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 Title - 'First Ever Live Show -
Flint 1977'Artist - Billion Dollar Babies For those not in the know, the original Alice Cooper Band broke up in 1974 after releasing seven great albums. The lead singer, Vincent Furnier, started his remarkable solo career in 1975 and, as I'm sure we all know, went on to adopt Alice Cooper as his name. The band played their final show on April 8th, 1974 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While occasionally performing with one another and Glen Buxton, they would not reunite with Alice until October 23, 1999, at the second Glen Buxton Memorial Weekend for a show at CoopersTown in Phoenix (Buxton having died in 1997). But, I digress. In 1977, three former members of the Alice Cooper Band formed a band called Billion Dollar Babies - Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith. All original Cooper band members, they teamed up with guitarist Mike Marconi and keyboardist Bob Dolin; who had already played with Alice Cooper on their 1974 album, Muscle of Love. So, the band borrowed their new name from the very successful 1973 album from Alice Cooper, but sadly only released one studio album entitled Battle Axe. That said, now we get a monster brilliant release in the form of the Billion Dollar Babies' First Ever Live Show - Flint 1977 via Gonzo Multimedia. This wondrous, just released on December 15th, 2017 new live recording of their first ever show in Flint, Michigan, is as good as it gets for this era and the men behind the Cooper, trust me. 1. 'I Miss You' 2. 'Rock N Roll Radio' 3. 'Love Is Rather Blind' 4. 'Rock Me Slowly' 5. 'Alice Cooper Medley: No More Mr Nice Guy/Neal Smith Solo/Elected/Eighteen/School's Out' 6. 'Battle Axe Suite: Ego Mania' 7. 'Battle Axe' 8. 'Nights in Cracked Leather/Sudden Death/Winner' 9. 'Too Young' 10. 'Billion Dollar Babies' Containing a few choice cuts from that aforementioned debut album, which bombed commercially, and was never followed up, the actual Battle Axe album has been out of print since the late 70's, so to hear some of those songs again here live, and raw, well, it just makes it all the more exciting for a Cooper fan, such as I am. I honestly don't know if this has been a bootleg hanging around for 40 years, but the fact that here and now, the sound quality of this recording is excellent, and pays testament to not only the guys who worked on it now to remaster it, but those sound engineers recording it live that very night. Regardless, and as much as most fans will fully admit, the Alice Cooper Band (under any name) without Alice Cooper just isn't as good as the Alice Cooper Band fronted by the great man himself. That aside, these live tracks are definitely musically amusing to listen to and there are some nice idea's on it that might have worked out into classics, if it had worked out better for them behind Cooper, of course. Official Billion Dollar Babies 'First Ever Live Show - Flint 1977' CD Purchase Link www.GonzoMultimedia.co.uk |
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