Retro: Kimmer

---

LOVE IT TO DEATH : ALICE COOPER 1971 Posted: 02 Jul 2011 09:49 AM PDT In 1971 I had moved back to Ypsilanti, MI from Columbus GA. Staying with my grandmother for a few months before my parents followed me back to MI. My grandmother had an old RCA record player with a bad needle and crummy speakers. But.. it was all I had at the time. As I spent a lot of that winter in my room... I really remember what records I was playing... Frost Music, Who Live at Leeds, Every Picture Tells a Story Rod Stewart, Grand Funk Live, Bob Seger System and The Last Heard, and Alice Cooper Love it to Death. The very first time I heard "I'm Eighteen" it struck a chord in my brain... I was 15 but this song was anthemic to me and of course a bazillion other teenagers too. Saved my money and bought this lp and drove my grandmother insane playing it over and over... Love It to Death is a 1971 album by Alice Cooper. Hits include "Ballad of Dwight Fry", "Is It My Body", and one of Cooper's trademark songs, "I'm Eighteen". After two failed albums, this was the album that brought the Alice Cooper band into the mainstream. Much credit is generally given to producer Bob Ezrin, cleaning up the band's sound with fresh ideas and making it more accessible, most notably on the track, 'I'm Eighteen'. It originally was a much longer song, and in more of a psychedelic vein like the band's first two albums, which contained several longer songs. The album cover caused much controversy at the time of its release. Early pressings show Cooper's thumb sticking out of his pants, thus giving the illusion of a penis (see cover photo). This led Warner Brothers to censor it (four different versions of the front cover exist on LP). Alice Cooper's thumb along with his right arm is clearly airbrushed out on censored versions. The original CD release, uses the most common censored LP cover for the booklet cover. In 2003, the album was ranked number 460 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Both "Second Coming" and "Ballad of Dwight Fry" were covered by alternative metal band The Melvins for their album Lysol. On December 8, 2009, the album was reissed by audiophile label Audio Fidelity in a limited-edition 24-karat gold CD. Remastered by Steve Hoffman, it also featured the original uncensored artwork. The first issue of the album was on Straight Records, a company created by Frank Zappa and manager Herb Cohen. By the time the album became a success it had already been re-issued by Warner Bros. Records, who were the original distributors of the Straight label. Love It to Death reached #35 on the Billboard album chart. Two singles entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart...Eighteen #21, Caught in a dream #94. In 2011, "Love It To Death" celebrated its 40th anniversary.

You are subscribed to email updates from Retro: Kimmer To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610