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Alice Cooper: Welcome to my Nightmare

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Atlantic  Recordings
Released: 1975
Time:
 43:04
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Bob Erzin
Rating: *******... (7/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.alicecooper.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2010.03.01
Price in €: 2,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Welcome to My Nightmare (Cooper/Wagner) - 5:19
[2] Devil's Food (Cooper/Ezrin/Jay) - 3:38
[3] The Black Widow (Cooper/Ezrin/Wagner) - 3:37
[4] Some Folks (Cooper/Ezrin/Gordon) - 4:19
[5] Only Women Bleed (Cooper/Wagner) - 5:59
[6] Department of Youth (Cooper/Ezrin/Wagner) - 3:18
[7] Cold Ethyl (Cooper/Ezrin) - 2:51
[8] Years Ago (Cooper/Wagner) - 2:51
[9] Steven (Cooper/Ezrin) - 5:52
[10] The Awakening (Cooper/Ezrin/Wagner) - 2:25
[11] Escape (Anthony/Cooper/Fowley) - 3:20

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Alice Cooper - Vocals

Josef Chirowski - Synthesizer, Keyboards, Vocals, Clavinet, Fender Rhodes
Bob Ezrin - Synthesizer, Arranger, Keyboards, Vocals, Producer, Fender Rhodes, Remixing, Mixing, Remix Producer
Steve Hunter - Guitar
Dick Wagner - Guitar, Vocals
Gerry Yons - Guitar
Prakash John - Bass
Tony Levin - Bass
Johnny Badanjek - Drums
Whitey Glan - Drums

David Ezrin - Vocals
Gerry Lyons - Vocals
Michael Sherman - Vocals, Production Assistant
Allan MacMillan - Arranger
Vincent Price - Special Effects, Vocals

Jim Frank - Engineer
Rod O'Brien - Engineer
David Palmer - Engineer
Phil Ramone - Engineer
Ed Sprigg - Engineer
Corky Stasiak - Engineer
Dan Hersch - Mastering
Bill Inglot - Mastering
Mike Reese - Mastering
Charlie Watts - Mastering
Craig Anderson - Mastering
Bob Brown - Second Unit Director
Greg Allen - Art Direction, Design
Julee Stover - Editorial Supervision
Spencer Chrislu - Author
Bret Lopez - Photography
Toby B. Mamis - Project Assistant
Brian Nelson - Project Assistant
Jeff Morgan - Liner Notes
Drew Struzan - Artwork
 

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1975 LP Atlantic 19157
1990 CS Atlantic 19157
1990 VHS Hendring 63287
2001 DVA Rhino 76785
2005 CD Atlantic SD-19157-2


While in the studio mastering this fine new audiophile release, one could easily see why Alice Cooper is truly a superstar. WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE was a watershed album, and Alice once again, assembled one incredible masterpiece. The choice of material, the great musicians, and of course the artistry of Alice Cooper just make this one of the strongest albums in his legendary catalog. Most notable, the passages on songs like Steven, The Awakening and Only Women Bleed make WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE a great listen indeed!

Joe Reagoso- Reissue Producer



With the 1974 disintegration of the original Alice Cooper group, Alice was free to launch a solo career. He wisely decided to re-enlist the services of Bob Ezrin for his solo debut, Welcome to My Nightmare, which was a concept album tied into the story line of the highly theatrical concert tour he launched soon after the album's release. While the music lost most of the gritty edge of the original AC lineup, Welcome to My Nightmare remains Alice's best solo effort - while some tracks stray from his expected hard rock direction, there's plenty of fist-pumping rock to go around. The disco-flavored, album-opening title track would be reworked on the stage as more of a hard rock tune, while "Some Folks" dips into cabaret territory, and "Only Women Bleed" is a sensitive ballad that became a Top Ten hit. But the rockers serve as the album's foundation - "Devil's Food," "The Black Widow," "Department of Youth," and "Cold Ethyl" are all standouts, as is the more tranquil yet eerie epic "Steven." Despite this promising start to Cooper's solo career, the majority of his subsequent releases were often not as focused and were of varying quality.

Greg Prato - All Music Guide



Nach dem nicht sehr erfolgreichen Album Muscle Of Love kam es zum großen Bruch in der Alice Cooper Band. Während die Instrumentalisten einige Jahre später eine neue Truppe namens Billion Dollar Babies (eine Anlehnung an das gleichnamige Cooper-Erfolgsalbum) gründeten, um deutlich bodenständiger rocken zu können, steigerte der Namensgeber und Sänger seinen theatralischen Anspruch immer mehr. Auf seinem ersten Soloalbum, der Konzeptscheibe Welcome To My Nightmare, gibt er sich glamouröser und stilistisch vielseitiger als je zuvor. Der hymnische Titeltrack gefällt mit perfekt phrasierten Bläsersätzen, die - man glaubt es kaum - feministische Ballade "Only Women Bleed" atmet trotz der Streicherparts tonnenweise Straßenstaub-Feeling,und die Riff-Granate "Cold Ethyl" brät für damalige Zeiten recht heftig. Der früher ständig präsente Touch der Rocky Horror Picture Show ist absolut eigenständigen, wenn auch nicht mehr ganz so gruseligen Cooper-Vibes gewichen. In kompositorischer Hinsicht erreicht der Zeremonienmeister sogar fast die grenzensprengende Originalität der frühen Queen, und welch größeres Kompliment könnte man einer Rockscheibe machen?

Michael Rensen - Amazon.de



The comeback of Alice Cooper, the singer, without Alice Cooper, the group, poses the obvious question—was it him or them? The obvious answer has always been that it was Alice, whose star quality took him and his pals from being a maligned and second-rate heavy-metal act to a premier singles rock band of the Seventies. That ignores the equally obvious — that the music improved more than the stage gimmicks or the singing.

Some would argue that the responsible party was Bob Ezrin, the group's producer. But, aside from the Cooper albums and the records he made with Mitch Ryder and Detroit (whence half the sessionmen here), Ezrin has been a disappointment. Lou Reed's Berlin garnered much acclaim but Ezrin's production was thin. And this album is a TV soundtrack that sounds like one. The horn parts are so corny you might imagine that you're listening to the heavy-metal Ann-Margret.

Aside from Warner Bros.' Greatest Hits package released last fall, this is Alice's first album in 18 months. During the layoff Alice tried to develop an identity separate from the group's — on Hollywood Squares, the Smothers Brothers show and elsewhere. If it works, he and Svengali Shep Gordon will look like geniuses. If it doesn't they'll look like the Monkees with low Nielsens.

The fact is that most name rock groups can easily weather being out of the public eye for a year and a half. But Cooper is, by definition, different. Neither Alice nor the group was ever content with simply being in a rock band. Their fantasy was first to become a fad and then a fad that lasted.

The real question now is whether Alice needs that rock band. Based on the evidence here, the answer is probably yes. The music is admirably performed, and it is more deliberate and complicated than the basic rock of "School's Out" and "I'm Eighteen." But without the wildness and drive of the sound the Cooper troupe had, the gimmicks on which Alice the performer must rely are flat and obvious. Guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, who push this crew, are good but they never get into overdrive as Mike Bruce and whoever was filling in for Glen Buxton (often Hunter and Wagner) always did. Nor are the songs they write as captivating as Bruce's.

Welcome to My Nightmare sounds like a record put together by people who don't know each other very well and were brought together for an occasion. The basic ideas which made the hits are here but their shallowness is transparent now. Sources have begun to become too evident. The Jim Morrison vocal on the title track, for instance, is embarrassingly obvious. Similarly, the phasing and group singing effects on "Devil's Food" recall other tracks on other albums where the gimmicks were used to better advantage. The pulsing rhythm section of "Department of Youth" is only a pale echo of the same device as displayed on "Under My Wheels" or "School's Out."

Ironically, this may be the result of a sharp increase in competence. Hunter and Wagner are fine guitarists, drummer Johnny Badanjek has been an unknown genius since his earliest work with the Detroit Wheels (listen to the first ten seconds of "Devil with a Blue Dress On") and the refugees from Toronto-based Mandala who make up the rest of the session group have no glaring shortcomings. The sound here is the opposite of Berlin's—it's dense. All that's lacking is inspiration, but that is missing completely. Even the much vaunted ballad, "Only Women Bleed," which is indeed pretty, is not as involving or moving as the similar ballad, "Teenage Lament '74," on Muscle of Love.

Still, Cooper has always had a way around the charges of mundane music. He is making statements. That is what he seems to be doing on this album as well. But the statement is by now so trite, even (or especially) in his own context, that it is hardly worth making. The basic theme, murder and its consequences, is right out of "Ballad of Dwight Fry." There is nothing as insightful about violence here as that song, any more than there is anything about the vaguely occult "Devil's Food" and "The Black Widow" that's as arresting as the early "Black Ju Ju."

Cooper's sense of humor has deserted him. "Steven" parodies with piano the spacy effects of The Exorcist's "Tubular Bells" theme and that's the funniest moment. The rest is forced, from "Department of Youth," which tries to recapitulate the theme of "School's Out," to "Escape," which tries to do the same for "I'm Eighteen."

Alice has always wanted to go Hollywood, and TV Hollywood at that. Welcome to My Nightmare is simply a synthesis of every mildly wicked, tepidly controversial trick in the Cooper handbook. But in escaping from the mask of rock singer which he claimed he found so confining, Cooper has found just another false face (as he says so bluntly in "Escape": "Paint on my cruel or happy face/Hide me behind it").

It was probably not only necessary but inevitable that Cooper or someone like him would come along to remind us, at a time when rock was in danger of being taken too seriously, that it's only rock & roll and that rock & roll is only part of showbiz. But in dispensing with rock, Cooper has left us with only showbiz. I don't know if only showbiz is as marketable as only rock & roll. Perhaps it is. But it's not half as much fun.

DAVE MARSH - Apr 24, 1975
RollingStone.com

 

 L y r i c s


Welcome To My Nightmare

Welcome to my nightmare
I think you're gonna like it
I think you're gonna feel... you belong
A nocturnal vacation
Unnecessary sedation
You want to feel at home 'cause you belong

Welcome to my nightmare
Welcome to my breakdown
I hope I didn't scare you
That's just the way we are when we come down
We sweat and laugh and scream here
'cuz life is just a dream here
You know inside you feel right at home here

Welcome to my breakdown
Whoa
You're welcome to my nightmare
Yeah

Welcome to my nightmare
I think you're gonna like it
I think you're gonna feel... you belong
We sweat laugh and scream here
'cuz life is just a dream here
You know inside you feel right at home here
Welcome to my nightmare
Welcome to my breakdown
Yeah


Devil's Food

Get ready for the lady
She's gonna be a treat
Simmer slightly 'til ready
Make her soft too
Make her sweet

I kiss the tears off from your chest
I felt the poison fright that's in your breath
I knew your precious life and I know your death
I squeeze the love out of your soul
All the perfect love that's in your soul
You're just another spirit on parole

Devil's food
Devil's food
Devil's food


Vincent Price Monologue

Welcome To My Nightmare, 1975
Leaving lepidoptera - please, don't touch the display,
little boy, aha cute! Moving to the next aisle we have
arachnida, the spiders, our.. finest collection.
This friendly little devil is the heptothilidi,
unfortunately harmless. Next to him, the nasty licosa
raptoria, his tiny fangs cause creeping ulcerations of
the skin *laugh*. And here, my prize, the Black
Widow. Isn't she lovely?.. and so deadly. Her kiss is
fifteen times as poisonous as that of the rattlesnake.
You see her venom is highly neurotoxic, which is to say
that it attacks the central nervous system causing
intense pain, profuse sweating, difficulty in
breathing, loss of consciousness, violent convulsions
and, finally.. death. You know what I think I love the
most about her is her inborn need to dominate,
possess. In fact, immediately after the consummation
of her marriage to the smaller and weaker male of the
species she kills and eats him - *laugh* oh, she is
delicious.. and I hope he was! Such power and dignity
- unhampered by sentiment. If I may put forward a
slice of personal philosophy, I feel that man has ruled
this world as a stumbling dimented child-king long
enough! And as his empire crumbles, my precious Black
Widow shall rise as his most fitting successor!


The Black Widow

(vincent price speaks)
Leaving lepidoptera...Please, don't touch the display,
little boy, aha cute! Moving to the next aisle we have
arachnida, the spiders, our...finest collection.
This friendly little devil is the heptothilidi,
unfortunately harmless. Next to him, the nasty licosa
raptoria, his tiny fangs cause creeping ulcerations of
the skin (laugh). And here, my prize, the Black
Widow. Isn't she lovely?...And so deadly. Her kiss is
fifteen times as poisonous as that of the rattlesnake.
You see her venom is highly neurotoxic, which is to say
that it attacks the central nervous system causing
intense pain, profuse sweating, difficulty in
breathing, loss of consciousness, violent convulsions
and, finally...Death. You know what I think I love the
most about her is her inborn need to dominate,
possess. In fact, immediately after the consummation
of her marriage to the smaller and weaker male of the
species she kills and eats him...(laugh) oh, she is
delicious...And I hope he was! Such power and dignity
...unhampered by sentiment. If I may put forward a
slice of personal philosophy, I feel that man has ruled
this world as a stumbling dimented child-king long
enough! And as his empire crumbles, my precious Black
Widow shall rise as his most fitting successor!

These words he speaks are true
We're all humanary stew if
We don't pledge allegiance to
The Black Widow

The horror that he brings
The horror of his sting
The unholiest of kings
The Black Widow

Our minds will be his toy
And every girl and boy will learn to be employed by
The Black Widow

Love me
Yes we love me
Love him
Yes we love him
Love me
Yes we love him

He sits upon his throne and picks at all the bones of his
Husbands and his
Wives he's devoured
He stares with a gleam
With a laugh so obscene at the virgins and the children
He's deflowered

Love me
Yes we love me
Love him
Yes we love him
Love me
Yes we love him
Love me
Yes we love him

Our thoughts are hot and crazed
Our brains are webbed in haze
Of mindless senseless daze
The Black Widow

These words he speaks are true
We're all humanary stew
If we don't pledge allegiance to
The Black Widow


Some Folks

Some folks
Love to see red
Some folks
Never talk about it
Some folks
Crave a blue lady
Some folks
Know and still they doubt it

I'm just no good without it
I'm not a man at all
It makes my skin crawl

Baby, baby
Come on and save me, save me,
My, my baby, baby,
Come on and save me now

Some folks
Love to feel pain
Some folks
Wake up every mornin'
Some folks
Live for no reason
Some folks
Die without a warning

I'm just no good without it
I'm not a man at all
It makes my skin crawl

Baby, baby
Come on and save me, save me,
My, my baby, baby,
Come on and save me, save me,
My, my baby, baby,
Come on and save me now

I can't live without it
I just can't live without it
I don't wanna think about it
....

I'm just no good without it
I'm not a man at all
It makes my skin crawl

Baby, baby
Come on and save me, save me,
My, my baby, baby,
Come on and save me, save me,
My, my baby, baby,
Come on and save me, save me,
My, my baby, baby,
Come on and save me, save me,

I can't live without it
I just can't live without it
I don't wanna think about it
....


Only Women Bleed

Man's got his woman to take his seed
He's got the power - oh
She's got the need
She spends her life through pleasing up her man
She feeds him dinner or anything she can

She cries alone at night too often
He smokes and drinks and don't come home at all
Only women bleed
Only women bleed
Only women bleed

Man makes your hair gray
He's your life's mistake
All you're really lookin' for is an even break

He lies right at you
You know you hate this game
He slaps you once in a while and you live and love in pain

She cries alone at night too often
He smokes and drinks and don't come home at all
Only women bleed
Only women bleed
Only women bleed

Black eyes all of the time
Don't spend a dime
Clean up this grime
And you there down on your knees begging me please come
Watch me bleed

Only women bleed
Only women bleed
Only women bleed
Only women bleed
Only women bleed
Only women bleed
Only women bleed


Department Of Youth

We're in trouble all the time
You read about us all in the papers
We walk around and bump into walls - a blind delegation
And we ain't afraid of high power
We're bullet proof
And we've never heard of Eisenhower
Missile power, justice or truth

We're the Department of Youth
Your new Department of Youth
We're the Department of Youth
Just me and youth

We talk about this whole stupid world
And still come out laughing
We never make any sense
But hell that never mattered
But we'll make it through our blackest hour
We're living proof
And we've never heard of Billy Sunday
Damon Runyon, manners or couth

We're the Department of Youth
Your new Department of Youth
We're the Department of Youth
Just me and youth

We're the Department of Youth
The new Department of Youth
We're the Department of Youth
We've got the power
We're the Department of Youth
And who gave it to you?
Donny Osmond!
What?!


Cold Ethyl

One thing I miss is Cold Ethyl and her skeleton kiss
We met last night making love under the refrigerator light
Ethyl Ethyl let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl Ethyl come and freeze me with your charms

One thing
No lie
Ethyl's frigid as an eskimo pie
She's cool in bed
Well she oughta be 'cuz Ethyl's dead

Ethyl Ethyl let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl Ethyl come and freeze me with your charms
Come on Cold Ethyl
Freeze me babe

One thing - it's true
Cold Ethyl I am stuck on you
And everything is my way
Ethyl don't have much to say

Ethyl Ethyl let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl Ethyl come and freeze me with your charms
Come here Cold Ethyl
What makes you so cold? Ooh so cold

Cold Ethyl
Cold Cold Ethyl
Cold Ethyl
Cold Cold Ethyl
Cold Ethyl
Cold Cold Ethyl
Cold Ethyl
Cold Cold Ethyl
If I live 'til ninety-seven
You'll still be waiting in refrigerator heaven
'cuz you're cool
You're on ice
Cold Ethyl
You're my paradise


Years Ago

Here I go again
Up and down alone
All my friends went home
Years ago

All my toys are broken and
So am I inside mom
The carnival has closed
Years ago

I'm a little boy
No, I'm a great big man
No, let's be a little boy
For a little while longer
Maybe an hour?

No Steven
you have to go back now
Isn't that our mom calling?
"Steven, Steven,Steven come home!Steven"


Steven

Years Ago:

here i go again
up and down alone
all my friends went home
years ago
(mmmm mmmm)

all my toys are broken
and so am i inside mum
the carnival has closed
years ago
(whistle)

(boy)im a little boy
(man)no, im a great big man
(Boy)no, lets be little boys
(Spoken)a little while longer
maybe an hour
(man)no Steven we have to go back now
(both)isnt that our mum calling
(steven, steven, steven its time to come home)

Steven:

I don't want to see you go
I don't even want to be there
I will cover up my eyes
And pray it goes away

You've only lived a minute of your life
I must be dreaming, please stop screaming

I don't like to hear you cry
You just don't know how deep that cuts me
So I will cover up my eyes
And it will go away

You've only lived a minute of your life
I must be dreaming, please stop screaming

STEVEN!
STEVEN!
I hear my name!
STEVEN!
Is someone calling me? I hear my name!
STEVEN!
That icy breath that whispers screams of pain!

I don't want to feel you die
But if that's the way that God has planned you
I'll put pennies on your eyes
And it will go away
See?

You've only lived a minute of your life
I must be dreaming

Steven....
Is someone calling me? No....
Steven....
I think I hear a voice--- it's outside the door!
STEVEN!
I hear my name!
STEVEN!
Is someone calling me? I hear my name!
STEVEN!
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
STEVEN!
WHAT DO YOU WANT? WHAT-DO-YOU-WANT? WHAT DO YOU WANT?

STEVEN!
STEVEN!
STEVEN!
I hear my name....

The Awakening:

i wake up in the basement
im so hungry and tired
i must be here sleep walking
mustn't i?

Getting up from my easy chair
Looking for my wife
following a trail of crimson spots
that lead into the night

suddenly I realize
I see it all through real eyes
these crimson spots are
dripping from my hand
ahh ooooohhhhhhhhh---

it makes me feel like a man.


The Awakening

I wake up in the basement
I'm so hungry
I'm dry
I must be here sleepwalking
Mustn't I?
Getting up from my easy chair looking for my wife
Following a trail of crimson
Spots that lead into the night
Suddenly I realize
I see it all through real eyes
These crimson spots are dripping from my hand
And ooh it makes me feel like a man


Escape

Paint on my cruel or happy face
I hide me behind it
It takes me inside another place where no-one can find it
Escape
I get out when I can
Escape
Anytime I can
Escape
I'm crying in my beer
Escape
Just get me out of here

Don't get me wrong
Don't get me right
I'm not like you are
When I get home from work at night
I'm blacker and bluer

So I escape
I get out when I can
Escape
Anytime I can
Escape
I'm crying in my beer
Escape
Just get me out of here

Where am I running to?
There's no place to go
Just put on my makeup and get me to the show
Yeah
Escape

My doctor said just come around
You'll be taken care of
And while he ran my problems down
I stole his mascara

That's how I escape
I get out when I can
Escape
Anyway I can
Escape
I'm crying in my beer
Escape
Just get me out of here
Escape
 

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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