The violent furore caused by Alice Cooper song ‘School’s Out’
While it was a staple of British culture for most of its stay on our screens, Top of the Pops certainly had its fair share of highs and lows. Devised as a weekly broadcast that would showcase entries into the UK charts’ top 40 to a live studio audience, millions would flock to their screens every week evening to see who would be performing. The show was, to put it frankly, an institution for several decades, running from 1964 to 2005 on the BBC.
Its notoriety preceded it, and there were a number of iconic performances on the show such as Sparks’ debut appearance with ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us’, a performance, so I’m told by dad, was the talk of the school playground in 1974. Who can forget Rod Stewart playing football on stage with his bandmates during a performance of ‘Maggie May’, all the while with famed radio broadcaster John Peel playing mandolin in the corner? These might account for some of the show’s finest moments, but there were a number of controversies to speak of over the years.
There were various mishaps that involved miming to songs, a policy of the show for a while, which backfired for acts like All About Eve during their “live rendition” of ‘Martha’s Harbour’ in 1988. In a less scandalous moment, there was the baffling decision made by The Orb to not perform in a traditional sense for their song ‘Blue Room’, who instead opted to play chess on stage while wearing spacesuits and carrying a toy sheep. And of course, there were issues with multiple hosts of the show, whose unspeakably reprehensible behaviour behind the scenes would lead to the show having limited repeats on British television in the aftermath and forever being marred by their actions.
One particular appearance that sparked a sizable public uproar was that of notorious shockster Alice Cooper’s 1972 hit, ‘School’s Out’, and while there was plenty of controversy surrounding the song, its chart performance was aided significantly by this commotion. Spearheading a campaign to get the song banned from British television was notable curmudgeon and serial complainer Mary Whitehouse, a name synonymous in the UK with attempting to sap every ounce of fun from popular culture.
Is the song offensive or controversial?
At the time, people were concerned that its lyrics would incite rebelliousness among youngsters, and would perhaps inspire them to play truant from school or worse still, blow it up. Was there any real danger of this? No, there absolutely wasn’t. The performance on Top of the Pops was also far from shocking – Alice Cooper’s identically named frontman might have what some would call an intimidating appearance, with his face caked in makeup and his devilish attire, but there was little else aside from the inclusion of a 20-strong children’s choir that was out of the ordinary for the show.
Speaking about the record and her distaste for it, Whitehouse would say that “Top of the Pops has given gratuitous publicity to a record which can only be described as anti-law and order. Because of this, millions of young people are now imbibing a philosophy of violence and anarchy. This is surely utterly irresponsible in a social climate which grows ever more violent.”
Whitehouse’s comments on the hard rock classic would do more to spark moral panic than Alice Cooper’s music ever provoked violence, and her statements publicising the track’s supposed degeneracy were ultimately what helped it reach number one in the charts, leading Cooper to send her a bunch of flowers as a symbol of gratitude. Ultimately, her attempts to quash the song’s infamy were futile, and ‘School’s Out’ would go on to find a place in rock history as one of its most provocative but beloved songs. Whitehouse’s legacy however, is mostly left in derision and mockery these days, lending her name to a satirical sketch comedy show and power electronics band. I’m sure she’d be thrilled at that.
