"Welcome to My Nightmare" was the first solo album from
Alice Cooper.
Alice Cooper stopped his collaboration with the
Alice Cooper band including Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton - despite hit singles like
Schools Out and
No More Mr. Nice Guy. Alice Cooper retained the name and hired Lou Reed's backing band for the recording. Guitarist Dick Wagner was along with album producer Bob Ezrin the main songwriters in cooperation with the genius
Alice Cooper.
The title track opens the album just perfectly. A creepy atmosphere is underlining the song.
Welcome to my Nightmare has a bossa-nova feel to it and the lyrics are trying to prepare the listener for a unique and scary experience.
Devil's Food and
Black Widow belong together. After the first chorus of
Devil's Food the music slows down for the introduction of Vincent Price as curator of a reptile-museum. Vincent Price performs a monologue about a curator showing off his spiders. He has his heart set on the Black Widow because it's the most dangerous. His philosophy is that man has ruled long enough and that the Black Widow should take over the world. Then the track
Black Widow is played. This package of
Devil's Food and
Black Widow is among the highlights on the album. The songs have several sound collages and
Black Widow is finishing off with an instrumental piece playing the melody line of
Devil's Food.
Then the album changes style a bit
. Some Folks is introducing a Rockabilly like rhythm. Again
Alice Cooper's twisted lyrics comes to mind. The song is about necrophilia and cannibalism. The song builds up for a strong finish accompanied by a strong guitar solo.
The hit single
Only Women Bleed got
Alice Cooper a well-deserved hit. The ballad is beautiful arranged with an acoustic guitar finger picking some sweet sounding chords. The middle play features some beautiful sounding strings. Musically the ballad is softer and lyrically friendlier than the previous tracks. The song is a nice break before the great finish.
Department of Youth is a great Rocker. The song was the second single from the album issued in July 1975. This rock song has some great guitar work including both acoustic and electric guitars.
Alice Cooper has lots of humor. In the end Alice is shouting to the youngsters "Who's got the power" and they chant "We do". At last he asks "Who gave it to you?" and they respond "Donny Osmond", where Alice goes "What!!!!!". Pretty funny because Donny Osmond was a huge idol at the time this record was released.
The listener is treated to a pure guitar based Rock 'n' Roll track in
Cold Ethyl. Alice sings about making love to
Cold Ethyl. The reason why Ethyl is not a warm-blooded woman is because she's dead, but Alice is keeping her in the refrigerator.
The trilogy
Years Ago, Steven and
The Awakening is the climax of the album
. Years Ago is a sad piece introducing a person named Steven. The song overlaps into
Steven, which is the absolute album highlight. During the verse a piano plays a sad minor piece. The drums and some grandiose backing vocals kick in during the powerful chorus. The middle play is layered with instruments like piano, strings, horns and guitars creating a scary atmosphere. The song ends with
Steven hearing voices calling him. The song finishes off with a bombastic outro again introducing strings and
Alice Cooper calling for
Steven. On top of this a great moody guitar solo accompanies the other instruments on this musical masterpiece. This genius music has to be experienced. It is impossible to capture all the facets on this incredible song.
Another dimension added to perfection of these tracks is Alice's vocals. Alice sings very high so you are imaging that this is Steven singing himself. Lyrically the story evolves around
Steven, who has got a sentence
years ago. However, he claims be innocent.
The trilogy ends with
The Awakening. The short piece finds Alice waking up looking for his wife. He follows some crimson spots but realize that its blood dripping from his own hands. When Alice realizes this - a moody sound piece is played with some sounds effect implying the blood dripping. This is a chilled experience implying that Alice has killed his wife.
So how does the nightmare end? Is Steven sentenced to death? Has
Alice Cooper done the things Steven is accused for, since Steven implies that he is innocent. Well, all we know is that our hero
Alice Cooper isn't caught on this album. The album closer is called
Escape.
This album is a true masterpiece because it creates several moods and emotions to the listener. You can't help imagining the looks of Steven, The curator, the blood dripping from Alice and so on. While the lyrics are scary the music is creating perfect sound collages to underline the atmosphere.
Overall this is the best vocal performance from Alice I ever heard. His vocals are very varied and playing several characters. The music is well arranged and often includes lots of instruments creating the perfect mood. Guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter complement each other perfectly on this record.
This version is the remastered version from Rhino including 3 bonus tracks
Devil's Food,
Cold Ethyl &
The Awakening. All bonus tracks are taken from an ABC TV-special first aired in April 1975. The album has a fantastic sound caused by the remastering from original producer Bob Erzin's original master tapes.
Written by
Michael Friday, January 3, 2003
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