2016. A year where my time was best spent racing around the Lake Michigan area. Lunch in Valparaiso, then up to Chicago to haunt the record stores, back east to Gary to score some golden teachers, then out to Niles to see some of my homies after that, a quick pit stop in Ann Arbor for dinner, then finish the day out in New Buffalo, where I could watch the sunset over the docks turn the water gold. All along the way, wearing out my cassette of “Classicks” by Alice Cooper, which I still have despite the fact that the tape snapped and fell out like four years ago. Of course, if it happened to be after dark, I could always pop out the tape and listen to that evening's broadcast of Nights with Alice Cooper, which I no longer get here in Circle City, much to my dismay. Whatever the case, you would be hard-pressed to find me behind the wheel listening to anyone but Alice. I'm what you might call obsessed with the guy. I have all his records, I've seen him live several times, and I even have his autograph up on my wall. So, it was only a matter of time until we talked about him here on Deep Cuts, and I have just the thing for the occasion.
“Pretties for You” was Cooper's first album, released way back in 1969. You want to talk about deep cuts? This is about as deep as they get. This gem flies way under the radar. You won't ever hear a track off it played on the radio, nor will you find it spinning in even the snobbiest of record shops. That may lead you to believe that it sucks. Why else would even the die-hard fans be missing out on it? But I assure you, the reason for its being left out of the catalog of greatest hits is far stranger than what you have in mind.
Now, Alice Cooper is a musician known for being weird. After all, the metal pioneer did go on to have a comedy acting career, appearing in such institutional productions as “Wayne's World” and “That ‘70s Show,” but this takes things a step further than that. See, “Pretties for You” isn't a metal album. How could it be heavy metal when the genre didn't even exist yet? It's actually a psychedelic rock record.
For those of you who know your music history, this may not be too surprising. In its day, psychedelic rock was considered hard rock. It was an imperative step in the musical arms race for the heaviest sound possible. Long before the days of punk rock and metal, we had psychedelic music to jam out to, and if you get past the overly sanitized psych-pop of the Beatles that many people associate with the genre, you'll find that it is an obvious ancestor to our modern aggressive genres of music. But it's not quite Alice Cooper, is it?
I mean, come on, can you really imagine Cooper on stage noodling away on a mustang with a rainbow-colored banner covered in sacred geometry flapping around behind him? I can and let me tell you, it's goofy as hell. Earth had to become Black Sabbath, and Alice Cooper had to go heavy; it's just the natural progression of things. And heavy he went, becoming one of the highest-ranking deities of metal. Alice Cooper is responsible for at least a dozen of the greatest metal tracks of all time, so why would people want to hear the other stuff?
“Pretties for You” sits gone and forgotten because it just isn't Alice Cooper. People want to hear “Feed My Frankenstein” and “Lost in America,” not “Living.” To say that the album isn't genuine would be a step too far, but you can tell from listening to it that psychedelic was just too limiting for Cooper. The record is replete with gravely vocals, growling guitars, and the iconic horror-fueled energy of this half of the Freaks on Parade. The metal genre may not have existed yet, but all the pieces were there. They just needed a visionary to put them together.
It's a crying shame this is the case, as “Pretties for You” is a phenomenal album. It's a strange album, but it's psychedelic; it's supposed to be weird. You have a handful of ripping tracks that are the very embodiment of the genre. Explorative and alive while maintaining the core psych sound. Then you also have what could be called intermission tunes. They're really more like soundscapes than actual songs. Almost like demos, but a little tighter than that. Not quite full ideas, just a minute or two of the band tinkering with their instruments to see what happens. They help ease you from the catastrophic conclusion of one song into the gentle rise of the next while also being bizarre enough to keep you on your toes, not totally sure what's coming your way. It's definitely not entry-level psychedelic rock, but if you have an appreciation of the genre, you'll find that this is one of the more innovative records of the glory days.
I can't, in good conscience, say that “Pretties for You” got a raw deal. It's been left behind for bigger and better things. If Cooper had continued along this trajectory, we never would have gotten “Hey Stoopid,” “Welcome to my Nightmare,” or any of the albums these legendary records inspired. I believe “Pretties for You” had to fade into obscurity so that the world could have metal as we know it. And though it's tragic that such a great album goes unappreciated, I think it was a fair trade. You can do your part to soften this injustice by taking the time to give "Pretties for You” a listen. It's a fantastic psychedelic album and an interesting look at the roots of Alice Cooper's trademark sound. A rocking record and a case study all in one. What more can you ask for from a deep cut?
