A Portrait of Insanity

Posted over 2 years ago

Artist:
- PLAY
Alice Cooper
Album:
- PLAY
- QUEUE
Love It to Death
Track:
- PLAY
- QUEUE
The Ballad of Dwight Fry

With Halloween right around the corner, it's time to try and focus in on dementia, insanity, and all those creepy things that wake you up in the middle of the night, just knowing there is *something* in that corner paralyzing you with fear. What does it take to push one over the edge? How would you know until you get there, and would you realize it - even then?The neccessity of straight-jacket security is about as bleak as it gets. But when the actions are not acceptable by societal conventions, they used to call up that white van and burly men to keep you safe from yourself. "it's for you own good!" Grandma would say as she burned your satanic tomes, waved goodbye and went back to her Saturday Evening Post and Lawrence Welk bubbles.Who was Dwight Fry(e)? you may askhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Frye

The original Alice Cooper Band were:Alice-vocalsGlenn Buxton-GuitarMichael Bruce-Guitar, KeysDennis Dunaway-BassNeal Smith-Drums

Comments (11)

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waydutch says I remember this song prompting one of my dad's most memorable expression of disgust with rock-n-roll shortly after I brought my first stereo system and was blasting this album in my bedroom; must have been about 74

Permalink posted 10/25/2007
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RodneyPWelch says A great cut from one of Alice's great early records.

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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deadmandeadman says Great post. Memories can be beautiful and yet...........

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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brendanhalpin says Nice! I have to admit I'm not familiar with Alice's work beyond the Greatest Hits album (and, of course, his start turns as himself on The Muppet Show and as a creepy homeless minion of Satan in Prince of Darkness); this is just great. I love Alice's freakout at around 3:30. Fantastic!

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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scotfree says *Dutch* -I think your dad and mine must have been chatting down at the lodge. *RodP* - thanks, but not to forget you put up a great appropo post on early Alice as well with "Dead Babies" http://mog.com/RodneyPWelch/blog_post/116895 *DMDM* - ..........sometimes haunting as well?? *Brendan* - Early Alice Cooper (up through about Dead Babies) was authentically creepy. After that, the music was still great but the "act" was too well known to have the same punch. So they morphed to a more Clockwork Orangish punk attitude.

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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poebegone says Focus in on dementia! Mwahaha, I love that. I must admit the '80s "rock ballad" I Never Cry was my introduction to Alice Cooper, by way of my mother who's only 18 years older than I, which is a disturbing tidbit by itself, but this is an excellent choice for Halloween!

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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scotfree says I must confess, that particular wordplay WAS NOT planned. Thanks anyway. I love a lot of Alice to death, but the early stuff - Easy Action thru Muscle of Love - is heads above his solo years. That band had forged a real identity, they stayed within their musical capabilities, and created a very unique persona. I stumbled on a cool tidbit last night reading an interview with drummer Neil Smith. The band was originally signed by Frank Zappa, and he intended to produce the album that became Easy Action. But, on the first day in the studio, the band were coaxed out back by the Jefferson Airplane who were recording in the same studio. They all imbibed in some killer weed, a habit Frank was verry anti-anti. When Frank sensed the state of mind the band was in, he walked out - never to return. The rest, as they say, history.

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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poebegone says Kickass story. I did not realize Frank Zappa was very anti-anti - how could he have survived the seventies??

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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Cody B says poe-I think Frank survived on cigarettes, coffee, and music. scotF- What happened to Alice? It seems like he started so strong.. Anyway, I think it is way healthy to explore the psyches of the most damaged, there's a lot o' stuff in brains.

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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cpetersonart3 says Thanks for posting ALICE near Halloween. Being in DETROIT in the early seventies we sort of adopted him.I call Love it to Death --Killer and Schools Out his "Triumvirate ". its basically the same band for all three records and I saw them often at the time. Love it death was on Straight records originally, one of Franks subsidiary labels at the time.

Permalink posted 10/26/2007
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scotfree says *Cody* - I think the answer is drugs and alcohol. From what I've read, guitarist/songwriter Michael Bruce gradually morphed into a fiend no one wanted to be around, and the rest of em had a serious Budweiser affliction. Alice saw a solo way out of the problem and took it. *cpetersonart3* - always up for Alice man! I was such an addict in high school. Spent hours in front of the mirror miming his antics. While those 3 lps do stand out, I like everything the original band did. Even Pretties For You works on a sketchbook level.

Permalink posted 10/26/2007