Maps of Music

Special Forces (1981)

Where the lyrics of Special Forces take you, and where it was really made.

Cooper later said he remembered little of making this album, yet he toured only to promote Special Forces.

Key places

Recorded in Studio City, Los Angeles (1981)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — The album was recorded at American Recording Co., Richard Podolor's studio in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles. The map point marks Los Angeles city centre, not the studio building itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Special Forces: sixth solo and thirteenth studio album by Alice Cooper
• Released September 1, 1981 by Warner Bros. Records
• First of three so-called 'blackout' albums, followed by Zipper Catches Skin (1982) and DaDa (1983)
• Cooper has no clear memory of recording these albums because of substance abuse
• The tour began June 20, 1981 in Concord, California, well before the album came out

Background

• Cooper said he wrote, recorded and toured these albums without remembering much of it
• In fact he toured to promote only Special Forces
• The tour went through the United States, Canada, France, Spain and the United Kingdom
• The tour ended in February 1982 and was Cooper's last for over four years
• He gave in to freebase cocaine abuse and a later relapse into alcoholism

Recording

• Produced by Richard Podolor, best known for his work with Three Dog Night
• Recorded at Podolor's American Recording Co. studio in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles
• Engineer Bill Cooper; mixed by Bill Cooper and Richard Podolor
• Mastered at The Mastering Lab
• Cooper's band members on the record include Duane Hitchings on keyboards and Mike Pinera on guitar
• Credits list Craig Krampf on drums and Erik Scott on bass

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Alice Cooper originated in Phoenix, Arizona in 1964 as a band formed by Vincent Damon Furnier, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith.
• The group first performed as the Earwigs and later renamed themselves the Spiders and then Nazz.
• In 1968 the band adopted the name Alice Cooper, which was later also the new legal name of Furnier.

Members

• The classic lineup consisted of Furnier (lead vocals), Buxton (lead guitar), Bruce (rhythm guitar), Dunaway (bass) and Smith (drums).
• Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper after the band disbanded in 1975.

Career

• The band released seven studio albums from 1969 to 1973, including Love It to Death, Killer, School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies.
• The band is known as a pioneer of shock rock, using theatrical stage shows with props and illusions.
• As a solo artist he released Welcome to My Nightmare in 1975 and has released 30 studio albums in total.
• The original band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
• Cooper is considered by music journalists and peers to be 'The Godfather of Shock Rock'.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critic Greg Prato of AllMusic called it Cooper's most stripped-down and straightforward work since his classic early-'70s albums
• The same review called it an intriguing yet sometimes uneven set, since the original Cooper band was not there to back him up or help with songwriting

Reappraisal

• A critical reception passage calls it one of the strongest and most interesting releases of Cooper's post-1975 period
• The same passage says the album did not return Cooper to his earlier status as a chart-topping superstar
• The album's title and lyrical subject matter came from Cooper's heavy interest in the Soldier of Fortune publication at the time
• The opening track 'Who Do You Think We Are' is described as one of Cooper's punchiest rockers and one of his most overlooked
• 'Seven & Seven Is', 'You Look Good in Rags' and 'Vicious Rumours' are also named as rocking highlights

Records

• US Billboard 200: number 125 in the week of October 3, 1981
• UK chart: number 96

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album cover listed the track 'Look at You Over There, Ripping the Sawdust from My Teddybear', but Cooper removed it from the album before release because he felt it did not fit the theme
• The removed song was later released in demo form on the 1999 box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper
• 'Seven and Seven Is' is a cover of Love's 1966 original, written by Arthur Lee
• Cooper later said he would have liked to go back and re-record these three albums, since he likes the songs despite remembering little of them
• 'Generation Landslide '81 (Live)' is a faithful re-recording of a Billion Dollar Babies song, made entirely in the studio with added audience cheers

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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