“They auditioned to be in that band”: The band Alice Cooper called the Monkees of punk
Punk rock has always been a genre that favours authenticity and a particular DIY ethos. During the early days of the movement, groups came together under a common cause: disrupting the musical establishment and paving the way for a revolutionary new period in rock. Punk bands formed from patrons of grassroots venues, squats, and record stores, but some bands were as manufactured as any other music industry creation, something that Alice Cooper was all too familiar with.
Emerging into the American music scene during the mid-1960s, Cooper had a front row seat to witness the development of rock music throughout its golden age. From the period of the British Invasion, to the advent of the hippie counterculture and, later, hard rock, the Prince of Darkness was there for it all. What’s more, his own material was never tied too closely to one specific style, meaning that his work had a kind of universal appeal not afforded to many rock artists during that time.
Of course, the discography of Alice Cooper was incredibly influential in the development of hard rock and even glam, but he also formed an unlikely influence on punk rock, too. His heavy rock and roll sound proved itself to be easily adaptable to the angry voice of punk, even though he rarely expressed political views or a DIY mindset in quite the same way as groups like Crass or Dead Kennedys. Nevertheless, Cooper could recognise the brilliance of the punk scene, although he was not always convinced by its credentials.
Cooper had been particularly influential in the early days of John Lydon, who rose to the forefront of England’s punk scene by fronting The Sex Pistols. In turn, Cooper became a fan of the group’s music, once saying, “I totally got what the Sex Pistols were doing.” However, his assessment of the band was less than complimentary in a punk sense – coming close to sacrilege. “The Sex Pistols were as close to The Monkees as anything else,” he told Rolling Stone.
The Monkees were among the most successful groups of the 1960s, but they were never held in the same regard as bands like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones for the simple fact that they were manufactured. The band were little more than a marketing ploy drummed up by the industry, and while they certainly had hits, they lacked any sense of authenticity. A lack of authenticity in the punk scene is a capital offence, but Cooper’s assessment of the Pistols is pretty accurate.
“They auditioned to be in that band, the way Monkees did,” he explained, “And Johnny [Rotten] got that. He says, ‘Hey, we’re put together. We’re not just a band that got together in an alley somewhere. Malcolm [McLaren] put us together as the new Monkees, only we’re the punk Monkees.’ I got that.” Although the manufactured nature of the group seemed to act in opposition to the DIY ethos of punk, it did not seem to impact the quality of their output.
“Then when I heard their album, I said, ‘Great album,’” Cooper shared, “And the Monkees did good albums too.” In fact, The Sex Pistols’ Nevermind The Bollocks, for better or worse, came to define the first wave of UK punk.
Although the band were not the most authentically DIY of all the groups to populate that scene, they were key in inspiring later artists to challenge the conventions of the music industry, spawning countless now iconic bands in the process. In a similar vein, The Monkees introduced many kids to the infectious sounds of pop rock during the 1960s, spurring the rock revolution of that period.
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