Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
Were you there to see the impact of Alice Cooper?
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A lot of artists/bands were pioneers of the Shock Rock genre, (The Who destroying their equipment at the end of shows, Screaming Jay Hawkins emerging from a coffin to start his shows, Hendrix lighting his guitars on fire, Iggy Pop miming a seizure on top of broken glass, etc.) Alice Cooper was the one who put it all together into a huge spectical that was designed to be as shocking as possible, yet still being able to sell out shows and move lots of records.
I'm Eighteen off of Love it to Death was a huge hit which gave Alice free reign to do whatever he wanted on his next album.
To say that Killer blew the roof off and shocked the **** out of fans (and repulsed their parents) is an understatement. This was 1971!
Dead Babies
Little Betty ate a pound of aspirin she got them from the shelf upon the wall
Betty's mommy wasn't there to save her she didn't even hear her little baby call
Dead babies can't take care of themselves dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well we didn't want you anyway lalalalalalalalalalala
Daddy is an agrophile in Texas mommy's on the bar most every night
Little Betty's sleeping in the graveyard living there in burgundy and white
Dead babies can't take care of themselves dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well we didn't love you anyway lalalalalalalalalalala
Goodbye little Betty goodbye little Betty so long little Betty so long little Betty Betty so long
Dead babies can't take care of themselves dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well we didn't need you anyway lalalalalalalalalalala goodbye little Betty
My mom wouldn't let me buy it simply based on the album cover.
Everything that came after was taken from some aspect of Cooper. By the time Marilyn Manson broke big he wasn't doing anything shocking that hadn't already been done before. He did mix shock and industrial rock together really well though.
And ya, Cooper became a major Hollywood celebrity. He was well liked by the old time stars because his act and persona reminded them of old vaudville and classic monster movies.
He was also very charming and funny as hell. True story. Him and the late great Peter Sellers became very close friends to the point that when Sellers was dying, the last celebrity he asked to spend time with before he died was Alice.
TL;DR
Alice Cooper >>>>>> Marilyn Manson