FRANK ELDER You can go to Hell. And so, Alice Cooper follows up the titan Welcome to My Nightmare with Goes to Hell. The album is a continuation of the conceit of Welcome to My Nightmare, the further stories of Steven and the terrible things he sees in his sleep. I never picked up on that tidbit about the album early on. I always felt like Goes To Hell was Alice Cooper setting up for his Broadway debut with an album full of rock-laced showtunes. I am still waiting for a Billy Joel or Abba-esque Broadway musical that mashes up the tunes from Nightmare and Goes to Hell a la Movin’ Out and Mama Mia respectively. At the time of its release, 1976, the album was variously received. There was and has since always been a polar appreciation of Goes to Hell. You either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground on this album. When it was first released, it put off a lot of established Alice Cooper fans who were already skittish from the breakup of the original band and then slapped in the face with the new musical direction Alice Cooper, the performer, was taking. Time, I believe has been this album’s friend as more have moved to the love side than the hate. The songs can be a tough pill to swallow at first listen. I believe having the rocker, Go To Hell, lead off the disc was smart. Starting out with the perpetual crowd pleaser makes the rest of the songs more palpable. The song starts out sluggish with a bottom heavy base that sucks you in when the drum finally pounds and leads into the catchy march and chorus. For criminal acts and violence on the stage For being a brat Refusing to act your age For all of the decent citizens you've enraged You can go to Hell The song itself, is a condemnation of the character, Alice Cooper. Most of the song in fact is sung by the band as a whole, castigating Alice and cursing him to Hell. But, as Alice Cooper is the character you love to hate, wishing him an eternity in Hell is basically a complaint. In fact, Alice only sings one refrain solo. The rest of the song is based around the hooky chorus. It’s all quite brilliant lyrically and musically. One of the best set up songs of any album. The rest of the album transforms into what can only be described as Alice on Broadway. Each subsequent song would be a perfect fit, sonically, in any 70’s era Broadway show. Songs like You Gotta Dance, Didn’t We Meet and especially Give The Kid A Break would be a seamless fit into the musical Grease. It’s songs like those that put off a lot of the tried and true Alice Cooper fans. But, I think, if you’re patient with the songs and give them a few replays and a fair shake, you’ll find that even though, musically, they are a departure from the prior catalog, they are still all uniquely Alice Cooper. Other Broadway sounding songs like I’m Always Chasing Rainbows could be the crescendo tune in Cats starring Alice Cooper. There is a hot latin number that would be great in a hot Alice Cooper conga number, Wish You Were Here. And what fantasy epic wouldn’t be happy to close out it’s show with Going Home? There are a few songs that don’t commit to the show tune vibe of the album. The song I’m The Coolest makes you feel like you’re in a smoky jazz lounge as you listen and agree that, yes, Alice you are the coolest hep cat in town, ya dig? You could tell me that Didn’t We Meet was co-written with Billy Joel and I wouldn’t hesitate to believe it was a throwaway song from 52nd Street. Without a doubt, Guilty, is probably the truest sounding Alice Cooper song on the record and provides a rocking moment on the album when it is needed most. Of course there has to be a ballad. From a marketing standpoint it was a necessity following the success of Only Women Bleed on Nightmare. This time we get I’ll Never Cry. And as a marketing tool, it worked to a degree. But deeper than the fickle motivation, the song is an admission from the man behind Alice of a drinking problem that would lead to a dramatic downturn in output after this album. In point of fact, Alice Cooper who always placed more emphasis on the live show that the recorded albums, never toured Goes To Hell because he was hospitalized as a result of his drinking problems. Though he recovered he would soon spiral into deeper drug and alcohol addiction for a long period of time. Commercially, this album would be his last success until 1989’s Trash when he was finally clean and sober once again. Goes To Hell isn’t the type of album that grabs you by the neck and screams in your face at the first listen. I can’t blame any die hard Alice fan for not liking it, especially when it was first released. But Goes To Hell when examined over the course of Alice Cooper’s career thus far stands true to the man and the music. Like any great artist with longevity, his sound is ever evolving. The sound on Goes To Hell is a unique experience in the Cooper discography. It sounds like nothing before and nothing since. And through all 11 tracks, despite its radical departure from his usual style, it is still uniquely Alice Cooper. ...And he can go to Hell!
CHECK OUT THE OTHER ARTICLES FROM THIS SERIES  FIRST LOOK AT JARED MASTERS’ MANNEQUIN MOVIE ‘AGALMATOPHILIA’
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