Sunday, June 15, 2008

Alice Cooper -- School's Out

Denis, I decided you were right about Alice Cooper, but I had to go with School's Out. I do agree with you that I'm Eighteen is an awesome song, but it was such a guy song that I never quite connected to it the way I did with School's Out.

But thanks for sending me off to YouTube to lose another two hours watching Alice Cooper videos...

I have always loved his sense of humor and I always especially loved this lyric in School's Out:

We've got no class
And we've got no principles
And we've got no innocence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes

Alice Cooper turned 60 in February, but I guess we're all getting older. Despite his age, he looks pretty much exactly the same way now that he did in 1971. He never was a pretty man.

I told Scott today that rather than thinking of myself as getting older, I prefer to think of myself as "vintage".

Scott said he's now considering himself to be "heirloom".


14 comments:

Rachel Green said...

I used to like Alice but my tastes changed. 'Lace and Whiskey' was one of my favourites.

Anonymous said...

Now you're making me feel old!! Or vintage. Or heirloom. But certainly not young.

Unknown said...

Hmm. I'm only really familiar with Poison, I guess, although I do remember this one. Why do these old rockers always have such an obsession with school, though?

Patti said...

heirloom makes me think of tomatoes...which are tasty no matter how old they are. lucky you!

Lisa said...

Rachel, My taste has changed too, but I can honestly say that I still like all the music I've ever liked -- just not in as large a dose. :)

Kristen, See? Now you've missed the point of vintage (Scott's heirloom, but jeeze, he's over 50!). I figured vintage is cool, people like vintage so it's good and we're from the era that people like to buy vintage stuff from ;)

Orchid Hunter, That's a very good question! Although when School's Out was released, in '71-'72, Alice Cooper was pretty young. But yeah, I don't know why there are so many old rock and roll songs about high school. I was never sorry to say goodbye to high school, myself and if I were a song writer, I can't imagine ever writing songs about it.

Patti, Very good point! Yes, I do feel pretty lucky.

Tess said...

Wow, that brings back memories!

steve on the slow train said...

"Elected" came out for the 1972 election--the first presidential election where 18-year-olds could vote. I was pretty heavily into politics that year, having worked on the Dick Clark senatorial campaign over the summer. (The Cedar Rapids neighborhood I lived in that summer is probably underwater right now.) So I took politics a little too seriously to appreciate the song. I like it more now.

One connection I have with Alice Cooper is that Cooper's son Dashiel and my daughter Sarah were born at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, IL at around the same time. Sheryl Cooper's father was pastor of First Baptist Church in Oak Park, so she and Alice came there to have the baby. Never saw him there, though.

Lisa said...

Tess, I'm so glad you stopped by! I read your profile and I completely relate to your sentiments on writing fiction :)

Steve, I'd forgotten about the voting age change. It reminds me that the drinking age of 18 in Massachusetts was raised to 20 when I was 17. In my more advanced stage now, I can't believe that I was going into bars at 16 when the drinking age was 18! We were determined underage drinkers though (going into bars meant we could see bar bands) and we'd drive to North Providence to their clubs, since the drinking age was still 18 in Rhode Island. By that time, New Wave was everywhere and bands were playing covers of The Cars, Blondie, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello and bands like that.

Barrie said...

Vintage? Heirloom? Very funny! :)

Lisa said...

Ha! Beats the hell out of "old" :)

Sustenance Scout said...

We once had an elderly lady neighbor named Alice Cooper. She was sweet but I couldn't get over the name, poor thing! K.

Mary Witzl said...

Alice Cooper is sixty? Nooooo!
Makes sense though, when I stop to think about it.

I've only just checked my long-ignored Book Review blog and found your comment. My apologies for not noticing it earlier!

Yellow said...

I was born in '72 so I got into AC as a teenager. At the same time I also discovered Rush. Before school I'd have 'A Farewell to Kings' playing over and over in my room, while I howled along. I played it to my sisters a year or so ago whilst quite drunk, and the howling commenced immdediately. My new brother in law of the time had his eyes opened that night.

Lisa said...

Karen, I was reading up on Alice Cooper after I did this post and apparently Alice Cooper is sort of like Jethro Tull or Blondie -- the name belongs to the original band and not Vincent Furnier so he pays them annually for the right to continue using it. The story is that he spontaneously made the name up before a performance one night and it stuck.

Mary, No worries!

Yellow, Ha! I just commented on a different post about Tainted Love and Red Red Wine in the juke box at the club at RAF Bentwaters during my time from '81-'83. Rush reminds me of the juke box in the hole in the wall bar right outside the gate of Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi where I did my technical school in '81. Tom Sawyer was playing constantly. It's funny because now my stepson, who was born in 1980 is a big Rush fan.

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