However, the band soon realized they could exploit a niche by bringing a more theatrical element to their performances, and they soon hit on this cool idea of having a band called Alice Cooper with a frontman known as Alice Cooper (nee Vince Furnier) who would play the character of a homicidal woman named Alice Cooper.
Or something like that. Remember, it was the late '60s / early 70’s so things didn’t always need to make a lot of sense.
Anyway, Alice (the man, the character, and the band) were born, and they had their schtick. But in the beginning the whole horror rock thing wasn’t fully developed, and most of their songs tended to be pretty conventional rock. And so, even though they had this idea, their music didn’t quite support it, meaning they were a concept band without a true identity.
Billion Dollar Babies is a pretty clear reflection of that.
Side 1:
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Side 2:
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Now, I may be wrong, but there are a few subtle clues indicating that the album might be about money. The title to start, as is the fact that the album jacket is designed to look like a wallet. There’s also a giant 1 Billion Dollar bill tucked into it. Oh, and the record sleeve has a photo of the band sitting in a pile of cash.
But BDB is definitely not a concept album. There are songs about the cesspool that we call politics (Elected), songs about a hitchhiker being repeatedly molested by the insatiable woman who picked him up (Raped And Freezin’), songs about visiting a dentist (Unfinished Sweet), songs about a tranny (Mary Ann), songs about the generation gap (Generation Landslide), and the expected Alice Cooper horrorshow songs (Sick Things, I Love The Dead).
And even while the songs are overall quite good, the album has a hard time holding its freshness and relevance 40 years later. Listening to it was fun, but it also has that quality of a yearbook photo
where the clothing, hairstyle, and design are all so dated it’s kind of embarrassing.
However, while the music may be a bit too nostalgic, the packaging is a prime example of how CDs and digital will never be as cool as vinyl. Not only is the album a gatefold (which is enough to make vinyl better than digital), but the flourishes are great.
To start, there’s the whole album jacket as wallet thing, which is kind of clever. But the jacket is actually embossed at the seal. Opening it up brings the real fun. To start, there’s that $1 Billion bill cleverly tucked into a clasp.
On the other side there is a bunch of punch-out photos of the band members (cleverly enough, they are wallet-sized) which, if removed, opens a window to where the album sleeve sits, so you can either see the lyric sheet (with dollar sign water mark) or a picture of the band with shit-eating expressions, sitting on a pile of money.
In the end, though BDB is one of those albums that are definitely of a specific time. But then again, so are movies like Soylent Green and TV shows like Get Smart. And there are times when they just feel right.
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