Detroit Stories is the 21st solo album by Alice Cooper (28th including releases by the Alice Cooper band). One of the true veterans and trailblazers of hard rock, he has done anything and achieved everything. He has nothing left to prove.
Given that, his next move is not totally surprising. With Detroit Stories, the 73-year old rocker is looking back at his formative years as he is “paying homage to the place to which we owe our careers”.
Born and raised in Detroit, it has shaped Cooper on a fundamental level. In interviews about the album he recounts stories from his youth about his family, discovering rock’n’roll, the city’s music scene as he experienced it, and memories of playing there with his bands. The songs on Detroit Stories cover much of the same ground, and features several cover songs from those days as well as relevant guest artists. It’s authentic and a bit of a time travelling exercise for both the artist and the listener.
The album kicks off with a cover of The Velvet Underground’s Rock & Roll. The Lou Reed-penned track and his original band may have more obvious connections to New York, but it has its own Detroit story in how Mitch Ryder’s band Detroit, which featured Lou Reed’s future guitarist Steve Hunter, performed one of the first cover versions of the song in 1971, changing the lyric ‘New York station’ to ‘Detroit station’. Detroit radio stations latched onto that version and led it to become a live staple for several bands in the area.
Cooper discussed the song with the album’s producer Bob Ezrin, whose association with the Alice Cooper band goes back to 1971, and they both felt they could kick up the intensity and turn it into a Detroit anthem. They invited Steve Hunter and Joe Bonamassa to play on it, and together they made it into a punchy no-nonsense early 1970s-style rock’n’roll track. The Detroit reference in the lyrics is of course intact.
Go Man Go captures the frantic feeling of life in the fast lane as a Bonnie and Clyde-type couple on the run from the law, clawing their way onward in life the only way they know how.
In yet another case of local patriotism, Cooper rewrite this song into a shorter version named Go Wings Go in support of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. As the record pays homage to his home town, it isn’t a stretch for him to honour the team that, as he puts it, “keeps the city alive”. He did keep that particular tribute off the album, though – for now it only exists as a video on YouTube.
Rock & Roll was the first single from the album, released on 13 November 2020. The second single was released about a month later, on 11 December, and was another cover song. Cooper elected to do a version of Our Love Will Change the World by Detroit’s own power pop band Outrageous Cherry. Originally released in 2005, Cooper and Ezrin expanded on the original song with additional music and lyrics. It becomes a nice tribute to Outrageous Cherry’s guitarist Larry Ray, who died from lung cancer in 2017 at the age of 63.
The track is decidedly upbeat, and every bit the musical sunshine that you’d suspect it would be based on that title. It’s certainly not a track I would have suspected Cooper to have had a hand in writing himself. It may not be a song that gels musically with the other songs on the album, but its qualities are evident, and it must have fit the Detroit angle that Cooper/Ezrin were going for.
The next track out is Social Debris – the third single from the album, and the first original composition. What made the world sit up and pay attention (more than usual) is that this song saw the original Alice Cooper Band come back together again. “It would be impossible to make a Detroit album without these guys”, said Bob Ezrin, no doubt reflecting what everybody else was thinking. Neil Buxton (lead guitar) unfortunately passed in 1997, but Michael Bruce (guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass), and Neal Smith (drums) all reunited with Cooper for two of the songs on the album.
It is great to note that Social Debris is one of the better tracks on offer. Stylistically, it could have fit very nicely on any of the early 70s output that they were all part of. Dunaway even cheekily references the introductory bass line to Elected in the intro. These geezers are sounding great some 50 years later, and will be a delight to any fans of the old band to hear them go all these years later.
The album does a 180 turn with $1000 High Heel Shoes. If you’re making a Detroit album, how could you not acknowledge Motown? The R&B and Soul music factory dominated the charts throughout the 1960s and 70s in particular, and this is Alice’s homage. It features several musicians from that world, including the Motor City Horns as well as the Sister Sledge girls on backing vocals. It’s different, but an exciting track that adds a lot to the mix. Cooper commented that he was unsure how the song would be received as it’s not a typical song for him at all, but it isn’t as if he hasn’t surprised us before.
Hail Mary brings it back to rock’n’roll, while Detroit City 2021 (an update on a 2020 EP track) is a tribute to some of the garage rock heroes from the city’s punk scene in the late 60s/early 70s. “Me and Iggy were giggin’ with Ziggy and kickin’ with the MC5 / Ted and Seger were burnin’ with the fever and Suzi Q was sharp as a night”. Is it namedropping when it is true and you were right in the middle of it? In any case, it makes for a good song all these years later. Tracks like Independence Dave and Sister Anne are solid hard rock tracks that portray even more characters from the old Detroit scene.
Drunk And In Love is co-written with Dennis Dunaway of the old Cooper Band, but performed by the album band (Johnny Badanjek (drums), Paul Randolph (bass) and Garret Bailanied (guitars)). Joe Bonamassa also guests on this track, which is a great fit as this represents the blues moment on the album. The song mixing biting social commentary with pitch-black humour. The song’s central protagonist is a homeless alcoholic who finds himself discovering romance. He lives under a bridge, meeting a girl who also lives there, and they end up sharing the same box as a place to stay. It’s boy-meets-girl, but with stark reality kicking in continually – as in, “We can cuddle on the pavement where my buddy froze”. I guess that’s the blues for you, but the added authenticity from Cooper’s near-miraculous emergence from the other side of alcoholism is also a factor in the songs intensity and delivery.
The second song performed by the Alice Cooper Band has its tongue firmly planted in cheek. I Hate You sees every band member getting a verse to tell each other off in the bluntest and meanest ways. This plays into the Detroit stereotype of bluntness, but also the fact that the band has gone through all of this several times in the past. The song is ironically recorded at a point when their relationships are better than ever, but that is probably a prerequisite for being able to do it like this. It also signals that they are safe with each other and beyond this type of name calling now. The song itself never becomes more than a novelty song, in no danger of being as good as the other songs the old band have done for this album, but at the same time it is a song without that type of aspiration. This one has more to do with their personal history and a certain Detroit attitude. While I can’t say it’s a favourite out of this batch of songs, I’m very fond of it for what it represents and it’s still great fun to listen to.
Wonderful World stands out by being musically different. It has a low-key arrangement, and is played sparsely with straightforward parts. The song is sung from the perspective of a certain drug that is enticing people to use it. “I wanna kiss and tell with you / I wanna go to hell with you” is a sad reminder of many people’s fate.
The pandemic has obviously left some imprint on the album as well. Hanging On By A Thread is an updated version of a song was released in May 2020 as Don’t Give Up. The album version is even more intense in its message, written as an anti-suicide song. It is filled with genuine encouragement to those who are feeling the mental strain that can come from isolation. The song pleas the listener to focus on what’s good and positive in their lives, and on behalf of the listener, it refuses to give up.
The song ends with a PSA directly from Alice Cooper, yet again urging people to keep fighting and not give up. He then gives out the actual number of the suicide prevention hotline in the US, bringing home what we’re talking about here. The thought that Alice Cooper cares and does something like this on a recorded work to help and inspire people is downright touching.
Almost as if to prevent it all from becoming far too serious, the next song out is Shut Up And Rock. This is a good ol’ slice of Detroit directness but also a damned good rock’n’roll song. The message to other artists is clear: no need to tell the rest of us about their political views, opinions about this or that, their yoga classes, or their fashion sense. Just shut up and rock!
The album’s final track is a new version of Bob Seger’s East Side Story. It was the first single with Seger’s group The Last Heard in 1966, reaching #3 on the Detroit charts. It’s a tense but driving song, underlining the tough life that can await in a place like Detroit if you end up on the wrong side of the tracks. An interesting choice as an album closer – a warning? Commentary? Or just a favourite song from Cooper’s early days, kind of as a “full circle” thing? Probably all of the above.
Detroit Stories is one of the more interesting albums Cooper has made in several years. I like him best when he tries to make music from his formative years, and a lot of this material would feels right at home in the early 1970s. It may not all be in the style he played back then, but the timestamp is consistent and it feels right whether he is referencing Motown, blues, or lighter pop moments from that time. It feels like an album made out of a wish for 100% authentic self-expression and capturing something specific.
Seek out the interviews Alice Cooper have done (and will continue to do) for this album. Those Detroit Stories are fascinating ones, whether they come your way as songs or as anecdotes from the man himself.
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