In 1970, Shep Gordon, who managed Alice Cooper, was wandering the streets of Toronto, killing time as he awaited the arrival of funds to pay the band's hotel bill after the Strawberry Fields Festival. His wanderings led him to the door of Nimbus 9 productions, producers of the Guess Who, and an epiphany: What Alice Cooper needed to break through to the big time was THE GUESS WHO SOUND.
According to Bob Ezrin, "Gordon plunked down the band's first two albums and pictures of these five 'things' of indeterminate gender and announced his intentions. Jack and his partners were these straight Canadians in their forties who surely wanted nothing to do with this 'Alice' person."
However, Gordon was persistent, and finally Richardson foisted the whole thing onto "the kid," Ezrin. A decision was made to send Ezrin to see the band, and if he liked them, then Richardson would get involved.
Soon, a trip was set up for Ezrin to go to New York to see a few acts, including Alice Cooper at Max's Kansas City.
In the city, Ezrin "followed the searchlights to the club, and suddenly I was in this dark den of spandex, spider eyes and black fingernails. I had never seen anything like it in my life," he relates. A table was reserved for him in front of the stage.
"Suddenly," he continues, "a breeze blew past my cheek, then three loud 'whacks' on the stage followed by an orange light each time. Then Alice launched into 'Sun Arise' no further than two feet from my face. With his eyes wide open, and his lips widely parted, and his red red gums, and his white white teeth, and his black black mouth and eyes, I thought I was in hell.
"I watched the show with my jaw on the table. Then my friend said, 'What the fuck was that?' I said, ‘I don’t know, but I loved it."
Hyped on the show and the alien atmosphere, Ezrin bounded up the stairs to the dressing room, and with a big grin on his face, announced, "We'll do it!" Rather presumptuous, considering that Ezrin was a glorified coffee boy at the time.
He continues, "The material was almost there, and my favorite song was 'I'm Edgy,' which Alice kindly told me was, in fact, 'I'm Eighteen.' 'Even better,' I said. The band was terrible but wonderful. It wasn't about 'being good,' it was about 'being.' It was the complete integration of the point of view and the personality into the presentation. They were the songs - the antics - the theatricality: they were Alice Cooper. In a world of t-shirts, jeans and beards, they were so refreshing and energizing."
Article comments
1 - The Theory
facinating. i'm partial to his cd Last Tempation, but that's the first one i ever got by him.
2 - Eric Olsen
Ooh, that was later. The first band ruled for reasons mentioned, kind of like the Dolls.
3 - Bill Sherman
Yeah, I love Love It to Death to death. By the time the band released School's Out, though, they'd become a good singles group in my estimation. Some of that album's cuts were too show-biz/Broadway to work - something I've never minded in other groups but for some reason seemed too removed from the original AC configuration.
4 - Eric Olsen
Good to hear from you Bill, I agree that they were headed somewhere else by School's Out, but for me there was enough left of the old ethos and enough good songs to make it work. Their sound was still pretty raggedy and the tendency toward self-parody was revealed but not yet pronounced.