Pure Punk Picks
Gutter Cats Vs. The Jets – Alice Cooper Band
When I was a teenager there was a popular Friday night rock show on television called “In Concert” that came on at ten or eleven at night and featured popular rock bands live.
And I remember returning from a teen party, probably one of the first times I was drunk.(There have been a few times after that, if I’m remembering correctly). And a band I was starting to love to death was performing- The Alice Cooper Band.
I missed the beginning of their half hour set, but as I walked in their song “Gutter Cats Vs. The Jets” had just started and Alice was bringing out an aluminum trash can, full of debris, and began tossing the garbage around the stage. He then proceeded to slam the trash can to the ground, smashing and breaking it just before he started singing the song.
I was very impressed. I believe this was the first moment when I experienced punk rock-
Rebellion, absurdity, outrageousness and of course, wild, fun music all occurring at the same time.
This song has a Doors like, carnivalesque surreal feel to it along with a low, baritone voice- much like Jim Morrison. And swings but not so much like hip, respected jazz but more like the backing for a burlesque stripper.
The Alice Cooper Band was friends with The Doors in the late sixties in Los Angeles. The Doors third album is called “Waiting For The Sun,” and the photo shoot was planned for sunrise. Morrison showed up shirtless after drinking all night with Glen Buxton, the lead guitarist of Alice Cooper, and Glen actually lent him his V-neck sweater that appears on the front of the album cover.
Jim was serious about his poetry but his most famous line came from someone else. The line “Well, I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer” from “Roadhouse Blues.” Well, it appears that Jim liked to jot down phrases he liked that he heard other people say. Yes, his most well-known line was said to him once by Alice Cooper.
I think Jim would’ve got a laugh out of that, like I’m doing now!
The lyrics of this song are based on a popular sixties play and movie, “West Side Story” which involved gangs in New York City. The words don’t add up to much, but the vocals and music are exciting and thrilling and walk a perfect tightrope balance between entertainment and art.
Though the Alice Cooper Band was accused of making shabby music, their songs had very creative arrangements and contained elements of jazz and classical, which could put their songs into the progressive rock genre. Except, you had a punk like Alice singing over it.
But none of their songs had the self-indulgent wankery associated with prog rock though they did have creative, intelligent music that rocked and was fun along with a healthy dose of absurd humor.
Alice Cooper is an honorary punk because he defied society and the patriarchy by adopting a female name. As if a female name should be insulting? Or that it would indicate you were gay? As if that would be humiliating as well. Alice was questioning the macho status quo and making fun of it.
Alice Cooper is a punk because he refused to be “politically correct”- And yes, that was long before the term existed, but he rejected the rules and dogma of the hippie era by being theatrical, entertaining and fun. While not being as pretentious, dreary and dull as those California, laid back, mellow, pot smokin’ bands tended to be. (Looking at you Grateful Dead, Crosby, Still & Nash, Jackson Browne- I nearly fell asleep just typing out your names).
Alice Cooper is a punk because he called out the incredible inaccuracy of the Rolling Stone Magazine era as they failed to see the value of David Bowie during that time, as well, for a lot of the same reasons.
Alice Cooper is a punk because he was a “proto-punk” just as much as Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, The Mc5, The Dictators, The New York Dolls, Patti Smith or The Modern Lovers.
All those bands I loved before punk existed and they just paved the way for the punk bands to follow, who were influenced by those bands so much, as well. I feel they were all gearing my ears of what to expect tomorrow.
Alice is a punk because he embodied the raw spirit of rock’n’roll and the revolt against the accepted norms and expectations, just like the many bands that followed in the punk, metal and hardcore scenes, while also, questioning gender roles long before it became common.
I’ll wrap this up by using the title of one of their classic albums.
The Alice Cooper Band- I just Love It To Death!
(Slimedog)
