Search This Blog

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Alice Cooper: Muscle Of Love


MUSCLE OF LOVE (1973)

1) Big Apple Dreamin'; 2) Never Been Sold Before; 3) Hard Hearted Alice; 4) Crazy Little Child; 5) Working Up A Sweat; 6) Muscle Of Love; 7) Man With The Golden Gun; 8) Teenage Lament '74; 9) Woman Machine.

The original Alice Cooper Band's last album is a strange, twisted creation, hard to categorize, explain, or understand. Conventional knowledge states that the main reason of the split between Furnier and his trusty bandmates was artistic: "Alice" was pushing the band further and further in­to theater / vaudeville territory, beyond the already broad-beyond-belief borders of the Billion Dollar Babies show, while Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith, on the contrary, were tired of the theatrics and wanted to retreat to the more music-oriented sound and show of the Love It To Death era. But before they parted company, they made Muscle Of Love — an album that is, most definitely, neither here nor there.

On one hand, there is very little overt theatricality in this record: in fact, it is much easier to see a direct transition from Babies, with its shocking excesses, to Cooper's first solo album, with its shocking excesses. Muscle Of Love has no shocking excesses, unless one considers the presence of Liza Minnelli as back vocalist a shocking excess in itself. But on the other hand, it is just as hard to call Muscle a "rock" record: it has its share of rock riffs, for certain, yet try to compare the al­bum's heaviest, crunchiest number — the title track — with 'Long Way To Go' or 'You Drive Me Nervous' and then tell me which of them rocks the harder.

The inescapable impression is that Muscle Of Love represents a compromise — further confir­med by the removal of Furnier's pal, Bob Ezrin, as producer — that has satisfied no one and, in fact, made things worse than they were. So, Furnier removes the snake theme and the necrophilia theme and the giant toothbrushes and chopped dolls, but the band still goes for vaudeville-like and glam-style arrangements (and, moreover, notice that Alice is listed as co-writer on every track, first time ever). No ballsy rock and no breathtaking show? Not easy to understand why the album was a relative flop compared to its predecessor.

Even the lead-off single, 'Teen­age Lament '74', roughly broke the string of radio-ready classic hits: imagine the eternal teenager, who was once given the anthem of his life with 'I'm Eighteen' and then shown the right way to treat his bitch ('Under My Wheels'), his teachers ('School's Out') and society as a whole ('No More Mr. Nice Guy'), now getting a vicious lashing himself: 'What a drag it is, these gold lame jeans, is this the coolest way to get through your teens? Well, I cut my hair weird, I read that it was in — I looked like a rooster that was drowned and raised again.' And the worst blow — Alice is laughing at him with Liza Minnelli in tow!

But history seems to have been kind to Muscle Of Love. Shrugged off upon release as a clear sign of the band running out of steam, it has since seen a slow, but steady return of esteem. It is a sleeper and a grower: for the first time in Alice Cooper history, here is a record that tries to reach its core audience not through delightful cheap thrills, but by gradually sinking in. I would go as far, perhaps, as to name it the most intelligently designed record by the original band: nowhere near a masterpiece, but an album that makes plenty of smart musical and lyrical points all the same. The thinking man's Alice Cooper!

The pompous opener 'Big Apple Dreamin', the complex ballad 'Hard Hearted Alice' and the Ve­gasy flash of 'Teenage Lament '74' form three pieces of a scattered puzzle where the band kind of takes a step back and takes a sideways look at itself: ambitions, expectations, illusions, disappoin­t­ments. Neither of the three cuts through the senses, but all are at least interesting to follow, and the riffs on 'Big Apple' are actually terrific, although poorly produced. Lyrically, they go way be­yond their previous style, and no sane human being, upon intently listening to this material, could accuse the Cooper band of a lack of substance.

In between, we do get much lighter material — cock-rock swagger on 'Working Up A Sweat' and the title track, music hall melodrama on 'Crazy Little Child', B-movie soundtrack on 'The Man With The Golden Gun' (Alice claims that the song was written specially for the James Bond movie, but the produ­cers chickened out at the last minute), and weird, robotic, sci-fi rock on 'Woman Machine'. But nothing is wrong with these songs, either: they simply give us a show of smaller proportions than usual, and, if anything, Cooper's sneer and sarcasm only becomes stronger when he pushes the "external effects" and the titillating elements further in the background. For all I know, he would not again return to this level of irony until his early Eighties' "New Wavy" period.

Time has taught me to enjoy the Coop both when he is being gross and when he is being smart, so much so that I cannot imagine people honestly hating Alice in either of these states. Therefore, if the idea of an ugly guy confessing to having had sexual relations with the deceased as his own head gets mock-chopped off onstage does not appeal to you, try Muscle Of Love. Hear the ugly guy confess 'Hard hearted Alice is what we wanna be / Hard hearted Alice is what you wanna see' and, perhaps, gain extra insight inside the ugly guy. Thumbs up — brain-wise, mostly, but liking an Alice Cooper album for its intellectual value is no mean feat by itself.

3 comments:

  1. I seem to be in that (small) camp of Alice Cooper fans that really, really dig Muscle Of Love. It's not in the same league as B$B or School's Out, but it's better than people say. In "Super Duper Alice Cooper" (a very good rockumentary about Alice) Dennis Dunaway says it was an album by a band that was fracturing at the time, and that they considered it a misfire. But man, what a cool misfire.

    These are good songs. They're not "horror show" songs ... but then again, nothing on School's Out was either. It's clearly the band's attempt to return to form, a last garage rock album before The Show took over. There are some solid rockers ... Big Apple Dreamin, your old pick for best song as I recall, is one of their better songs. It doesn't rock as hard as the stuff on Killer, I agree. But it rocks more "interestingly." Woman Machine (which for a moment in the very beginning thinks it's the title track, then remembers it isn't) is even better, with all the robotic squeaks and beeps reminding us that we're in the future now, while the laid-back garage rock groove assures us the world hasn't really changed all that much. The Man With The Golden Gun crosses bluesrock with Broadway and manages to not embarrass itself too much -- Liza actually adds to this one, because the female backing vocals make sense in a 007 theme. Never Been Sold Before and Workin Up A Sweat are lightweight rockers that verge on corny, but they're never boring.

    As for tasting the difference between the title track and 'Long Way To Go' or 'You Drive Me Nervous' ... sorry George, my taste buds took your challenge and Muscle of Love won by a landslide. In fact it's one of my favorite Alice Cooper songs. To me it's even better than I'm Eighteen. The crazy/bouncy (and more interesting) riff ... the urgent, almost strained main theme with those none-too-subtle vacuum cleaner suck-noises ... the growling choruses where Dennis's frenetic bass carries the whole song ... the sudden tempo change toward the end ... Liza's weird doo-woppy outro, which seems like it should clash with the music but somehow doesn't ... everything about that song hits the bullseye. The earlier songs might technically be a little closer to what we think of as classic garage rock. But Muscle of Love, with all its strangeness and charm, is something way cooler. Maybe my favorite straight-up Alice Cooper garage rocker after School's Out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A few more thoughts ...

    Even the softer songs are good. No stupid ballads yet, just interesting ideas. Hard Hearted Alice is one of their most emotive pieces, and when you know the relationship between Alice and the band in late 1973 it's even more telling. A self-fulfilling prophecy really, and so haunting. In fact Super Duper used it for the background song during the scene about the band's breakup, where pictures of the other band members slowly fade away, leaving just Alice. Crazy Little Child is a fun retro piece that crosses a film noir story with an ironic, even playful soundtrack. It's no Blue Turk, but it's still tons better than anything from his later film noir (mis)adventure of 1977.

    And what can I say about Teenage Lament except that I love the hell out of it and I probably always will. All of it. The Eltonish "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself" tragicomedic lyrics. The almost too-quiet chords during the verses. The desperate yet comical chorus of "What am I ... going to doo ooo?" (Dovers influence maybe?). That stupidly brilliant one string guitar solo that would make Marc Bolan proud. Even the improbable be-bop extravaganza at the end. It all works. And it all rules. And maybe that's partly nostalgia talking but I stand by it all the same. I loved it since I was 14 and first getting into Alice with his Greatest Hits album, back when I thought I'd be a rock star too. A song called Teenage Lament that makes me lament wasting my teens ... I mean how cool is that? To me it's (don't laugh) actually cathartic in a way.

    So yeah, it's a great album. It's got a ton of interesting musical ideas going on. It's got a wide range of emotional nuances. It's got one of the greatest riffs in rock & roll history in the title track. It's got Liza! (come on, she's not that bad). What's not to like? Call me crazy but I'd rank this album higher than Love It To Death. Maybe it's not as great as Killer, but I like it more than Killer, if you see what I mean. One of the greatest rock albums ever? Probably not. But for the swan song of my favorite band of all time, it works. Two thumbs up, from the brain as well as from the muscle of love.

    -- Anthony C.



    ReplyDelete
  3. Great review, George!
    No amount of listening to Muscle Of Love can clue us in as much as the symbolism of the graphics. Starting with the cardboard carton that fell apart soon after shrink wrap removal... Rolling Stone magazine had a full page add hailing the "Alice Cooper album in the slightly greasy wrapper"!!! Inside the box, was a book cover for one's favorite textbook that proudly proclaimed "Class Of '74". I wonder if the four guys that played the instruments knew that they were graduating. It seems school was definitely 'out' and it may have been that Vince was the only one who knew it. Check the symbolism on the inner sleeve...showing who has the cash!
    Did this really mean that we're ALL still friends?
    Regardless, if the identity of the real billion dollar baby was finally revealed, the music was as good as ever. This may have only been a two-hour pass for the sailors... but, a little self parody was long overdue. In that context the album is yet another delivery of the goods that succeeds in being everything B$B hinted towards. There really is music after money. That was greasy enough for me.
    Did this album in any way prepare us for the follow up?
    THAT is completely debatable. From the Navy to Vegas in a single album? That doesn't seem possible.
    Let's move from Ohio... sell this damn old store...
    Good God!!!

    ReplyDelete