ALICE COOPER – Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper

The Alice Cooper Band (Alice), comprised largely of high school buddies hoping to have a little fun and score legions of chicks while they were at it, had begun to “finally” enjoy significant commercial success when Love It To Death reached the masses, with the mega-hit “I’m Eighteen” in 1971. After knocking out several other high-grossing albums in Killer and School’s Out, Alice broke the mold in 1973 with his highest-charting album to date, Billion Dollar Babies, an album that pushed the limits of social acceptability a step further (even for Alice) by including songs like “I Love The Dead” and “Sick Things,” yet showed immense songwriting talent via timeless, classic hits such as “Billion Dollar Babies,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” and “Elected.” Only 25 years old at the time, Alice had the music industry by the proverbial family jewels … he knew it, ran with it, and made the most of it. Audiences couldn’t get enough of Alice’s Shock Rock/Raunch ‘n’ Roll show in a live setting, making his Billion Dollar Babies Tour one of the most successful Rock endeavors in the history of the genre at that time.

The band’s success at that juncture spurred the creation of an Alice Cooper movie, entitled Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper, initially billed as “The film that out-grosses them all!” However, except for a few limited midnight/late late showings at select theaters in 1974, this movie essentially has remained in the archives as a “lost classic” … that is, until now, via release on DVD by Shout! Factory. The DVD features the original cut of the movie (prior to the Hollywood version), short, written biographies of each of the original Alice Cooper band members (which carry through to the new millennium), and an audio overlay commentary option of Alice speaking throughout the movie (without a doubt worth the price of the DVD in and of itself!), recorded recently, where Alice provides various bits of trivia about the actors in the movie and the band, as well as comical tidbits and first hand experiences during the various segments.

The movie starts with the band dressed in white tuxes in a “heavenly” setting, with Alice performing “The Lady Is A Tramp” in a Frank Sinatra-ish fashion. After a few minutes, Alice comes to realize that this performance “isn’t him” and “is ridiculous.” He stops performing, the band follows suit, and they all begin changing out of their clothes into more conventional Alice Cooper stage clothes (including Alice changing into some hilarious leopard skin knee-boots!). From behind the cameras comes the hotheaded, German-accented, semi-militant Heir Director (Fred Smoot), who is appalled and demands in a semi-juvenile, Colonel Klink (Hogan’s Heroes) way that they MUST continue to perform. However, amid the insurgence and pleas by Heir Director, the stage set is destroyed and the Alice Cooper Band escapes out the back door into a waiting limousine. Heir Director, comically beside himself with anger and frustration, vows to go to all ends of the world to get revenge against Alice Cooper.

From that point forward, the movie intermixes live footage from the 1973 Billion Dollar Babies Tour with comical skits of Heir Director in hot pursuit of finding Alice Cooper, as told in flashback fashion by the befuddled Director, who has resigned to telling this story in a therapy session with an anonymous psychiatrist (who just happens to be Alice Cooper!). After unsuccessfully trying to track down Alice Cooper, Heir Director disguises himself as Leroy the Security Guard at the Alice Cooper Show, and after some drawn out banter with the Gate Receipts Accountant, convinces him to embezzle the concert ticket money and run away with him to Mexico. Yeah, it’s goofy, and the story line is weak at best, but it’s fun in Benny Hill type of way … and the strong point of the movie clearly lies in the live performance by the band.

A few observations over the actual concert footage …

First, filming a concert in the 70’s was far less precise than it is today in 2005. The camera men are periodically shown in the picture (a big “no no” by today’s standards), more than a few segments are out of focus, the film hue is dark and doesn’t adequately capture the ambience of the stage lighting, and the cameras’ positioning never really captures the full dynamics of the stage show or the band working together as a unit. Surprisingly, though, the sound quality is very good, both from an instrument standpoint and with respect to Alice’s vocals. Overall, there’s really nothing wrong at all with the video aspect of the show; it’s just remarkably interesting, if anything, to see how methods and focal points have advanced over the last 30+ years.

Alice (during the alcohol abuse years) was much less of a Hannibal Lechter gentleman back then than he is today … the Alice Cooper brand of Raunch ‘n’ Roll was indeed raunchy, if not sleazier and more sexually suggestive than you may remember (or would expect if you’re a younger generation fan). Alice wearing a full-length set of ripped up, dirty, body-hugging quasi-long underwear, with a periodically self-groped, augmented crotch area epitomizes this notion.

Especially during the Welcome To My Nightmare Tour, Alice introduced and has relied on numerous stage props that have come to become synonymous with many of his classic songs. Back in 1974, the stage props were far fewer, although several skits and theatrics were already in place (e.g., Madame Guillotine, a nightmare-like visit to the dentist during “Unfinished Sweet,” etc.).

For fans who have followed Alice Cooper for many years, seeing this concert also re-exposes performances of several lost classics that haven’t been played for years and years, such as “My Stars,” “Raped And Freezin’,” “Unfinished Sweet,” “Sick Things,” and “I Love The Dead” (by the way, Alice loses his head during “I Love The Dead” … the movie cuts to him at a cemetery in the afterlife where he comes in contact with his own neon-lit tombstone … kinda cool).

Lastly, and somewhat surprisingly, the show ends with “The Star Spangled Banner” and Alice erecting an American flag. Anyone following Alice over the last 20 years (or more) will know that he has become a staunch Republican (conservative political views) as well as a very patriotic American citizen. Well, at the end of this show, “Tricky Dick Nixon” (a Republican) makes an appearance, is mocked, beaten by the band, and hauled off stage … of course this was an era licking its wounds from the Vietnam War, so it’s likely that state of the times spurred this “protest.”

Overall, this DVD is an absolute “must have” for Alice Cooper fans of all ages … if anything, it better helps you understand the metamorphosis of Alice Cooper as a character, while showcasing a legendary band and idea at its true prime, unlocking fame and fortune in the bizarre and unconventional during an era filled with change and open self-expression, and blazing into new frontiers from a pure showman’s perspective. Good stuff …

Other Extras Not Mentioned Above Include:
*Theatrical Trailers.
*An uncensored version of “Unfinished Sweet” (more Alice interplay with a lifesize tube of toothpaste!).
*A scrolling picture section.
*A deleted scene from the Heir Director story line.

Band Members:
Alice Cooper, Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce, Neal Smith, Glen Buxton

Concert Footage:
Hello, Hooray * Billion Dollar Babies * Elected * I’m Eighteen * Raped And Freezin’ * No More Mr. Nice Guy * My Stars * Unfinished Sweet * Sick Things * Dead Babies * I Love The Dead * School’s Out * Under My Wheels

Run Time: 100 minutes