Album Review: Alice Cooper, Detroit Stories  (Edel Germany)

Alice Cooper’s Detroit Stories is an enjoyable blast of great and funny Rock’n’Roll with no remorse. Rev Orange Peel tackles the latest from the Grand Guignol of Rock Theatre.

Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famer Alice Cooper takes a bow and a huge belly-laugh and then lays out some seriously-spirited mean as a cut snake Roots Americana. That is, Rock music informed by R’n’B, Blues, Rockabilly and Garage.

In the last year when what it means to be American has come under such sustained attack, and divisions between people echoing back to the Civil War almost, the Artist making his stand in Detroit as the spiritual home of Rock’n’Roll is a courageous attempt at resurrection.

But this is theatre, and there is plenty of crude humour and profanity and a fair amount of it is meant to offend the morally prurient. Great. If you’re quick to take offense then you’ve never really been a Rock’n’Roll fan.

With Vincent Furnier on this project is a huge ensemble of players, many associated with the Motor City in some fashion. Longtime producer and collaborator Bob Ezrin plays keyboards all over it. Guest spots for guitar-slingers Wayne Kramer, Joe Bonamassa, and Steve Hunter. Johnny “Bee” Badanjek the cult-favourite drummer for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels and also played behind Alice in the late Sixties.

Appropriately kicks off with Rock and Roll written by Lou Reed. Well of course, this is fun and serious Art. Done as a straight Rocker instead of the Pop-orientated original. Alice is in fine voice and he possibly is underrated as a singer. The drums really kick this along and the Bee stamps his mark on almost all of the songs. I think it’s Bonamassa who rips out a cracking guitar solo here.

Go Man Go. She knows that I’m a man/ She knows that I’m a moron. Rockabilly slapstick and the drums lead.

A cover of the Outrageous Cherry’s Our Love Will Change the World. Great Power Pop. Simple but addictive riffing from lead guitar.

The original classic line-up is together for Social Debris and I Hate You. Michael Bruce and Glenn Buxton guitars, Dennis Dunaway bass and Neal Smith drums.

For a short song, I Hate You packs a lot in. A raucous white male brag which manages to sound like the Barbarians Garage sneer of Are You a Boy or are You a Girl?  and the rowdiness of the early Beastie Boys. You’re no Jeff Beck taunts Alice as he remembers his youth.

Drunk and in Love will certainly get up the noses of the Woke but there are some who revel in this level of insensitivity. Set to the Blues riff of Bo Diddley’s I’m A Man. When I saw you, I pissed my pants/ Come into my cardboard box/ You can mend my sox while I keep you warm/ Fallen in love I confess I’m a mess/ We can cuddle on the sidewalk where my buddy froze.

Like I said, it’s a Blues.

Detroit City 2021 is a straight homage. Me and Iggy, Ziggy, MC5, Seger and Suzie Q. Motown also gets a shout, of course. Rock Beat poetry set to the rhythm of Too Much Monkey Business and Subterranean Homesick Blues. Sounds fresh and incisive. Not full of remorse or regret. A resurrection shuffle.

Wonderful World is a chance to show Alice’s depth as a singer. Delivered with the similar cadence of Jim Morrison and that Sinatra-on-acid style. The Morrison Hotel sound.

Power through a great take on the MC5’s Sister Anne. Guitars sound like a motor gunning it before doing a burnout. Wayne Kramer is in there with a few others.

Hanging on by a Thread is confrontational and with a serious message. Cold deadly phantom/No shape or form/ Confine you to a cold room/ Shine a light on it. The song finishes with a spoken word plea to call for help.

Takes it all back with Just Shut Up and Rock. Don’t wanna hear about your yoga class or how you spent your day. Takes apart radical chic poseurs with a razor-sharp wit.

Closes with a cover of Bob Seger’s East Side Story. Guitars mesh and there’s pyrotechnics, buzzsaws and brutality.

May think differently about it in a years’ time but it is such an enjoyable blast of great and funny Rock’n’Roll with no remorse. Annoys the type of people you want to annoy.

Rev Orange Peel