Vincent Furnier, alias Alice Cooper, appears in the Vinyl episode 3. He seems like a rather nice guy - yet have to live out some oddities to become AC at stage. However, he cunningly plays the inexperienced talent scout who tries to split the band get him signed. In their view, that is actually a real bad guy who deserves to be lured into their practical jokes. Their sense of humor and morality shows that their shock-rock was made to reflect societies murky sides, - not necessarily their own.
The group’s first names were The Nash and The Spiders. They were particularly unpopular, because they made sulky songs about being unpopular. Eventually, the group got support from Frank Zappa and Warner Brothers. They related ‘disliked’ with ‘evil’ and changed from being victim to violator. They imagined such a mentality rather as a girl than a man - and renamed the band to Alice Cooper. However, someone had to personalize the band’s image and pointed at the lead singer Vincent. Their 3rd album, ‘Love it to Death’ indicates the original concept of why and how Vincent became the alter ego. The album is even slightly religious, yet on the borderline to occultism though. The song ‘Is it my body’ is about spiritual possessions and the song ‘Black Juju’ is about the transition. The origin of the name Alice is rumored to some strange experience in a hut with some dedicated groupies and the mysterious ‘white witch’. More about that in a later Vinyl UU.
The AC band made some quite artistic performances exploring the inner and murky self. They were inspired by characters like Mephisto, Dr. Mabuse, Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. Vincent’s other alter egos were a mental patient called Dwight Fry, an urban terrorist (first solo appearance) and a traumatized boy called Steven, which made the solo breakthrough in ‘Welcome to my Nightmare. Absurdly, property rights came down to whether Vincent owned his alter ego Alice. That was settled friendly with the drummer and bassist, but not with the guitarists. Still, getting married and having a family, the original Steven theme was re-invented as solo artist in the album ‘The Last Temptation’, a story about a lost boy that finds salvation in Christianity.
This video ‘The Lady is a Tramp’ shows the bands burlesque self-irony in a classic slapstick movie. It is the introduction to their break-through concert in the shock-rock concept. It is from the DVD ‘Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper’ . Alice Cooper is previously used to underline UU Themes like in the extra UU2 2016.Feb.26 (pirates and cowboys), UU 2015.feb.06 and extra UU3 2015.mars.27 (Charlie/Paris-terror), UU 2014.juli.18 (occult psychiatry), UU 2011.april.22 (occult necrophilia) and UU 2016.jan.01 (Trumpism). Attempts to explain such phenomena can be related to UU Themes concerning the psychosocial 3^3 model’s subcategory ‘Drive/Rainforest’, which concerns uncovered collective archetypes, phobias, manias, neurology and mass-synchronizations (UU 2015.feb.27).
Curiously, - there have not ever been any real Alice Cooper band, with an evil girls as the front figure. It should be clear by now, - Alice is a girl and not a man, - and certainly not anything like todays elderly rock star.
Alice Cooper - Lady Is A Tramp (Good To See You Again 1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT6ImYVkirM
There are quite a few rumors about the band. These documentaries and interviews give several sides of a rather interesting history to a cultural phenomenon - that probably ended when their show included beating up a president Nixon look-alike, - as well as being warm-up band for the highly political John Lennon in NYC.
Alice Cooper band history documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUJAV2RlokY
Surprise! Alice Cooper is a Christian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3q7ycY9hbk
Alice Cooper - Dennis Dunaway Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxuPXFuhBSQ
Original Alice Cooper Band Guitarist Michael Bruce Interview – 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlvhR4tsxH8
The originally Alice Cooper Band was made to reflect some grim sides of society. One of the last songs the band made together is ‘Hard Hearted Alice’ that somewhat explains causes to Alice’s traumatic nature. Bearing in mind the ‘good’ intentions of shock-rock and horror movies, the following videos are interesting. Some of it actually has rather high qualities in music, lyrics, performance and visualizations.
Alice Cooper - Hard Hearted Alice + Lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzwDiUg1fkc
http://www.elyrics.net/read/a/alice-cooper-lyrics/hard-hearted-alice-lyrics.html
ALICE COOPER 1971 STUDIO FILMING "BALLAD OF D FRY"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WZK4s0hbY#t=1.8798752
The Last Temptation – Video playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-PvXmHfTaE&list=PLk-Ae5yhUGhuwL0fr_4hM2QqorpPebgv6
Alice Cooper - Full Concert - 10/10/81 - Capitol Theatre (OFFICIAL) – terrorist alter ego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK-vYcsJTQ8
Alice Cooper The Black Widow. (mini movie video about Steven’s faith)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67tMzBW_zGg
Video playlist - Welcome To My Nightmare- (Alice Cooper - Years Ago/ Steven)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpZ6of85D4M&list=RDEpZ6of85D4M
Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen, live original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXZcJojTucg#t=28.3069539
Alice Cooper - Hello, Hooray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ltuD6IqPgk
Summary of the episode: “At a record producers' banquet honoring Maury Gold, Richie is embarrassed when the emcee, rival record exec Jackie Jervis, makes a joke about the failed German Polygram deal. Later, Maury and mob cohort Corrado Galasso pay a visit to American Century to probe a detective's recent inquiry, and Joe Corso drops by to pitch Richie a demo by his banquet date, Nora. As Richie cuts down his roster to free up money to sign and promote new artists, junior A&R rep Clark Morelle courts Alice Cooper in an attempt to sign him to a solo deal. Trying to find purpose in the suburbs, Devon turns to Warhol in hopes of raising funds to renovate a Greenwich barn that could house a displaced Russian ballet company. Approaching Lester about releasing some of his old blues demos, Richie reopens old wounds instead. The revamped Nasty Bits fail to win over Richie, prompting Jamie to change up their set list.”
Portrayal of Alice Cooper band, story arc, VINYL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbV4BD5kI64