Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Books that Rock: Alice Cooper- Golf Monster ('07), with Life and Crimes Box Set

Post #388

Alice Cooper is a living legend and the original 'shock rocker'. His career has spanned over 5 decades, and he continues to record new music and tour. His career in music has had him cross paths with everyone from Rob Zombie, to Megadeth, to Paul McCartney, to Elvis Presley, to Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd... to name just a few.

As I finally got around to reading his '07 autobiography, Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: A Rock 'n' Roller's 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict, I found it to be one of the most enjoyable rock musicians' biographies I've read in a long time! I had fun going back and listening to several albums as I read through the stories behind them, appreciating the new perspective gained by having Alice's own insight into them fresh in my mind.


While the book does follow his music career from his high school beginnings with The Spiders, all the way up to his late 1990's releases, he also gives several very thorough tips and instructions and analogies about golf, it's similarities to music, the unending challenges the sport presents, and numerous tips on how to improve your own game. He puts chapters on golf in between those on life and music. The chapters of the book alternate in this fashion pretty regularly. If you are not interested in golf, or even interested enough in Alice's obsession with golf, then you'll probably be bored with almost half of this book. But I recommend giving it a fair chance, as Alice does tie the two parts of his life together quite nicely by the end.


Now, as you're reading through these reminiscences you can also treat yourself to a thorough sampling of the songs from Alice Cooper while you read, or at the very least, in between chapters. The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper is a 4 disc box set released in 1999, soon after his album The Last Temptation. While this biography was published years after the box set, in 2007, the majority of the discussion about his music career only goes up to The Last Temptation. That album was a significant statement for Alice on several levels. You'll have to read the book to find out those reasons yourself.;-) He mentions the albums Brutal Planet (2000) and Dragontown (2001) only in passing. No further music projects are mentioned, although in closing Alice does say that he continues to record music and/or tour every year. He says he'll keep doing it for as long as he can...

God bless you Alice! As a fan, I can only look forward to hearing your next album, seeing your next tour, and if I'm fortunate enough for our paths to ever cross, I wouldn't say no to a round of golf! My game has nothing to do but improve!

Recommended Alice Cooper tracks:
-Why Don't You Love Me? (The Spiders-1965)
-I'm Eighteen (1970)
-Elected (Alice mentions that John Lennon once said it was his favorite Alice Cooper song. 1972)
-Cold Ethyl (1975)
-Teenage Frankenstein (1986)
-Poison (This was the song that introduced me to Alice Cooper when I was a teen myself. I can never get enough of this one! 1989)
-Stolen Prayer (An especially treasured favorite of mine, featuring guest vocals by Chris Cornell. 1994)
-Brutal Planet (2000)
-Disgraceland (2001)
-School's Out/Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 (Hollywood Vampires-2015. This rerecorded version reflects the manner in which Alice has performed this song live in concert for years. I love it to death!)
-My Dead Drunk Friends (Hollywood Vampires-2015)

Happy Headbanging!

Friday, April 17, 2020

Dear Deadly-It's Not Over Yet (2017)

Post #387

Dead Deadly are a melodic metal band from the greater Chicago area of Illinois. I happened to catch them live in concert in the Spring of last year- a concert I reviewed in Post #375. In the fall of 2019 they won this blog's annual Independent Band of the Year reader's poll. They are hard at work on a full length album coming soon. For this post I'll take a close look at their 2017 EP It's Not Over Yet.


It's Not Over Yet is a tight, yet diverse collection of 6 original heavy metal songs. At times you could call it hard rock, or post-grunge, or nu-metal, or alternative metal, and you wouldn't be wrong. Consistent throughout is their melodic vocals, sharp and crisp guitar tones, tight rhythm section and high production quality. Many lead guitar solos are highlights of several songs. Lyrics are delivered with vocal strength and control to evoke many emotions form one track to the next.

The best part of following this band online is the fact that they've produced music videos, or lyric videos, for almost every track on this EP. I will embed or link to most of them below. If you like what you hear and see, then take a minute to follow them, download a track or the whole EP, and stream their songs and videos!

As the 2020 Spring and early Summer season of concerts and tours have been canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems unlikely that I'll be able to promote any shows for them in the near future, but I'll be sure to do so once these events resume. In the meantime I'll try to think of other ways to promote them and their music in the months ahead. Follow this blog or HappyHeadbanger on Facebook for future content.

Visit Dear Deadly's Facebook page to follow their activity
Visit Dear Deadly on Instagram.

Songs from It's Not Over Yet
-Very Wicked Things


-Deviant (My top pick! The lyric video follows a vampire theme, but they also have an official video that's entirely footage of motorcycle stunts!)


-The Devil You Know (An original! Not a cover of the Anthrax song of a similar name!)


-Conviction (A teaser clip-guitar solo only, but still awesome!)


-I Tried (Showing a slightly softer side, this especially melodic song is a mellow self-reflective type of song)

-The Hopeless (A great song with social-political themes, and the inspiration behind their promotional bumper stickers!)