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Alice Cooper: Killer

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Warner Bros. Records
Released: 1971.11.01
Time:
 36:35
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Bob Ezrin
Rating: *****..... (6/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.alicecooper.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2011
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Under My Wheels (Bruce/Dunaway/Ezrin) - 2:54
[2] Be My Lover (Bruce) - 3:23
[3] Halo of Flies (Bruce/Buxton/Cooper/Dunaway/Smith) - 8:25
[4] Desperado (Bruce/Cooper) - 3:33
[5] You Drive Me Nervous (Bruce/Cooper/Ezrin) - 2:28
[6] Yeah/Yeah/Yeah (Bruce/Cooper) - 3:41
[7] Dead Babies (Bruce/Buxton/Cooper/Dunaway/Smith) - 5:46
[8] Killer (Bruce/Dunaway) - 7:03

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Alice Cooper - Composer, Cover Design, Design, Vocals

Michael Bruce - Composer, Guitar, Keyboards
Glen Buxton - Composer, Guitar
Dennis Dunaway - Bass, Composer
Neal Smith - Composer, Drums

Bob Ezrin - Horn Arrangements, Keyboards, Producer, String Arrangements, Vocals
Jack Richardson - Executive Producer
Ernie Campagna - Production Coordination
Bobby Christian - Engineer
Brian Christian - Engineer
Joe Lopes - Assistant Engineer, Recording Technician
Steve Hoffman - Mastering
Randy King - Mastering
Randy Kling - Mastering
Pete Turner - Photography
Bob Wynne - Repackaging
 

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1971 LP Warner Bros. 2567
1971 CS Warner Bros. 2567
1998 CD Warner Bros. 72552
1988 CD Warner Bros. 2-2567
2009 CD Audio Fidelity 048

Alice Cooper's second release of 1971, KILLER, helped solidify the band's position as rock's most notorious, shocking, violent, sleazy, and theatrical band of the day. Cut from the same musical cloth as its predecessor, LOVE IT TO DEATH, KILLER replaces the space-rock of their earliest releases with blaring hard rock. Also, the band successfully broadened its palette on KILLER by adding orchestrated sounds and synthesizers to the mix. Several tracks would become Alice Cooper staples, such as the vicious "Desperado" (which uses acoustic guitar and a string section to great effect), and the anthemic leadoff track "Under My Wheels." Criticized and misconstrued at the time of the album's release, the eerie "Dead Babies" deals with child abuse--still disturbing stuff all these years later. One of Cooper's more progressive tunes, "Halo of Flies" is an eight-minute-plus highlight, consisting of several different sections, ditto the nearly-as-long closing title track. KILLER is classic Alice Cooper, and would go on to serve as an obvious touchstone for such future rockers as Kiss, White Zombie, and Marilyn Manson.



Alice Cooper wasted little time following up the breakthrough success of Love It to Death with another album released the same year, Killer. Again, producer Bob Ezrin was on board and helps the group solidify their heavy rock (yet wide-ranging) style even further. The band's stage show dealt with the macabre, and such disturbing tracks as "Dead Babies" and the title track fit in perfectly. Other songs were even more exceptional, such as the perennial barnstorming concert standard "Under My Wheels," the melodic yet gritty "Be My Lover," and the tribute to their fallen friend Jim Morrison, "Desperado." The long and winding "Halo of Flies" correctly hinted that the band would be tackling more complex song structures on future albums, while "You Drive Me Nervous" and "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" showed that Alice Cooper hadn't completely abandoned their early garage rock direction. With Killer, they became one of the world's top rock bands and concert attractions; it rewarded them as being among the most notorious and misunderstood entertainers, thoroughly despised by grownups.

Greg Prato - All Music Guide



The fact that Alice Cooper's fourth release housed the gritty "Halo of Flies" would be reason enough to buy the CD, even if the rest of it were garbage. An essential piece of the rock canon, it may not have served up the hits that his other releases did, but it still stands as a classic. Loud, brash, sloppy, and hard, it's the kind of listen that makes you check for grime under your nails. Cooper's rock/shock aesthetic was coming into full bloom here and "Dead Babies" shows he was satisfied with his formula of hard rock, bad taste, and images outside the realm of Middle America. The title track hints at the shape of things to come, laying the ground work for works as seemingly disparate as "Only Women Bleed," and "No More Mr. Nice Guy." Briefly ostracized by the "hipper than thou" sect, Killer is one of the reasons Cooper is now fully appreciated as the pioneer that he was.

Steve Gdula - Amazon.com



Die Tatsache, daß das vierte Album von Alice Cooper das eingängige "Halo of Flies" enthält, ist allein schon Grund genug, diese CD zu kaufen, selbst wenn der Rest Schrott wäre. Obwohl seine anderen Platten mehr Hits enthielten, zählt dieses Album zu den anerkannten und etablierten Klassikern des Rock. Laut, angeberisch, schlampig und aggressiv - die Sorte Musik, von der man schmutzige Finger bekommt. Coopers Schock-Rock-Ästhetik steht hier in voller Blüte, und "Dead Babies" zeigt, wie zufrieden er mit seinem Erfolgsrezept aus hartem Rock, Geschmacklosigkeit und Vorstellungen außerhalb des geistigen Horizonts des amerikanischen Durchschnittsbürgers war. Der Titelsong gibt einen Vorgeschmack auf zukünftige Ereignisse und bereitete den Boden für derart unterschiedliche Stücke wie "Only Women Bleed" und "No More Mr. Nice Guy". Anfangs noch verachtet von der "wir-sind-geiler-als-ihr"-Fraktion, ist Killer ein Grund dafür, daß Cooper heute als der Pionier angesehen wird, der er war.

Steve Gdula - Amazon.de



Best remembered for outrage - the sleeve to Killer had a foldout poster of ghoulishly made-up frontman Alice Cooper hanging in a noose - what this five-piece Phoenix band had in its favor was years of honing its chops in clubs and bars. This was a group that shocked and rocked, and did it years before Kiss and Iron Maiden, decades before Marilyn Manson. Having scored its first hit with the teen anthem "I'm Eighteen" (from Love It to Death), the band then scaled the album charts with this 1971 release, on which their love of theatrics, gore, epic arrangements, and good old rock 'n' roll was arguably never bettered. Only eight songs long, Killer boasts plenty of gratuitous violence in the title track and the so-tasteless-it's-charming "Dead Babies," but it also offers straight-up pool-dive anthems ("Under My Wheels," "Be My Lover") and a mini-rock opera, "Halo of Flies." Still to come were the major hits ("School's Out," "Elected") and over-the-top concepts (Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome to My Nightmare), but Killer was the one album on which Alice Cooper - band and singer - were shocking and amusing yet still totally credible.

Tony Fletcher - Barnes & Noble

 L y r i c s


Under My Wheels

The telephone is ringing you got me on the run I'm driving in my car now anticipating fun
I'm driving right up to you babe I guess that you couldn't see yeah yeah
But you were under my wheels why don't you let me be
'cause when you call me on the telephone saying take me to the show
And then I say honey I just can't go old lady's sick and I can't leave her home
The telephone is ringing you got me on the run I'm driving in my car now
I got you under my wheels I got you under my wheels I got you under my wheels
Got you under my wheels yeah yeah I got you under my wheels
Aah the telephone is ringing you got me on the run I'm driving in my car now anticipating fun
I'm driving right up to you babe I guess that you couldn't see yeah yeah
But you were under my wheels why don't you let me be
Yeah yeah got you under my wheels yeah yeah I got you under my wheels
I got you under my wheels got you got you got you got you
Under my wheels got you under my wheels wheels wheels wheels


Be My Lover

She struts into the room well I don't know her but with a magnifying glance I just sort of looked her over hmm
We had a drink or two well maybe three and then suddenly she starts telling me her life story
She says baby if you wanna be my lover you better take me home
'cause it's a long long way to paradise and I'm still on my own
Told her that I came from Detroit city and I played guitar in a long haired rock and roll band
She asked me why the singer's name was Alice I said listen baby you really wouldn't understand
And I said baby if you wanna be my lover you better take me home
'cause it's a long long way to paradise and I'm still on my own on my own
Oh baby if you wanna be my lover you better take me home
'cause it's a long long way to paradise and I'm still on my own oh


Halo Of Flies

I got the answers to all of your questions if you've got the money to pay me in gold
I will be living in old Monte Carlo and you will be reading the secrets of soul
Daggers and contacts and bright shiny limos I've got a watch that turns into a lifeboat
Glimmering nightgowns poisonous as cobras silencer under the heel of my shoe
The elegance of China they sent her to lie here on her back
But as she deeply moves me she'd rather shoot me in my tracks
And while a middle Asian lady she really came as no surprise
But I still did destroy her and I will smash halo of flies
I crossed the ocean where no one could see and I put a time bomb in your submarine
Goodbye to old friends the secret's in hand with full need of papers and counterfeit plans
You never will understand


Desperado

I'm a gambler and I'm a runner but you knew that when you layed down
I'm a picture of ugly stories I'm a killer and I'm a clown
Step into the street by sundown step into your last goodbye
You're a target just by living twenty dollars will make you die
I wear lace and I wear black leather my hands are lightning upon my gun
My shots are clean and my my shots are final my shots are deadly and when it's done
You're as stiff as my smoking barrel you're as dead as a desert night
You're a notch and I'm a legend you're at peace and I must hide
Tell me where the hell I'm going let my bones fall in the dust
Can't you hear that ghost that's calling as my colt begins to rust in the dust
I'm a killer I'm a clown I'm a priest that's gone to town


You Drive Me Nervous

Yeah you seem so civilized your mama's tryin' to run your life
Your daddy's tryin' to pick your wife oh no
Yeah you run around with all that hair they just don't like those rags you wear
You say I'm gonna pack up my stuff I'm gonna run away
And then she said you drive me nervous nervous and then I said
You drive me nervous nervous nervous oh nervous nervous nervous nervous whoa whoa oh aah
You're out of state you're thrown in jail you ain't got the bread to pay the bail
Your mom and papa come up and said honey where did we fail
And then you scream you drive me nervous nervous and then I screamed
You drive me nervous nervous nervous oh nervous nervous nervous nervous whoa whoa oh
You drive me n n n nervous n n n nervous you drive me nervous whoa


Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

You can be my slave and I'll be a stranger we could be in passion we could be in danger
Take you off the street put you under my wings yeah you could pull my leg or anything
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah oh yeah
You could be the devil you could be the saviour well I really can't tell by the way of your behavior
I'll take you off the boat put you under my wings yeah you could pull my leg or anything
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah oh yeah
I don't know what you're playin' don't even know what you're sayin'
You gotta leave me alone I'm gonna go on home
Ah the things are gettin' tougher yeah the things are gettin' rougher
This is Alice speakin' suffer yeah yeah yeah yeah
You could be the devil you could be the saviour well I really can't tell by the way of your behavior
Take you off the street put you under my wings yeah
You could pull my leg or anything yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah


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


Killer

What did I do to deserve such a fate I didn't really want to get involved in this thing
Someone handed me this gun and I I gave it everything yeah I gave it everything
I came into this life looked all around I saw just what I liked and took what I found
Nothing came easy nothing came free nothing came at all until they came after me yeah hey yeah
What did I do to deserve such a fate I gave it everything now I need to escape
Someone near to me calling my name I gave it everything I gave it everything

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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