WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE
I THINK YOU'RE GONNA LIKE IT
I THINK YOU'RE GONNA FEEL
YOU BELONG
Welcome to My Nightmare
is the
debut solo
and overall
eighth
studio album
by American
rock musician
released on
March 11, 1975
by Atlantic Records.
A concept album,
its songs played in
sequence form a
journey through
the nightmares of a
child named Steven.
The album inspired
the Alice Cooper:
The Nightmare TV special,
a worldwide concert tour,
and his
Welcome to My Nightmare
concert film
(1976).
The tour was one of the most
over-the-top excursions
of that era.
Most of Lou Reed's band
joined Cooper for
this record.
Internationally,
Welcome to My Nightmare
was released by the
ABC subsidiary
Anchor Records.
It is Cooper's
only album
under
Atlantic Records
and Anchor Records.
The cover artwork
was created by
Drew Struzan
for Pacific Eye & Ear.
Rolling Stone
would later rank it
ninetieth on the list
of the
"Top 100 Album Covers of All Time".
Famed horror film star
Vincent Price
provided a monologue
in the song
"Devil's Food".
The song
"Escape"
was a rewrite of a song
by the
Hollywood Stars
from their shelved album
Shine Like a Radio
The Great Lost 1974 Album,
which was finally released
in 2013.
The ballad
"Only Women Bleed",
released as a single,
is a song originally
composed by guitarist
Dick Wagner
for his
late-1960s band
the Frost,
with a new title
provided by
Cooper
and revised lyrics
written by
Wagner and Cooper.
A sequel concept album,
Welcome 2 My Nightmare,
was released in 2011.
Background
The Alice Cooper band
broke up by spring of 1974,
with Cooper beginning work
on his first solo project.
Cooper intended the music
to be more theatrical
than the previous
glam rock
focused records.
Alice Cooper's manager,
Shep Gordon had a
clause in his contract,
that allowed the members
of
Alice Cooper
to do a
soundtrack album
for a different label,
other than
Warner Brothers.
As a result,
Shep Gordon
and
Alice Cooper
went to
Atlantic Records,
a sister label to
Warner Brothers,
to begin work on
the album.
Cooper hired
Bob Ezrin,
who had produced
four previous
Cooper records,
to collaborate
with him.
Ezrin,
Steve Hunter,
and
Dick Wagner
had all performed
on the
Alice Cooper band’s
1973 studio album
Billion Dollar Babies,
produced by Ezrin.
Subsequently,
Ezrin produced
and performed on
Lou Reed’s
1973 concept album
Berlin,
including Hunter,
Wagner, and
Tony Levin.
Reed’s band on
his following
live album
Rock 'n' Roll Animal
(1974)
was composed of
Hunter,
Wagner,
Prakash John,
and
Pentti Glan.
Ezrin and Cooper
hired all
four members
of Reed’s live band,
plus Levin,
to work on
Cooper’s new album.
Wagner and Ezrin
would co-write
the majority of
the tracks
with Cooper.
Concept
In 2020,
while being interviewed on
the Bob Lefsetz podcast,
Ezrin recalled that
Alice Cooper's manager
Shep Gordon
had a clause that
allowed
the Alice Cooper
band members
to make a
soundtrack album
for another label.
As a result,
the album needed
have a storyline
to become
a soundtrack,
that would subsequently
be adapted into a
film or television show.
Ezrin and Cooper
came up with a
story concept for
the album,
with Cooper telling
the story of
the nightmares
of the
character Steven.
During the
Bob Lefsetz podcast,
Ezrin recounts that he
and Alice Cooper initially
created the storyline,
in which a
rock star
named Steven
and his mistress
are on a
private jet
flying over
the Rocky Mountains.
The jet crashes,
and both Steven
and his mistress disappear.
However,
28 days later,
Steven emerges alone
and unharmed.
During those 28 days,
Steven became a
vampire and h
e now lives out
his days
as a rock star
by day and
killer at night.
The album
was ultimately
adapted into a
television show
called
Alice Cooper: The Nightmare.
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