As teenagers in Phoenix, Dennis Dunaway, bassist and co-songwriter for the Alice Cooper group, and lead singer Vince Furnier (who would later change his name to Alice Cooper) formed a hard-knuckles band that played prisons, cowboy bars, and teens clubs. Their wild, impossible journey took them from Hollywood to the ferocious Detroit music scene, and along the way they discovered the utterly original performance style and look that would make them the stuff of legend.
Speaking out for the first time about his adventures in the Alice Cooper group, Dunaway reveals a band that was obsessed with topping themselves, with their increasingly outlandish shows and ever-blackening reputation. Dunaway takes readers into back rooms, behind brainstorming sessions, and into the most exclusive parties of the 1970s, revealing the talent, drama, and characters that drove two teenagers to create what would become America's highest-grossing act.
From struggling for recognition to topping the charts with a string of hits including "I'm Eighteen," "School's Out," and "No More Mr. Nice Guy," the Alice Cooper group was entertaining, outrageous, and one of a kind.
Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! is a riveting account of the band's creation in the '60s, their strange glory in the '70s, and the legendary characters they met along the way.
PAT'S REVIEW
| Dennis Dunnaway who was the bassist in the Alice Cooper band describes the beginnings of first him meeting Vince Furnier who would later become the frontman and then the person we all know as Alice Cooper. Going back to there high school days and when they formed a band added members and then came up with the original guys who would play on their albums, at least the first seven. I had come across them in 71 when I was just 11 from an older friend thinking that it was their first record, I found out later it was the second. I had listened to them throughout the ’70s and beyond even when he went solo. Here though you get a look at the actually beginnings from high school through their time in southern California where they were part of the Topanga Canyon scene in the late ’60s with Morrison of the Doors, Hendrix, Joplin playing at Whiskey a-go-go. That they were part of that scene was amazing what time in the mid to late sixties to be around that crowd. You get to see the first person that really changed the music scene in performers with creating a character and becoming that character. Long before any of the other ones who have become famous. also how they came up with the stage props from guillotines, electronic chair, adding a snake when someone threw their boa snake on stage during one of their concerts. Behind their writing the songs that would become hits as well. I found this to be a very good book and interesting as well. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com |
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