Review:

on 2011-06-27 CharlesMartel Said:

There can hardly be a school kid anywhere in the western world who has not heard this, sung it, and made sure that the singing of it has been to the irritation of teachers and parents alike. I guess if you are going to make a song to appeal to school kids, then a song about the end of the school term, especially if it contains lines like "School's been blown to pieces" is bound to be a winner.

Yet it was so close to getting the dreaded BBC ban in this country when it came out. That meant no Top of the Pops and no exposure on the radio and a ban could make or break an artist. The reason? Good old Vincent wore eye make up borrowed from "A Clockwork Orange", a film which, at the time, had been withdrawn from the UK cinemas over the directors refusal to make certain cuts. Was Alice Cooper advertising, making a political statement? Was Alice Cooper actually advocating living the life of (shock horror) the film he mimicked? You could almost hear the biddies harrumphing with indignation.

But never mind the controversies, never mind the blatant commercialism, as a twelve year old this was heaven to my ears. I was already buying albums by Led Zeppelin and branching away from the mainstream, so it was with great pleasure that I saw and heard this on Top of the Pops and watched the faces of the presenters as they struggled to come to terms with this Alice and his python, let alone the expressions on the faces of the girls in the audience, dressed in their finest C&A.

I didnt have the money available to buy singles back then as I saved my pennies for albums whenever I could, and I never got much further into Alice Cooper. By the time I had the money my musical taste had moved on, and my earlier flirtation with seventies glam may have seemed a bit embarrassing. Thankfully, there are downloads these days.
Rating: 8/10