Lace and Whiskey

Alice Cooper - "Lace and Whiskey" (1977) - Warner Bros.

Hello Friends,

From 1969 thru 1976, singer and songwriter Vincent Damon Furnier had quite the run. 

As the frontman for the band, Alice Cooper, young Vincent released seven classic records (including Pretties For You, Love It To Death, Killer, School's Out & Billion Dollar Babies) before ditching the band and forming a successful solo career as Alice Cooper.

His first album as a solo artist is the legendary, Welcome to My Nightmare; this was followed-up by his nearly-as-good sequel, Alice Cooper Goes to Hell. 

Quite the run, indeed.

A lot of people-- critics and fans-- were disappointed in his next release, 1977's Lace and Whiskey.  Its certainly not a bad album by any stretch, but it falls short of some of his much more interesting, harder-edged stuff.

Slickly produced once again by Bob Ezrin, the album is definitely more middle of the road than anything that had come previously.  We definitely like Side One better and think songs like "Its Hot Tonight", "Road Rats", "Damned If You Do" and the title track are pretty rockin'.  The Top 20 single that ends the side, "You and Me" is a slow rock ballad that is definitely a little too vanilla sounding for our tastes.  (its no "Beth".)

Side Two goes off a rails slightly.  "King of the Silver Screen" , "(No More) Love at Your Convenience" and "My God" come off as sounding very over-produced.  A cover of the rockabilly classic, "Ubangi Stomp", comes off sounding pretty silly.  

Side Two is saved by the power ballad, "I Never Wrote Those Songs".  With introspective lyrics like, "I've been livin' in my own shell so long / The only place I ever feel at home"-- you can tell that Vincent Furnier was by now deeply entrenched in his "Alice Cooper" persona and there was no turning back.

Before the end of 1977, Cooper would embark on a U.S. tour, record the Alice Cooper & Friends television special in Las Vegas and check himself into a New York sanitarium to help treat his severe alcoholism.  Bottoms up!

  

RATING: 3.5 Kings of the Silver Screen out of 5