When Alice Cooper birthed shock rock in the early 1970s, he certainly wasn't the first stage entertainer to go ghoul. (Google "Grand Guignol" to discover all the brain-drilling, throat-slashing, eye-stabbing antics that horrified Parisians in that theater during the 1890s and later).
And Alice wasn't the last rocker or rapper to attempt to shock and awe mainstream society.
In honor of Cooper's concert Oct. 5 at Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, here's my list of the seven most shocking/disturbing/freaky moments in pop music history, whether concerts, album tracks or videos:
7. Eminem, "'97 Bonnie and Clyde," from his 1999 debut album, "The Slim Shady LP." Eminem has never sounded more chilling than on this track. In his Slim Shady persona, the rapper weaves an unnerving tale about a father who coos baby talk to his infant daughter and lets her know he put her mama in "time out." But listeners know he has slit the mother's throat and is taking his daughter along on a drive as he looks for a place to dispose of the body.
6. Rolling Stones, Black and Blue Tour, 1976. Freudians had a field day when the Rolling Stones toured in '76 -- exactly what was Mick Jagger hoping to convey with that giant inflatable penis that unfurled across the stage?
5. Nine Inch Nails, video for "Closer," single from 1994. Never mind that NIN auteur Trent Reznor uttered a very naughty word on this track. The video version finds a goggled, bound Reznor trapped in some chamber of horrors that the abominable Dr. Phibes would adore, replete with pig heads and other animal carcasses merged with machinery. Meanwhile, our hero moans that's he feels "closer to God."
4. Alice Cooper, various tours, 1971-present. A man, his axe (chop-chop!), his boa (the constrictor kind, not the feathered kind) and his blade (of the guillotine sort). What more could horror rock fans want?
3. George Harrison, "Long Long Long," from the Beatles' "The Beatles" (better known as the White Album), 1968. Not long after the White Album was released, I was listening to it in a dark room (I think that was my older brother's idea) and "Revolution No. 9" kicked in -- and my 10-year-old brain thought the world was ending.
But a more chilling moment came with "Long Long Long," Harrison's whispery ballad -- which ends with a banshee howl inexplicably high-jacking the song. What was George thinking?
2. Dr. Dre with Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger, Kurupt and Jewell, "Bitches Ain't @#*%," from the album "The Chronic," 1992. It was one thing for N.W.A. to hurl an F-bomb at the police on their 1990 album "Straight Outta Compton." It was another for Dre, Snoop and others to go mega-misogynistic with this track from Dre's debut album, which took gangsta rap across white picket fences and into the heart of everyday American culture -- the set peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's album chart and sold over three million copies.
1. Al Stewart, "Love Chronicles," title track from the Scottish-born pop-folkie's second album, released in 1969. This sprawling, autobiographical, 18-minute track detailed seemingly every encounter Stewart had experienced with a female, from kindergarten through adulthood. And the gentle-voiced, literary-minded Stewart also deployed a naughty word as he explored his memories of the ladies in his life.
Though pop music historians have variously cited several old blues recordings, Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula" (from 1956), or the numerous recordings of "Louie Louie" as the first record to drop the F-word, some consider Stewart the definitive holder of that crown.
Stewart's deployment (in its gerund form -- ask your English teacher) was all the more shocking because he used the term conversationally, without malice or anger, to contrast the mindless sex of his past with the love (or near-love) he had finally found.
The effect was like John Keats dropping the F-word into "Ode to a Nightingale" ... well, sorta.
And Alice wasn't the last rocker or rapper to attempt to shock and awe mainstream society.
In honor of Cooper's concert Oct. 5 at Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, here's my list of the seven most shocking/disturbing/freaky moments in pop music history, whether concerts, album tracks or videos:
7. Eminem, "'97 Bonnie and Clyde," from his 1999 debut album, "The Slim Shady LP." Eminem has never sounded more chilling than on this track. In his Slim Shady persona, the rapper weaves an unnerving tale about a father who coos baby talk to his infant daughter and lets her know he put her mama in "time out." But listeners know he has slit the mother's throat and is taking his daughter along on a drive as he looks for a place to dispose of the body.
6. Rolling Stones, Black and Blue Tour, 1976. Freudians had a field day when the Rolling Stones toured in '76 -- exactly what was Mick Jagger hoping to convey with that giant inflatable penis that unfurled across the stage?
5. Nine Inch Nails, video for "Closer," single from 1994. Never mind that NIN auteur Trent Reznor uttered a very naughty word on this track. The video version finds a goggled, bound Reznor trapped in some chamber of horrors that the abominable Dr. Phibes would adore, replete with pig heads and other animal carcasses merged with machinery. Meanwhile, our hero moans that's he feels "closer to God."
4. Alice Cooper, various tours, 1971-present. A man, his axe (chop-chop!), his boa (the constrictor kind, not the feathered kind) and his blade (of the guillotine sort). What more could horror rock fans want?
3. George Harrison, "Long Long Long," from the Beatles' "The Beatles" (better known as the White Album), 1968. Not long after the White Album was released, I was listening to it in a dark room (I think that was my older brother's idea) and "Revolution No. 9" kicked in -- and my 10-year-old brain thought the world was ending.
But a more chilling moment came with "Long Long Long," Harrison's whispery ballad -- which ends with a banshee howl inexplicably high-jacking the song. What was George thinking?
2. Dr. Dre with Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger, Kurupt and Jewell, "Bitches Ain't @#*%," from the album "The Chronic," 1992. It was one thing for N.W.A. to hurl an F-bomb at the police on their 1990 album "Straight Outta Compton." It was another for Dre, Snoop and others to go mega-misogynistic with this track from Dre's debut album, which took gangsta rap across white picket fences and into the heart of everyday American culture -- the set peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's album chart and sold over three million copies.
1. Al Stewart, "Love Chronicles," title track from the Scottish-born pop-folkie's second album, released in 1969. This sprawling, autobiographical, 18-minute track detailed seemingly every encounter Stewart had experienced with a female, from kindergarten through adulthood. And the gentle-voiced, literary-minded Stewart also deployed a naughty word as he explored his memories of the ladies in his life.
Though pop music historians have variously cited several old blues recordings, Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula" (from 1956), or the numerous recordings of "Louie Louie" as the first record to drop the F-word, some consider Stewart the definitive holder of that crown.
Stewart's deployment (in its gerund form -- ask your English teacher) was all the more shocking because he used the term conversationally, without malice or anger, to contrast the mindless sex of his past with the love (or near-love) he had finally found.
The effect was like John Keats dropping the F-word into "Ode to a Nightingale" ... well, sorta.
Leave a comment