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Way to go with Alice Cooper cover

Hats off to Russell Hall and Goldmine for the excellent Alice Cooper article (#517, May 19, 2000), a good follow-up to the earlier 1990 piece. Just don't wait to publish the next one for another 10 years!

It's disappointing to read that despite the cordiality and affection that exists between the remaining members of the original Alice Cooper Group, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce continues to peddle the line that Cooper left the band in the lurch to further his solo career. In the article, Cooper himself states that he doesn't think there was ever any "bitterness" over the band's breakup. Well, there seems to be plenty on Bruce's part.

These are events that happened some 25 years ago (in itself a scary thought). I'm no expert on what happened, but for Bruce to state that "on the Nightmare tour, they placed the band behind a screen, so a lot of people didn't even know The [original] Alice Cooper] group was gone until the tour was over" is just plain wrong. At the time, a very big deal was made in the music press of the fact that Cooper was working with new musicians (such as Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner), especially as those musicians had just made their reputations working with Lou Reed.

Bruce also says: "his [Alice's] last four albums haven't even charted." That may be broadly true, but since 1975 ‐ despite fluctuating commercial success — Cooper has remained a working, functioning songwriter, concert performer, singer and international cultural icon. Some albums have gone gold or platinum, others may have sold just a decent amount and some have tanked, but he has remained a more than respectable concert attraction and celebrity around the world. Entire jungles worth of paper have been used to write about him since 1975, with many, many TV, radio and movie appearances. Wayne's World anybody?

Bruce, on the other hand, since 1975 has done comparatively nothing. One weak solo album and the workman-like Battle Axe album. That's it. His views on Alice's solo commercial success or lack of, therefore have little merit. This is not meant to deny Bruce's important contribution to the legend of The Alice Cooper Group. He was an important part of it, and believe it or not, I'll always consider myself a fan of his. But as a songwriter, he could have put his talents to good use, perhaps writing for and with other bands (Aerosmith, Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne have all used outside writers). At least then, like Alice, he would have a body of work to point to. Instead he has next to nothing.

By the way, someone tell Dave Thompson that the TV ad for indigestion tablets never actually took place.

—Andy Michael
London, England