Killer

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It slows down into the sudden calm of rapid drum rolls and funereal guitar slashing as cries and screams tear away in the background, then cryptic and near-confessional whispering. According to an NPR radio interview with Alice Cooper, “Desperado” was written about Robert Vaughn’s character from the movie The Magnificent Seven. Alice’s vocals are at their roughest and razor-gargled best on “Killer,” too: They scrawl all over “Under My Wheels” like the retardedly etched lettering on the cover and open up the proceedings with all the teenaged head rush of a highly anticipated Friday night concert just after racing directly home from school. Beginning with the same phased snare drums that Neal Smith employed on “Refrigerator Heaven,” double, roughhewn guitars of the utmost attack that push forward in nail-biting fretting-ness to underscore the same frustration Alice voiced in “I’m Eighteen” only reinforced by a low, authoritative refrain straight offa “Summertime Blues” when a parental unit laments: “Honey, where did we fail?

The buzzsawing guitar bursts continue until the emergence of a twin guitar Quicksilver-type exposition so beloved of the group. Desperado" was performed only once prior to the Trash Tour in 1989, but has been frequently played live since.At the opposite end of 1971 from “Love It To Death” stalked Alice Cooper’s fourth album, “Killer” as an aptly titled exhibition of no-frills, highly-ratcheted and the very tightest knit mesh of a rock’n’roll straightjacket.

Killer is the third-most-represented album in Alice Cooper's concert setlists behind Welcome to My Nightmare (1975) and Billion Dollar Babies (1973), accounting for 13.Dunaway’s zooming basslines, Smith drops in on a dime every time and Buxton burns down on a stuck riff much like he did previously at the end of “Ballad Of Dwight Fry” only here it’s even more of an ear-ringing, circular op-art pattern AND threatens to go on for even longer, if you can believe it. Disc 1 is the original album remastered and it sounds wonderful,every track a classic,who hasnt raised a fist in the, air head bangin to 'Under My Wheels',a garage rock classic as is the next track 'Be My Lover' before 'Halo Of Flies' ups the ante,Honestly this album is outstanding, 'Desperado ' slinks out of the speakers all dark and moody while 'Dead Babies revels in its shock tactics (misunderstood by most critics . Steve Paul scenester/ex-McCoys guitarist Rick Derringer supplies rip-roaring guitar here and it sets up the rest of the album for off-the-cuff, sleazy racket-making perfectly. Guns N' Roses (featuring Alice Cooper) covered the song "Under My Wheels" on the soundtrack of The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988).

If you ask any rock fan for the best album of 1971,your likely to get the following answer - Zep 4,Sabbath's Master of Reality or maybe At The Filmore by the Allman's,all are excellent choices as is this album 'KILLER'. The band played most of Killer during the concert, including “You Drive Me Nervous,” “Under My Wheels,” and “Halo Of Flies. Cooper said in the liner notes of A Fistful of Alice and In the Studio with Redbeard, which spotlighted the Killer and Love It to Death albums, that the song “Desperado” was written about his friend Jim Morrison, who died the year this album was released.According to an NPR radio interview with Alice Cooper, "Desperado" was written about Robert Vaughn's character from the movie The Magnificent Seven (1960). Bob Ezrin produced all four of Alice Cooper’s platinum albums from the 1970s, including KILLER and SCHOOL’S OUT. I would love an acoustic sounds quality level box of the first 3 LPs done AAA, but unlikely to happen.