Pretties For You ~ Alice Cooper

6 months ago
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Pretties for You is the debut studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on June 25, 1969, by Straight Records. "Alice Cooper" referred to the band and not its lead singer Vincent Furnier. A few songs, such as "Levity Ball", show the influence of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, with whom the band hung out during the British group's U.S. tour. Alice Cooper guitarist Glen Buxton stated he could listen to Barrett's guitar playing for hours on end.
The artwork for this album is a painting by Edward Beardsley. It was originally hanging on the wall of the living room in Frank Zappa's house.
Pretties for You was a critical and commercial failure, briefly appearing on the Billboard Top 200, and none of its songs have ever been played live by Cooper since the release of the band's breakthrough album Love It to Death. The song "Reflected", Alice Cooper's first single, was later rewritten as "Elected", which features on their 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.
Not exactly essential, but certainly not as bad as some people claim. Dennis Dunaway has mentioned in the past that as possibly his favourite Alice Cooper record.
In his first autobiography, 'Me Alice', Alice describes the making of the album:
"In November of 1971 [correction: it was late 1968 or early 1969] we recorded our first album, 'Pretties For You'. For a week straight we arrived at the studio and played through every song five or six times with Herbie Cohen and Zappa working over the levels in the control room. We thought we were just getting down to business, ready to lay the bed tracks and experiment, when Zappa walked out of the glass-enclosed booth and said, "Okay. Your album will be ready next Thursday. I said, "There are a few mistakes in that stuff. We weren't even ready to record," but he just patted me on the shoulder and said "Not to worry. Not to worry. We'll work everything out in the mix." We didn't see or hear the album until five months later."
Tracks:
1. Titanic Overture
2. 10 Minutes Before the Worm
3. Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio
4. Today Mueller
5. Living
6. Fields of Regret
7. No Longer Umpire
8. Levity Ball
9. B.B. on Mars
10. Reflected
11. Apple Bush
12. Earwigs to Eternity
13. Changing Arranging

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