November 27, 2009

Lay Down and Die, Goodbye


Alice Cooper
Easy Action
1970

Tomorrow marks the 1-year anniversary of this blog, so I since my first post was Alice Cooper's first album, Pretties For You, I thought I'd take this moment to post the band's second release, Easy Action. They were still in the weirdo-psychedellic phase in 1970, though some of the more garagey aspects had dropped away. The next album would be Love it to Death, where they toned down the psychedelia even more (though there's still plenty of weird to be found throughout the band's entire catalog), and reach classic-rock superstardom with "I'm Eighteen". This album has some great Beatles-esque stuff mixed in, too, though, and the production is a little more refined than on Pretties. They never really did the sweeter sounding harmony-laden thing after this album. The lyrical content is still bizarre, though. Oh, and Michael Bruce sings two tracks here, marking the last time anyone besides Alice himself sang lead.

The title is from a line in West Side Story, a musical and film the band liked so much they borrowed heavily from it on 1972's School's Out.

But yeah, just like I said when I posted their debut, let me just stress that if all you know of Alice Cooper is the stuff they play on the radio, give this album a chance. They were a really odd band, especially on the first two albums.

Easy Action

8 comments:

JoyAnna Banana said...

I have no idea what this album sounds like, but surly the best part is the cover art?

cdb said...

The cover art is awesome, yes. Same for their first record (you can check the link in this post back to my first post w/ it).

But you know, you don't have to be afraid to download it. You should download everything I post. You might surprise yourself.

JoyAnna Banana said...

I love that I typo'd "surely" as "surly." That's pretty good.

I also love that my word verification word is "jazoi."

Download, huh? Hmm. I'll have to sleep on that.

cdb said...

Come onnnn, it's free, it takes like 3 minutes, and you've really got nothing to lose.

Icky said...

Early AC is always in the rotation around these parts.
Nice post!

James Joyce said...

Congratulations on one year! Keep with it, you definitely think about what you post, which is refreshing for a blog.

Ian said...

Waaaaayyyyyyyyyyy underrated album. Good choice.

MrC said...

I got this LP right after I bought Love it to Death but sadly had to sell my vinyl about 15 years ago. Never replaced it so it's nice to hear it again. thanks