Maps of Music

Zipper Catches Skin (1982)

Where the lyrics of Zipper Catches Skin take you, and where it was really made.

The guitarist who quit halfway through the sessions called the album a 'drug induced nightmare,' and Cooper has no recollection of making it.

Key places

Where the album was recorded and mixed (1982)

Recording site Cherokee Studios — The release notes say the album was recorded and mixed at Cherokee Recording Studios in Los Angeles. The source gives no session dates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Zipper Catches Skin is the seventh solo and fourteenth studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper
• Released August 25, 1982, by Warner Bros. Records
• Co-produced by bassist Erik Scott alongside Cooper
• Blends new wave and pop rock into Cooper's hard rock style
• Made to keep up with changing musical trends
• Scott said the album was meant to be lean, stripped down, and low on frills, punkish and bratty

Background

• Cooper wrote a couple of songs as remakes of other songs to attack clichés
• Cooper called the album totally kill and real hardcore
• Dick Wagner, the long-time guitarist, left halfway through the recording sessions
• Wagner described the album as the off to the races speedy album and a drug induced nightmare
• Cooper calls Zipper Catches Skin the second of three blackout albums, with Special Forces (1981) before it and DaDa (1983) after
• Cooper has no recollection of recording the three blackout albums because of substance abuse
• Cooper still filmed a TV advertisement to promote this album at the time
• No tour was held to promote the album, and none of its songs have been played live
• Cooper has said he is proud of the music and would like to re-record the three blackout albums

Recording

• Recorded and mixed at Cherokee Recording Studios in Los Angeles
• I Am the Future, the album's single from the film Class of 1984, was recorded at Jennifudy Studios in Los Angeles
• Wagner later revealed that Cooper was smoking crack cocaine during the sessions

Cover

• Cooper described the back cover photograph as looking like a GQ ad, with him zipping up his pants and visible pain on his face

Sources: en.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

• Zipper Catches Skin failed to chart in most countries, including the U.S.
• In the U.S. it became Cooper's first studio album to fall outside the Billboard Top 200 since Easy Action (1970)
• The single I Am the Future was featured as the theme of the 1982 crime thriller Class of 1984, yet the album still failed to chart
• Patty Donahue of the Waitresses appeared on the single I Like Girls
• A Spanish Wikipedia article says the album went almost unnoticed, barely charting in Europe or in its home country

Reappraisal

• Ultimate Classic Rock, in a 30th anniversary retrospective, described the album as an off-kilter hybrid of the Knack and the Cars
• AllMusic critic Donald A. Guarisco, in a retrospective review, wrote that the album is surprisingly listenable
• Guarisco said it is not on the level of Billion Dollar Babies or Welcome to My Nightmare
• The band's enthusiastic performance turns tunes like I Better Be Good and Remarkably Insincere into fusions of hard rock riffing and new wave staccato rhythms
• Guarisco said none of the songs jells into a cohesive album, yet it is a worthwhile listen for hardcore Alice Cooper fans

Records

• Failed to chart in most countries
• No U.S. Billboard Top 200 entry, the first such album since Easy Action (1970)

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Guitarist Dick Wagner left halfway through the sessions and later said Cooper was smoking crack cocaine during recording.
• Band members sneaked behind a curtain near the recording mic, where a stool held Cooper's crack pipe, to take hits between takes.
• Cooper filmed a TV advertisement for the album despite having no memory of recording it.
• The Waitresses' lead vocalist Patty Donahue appeared as a guest on the single I Like Girls.
• I Am the Future was written by Gary Osborne and Lalo Schifrin and was a theme for the film Class of 1984.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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