DOUBLE DOSE OF
ALICE COOPER
ON ONE CD
Lace and Whiskey / From The Inside
Lace and Whiskey
is the third solo
and tenth
overall studio album
by American
rock singer
released on
April 29, 1977,
by Warner Bros. Records.
Background
After years of portraying a
sinister persona,
Alice Cooper
shifted direction with
Lace and Whiskey,
adopting the character of
Maurice Escargot,
a heavy-drinking
comic private investigator
inspired by
Inspector Clouseau.
Cooper appears as
Escargot on the album's
back cover.
While still rooted in rock,
the record drew
stylistic influence
from his love for
1940's and 1950's
films and music.
The album peaked at No. 42
on the
US Billboard 200
and No. 33
on the UK
Albums Chart.
The album's lead single,
"You and Me",
was an easy listening ballad
which provided Cooper
with his last US top-ten single
for twelve years.
"(No More) Love at Your Convenience",
a disco-inspired pop song,
was released as the second single
it did not chart in most countries.
Music videos were created
for both songs,
at a time well before
the advent of MTV.
The song
"King of the Silver Screen"
features a quote of
the main motif of the
"Battle Hymn of the Republic".
Cooper's King of the Silver Screen tour
in support of this album
featured a stage set
designed as a giant TV,
with its slit screen
allowing Cooper
and his dancers to
jump into and out of it
along to filmed
choreographed sequences
during songs,
and had comedic
mock commercials
screened in between
some songs.
The tour only ran in the
US and Canada,
throughout the summers of
1977 and 1978,
and for 1978
would be renamed the
School's Out for Summer tour.
Filmed highlights
from the opening night
of the 1977 tour,
capturing a very
inebriated Cooper,
were featured in the
Alice Cooper and Friends
TV special.
The tour's Las Vegas concerts
were recorded,
resulting in the live album
The Alice Cooper Show
(1977).
With the exception of
"It's Hot Tonight",
which was a regular part of
setlists on the following
Madhouse Rocks,
the 2001
Brutal Planet
and the 2008–2009
Psychodrama tours,
and
"Road Rats"
which was a regular during
the 1980
Flush the Fashion tour,
nothing from
Lace and Whiskey
has been performed
since the close of the
School's Out for Summer '78 tour.
"Damned If You Do",
"Ubangi Stomp",
"(No More) Love at Your Convenience",
"I Never Wrote Those Songs",
and
"My God"
have never been played live
by Cooper.
It was after the completion
of the 1977 tour,
that Cooper checked into
a New York-based
sanitarium for his first
treatment for alcoholism.
During the initial stage
of this album's era,
when it was clear that
Cooper was not going to return
from his new success,
original
Alice Cooper
group members
Dennis Dunaway,
Neal Smith,
and
Michael Bruce
formed a new band
with
Mike Marconi
and
Bob Dolin
called
"The Billion Dollar Babies".
Michael Bruce
sang their lead vocals.
From the Inside
is the fourth solo
and overall
eleventh studio album
by American
rock singer
released on
November 17, 1978.
It is a concept album
about Cooper's stay
in a New York asylum
due to his alcoholism.
Each of the characters
in the songs were based on
actual people Cooper met
in the asylum.
Among other collaborators,
the album features
three longtime
Elton John associates:
lyricist
Bernie Taupin,
guitarist
Davey Johnstone
and bassist
Dee Murray
.The lead single
from the album was
the power ballad
"How You Gonna See Me Now",
which peaked at No. 12
in the US
Hot 100 chart.
A music video
was also created for it.
The 'Madhouse Rocks Tour'
in support of
From the Inside
lasted from
February to April 1979
and saw all songs
from the album as
regular parts of the
setlist except
"Millie and Billie",
"For Veronica’s Sake"
and
"Jackknife Johnny".
Since 1979,
however,
songs from
From the Inside
have rarely been
performed live,
with the only cases being
"Serious"
on the 2003
'Bare Bones' tour
and his 2018
One Night with
Alice Cooper tour,
"Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills"
on the 2005–2006
Dirty Diamonds Tour,
"Nurse Rozetta"
on the
'Descent into Dragontown'
and
'Theatre of Death' tours,
and
"From the Inside"
between
1997 and 1999
and on the late 2000s
'Theatre of Death' tour.
The album cover is a
centre parting gatefold
with
Alice Cooper's face
on the front.
It opens up into a
triple page image
of a lunatic asylum.
In the top left corner
is a door with a sign above
that reads
"the quiet room";
this is a hidden flap
that opens to reveal Cooper,
sitting in a
padded cell with a
straitjacket by his feet.
On the inside
of the flap there is a message
that reads
"Inmates!
In memory of Moonie",
a nod to Cooper's
old drinking buddy
Keith Moon,
who was the drummer
for rock band
the Who.
The picture of Cooper
in the cell is printed
on the inner sleeve
along with
the song lyrics.
On the rear of the album
is a picture of the back
of an asylum building
with the track listing
on the double doors,
which open to show
all the inmates
stampeding down the corridor,
waving papers in the air
stating their release.
Both the images hidden
by flaps
were printed on
the inner sleeve.
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