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Alice Cooper: Love It To Death (Straight WS 1883)

Richard Cromelin, Creem, June 1971

IT HAS BEEN an uneasy relationship, that between Alice Cooper and their potential audience (generally, those who savor the outrageous and the flamboyant in dress and demeanor, who are not satisfied by a rock 'n' roll band who stands around and plays its songs without moving one muscle more than it has to, who once thought the Doors might someday break on through and do something really revolutionary for the development of rock-as-theater, and for whom there could be no greater pleasure than to delight to the Bonzos' surreal vaudeville show or gape in awe at the fiery apocalypse of Arthur Brown.) That audience has not rushed to embrace Alice. They have grown a bit wary after so many unfulfilled promises and abortive beginnings, and so the prevailing attitude has been "OK Alice, you come on so damn strong, let's see you really do something. Prove to us that you've got something going that will make the time we spend on you more worthwhile than the time we wasted on the Doors and the like."

Total word count of piece: 1706

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