Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare

Alice Cooper with a brass section?  Alice Cooper singing a ballad?  Alice Cooper with a children’s choir?  Vincent Price on an Alice Cooper record!?  Welcome to My Nightmare was an impressive change for the beloved Rock ‘n Roll madman Alice Cooper. After 1973’s rather sub-par Muscle of Love, the Alice Cooper band disintegrated, leaving the namesake as the only original member. Critics wondered if Alice could top the bona fide classic Billion Dollar Babies and his first solo album did just that.  Armed with most of Lou Reed’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal line-up and heaps of input from producer Bob Ezrin, Welcome to My Nightmare created the Alice Cooper we all know today.

Right off the bat, the title track gives us a new, more complex Alice: Its jazzy rock, augmented with strings, keys and brass, topped with a haunting melody and Alice singing instead of snarling.  “Devil’s Food” is a segue track.  A great riff and howling chorus abruptly stops to allow Vincent Price to devilishly discuss an array of arachnids. The song quickly jumps to the spectacularly creepy “The Black Widow.” Alice crying “Love me, yes we love me” while a chorus of females replying over a pulsating groove makes for one of the album’s strongest and heaviest tracks. A shift from rock to a more lounge-based style starts with “Some Folks.” The song is heavy on piano and horns while light on guitars. Alice’s snarls and rambles over a sinister groove while the bombastic moments make for a zany yet loveable track.

“Only Women Bleed” has become the standout of the album.  Originally released as a shortened single (and titled “Only Women”), the majority of track was written by guitarist Dick Wagner and originally intended for his band, The Frost. Unhappy with the lyrics, it was never recorded until Alice rewrote them and the song quickly entered Rock ‘n Roll history.  The provocative title is actually about domestic abuse and isn’t harmful at all.  The song actually shows a delicate side of Alice and has been covered by artists such as Tori Amos, Tina Turner, Glenn Hughes and Guns ‘n Roses as well as recently featured in Rob Zombie’s Halloween.

“Department of Youth” quickly gets back to the rock and was also success on radio.  Beatle-esque “oohs” and “ahhs” are coupled with interesting keyboards and a chorus of children.  “Cold Ethyl” is one of the rawest tracks on the album. Is the song about a deceased woman named Ethyl or a tribute to heavy drinking?  Actually, it’s both.

The album does another about-face with “Years Ago.” This creepy lullaby is perfect for nightmares.  The Steven character appears in full force and Alice’s lyrics paint the picture of a deranged man with a child-like conscious. While the previous tracks touch upon Steven’s twisted mind, the track “Steven” opens up his world.  Steven is deeply troubled and has a penchant for death and in his nightmare world it is unclear if he has dispatched his wife or not.  The song’s music makes for one of Alice’s most haunting and dramatic tracks. “The Awakening” quickly follows the previous track and reveals the entire album is actually a journey through Steven’s mind. Steven is an abusive, misogynistic character and now realizes that tracks like “The Black Widow” is about his hatred of women, “Only Women Bleed” is about him abusing his wife while “Cold Ethyl” is Steven making love to her.  “The Awakening” reveals that Steven has in fact killed his wife during a nightmare. The mellow track nicely unfolds a grand yarn that the audience actually has to seek out as the vast majority of Welcome to My Nightmare can also be enjoyed independently of Steven’s story.

The whole album is summed up nicely by the rocking “Escape.” Steven can’t deal with his reality and is aiming to escape into his mind again by indulging in drink.  The lyrics about putting on mascara and indulging in alcohol mirror Alice as a performer and person, giving credence that Steven is actually Alice.  For years, fans have theorized that Steven is Alice’s on-stage persona while the man himself has never fully explained the character or if there is any relation to him.

1975 was the watershed moment for Alice Cooper. Welcome to My Nightmare found Alice at his creative peak. The music wasn’t significantly different from his previous releases, but it gave us a more theatric and grand Alice than previously seen and the tour for the album featured an even more lavish, purely horror-themed stage show.  The album was also supported by heavy multimedia promotion.  An ABC TV special aired featuring music from the album, Alice Cooper fleshing out the character Steven and actor Vincent Price appearing as “The Spirit of the Nightmare.” The special actually earned an Emmy award at the time and was nominated for a Grammy when later released on VHS.  To this date Alice Cooper: The Nightmare has yet to be released on DVD.  In 1976, the momentum of Welcome to My Nightmare was continued with the release of a concert-film. While not successful at the time of the theatric release, the Welcome to My Nightmare film is now considered one of his strongest live documents.

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After Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper started a rather disappointing downward trend.  Plagued by alcoholism and a changing musical environment, starting with 1976’s Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, each subsequent Alice album was less inspiring and successful. Alice eventually dried out and returned to chart-topping success with 1986’s stripped-down and much heavier Constrictor.

To this date, Alice still capitalizes on Welcome to My Nightmare. 1994’s The Last Temptation loosely continues the Steven story and tracks from 2008’s Along Came a Spider give a nod to the character. “Only Women Bleed” and a handful of other tracks are still played live to date (actually 7 of the album’s tracks made in on the 2009’s tour set list).  Also most of his current live theatrics date back to the album’s original tour. In early 2010, Alice announced he had rejoined with Ezrin, Wagner and original Alice Cooper band members Neil Smith, Michael Bruce and Dennis Dunway to start work on the sequel to Welcome to My Nightmare. Slated for a late 2011 release, the album tentatively titled Welcome 2 My Nightmare is rumored to have 13 tracks and feature sizable contributions from Slash.

One of the earliest concept albums ever released, Welcome to My Nightmare is de facto Alice Cooper.  After 1989’s pop-flavored Trash, Welcome to My Nightmare is Alice’s second largest selling album going Platinum in the US, double Platinum in Canada and Silver in the UK. Without this album, the Alice we know and love today would simply not exist. Artists like Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, GWAR and even Ozzy Osbourne have borrowed heavily from Alice Cooper’s image and stage show. Both Rock ‘n Roll and Metal are clearly thankful for Alice’s first and most grand nightmare. Welcome to My Nightmare is truly an essential album.

Release Date: February 1975
Label: Atlantic Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Welcome to My Nightmare
2.  Devil’s Food
3.  The Black Widow
4.  Some Folks
5.  Only Women Bleed
6.  Department of Youth
7.  Cold Ethyl
8.  Years Ago
9.  Steven
10.  The Awakening
11.  Escape

Total playing time:  43:19

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Classic Review

October 23, 2010

Reviewer: Rottenbucher