All the Young Boys Love Alice

Unless you want to count Little Richard (and a case can be made), Alice Cooper broke ground for for all androgenous rockers to come, from David Bowie to Marc Bolan, David Surkamp, and Michael Stipe. He wore dresses -- tight ones. He wore lingerie -- skimpy stuff. He wore makeup -- a lot of it and not always well done. But Alice (born Vincent Furnier) wasn't just another pretty face. In fact initially Alice Cooper was a band, suffering the same fate Pink Floyd laments in "Have a Cigar"... "By the way, which one's Pink?"

But with Furnier on lead vocals and harmonica, Glen Buxton on lead, Michael Bruce on rhythm, Dennis Dunnaway on bass, and Neil Smith on drums Alice Cooper the band could rattle balconies and damage eardrums with the best of heavy metal rockers. And despite Furnier's penchant for hitting the links with Hollywood stars, aging crooners and Republican politicos, in his and the band's time Alice Cooper was considered as "dangerous" as they come.

From the cover of the first LP, Pretties for You, which featured a strategically placed sticker on the cellophane wrapper, to the breakthrough and incendiary "I'm Eighteen" (the "Satisfaction" of the 1970s)from the classic metal Love It to Death, to 1971's reptilian Killer Alice Cooper the band gave voice and swagger to teenagers who locked themselves in their bedrooms and cranked tunes of declaration and depravity while parents in the living room were wondering what the hell was going on. Check out the above live demo of "I'm Eighteen" -- it smolders for almost a minute, making it longer than the edited-for-AM Radio version -- but if you've ever been 18 you get it -- and you like it.



Alice Cooper had what is arguably the Number One anti-school anthem, "School's Out!" in 1972 and hit their popular peak in 1973 with Billion Dollar Babies. It was only then that Furnier answered that he was Alice Cooper, and he began performing on his own with a backup band, touring and releasing solo records, the first of which, Welcome to My Nightmare, spawned a hit, "Only Women Bleed," along with "The Nightmare," now considered rock's first long-form video, and a concert film that was a commercial and critical flop but a constant at midnight showings.

It was at this point that Cooper introduced stage theatrics -- primarily horror theatrics including a guillotine, snakes, bloodied and decapitated babies -- to rock. Pink Floyd, U2, Neil Young, and every other artist that attempts more on stage than just playing the music owes Alice Cooper -- and there's at least one whole generation of men (and probably some women too) who can say the same.

But the question is: Which Alice Cooper is nominated? The band? The Man? Both? Does it matter?

Tomorrow: Bon Jovi... and more 2011 R&R HOF Nominees!