The dreadful Alice Cooper show that secured a record deal
The test of any good shock-rocker is their ability to rule the stage. No matter how many times you can make spooky sounds in the studio, there’s only so much you can do to scare someone before you start looking like some strange musical troll rather than an intimidating presence. While Alice Cooper was known to try anything they could to provoke a reaction, their first taste of hitting the big time came from bombing in the worst way possible.
As far as Cooper was concerned, the worst result you can get from a crowd is no reaction. Since you’re trying to deliver a spectacle onstage, only getting a couple of lackeys giving half-hearted applause is practically pitiful in his line of work. You need something more, and Cooper was pretty much down for anything as long as it got a reaction.
Although the band’s first handful of albums included songs with a wild Frank Zappa-esque energy, their live shows really set them apart. Decking himself out in horrific makeup, Cooper became a completely different person when he hit the stage, fitting somewhere between a clown, Phantom of the Opera, and a perverted bum that could shout obscenities at you on the street.
Moving from Phoenix, Arizona, to Los Angeles, the band weren’t exactly at home with the kind of psychedelic movement going on there. The Doors may have been dark for the time, but Cooper’s stage show felt like a shot of bad acid right to the temple for everyone wanting to chill out and listen to folksy rock and roll.
One man was paying attention, though, and that was Shep Gordon. After trying to make it in the industry for years, Gordon was convinced to be a manager at the suggestion of Jimi Hendrix when he got to see Cooper in a seedy club in the middle of California.
The band had been asked to open for The Doors, but by the time they finished their set, Gordon was among one of the only patrons still left in the hall. When talking about that night, Gordon told Behind the Music, “They were playing a song called ‘Nobody Likes Me’. Alice is sitting behind this window, and in the middle of the song, he just goes, ‘You hate me! I know you hate me!’ And he just forgot the song, so eventually the entire crowd went along with it, going, ‘Alright, we hate you’, and everybody left.”
Even though this is probably the exact opposite of what any rock star wants to see, Gordon saw potential in the band, continuing, “I realised that the reaction was amazing. What it takes to get people to leave when they come to see The Doors is remarkable. So if we’re capable of getting that kind of reaction and just redirect it, we may have something.”
With Cooper walking away with a manager, it didn’t take him long to inflict fear into the hearts of everyone when he performed in Toronto. Going on in between John Lennon and The Doors, Cooper would go down in infamy for killing a chicken onstage, making him public enemy number one with parents and the epitome of a rock star for kids. For all of the great music that was being made by guitar heroes, Cooper was finally something different. The age of the rock and roll villain was now upon us.
