Alice Cooper - From The Inside (1978) - €10,00

 

From the Inside is the eleventh studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1978. It is a concept album about Cooper’s stay in a New York sanitarium due to his alcoholism. Each of the characters in the songs were based on actual people Cooper met in the sanitarium. 

With this album, he saw the addition of three former members of the Elton John band: lyricist Bernie Taupin, guitarist Davey Johnstone and bassist Dee Murray.

From the Inside was hardly Alice Cooper's best-selling or most accessible album. An intensely personal account of his recovery from substance abuse, it tends to be one of his most abstract efforts and lacks the immediacy of Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome to My Nightmare, or Alice Cooper Goes to Hell. There are no rock anthems here à la "School's Out" or "18" and no celebrations of shock value like "I Love the Dead" or "The Black Widow." Instead, the singer honestly documents the way he confronted his demons and emerged victorious. Sometimes, this introspective effort is too self-indulgent and intellectual for its own good, but at its best as on "How You Gonna See Me Now", From the Inside is as riveting as it in inspiring. 

The lead single from the album was “How You Gonna See Me Now”, an early example of a power ballad, which reached number 12 in the US Hot 100 chart. A music video was also created for it. 

The ‘Madhouse Rocks Tour’ in support of From the Inside lasted from February to April 1979 and saw all songs from the album as regular parts of the setlist except “Millie and Billie”, “For Veronica’s Sake” and “Jackknife Johnny” Since 1979, however, songs from From the Inside have rarely been performed live, with the only cases being “Serious” on the 2003 ‘Bare Bones’ tour, “Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills” on the 2005–2006 Dirty Diamonds Tour, “Nurse Rozetta” on the ‘Descent into Dragontown’ and ‘Theatre of Death’ tours, and “From the Inside” between 1997 and 1999 and on the late 2000s ‘Theatre of Death’ tour.

The album cover is a centre parting gatefold with Alice Cooper's face on the front. It opens up into a triple page image of a lunatic asylum. In the top left corner is a door with a sign above that reads "the quiet room"; this is a hidden flap that opens to reveal Cooper, sitting in a padded cell with a straitjacket by his feet. 

On the inside of the flap there is a message that reads "Inmates! In memory of Moonie", a nod to Cooper's old drinking buddy Keith Moon, who was the drummer for rock band the Who. The picture of Cooper in the cell is printed on the inner sleeve along with the song lyrics. 

On the rear of the album is a picture of the back of an asylum building with the track listing on the double doors, which open to show all the inmates stampeding down the corridor, waving papers in the air stating their release. Both the images hidden by flaps were printed on the inner sleeve. 
The album was adapted into a comic book, Marvel Premiere #50.


Side A
A1.   From the Inside   (3:55)
A2.   Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills   (3:38)
A3.   The Quiet Room   (3:52)
A4.   Nurse Rozetta   (4:15)
A5.   Millie and Billie (with Marcy Levy)   (4:15)

Side B
B1.   Serious   (2:44)
B2.   How You Gonna See Me Now   (3:57)
B3.   For Veronica’s Sake   (3:37)
B4.   Jackknife Johnny   (3:45)
B5.   Inmates (We’re All Crazy)   (5:03)

Notes

Release:  1978

Format:  LP

Genre:  Rock

Label:  Warner Bros. Records

Catalog#  WB 56577

Vinyl:  VG
Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00