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Album Details

• Artist: Alice Cooper
• Album: A Fistful Of Alice
• Label: Capitol
• Year of Release: 1997
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2013-01-21

It has been said that this release is redundant because hard-core Alice Cooper fans already have a solid live album in The Alice Cooper Show. However, I find that this release is a considerably better recording, and that the performance presented herein is superior to that one. Add into this the cameos by Rob Zombie, Slash and Sammy Hagar, and you have a fine album. Not only that, but over half of the songs here are songs that were not included in that older set anyway. The songs on here seem to be more full length versions (as opposed to what seem to be truncated performances on The Alice Cooper Show). Those things all work together to make this a superior effort. If you only plan to own one live Cooper album, this might be the one to get.

The set opens with “School’s Out” and this isn’t particularly special except that Sammy Hagar is featured here and contributes a killer guitar solo to the piece. It is a high energy, scorching performance. Continuing with older tunes, “I’m 18” and “Desperado” both get showings that are close to the original versions. “Lost in America” is the first of the newer songs on the disc, and it gets a solid performance on this live set, too. After that cut, though, the set returns to older Cooper territory with live performances of “Teenage Lament ‘74” and “I Never Cry.” The newer, mega-hit, “Poison” follows and they deliver a strong rendition here.

All but one of the rest of the live recordings are older tunes. “Billion Dollar Babies” gets a supercharged live performance. “Welcome to My Nightmare” makes the set. That’s an intriguing addition because it’s amazing that the tune wasn’t featured on the original Alice Cooper Show album. “Only Women Bleed” features Slash on guitar, making it a nice change. The newer rock “Feed My Frankenstein” works really well here and includes a guest appearance by Rob Zombie. It’s a fun tune, and to my ears, one of the highlights here. The final live tune is “Elected.” It’s an older Cooper tune that didn’t make Alice Cooper show. Featuring both Slash and Rob Zombie, it is a good, somewhat gritty, rocker. The disc is closed with a studio recording, a new tune called “Is Anyone Home.” It seem to be an attempt at bridging the gap between modern and classic Alice Cooper styles.

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