ALICE COOPER: ​LET’S GET STOOPID BY FRANK EDLER

Hey Stoopid. Yeah, I'm talking to you. Hey, hey, hey, hey! Hey stoopid! Get back here. Look, I'm sorry I called you stoopid. Yeah I know I'm the one who’s stupid for spelling stoopid incorrectly. But hear me out here: It's actually Alice Cooper who is stoopid. And he’s stoopid on purpose.

Way back in 1991 he released his 19th studio album titled Hey Stoopid. Spelled just like that. So, you see I wasn't actually being stupid, I was just singing the titular song from the album when you happened on by. I wasn't actually calling you stoopid, I was just singing. So maybe if you just minded your own business we could have avoided this unpleasant confrontation.

But, since I've got your ear now, let me tell you more about this glorious album from the pantheon of Vincent Funier’s illustrious musical career (that's Alice Cooper's real name which I’m sure positive been shoved down your throat a million times in previous Summer of Alice articles already. But damnit, what kind of esteemed music journalist would I be if I didnt offer up that basic but important piece of information on the man more colloquially known as Alice Cooper. And how damn long can I make this parenthetical aside anyway?)

So Hey Stoopid was released in 1991 as the follow up to the wildly successful Trash. That album was a tough act to follow. It was an album that put Alice back on the map, driven by the mega-hit, Poison. Add to that a music atmosphere on the cusp of changing over to the Pacific Northwest’s Grunge sound. Hey Stoopid had big shoes to fill. And if you ask this reporter it succeeded on both fronts.

Let’s face facts, it wasn’t the hit record that Trash was. Not commercially speaking. Where Hey Stoopid shines is hearing Alice Cooper better balance that gritty, shock horror sound he was known for with the pop-rock success of most of the music on Trash. It wasn’t the album that brought Alice Cooper back into popular conscience but it was the type of album that won back his more hard core fans who may have been offput by the pop rock sound of Trash.

Alice also re-employed the tactic of having guest musicians play on various tracks. Heavy hitters such as Slash, Joe Satriani, Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Vai, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars of Motley Crue and even Elvira, Mistress of the Dark add flavor and depth to Hey Stoopid. Those names alone helped give a darker, edgier sound over the Bon-Jovi inspired pop rock sound on Trash.

The titular track kicks off the album. Hey Stoopid the song is an anti-drug anthem, comical coming from Alice Cooper. This is a guy who can’t remember recording several albums due to heavy drug use and here is he being the poster boy for Just Say No. But the reality is, who better to point that out. This was also a time in rock where many habitual rock and rollers were stumping for R.A.D (Rockers Against Drugs), usually as part of a community service agreement issued by a judge for letting their habits get the best of them. Typically, after they’d shoot a “drugs are bad” commercial to run on Headbangers Ball, they go plow through an eight ball and a fifth of Jack. But I think when it came to Alice, he was done with the stuff.

But the album Hey Stoopid runs far deeper than the titular song.

Forget about the lead track, Hey Stoopid has way more to offer. There's also “Love’s A Loaded Gun” a dark murderous love song all too apropos for an Alice Cooper album. And if you want dark love songs with a sneer, there's also “Snakebite” and “Dangerous Tonight.” And for my money, the femme fatale anthem custom built for 90’s strip bar DJ’s heavy rotation list, “Little by Little” is nearly perfect.

Above all other songs on Hey Stoopid shines the black diamond, “Feed My Frankenstein”. Driven by Nikki Sixx’s pounding bass line, licked and polished by the dastardly duo of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani’s sizzling guitars and the added dose of the sexy, sultry, silly sound of Elvira’s scintillating voice, “Feed My Frankenstein” is rock n’ roll perfection. The lyrics drip with sexual innuendo based on food play. The lines border on silly (I'm a hungry man But I don't want pizza I'll blow down your house And then I'm gonna eat ya) but are given credibility by virtue of Cooper’s gravel vocals.

“Feed My Frankenstein” is so good, in fact, that Alice Cooper added a theatrical stage performance for it to his live show. That is like the ultimate treatment for an Alice Cooper song. Everyone who goes to an Alice Cooper concert looks forward to this song so they can see Alice get electrocuted on stage and turn into a giant Frankenstein’s monster that actually sings out the chorus through the end of the song. A highlight moment of every Alice Cooper concert to be certain.

In hindsight, I always look back on Hey Stoopid as Alice Cooper’s pivotal album from the glammy 80’s rock sound into what would be his 90’s angst-ridden Last Temptation album. Love it or hate it, Hey Stoopid is all Alice Cooper. It’s pop rock with a dark edge. It’s got a song built for a show stopping moment during an Alice Cooper concert. And really, that’s all any Alice Cooper fan really listens to an Alice Cooper album for: How is this song going to look live?!
 
...They come here every night
I see them
Don't you see them
Hmm that's odd isn't it
I'm so tired
I'm winding down
You'll have to go now
It's bedtime

BIO
Frank Edler resides in New Jersey where he attempts to write. He is the author of Brats In Hell, Death Gets A Book and Scared Silly. He is the co-author of the Shocker trilogy. He has also appeared in several anthologies. His work walks the fine line between horror, humor and bizarro.
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When he is not writing, Frank is host of the Bizarro genre showcase, Bizzong! Podcast heard exclusively on the Project Entertainment Network.

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