Unknown Soldier

Overview
Billion Dollar Babies would become the biggest selling Alice Cooper album to date and would achieve the number one spot in the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic, so you can’t get much bigger than that! The Alice Cooper band’s brand of shock rock combined with hard rock and good old fashioned rock and roll, had taken the rock world by storm and they also had the stage shows to match! The two classic 1971 albums Love it to Death and Killer (on my main 1971 list) were the breakthrough albums for Alice Cooper, but it was School’s Out that made the band a household name. School’s Out is often seen as a lauded album and anybody getting into the classic Alice Cooper era may well think about starting with this album. The album of course with its infectious and ever so famous single “School’s Out” may very well seem to be the logical place in which to start. The reality is though, that School’s Out sounded like a risky album and an early example of the band’s ambitious theatrical leanings. The overall result had been an ambitious concept album, that was extremely polished but lacked focus on most of its songs, as in that the theatrical leanings of the band didn’t always come off! Billion Dollar Babies on the other hand, would be the album that School’s Out just couldn’t be. The band took the rawness of their two breakthrough albums and combined that with the slickness of School’s Out whilst keeping the theatrical overload on board, and add on with the majestic touch of Bob Ezrin (almost a band member himself) the band put out their most accomplished effort to date. The album’s subject matter, contained all the juicy Alice Cooper fare that anybody would expect, such as horror and fear themes, but most of all Billion Dollar Babies stands out for its theatrical humour on most of its tracks. The album would see a vast array of guest musicians, as Bob Ezrin yet again took up keyboard duties and guitarist Glenn Buxton due to drug abuse was supplemented on a couple of tracks by the superb Dick Wagner ex Ursa Major, who had already played on School’s Out and the album also featured the likes of Steve Hunter and Mark Mashbir on guitar as well. The album cover with its green and yellow colouring, was certainly one of the most distinctive around at the time as well.

Alice Cooper-Vocals
Glen Buxton- Guitar
Michael Bruce- Rhythm/Keyboards
Dennis Dunaway- Bass
Neal Smith- Drums
Bob Ezrin- Keyboards

Production- Bob Ezrin

Album
Hello Hooray- Hello Hooray let the show begin…….as the album starts off with the almost anthemic feel. The song is a melodic paced opener with some great accompaniment by the rest of the band, to the powerful vocals on show. The song is a cover version of the Rolf Kempf song. Raped and Freezin’- A typical rock and roll number by the band and in essence could’ve appeared on any of the previous three studio albums, but the later Latin inspired section probably points it more towards the School’s Out album. Elected- With its crunching intro the song moves into an infectious mood, as Alice Cooper screams out to us the message of being elected again in another theatrical effort. The song is a re-write of “Reflected” from the band’s 1969 debut album. Billion Dollar Babies- A heavy drumming introduction gives way to another dominant vocal performance by Vincent Furnier and with a guest spot on vocals from Donovan, again we have some truly mesmerizing guitar here. Unfinished Sweet- The closing track to the A-side of the album and another humorous track built around a trip to see the dentist, and as the track progresses we are treated to some diverse moments, including the return of the sound displayed on the previous “Elected” song along with some other interesting ditties. No More Mr.Nice Guy- One of the biggest Alice Cooper tracks with its pop melodies and that ever so obvious hit single feel about it. Generation Landslide- A real band effort in terms of songwriting and a song which is heavy on its lyrical overload. The whole piece is accompanied by a solid beat boosted up with some strong harmonica sounding rootsy music. It also sounds like an unofficial title track for the album. Sick Things- This is authentic sounding Alice Cooper material and no Alice Cooper album is really complete without a dosage of fear and horror! Mary Ann- A 2 minute cabaret sounding track, which might be the weakest effort on the album, but even then it’s not bad at all especially with its piano outro. I Love the Dead- The epic closer to the album which of course focuses on the morbid subject of necrophilia, a subject which always seemed to fascinate Alice Cooper in general.

Verdict
Billion Dollar Babies ranks as the finest ever album that the Alice Cooper band put out, in fact only Welcome to My Nightmare is better in the whole Alice Cooper discography! So what is so good about Billion Dollar Babies? Firstly it takes the raw base sound and the sheer unexpected excitement of the classic 1971 releases Love it to Death and Killer, and combines them with the theatrical leanings of School’s Out, and serves up an exotic cocktail of these three albums. The end result is an almost cabaret sounding shock-rock album, heavy on both theatrics and humour, but its real trump card lies in its sudden and unexpected musical changes within some of its songs. We’re not talking about complex or proggy changes here, but more audacious changes to test the listener every part of the way! These could be the Latin vibes that appear suddenly on “Raped and Freezin” the anthemic mood of the song “Elected” that is repeated yet again on the superb “Unfinished Sweet” and then of course there is the racy almost James Bond 1960s adventure theme cut sound that also features on “Unfinished Sweet”. In fact every song on this album has something special to offer! This can be seen on the melodic stomp of the opening track “Hello Hooray” with its cabaret vibe to welcome us into the album and you can almost picture Alice Cooper welcoming us to the show here! Then there is the fun of the rock and roll inspired cuts such as “Raped and Freezin” the theatrical and fun loving “Elected” one of the biggest songs from the album with some amazing guitar being laid down by Glenn Buxton or one his replacements (It isn’t clear on the credits on who plays guitar on what songs) A lot of the songs are heavy on lyrical overload as well and this can be exampled on the often underappreciated “Generation Landslide”. Then there is the pop candy of “No More Mr.Nice Guy” and of course no Alice Cooper album would be complete without a couple of tracks dedicated to the darker side of things and these come in the sombre sounding “Sick Things” and the chilling and essential “I Love the Dead”. But the best is saved up for the title cut “Billion Dollar Babies” which shows Alice Cooper at his best with some outstanding guitar to match his vocal display! Here is an album high on twisted fun and dark humour, Billion Dollar Babies is without doubt one of the quintessential albums of its time.

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