How can you follow Screamin’ Jay Hawkins? Really, there’s only one cat cool enough to take the stage RIGHT after… The great Alice Cooper.
Neé Vincent Damon Furnier, in Detroit Michigan in 1948, this artist took the beginnings of horror rock from Screamin’ Jay and opened the doors wide.
Throughout his six decades in the music business, Alice Cooper has done an incalculable service for horror rockers and for the horror genre itself. With a stage show that includes guillotines, prop blood, real boa constrictors, electric chairs, MORE prop blood and baby dolls, how could we not pay homage to this man? Rolling Stone has referred to him as “the world’s most beloved heavy metal entertainer” and I have to agree.
Check this out. Still awe-inspiring after decades!
(Thanks to Fulton Pub for the AWESOME live vid.)
Cooper’s trademark look and makeup was inspired by the worlds of film and TV. He drew inspiration originally from Bette Davis in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.” Then, he saw “Barbarella.” Cooper said of the look, “When I saw Anita Pallenberg playing the Great Tyrant in that movie in 1968, wearing long black leather gloves with switchblades coming out of them, I thought, ‘That’s what Alice should look like.’ That, and a little bit of Emma Peel from ‘The Avengers.'”
Here he is with the amazing Vincent Price and a song from “Welcome to My Nightmare.”
A legendary image built on horror.
For all of these years, you have continued to entertain and shock us, Mr. Cooper. A boa’s embrace for all of the chills.
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THE STRANGE, FAR PLACES 