as Uncle Sam along with two models in red, white, and blue outfits to present the record to program directors at each station. (Robert Feiden)
Alice S -elected With Alice Cooper’s latest record “Elected,” racing through the country, Louis Araiza, a student at the University of Houston took the lyric seriously. It seems he found a loophole in the bylaws governing the Student Union at the university and had Alice Cooper elected homecoming “queen.” It was never specified in the bylaws as to what sex a homecoming queen has to be Araiza explained. Alice Cooper, the male, lead -singer of the rock group bearing the same name may be cancelling a portion of his upcoming European tour to fly to Houston on November 11 to accept a loving cup during the half-time, coronation festivities in Dome Stadium, the 49,000 capacity home of the University of Houston Cougars.
So, tracks for Billion Dollar Babies were recorded over a 5 month period. A second single was released prior to the album – “Hello Hooray” , in January of ’73. The song was picked for use as the album’s and the live show’s opener. “Hello Hooray” was written by Canadian Rolf Kempf (thus qualifying AC’s single as CanCon), and originally recorded by folk singer Judy Collins for her 1968 album Who Knows Where The Time Goes (featuring Stephen Stills on guitar throughout the album). The AC single would reach top 10 in the UK and the Netherlands, top 20 in other countries, and #35 in the US. Further versions of the song included American folk singer Meg Christian (1974), UK industrial/alternative act PIG (1992), and Rolf Kempf, himself, released a version of his song on his 1993 CD Woodstock Album. “Hello Hooray” was also used for years as the opener to Toronto’s Q107 Radio’s Psychedelic Sunday program.
“That song was presented to us. I still have the reel to reel tape with the original song on it; I guess Judy Collins did a version of it just before we did, so. We didn’t normally do someone else’s material because we were such avid writers, ourselves, but for the beginning of the album, Billion Dollar Babies, and for the beginning of the Billion Dollar Babies show it seemed to be perfect!” – Neal Smith (2014)
Side one of Billion Dollar Babies could be seen more as the ‘singles’ side, while Side 2 would be more of the ghoulish side. Aside from the first 2 singles, the first side also featured the album’s 4th single, the title track. The song, “Billion Dollar Babies” was based around that classic drum intro from Neal Smith, while the song is co-credited to Alice, himself, Michael Bruce, and Rockin’ Reggie Vincent (Vinson). It is another that has remained in Alice’s live show ever since. As a single, was released in July, charting in Germany (#30) and the US (#57).
“Rockin Reggie was a friend of our’s, used to hang out with the band; he was from Detroit originally. We would party with him a lot, and when we moved to Connecticut he would come and hang out with us. He was a good friend of Glen’s, and he was a guitar player and a singer, with kind of a Nashville influence. And he had a song, and it eventually evolved in to the song Billion Dollar Babies. So that is why he (Reginald Vincent) has a writing credit on Billion Dollar Babies. So, we worked on it at our mansion house, in Greenwich, and I had always loved the Rolling Stones intro from Charlie Watts to the song ‘[Hey You] Get Off Of My Cloud’. I thought that was very cool, and as a drummer I always used to like to write songs for drummers, because people listen to songs and think ‘that’s cool’, but if I was a drummer listening to an Alice Cooper song – what would be cool about it? And I always tried to have something special in there that would get someone’s interest. ” – NS (2014)
“Raped And Freezin”, a tale co-written by Alice and Michael Bruce was the second track on side one, and is straight up memorable rocker, with a title/subject matter that may not fly today. An interesting twist though. This is one of my favorites here.
Side one closes out with “Unfinished Sweet”, credited to Bruce, Cooper, and Neal Smith. It tells the horror of going to the dentist for some painful gum work, complete with sounds of a drill and Alice moaning in pain.
Of the many outside players and guests on the album were guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, who’d appeared on previous AC recordings, as well as fellow Phoenix player Mick Mashbir. Mashbir would eventually go on to play live on the band’s next couple of tours. Bob Dolin would play keyboards (as well as live), and numerous other guests appeared, notably Donovan Leitch swapping vocals on the title track. That Donovan vocal was recorded during sessions at Morgan Studios in London, England, which rumored to have included numerous others via a jam session. The press did report that a Marc Bolan guitar solo made it on to “Hello Hooray”, but most involved only confirm that the Donovan vocal was the Only guest appearance used from those sessions. Billion Dollar Babies also would be the last ‘band’ album produced by Bob Ezrin.
Mick Mashbir on recording on Billion Dollar Babies – “It was actually Mike Bruce that made that happen. GB was basically on strike. He didn’t want to be in the same room as Michael or Bob Ezrin and they were rehearsing for the next record, B$B. …. I played on every track except “Elected” “Sick Things” and “Generation Landslide”. My favourite song was “No Mister Nice Guy”. I was happy with all my parts, GB was around as little as possible. We were recording in the band’s mansion and he didn’t bother to come downstairs.”
The album’s third single – “No More Mr Nice Guy” opens side 2. Credited to Cooper & Bruce. In his book No More Mr Nice Guy, Michael Bruce recalls that the song had been started back around the time of making the Killer album, and that most of the song had been written by him. But lyrically it’s been fixed up to suit Alice. The track was chosen to be rush-released as a single in time for the beginning of the band’s massive tour. It would , a top 10 hit in the UK, #1 in Holland, a top 20 in a few European countries, as well as hitting #25 in the US. The song would be covered by a number of acts, notably Megadeth and Pat Boone, as well as used in a few tv shows, such as Family Guy and The Simpsons, and in the movie Dazed & Confused. I love the production on this track, the backing harmony vocals are a classic touch. From The Best Of Alice Cooper CD notes, Alice stated – “I wrote the lyrics out of anger because of how my parents were treated by some of the press. It was particularly hard because of my dad being a minister. Fact is, my parents were the only ones who knew I was a nice guy.”
“All Alice Cooper singles should be up tempo and should break fast, if they are going to break at all. Therefore, we advised their management to rush out ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy'” from the album, which they are doing. – Kal Rudman, Record World.
“Sick Things” and “I Love The Dead” were the darker side of the album, with producer Bob Ezrin getting a co-writing credit on both, Both songs being slower, darker, and spookier, would be a major feature in Alice’s live show, with “I Love The Dead” being used at the show’s climax with Alice’s execution. Both tracks feature great guitar solos, and I think “I Love The Dead” is a superb ending to the album, though I am less enthused about “Sick Things”. The album’s finale was written about necrophilia, and though credited to Cooper & Ezrin, Dick Wagner would also co-write on this, without credit – “The first song we wrote together was ‘I Love The Dead’ for the Billion Dollar Babies album, but I got no credit on that either because I was told they were going to have only Alice’s name on the album and that was it, so I sold out my share of that song to them. That’s what you do when you need money, right?” -Dick Wagner (Brave Words, 2006)
“Sick Things was just such a great song for us to lead in to I Love The Dead, where of course we’d cut Alice’s head off with the guillotine. And I still have the same guillotine to this day. Sick Things was just talking about necrophilia, tearing people apart and having sex with dead people.” – NS (2014)
The latter 2 tracks were connected via the piano ballad “Mary-Ann”. I think the inclusion of “Mary-Ann” wasn’t a favorable one by the entire band, with most preferring something heavier, as well as something that would be a ‘band’ song, as “Mary-Ann” was simply Alice with piano accompaniment (from someone outside the band). It would be the lone song from the album not to be featured on the ensuring tour.
“Four of us did not want “Mary Ann” on our album. We had some killer rock songs and the best one of them should have been where ‘Mary Ann’ was. Betraying our long proven rule was a major problem, and damaging.” – Dennis Dunaway (2012 Interview)
The last song recorded for Billion Dollar Babies was “Generation Landslide”. Needing one more song for the album, the band flew to the Canary Island’s and stayed at an unfinished hotel where they worked on this song as The band. It would be credited to the entire band, and featured Glen Buxton, who’s participation elsewhere on Billion Dollar Babies was said to be minimal. Alice would re-record the song for his 1981 album Special Forces, and American metal band Lizzy Borden would record an excellent version of this song on their Deal With The Devil album in 2000.
“The Alice Cooper group wrote “Generation Landslide” together from scratch. It proved that Alice Cooper was still at our best when we were left alone.” – DD
Billion Dollar Babies came in a green snake-skin wallet looking cover, a gatefold, with an inner sleeve with lyrics and band photo, as well as tear away cards of the bandmembers, which many felt the urge to tear off as the credits were on the inner gatefold behind them! Designed by Pacific Eye & Ear ( Ernie Cefalu). The package also contained a large folded ‘Billion dollar bill’ featuring the band in the middle. It was the inner sleeve photo (other side of lyrics) which would cause controversy for the band, as would be illegal to include photos of US currency –
FEDS NIX ALICE SPREAD: The Treasury Department and -the Secret Service have told Alice Cooper that it is illegal to use pictures of currency, thereby holding up plans to use a picture of Alice amid $1 million in cash on the new album `Billion Dollar Babies.” Shep Gordon, meanwhile, winged into Washington (D.C.) with a phalanx of lawyers to appeal, vowing the picture would be used. Alice’s canceled Palace Theater show, by the way, will be going on the road shortly. It’s titled after the new album. – By JOHN GIBSON
The band would go on to the biggest rock tour at the time (see below). The tour would eventually give fans the movie Good To See You Again Alice Cooper, which made a brief theatre appearance, as well as the Billion Dollar Babies Live recording, from Houston, which was included on the 2001 2CD deluxe version, as well as the 2019 Record Store Day vinyl issue.
“The biggest tour in the history of rock and roll with “The Alice Cooper Show” playing to an audience of over 820,000 people in 56 cities.” – Cash Box
Alice Cooper’s “Billion Dollar Babies.” This brand new release has exploded in cites such as Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. because it is a fantastic album. They opened their record -breaking national tour last Thursday and Friday at the Spectrum in Philadelphia before 20,000 people each night. We introduced them from the stage, and I am now known as the Sixth Alice Cooper. This tour will gross 4.6 million dollars, and the second biggest tour in the history of show business, the last Rolling Stones tour, grossed 3.2 million dollars. Because of the unprecedented public demand, more shows and more cities are being added according to Ashley, and their manager, Shep Gordon (astute industry observers tell us that Shep Gordon now has to be rated as the best manager in the business, and he is spoken of in the same breath as the legendary Col. Tom Parker of Elvis Presley fame). As of now, they are booked into 60 sold -out shows in 56 cities and they will play before 820,000 people.… Obviously, a tour of this magnitude deserves media attention of unprecedented magnitude and a train load of 60 press people came to Philadelphia from New York City to cover the events. Warner Brothers’ Ray Milanese and Joe Fiorentino rented a Delaware River showboat for an incredible party after the show . . – Kal Rudman, Record World
-New Alice Cooper album, “Billion Dollar Babies” is going to make believers of all who think the group is all gimmick and little talent. It’s their finest album to date, and it’s very solid, too. This is the one we’ve all been waiting for . . . – CashBox, March 17, 1973
BILLION DOLLAR BABIES – Alice Cooper – Warner Bros. BS 2685 Every time an Alice Cooper LP comes out, we claim in these pages that it’s the best they’ve done yet. And so must we still declare. Lyrically, the set is as strong as ever … “You tell me where to bite, you whet my appetite” being only one choice line. Musically, the package is clearly superior-both in melodic impact (yes, we said melodic) and arrangements. In addition to their current “Hello Hurray” and their recent “Elected,” the album contains a strong single in “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” Worth every penny of it, baby!
So, this is the 2015 reunion show of the actual Alice Cooper (the band) that penned and recorded all those hits (a number of which are here), and classic albums like Love It To Death, Killer, School’s Out, Billion Dollar Babies and Muscle Of Love. The greatest American rock n’ roll band, ever! So, there was finally a reunion, minus original lead guitarist Glenn Buxton, who passed away in 1997. Filling in was Alice’s current solo band player Ryan Roxie, who does an excellent job. The sound on this release is amazing, considering it was in a shop in Dallas (Good Records), and not a theatre or something, so somewhat informal. The band was there to promote Dennis Dunaway’s bookSnakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! and played this 8-song set. With Michael Bruce (guitarist) taking vocals on the opener “Caught In A Dream”, you can tell by the audience reaction when Alice comes out to join the band for “Be My Lover” and the rest. It’s a killer performance, being done by those that created these songs and know how they should sound. Check out Dennis’ bass on “Is It My Body”, the way it should sound. The show ends with “School’s Out” (surprise!), with harmonica added by Chuck Garric (Alice’s present bass player), but the band returned to perform “Elected” for the encore.
Live from the Astroturf is full of energy, and the bandmembers sound like they’re having a great time, with between song banter, drum rolls, and laughs; Alice tells a few humorous tales as well. Added here is the soundcheck instrumental performance of “Desperado”. This release (on Ear Music) is a worldwide reissue of the Record Store Day album from 2018, but has been repackaged nicely, with a different cover, inserts, vinyl variants, and all CD and LPs numbered (I got the ‘glow in the dark’ green vinyl!). An amazing addition to the Alice Cooper collection! Looking forward to watching the included Blu-Ray disc of the documentary of the whole event, later. There’s also been 2 videos released from this album…
Press info:By 1974, the Alice Cooper group had risen to the upper echelon of rock stardom… and then, parted ways. In October 2015, over 40 years later, record store owner and superfan Chris Penn convinced the original line-up to reunite for a very special performance at his record store Good Records in Dallas, Texas. Alice Cooper (vocals), Michael Bruce (guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums) were joined on stage by Alice’s current guitarist Ryan Roxie (standing in for the late Glen Buxton). A packed audience, believing they had come to Good Records for Dennis Dunaway’s ‘Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!’ book signing, were surprised to bear witness to a full-blown happening. The historic reunion show including all-time classics such as “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out” is now becoming available for the very first time worldwide. Luckily the event was documented. “Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper” (edited and directed by Steven Gaddis) toured the world to the acclaim of music fans and rock journalists alike. The documentary won multiple awards for it’s coverage of the historic event. Now all Alice Cooper fans and rock music lovers across the globe can enjoy this movie as it’s included as a video bonus to this live album. Pop the popcorn, blow up the balloons, dim the lights, and crank it up!
The 2015 reunion concert of the original Alice Cooper band featuring Alice, Neal Smith, Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce along with Ryan Roxie filling in for the late Glenn Buxton is coming in various formats and most notably the film of the whole event to DVD & Blue-ray! There will be vinyl variants, as well as awesome new packaging for fans and collectors.
Tracklisting:
“Caught In a Dream” “Be My Lover” “I’m Eighteen” “Is It My Body” “No More Mr. Nice Guy” “Under My Wheels” “School’s Out” “Elected” “Desperado” (Intro Bonus Track)
Many great bands in the early’70s released 2 albums in the same year, many would release 2 very important & classic albums in their catalogue early on and many did it more than once. 1971 just might’ve been the greatest year in what’s now deemed ‘classic rock’ [or maybe 1972?]. But like a number of other bands Alice Cooper would release 2 legendary albums in that same calendar year [as did Uriah Heep, Yes, and Grand Funk]. Following the success of Love It To Death, Alice Cooper’s 4th album – Killer, would be their 2nd with Bob Ezrin for Warner Brothers, released in November of ’71.
The album’s red cover featured a shot of Kachina, the boa constrictor Alice would use on stage, which belonged to [drummer] Neal Smith. The creepy lettering was a nice touch too; done by Dennis Dunaway. Killer’s packaging originally came with a fold-out 1972 calendar picturing Alice hanging [as he would in the live show]. The calendar would come with subsequent reissues over the next few years.
Killer included 8 tracks, and featured 2 hit singles – “Under My Wheels” and “Be My Lover”. Guitarist / keyboard player Michael Bruce would have a hand in writing every song, notably the 2 hits – which were also the first and 2nd tracks on side one. “Under My Wheels” [co-written with Dennis Dunaway and producer Bob Ezrin] would kick off the album, and would feature horns and strings arranged by Ezrin, as well as include an uncredited solo from Rick Derringer. “Be My Lover” followed, a rock tale told from the guitarist point of view, presented in a sort of cabaret act. These 2 tracks would remain the band’s live show, and would become highlights of Aiice’s live shows throughout this solo career. The snake almost always appears during “Be My Lover”. The band members shared credit on the epic “Halo Of Flies”; clocking in at over 8 minutes. The song left room for the band to stretch out musically in this dramatic heavy progressive number, about a spy organization. Interestingly, “Halo Of Flies” would be issued as a single in the Netherlands almost 2 years later, where it became a top 10 hit, and it would also be a top 20 hit in Belgium [as an import!].
“Desperado” closed out side one, the first of three tracks co-written by Alice and Michael Bruce. It’s a ballad Alice has claimed to have penned about Jim Morrison [although Alice has also said it about the character Lee played by Robert Vaughn in The Magnificent Seven…now I gottta watch this movie] It would be the B-side to “Under My Wheels”, but would also make the band’s Greatest Hits compilation a few years later. This too would become a live favorite, appearing in Alice’s solo live show for many tours to come. Ezrin would add moog and strings to these tracks as well.
Side two opened with the frantic “You Drive Me Nervous”. It’s a short blasting rocker about a troubled teen. I love the recording on this one – that drum sound, the riff and guitar throughout this, and Alice’s aggressive tone, screams, and voice changes. This is followed by “Yeah Yeah Yeah” [a pretty forgettable title, really]. It would be the B-side to “Be My Lover”, and featured Rick Derringer as well, and Alice on harmonica.
The album takes a dark turn on the last 2 tracks, first the band credited “Dead Babies”. A morbid tale of a neglected child who perishes from eating too many aspirin. The song was actually one of / or The first] to focus on child abuse and neglect. That track fades out [with yelling from a trial] and in fades the title song, another co-written by Bruce and Dunaway. It is the tale of a killer, and features one of the best guitar breaks the band ever did. The song would be performed at the end of the band’s live show, with Alice being hung for the finale. Alice would bring back the “Dead Babies / Killer” saga in his 1987-88 tour.
The songs from Killer still make up a major part of Alice’s live show, with “Under My Wheels” almost always being the encore. Killer always appears in the top 5 of Alice Cooper albums [band and solo combined], though I’d bet diehard Alice fans put this in the top 2. I love all those Alice Cooper albums from Love It to Death to Muscle of Love, but I gotta say Killer is probably the best album as far as there being no filler and the actual near-perfect flow of the thing, and more so for the band individually – Michael Bruce’s best album as a writer, Dennis Dunaway playing on this album is outstanding – he drives a number of the songs Neal Smith’s drumming, Glen Buxton’s guitar leads, and Alice’s vocals that fit the character and emotion of each song. A killer album, really.
Outsider Rock 