From fstroupe@gmi.net Wed Feb 05 13:22:07 2003
Subject:Al Kooper/Alice Cooper

Supersessions is a must have for someone wanting to hear Bloomfield in a
medium away from Butterfield. I personally think it is better than his solo
stuff. Haven't heard it in a few years, guess I'll have to dig it out and
listen to it.

I personally liked an album called Koopersessions. Only saw it once, a girl
I met at college let me borrow it. If I'm not mistaken, it was live, the
first side was Kooper and a band, the first song was a gospel number called
"Bury my Body". Had some pretty good piano in an intro. The second side
was Kooper, and I assume the same band, with Shuggie Otis. I recorded it,
but that was nearly 30 years ago. Would love to hear it again.

I think that part of the reason Alice Cooper wasn't taken seriously, is that
he didn't take himself seriously, at least seemingly not in any interview
I've heard or read. I guess he was the first rocker to wear makeup, too,
that I remember, anyway. Some of the most intense stage theatrics you could
imagine, in that day and time, anyway. I don't remember which album he was
touring when I saw him, it was probably 1974, and he had his head chopped
off with a guillotine. Probably "Billion Dollar Babies". I think he was
hung in the "Killer" tour.

"Billion Dollar Babies" has a very complicated rhythm that is hard to keep
together, for your average garage cover band, anyway. But it is nowhere
near as hard to perform well as "School's Out". The guitar riff, the bass
riff and the drums are not very complicated individually, until you try to
put it all together-and keep it together. It's kind of like three totally
different things going on at the same time. I never really paid attention
until I tried to play the bass part. I've never heard anyone do it the way
it was recorded. "Halo of Flys" is also pretty complicated. Used some kind
of analog synth, among the first songs to do so, I guess. It had a neat
drum solo, that went thru basic drum rudiments.

Wonder what kind of organ is at the end of "Eighteen"? I always assumed it
was a pipe organ.

Frank