Maps of Music

Welcome to My Nightmare (1975)

Where the lyrics of Welcome to My Nightmare take you, and where it was really made.

Alice Cooper's solo debut was built as a concept album meant to become a soundtrack, and it went on to inspire a TV special, a worldwide tour and a concert film.

Key places

Toronto recording at Soundstage (1975)

Recording site Phase One Audio Group — Part of the album was recorded at Soundstage in Toronto. The map pin marks the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

New York recording at Record Plant East (1975)

Recording site The Record Plant — Part of the album was recorded at Record Plant East in New York, alongside Electric Lady Studios. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

New York recording at Electric Lady Studios (1975)

Recording site Electric Lady Studios — Part of the album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York, alongside Record Plant East. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Only Women Bleed recorded at A&R Studios (1975)

Recording site A&R Recording Studio — Phil Ramone was the engineer on Only Women Bleed, which was recorded at A&R Studios in New York. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Welcome to My Nightmare: debut solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper
• Released February 28, 1975 by Atlantic Records
• Concept album: songs played in sequence trace the nightmares of a child named Steven
• Released internationally by ABC subsidiary Anchor Records; it is Cooper's only album under Atlantic Records and Anchor Records
• Inspired the Alice Cooper: The Nightmare TV special, a worldwide concert tour, and the 1976 concert film Welcome to My Nightmare
• The tour was one of the most over-the-top excursions of its era

Background

• The Alice Cooper band broke up by spring 1974, and Cooper began his first solo project
• Cooper intended the music to be more theatrical than the earlier glam rock focused records
• Manager Shep Gordon's contract had a clause letting band members make a soundtrack album for a label other than Warner Brothers
• Gordon and Cooper went to Atlantic Records, a sister label of Warner Brothers, to start the album
• Most of Lou Reed's band joined Cooper for this record

Recording

• Cooper hired Bob Ezrin, who had produced four previous Cooper records, as collaborator and producer
• Ezrin, Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner had all performed on the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies
• Hunter, Wagner, Prakash John and Pentti Glan made up Reed's live band on Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974)
• Ezrin and Cooper hired all four members of Reed's live band, plus Tony Levin, for the new album
• Wagner and Ezrin co-wrote the majority of the tracks with Cooper
• Recording took place at Soundstage in Toronto and at Record Plant East, Electric Lady Studios and A&R Studios in New York

Cover

• The cover artwork was created by Drew Struzan for Pacific Eye & Ear

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

• Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone called the album "a TV soundtrack that sounds like one", finding it gimmicky and lamenting the absence of the original Alice Cooper band's sound
• Robert Christgau gave the album a B− grade, saying it was no worse than the others and that Cooper's sense of what kids want to hear was discriminating

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Greg Prato considered it Cooper's best solo work despite the absence of the original band, noting plenty of fist-pumping rock
• A 2018 Classic Rock review called it one of the best things Alice Cooper has ever done, a combination of shock rock and Broadway flair with plenty of theatrical potential
• Rolling Stone later ranked the cover ninetieth on its list of the Top 100 Album Covers of All Time

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Vincent Price provided a monologue in "Devil's Food", which leads into "The Black Widow"
• "Escape" is a rewrite of a song by the Hollywood Stars from their shelved album Shine Like a Radio, which was finally released in 2013
• "Only Women Bleed" was originally composed by guitarist Dick Wagner for his late-1960s band the Frost, with a new title from Cooper and revised lyrics by Wagner and Cooper
• In the story, Steven and his mistress vanish when their private jet crashes over the Rocky Mountains; Steven reappears alone 28 days later as a vampire
• A sequel concept album, Welcome 2 My Nightmare, was released in 2011

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

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