About a 1,000 years ago, I saw Alice Cooper on the Killer tour. Back then, there was no Marilyn Manson to shock people. Alice Cooper was it. During the show, when they played "Dead Babies," Alice Cooper hacked a doll (the baby) up with an hatchet, after which he was dragged to a platform on the side of the stage and hanged. I still have photos somewhere of this show.
I saw him in Denver on the Killer tour. It was actually the best concert I've ever been to. They were great, and the crowd was SOO into it! A joyous event--all this yelling, all this agitation, a constant back and forth between the band and the audience.
"What's worse than a truckload of dead babies? A live one at the bottom, eating its way out." - Alice Cooper That sums up what Alice is about. This song is about parental neglect, with Alice's typical twist. Alice can sing about dead babies, murder, necrophilia, cannibalism, abuse, torture, psychotic breaks, even sewing mutilated limbs together, and a whole lot worse, and we still love him and sing along. That's what disturbs people about Alice: how easily we just follow along, no matter how sick it is.
Still NOT ONE youtube reacter will play "The Alice Cooper band" song "The ballad of Dwight Frye" from Love it to death album. This song is to me and many others the best song Alice and his group ever made, the guitar, the instruments the noises they manage to make to make it seem so real as Dwight goes crazy ends up in the psyche ward, and tells his story of losing mind. I have never ever heard anything like it before, it is so realistic! When I play it for others they are like blown away. Surely if you can play "Dead babies" from Alice Cooper you can play "The ballad of Dwight Frye" JustJP?
An album named Killer with a snake on the cover and a song called Dead Babies. That really thrilled some parents when it came out🙃 In reality it is a great public service announcement that may have saved some kids lives!
Apparently Cooper and his manager Shep Gordon determined that if they could record songs that kids liked, but parents hated, then they'd have an entry to popularity. It worked! And so it explains a track like this one. It's also one of the first times producer Bob Ezrin used children in the background. He would do that repeatedly - most famously on Another Brick in the Wall Part 2. Nice reaction!
Dennis Dunaway's bass never made itself too prominent on those albums back when I was teenager, but later I came to appreciate what a great player he is.
Glad you're liking this stuff, as a next Alice Cooper song I highly recommend Ballad Of Dwight Fry from the Love It To Death album. Or if you want to do an album listen, the album it's from is a great pick.
You've got to check out "Billion Dollar Babies." Alice wrote this one a few years after "Dead Babies." It features a duet with Donavan. And there's a great drum part to this tune. It's excellent. And another one, "The Ballad of Dwight Fry." This one came out on his 3rd, and in my opinion, best album. This one is absolutely riveting. It's theatrical story about a man who's losing his mind and gets locked up in a psyche ward. It's one of the greatest songs, Alice Cooper has ever written.
The chords are hollow, metallic-sounding, and lacking in thirds, so emotionally stark. Alice Cooper is so underrated on a purely musical level. They were not only very sophisticated, but very experimental--and boy were they influential--to metal, glam, punk.
If you want to hear another track in this dark vein, Try the (even better) "I Love The Dead" from "Billion Dollar Babies", or the rocker "Cold Ethyl" from "Welcome To My Nightmare".
Such a classic track. One of the many aspects that made the Alice Cooper group so unique is the melodic and dynamic bass playing by Denis Dunaway. He really shines on this track and other Cooper classics like "Billion Dollar Babies", "Halo of Flies", "Blue Turk" and "Gutter Cat vs. the Jets", to name a few.
Oh come on now, all the albums are great? I agree Alice had a ton of great albums, in fact my first concert was Alice Cooper in 1972, but there's no way you can think that "Muscle of Love" was a great album. The first album "Pretties For You" is kind of a stinker too.
Outstanding analysis! You got it right away, while many people "in the old days" judged this song without really listening! (How unusual, lol...) You're always fun to watch! Peace☮️
“Billion Dollar Babies” is definitely something which should be on your album deep dive to do list. The entire back catalogue is amazing but that one in particular. Don’t sleep on stuff outside his 70s peak and late 80s “comeback” either. 1983’s Dada (during his “blackout period”) and 2000’s Brutal Planet are worth mentioning here.
One of the first songs my high school band learned, waay back in '75. Not long afterwards, we played our very first gig, a high school dance. Being the softies and sentimentalists that we were, our vocalist/rhythm guitarist introduced this song as "a belly rubber for all ages", belly rubber being a slow dance. We got to the "Dead babies can take care of thenselves" line and we could tell the chaperones had had enough of such vulgarness. Not more than a couple of minutes into the song, our power went out. We were told to pack up our gear and leave, that we would be dealt with on Monday. We packed up and left, laughing our arses off the whole time. Monday morning, all four of us were called to Chopper's office, our vice principal. He said we all had a month's worth of detention, not just for the song, but for using the term belly rubber, which all of the old folks in the school thought was a dirty reference, although no one could explain exactly why it was dirty. Even explaining everything to them didn't change their minds. We were each given detentions until after Christmas break. Love, love, love Alice! More, please!
@@spazimdam Yeah, it actually was a good time. LOL! We were somewhat popular for playing events around town after that. BTW, the band is almost unchanged since that time. Only thing different is that one of us moved to Colorado. But the other three of us are still together, forty-eight years later.
@@Drummingvulture That's cool you're still playing together. My high school band also played Alice Cooper, back in '73-'75. We never tried Dead Babies, but we did Ballad of Dwight Fry, Sick Things and Halo of Flies. Good memories.
I have all the early Alice Cooper on my ipod. When I was a kid, to the religious community and the government, he was like the Antichrist. Now I appreciate the music.
Hi Justin. Another great song! "Killer" is my favorite Alice Cooper band album as it really is "Killer" from start to finish. Every song is excellent. I really hope you will consider listening to the entire album as it is very worthwhile.
I was totally going to say that when the brass comes in, it sounds amazingly Beatle-esque. Before that, it doesn't sound like Beatles much at all, but a simple change of arrangement, instrumentation and production, and voila'! Awesome song!!! And Killer is a truly great album, with perhaps the best cover art of all time.
Ha! Listened to this off my own bat three days ago. This is one of AC's best and reflects the clever musicality and outré lyricism of the band in those days. Even the earliest Alice Cooper has much to recommend it and, yes, I do include Pretties For You. Given the lyrics here, who would believe that Alice himself is such a nice guy in real life?
Me too. The first time I heard Alice Cooper was a Saturday night and I listened in bed in the dark on headphones as a local rock FM station broadcast the whole Billlion Dollar Babies album..it was a transcendent experience. I was about 15 at the time.
The Unholy Trinity of Alice Cooper albums are "Love it to Death", "Killer" and "Billion Dollar Babies". Keep sampling the tracks. You won't be disappointed.
Very pleasantly surprised. This was much better than the solo AC that emerged later and became just one more of those rock acts that presume to be 'hard' and 'dark' but, seriously, were just easy-listening mush. This, however, was awesome and kept me interested throughout.
For some Alice Cooper of a different era I'd recommend something from the album Brutal Planet which he released in 2000. It's an album where he leaned more towards a heavy metal/hard rock sound. I don't know what the general consensus is amongst fans but I think it's solid. Check out either Pick Up The Bones or the title track.
I suspect an aggrophile is someone who loves aggression... and I love how songs like this on Killer have a breakdown that wouldn't be out of place on an early Genesis record. Love it.
You might try Ballad of Dwight Frye next. Alice was always an old horror movie buff and Dwight Frye was the actor who, in 1931, played Fritz in Frankenstein and Redfield in Dracula.
Hearing The Beatles is what got these guys together. They are also influenced by early Pink Floyd, The Yardbirds, The Stones, The Who and ,of course, The Doors. Their first two albums, "Pretties for You" 1969 and "Easy Action", 1970 had a lot of these influences. Liked your reaction and I would have loved for you to have continued listening to the title track, "Killer", after "Dead Babies", esp as they are joined together, it's a killer track!. I've been listening to the album, "School's Out", [1972] just today and would highly recommend it, maybe "Luney Tune", or "Public Animal No. 9", to start, or the title track, which was a single. All their albums have a different vibe, whilst retaining their style and it's fun seeing someone enjoy the music you absolutely loved, growing up...and to this day.! Stick with The Coop Justin, it's worth it.
Alice was not afraid to go there. Enough said. Killer was a fantastic album and at the time, most critics and radio DJs weren't sure how to deal with it. It is a surprisingly progressive collection of songs.
To add to (and possibly confuse further) the meaning of that word agoraphile (assuming that was the word used in the lyrics - and of course it may have been misspelled!)..to me the most obvious meaning would be the direct opposite of agoraphobe. If an agoraphobe means someone terrified of adventuring into new and strange places and situations, then an agoraphile would thrive in such situations, which would explain why the father was never at home - definitely not the domestic type. Here endeth the lesson.
I Love the Dead is another dark treasure.......and Steven as well....dont forget the title track of this album.....your in the rabbit hole now!!....Cheers from Canada
Agrophile, in short, means a plant that thrives in soil: agriculture. The dad could be a farmer or he thrives in the dirt literally or figuratively. In this song it could have a double meaning in that Betty would be part of the soil, eventually.
Ah Justin- way to go! Dead Babies by the original Alice Cooper band. Excellent choice my friend. This is from an album which is literally a "killer" album. I have always dug the shit out of this album. Too bad you didn't know beforehand, but you should have let it go right into "Killer", because "Dead Babies" just slides right into "Killer" which is also a very cool song. You'll have to do it another time. Also from this album you should check out "Desperado", a cool almost western song about a six gun wielding killer in the old west. Yeah I agree with you on the production. I think it is purposefully underproduced, so as to better feature the band's sound and atmosphere. As always I loved your reaction and analysis. You really appreciate how good this band was, and how well crafted the songs are. Cheers!
I always thought Agrophile had something to do with agriculture, like in Texas it would be good to do research in how to grow certain crops on terrain that can't be watered properly or find ways to bring water to the fields.
I still think Welcome to my nightmare is my favorite album from Alice Cooper. Only Women Bleed and title song still stuck in my head from my youth. Vincent Price does a voice track for one of the songs on that album.
I was thinking the Beatles too, in that section. Kind of like an abbreviated "middle eight" where they change it up for a few bars. It sounds very Beatle-ly. I LOVE Alice Cooper. I have 25 of their songs in my go-to playlist, from seven different albums.
It's satire. An exploration of a deeply significant social phenomenon: child neglect & abuse. 'Cause obviously dead babies don't need to be taken care of - that's why they're dead! And you gotta love that hypnotic riff in the outro.
Because I love prog rock from the 70s (Genesis, Yes, ELP, etc), my metalhead friend turned me on to this album - it's great! By the way - you should try some early Phish....maybe The Squirming Coil or Esther. Cheers!
Glad you decided to review this song. Being one of those who pointed you in this direction, as a follow-up, check out Graveland by The 69 Eyes. On the heels of Easter it also ties into 'dead babies'. BTW, your analyses are by far the best at breaking down song and lyrics.
These albums should be listen to in one sitting Killer Love it to death Schools out Billion dollar babies Muscle of love ♥ And yes they can sing the most bizarre lyrics but yet in upbeat. At that time kids was not overprotected and the childhomes, asylums etc. sure was run by weirdos in many cases..
Love the cascading guitars at the end of the song - so melodic. Yep, I too hear the Beatles in the "Well, we didn't want you anyway" section. I'm also hearing Iron Maiden vibes, especially with the interplay between bass and guitar. And that descending guitar/bass line is very Slayer, right out of "South of Heaven". Last comment: my brother must have played this song to me when I was really young (like 2-3) because I would go around the house singing "dead babies, dead babies" - I'm sure my parents must have been thrilled. I have no recollection of this but now all these years later I'm impressed at my young self because the song is so awesome!
Good morning from New England..Im a new sub and I went thru ur DOORS vids yesterday and left comments..ALICE COOPER was the first shock rocker having been on the music scene since 1968-69 and he even used to hang and drink with Jim Morrison when they lived next to each other in Laural Canyon in L.A.--- Good pick..I LOVE THE DEAD is another great song..Perhaps do a GOJIRA reaction..their drummer Mario Duplantier is a monster and the whole band is unique with thier own distinctive sound...The songs STRANDED or FLYING WHALES are a good place to start..Peace from the Northeast...
It's completely true Justin, the production is dry but it's not a bad thing (on the contrary !) and moreover the arrangements are brilliant and amply compensate for this lack of embellishment (which would have softened the composition and the subject). And all the same, I find that the brass and the choirs sound very Beatles (from their psychedelic era). Great track from a great album !!!
'Ole Audiophile to pal JP, Buddy, I prefer not to scold. You picked one of his two best albums ever. The album is simply LOADED with hits, almost every single song is. Why Dead Babies? This came out while I was a teen. You have very little idea how middle America reacted to this song, especially the bible belt. When I met my wife 45 years ago, she HATED Alice Cooper in the worst terms. Why I asked her? Because he wrote Dead Babies she admitted to me. Apparently, her brother came home drunk, put on that side of the album, then passed out playing that side of the album on repeat the whole night long. I knew she was reasonable or I wouldn't be dating her. Wait a few days & sneak on a good Alice Cooper song. "Who was that?" she immediately asked. Alice Cooper. Few days later, put on another great Cooper song. "Who was that?" she queried. "That was superb!" Me: Alice Cooper. Again...and again...and again. One day she looks at me & out pops "You know I find I love Alice Cooper, why does EVERYBODY associate Alice Cooper with ONLY the song Dead Babies?" Me: "Because most folks are simple idiots when it comes to music sophistication, darling." That's why a high percentage of the population hates that song. I don't hate it, but if one really listens to that album, it's the worst song on the entire album for content. Thanx bud.
Something I heard startled me. Listen to the guitar and bass lines with their harmonies right after the line "can't take care of themselves" (2:10 on your video). It sure sounds a lot like the Jethro Tull song " To Cry You A Song" from the Benefit album.
In my opinion one of the best albums of the 70s by anyone, also check out billion dollar babies, another track in similar vain to this is - I love the dead ( it’s hilarious) , like that you got the Beatles vibe - a bit magical mystery tour ? 👍🇬🇧.
Alice talks of both responsibility and selfishness in this song. Great social commentary from Coop, as are 90% of his songs. A greatly misunderstood song and artist.
Definitely a great track….but should really be paired with the next track, Killer. This whole album is worth reacting to, as is the previous album, Love it to Death.
Pre- Nirvana quiet/ loud, bass and chorusy tones… agree with the Beatle feel in the post chorus pre outro… I don’t know what I’m saying. All I can say is hallelujah. Killer was my intro pre chorus to AC band. It later kinda fit with the abortion thing. Anyway, good choice today. Makes me think of sitting on the floor, albums laying all around me and my small record player. Chicago 1&2, James Taylor, Paranoid by Black Sabbath, Guess Who’s greatest hits, Grand Funk Live Album, Killer, and various singles I bought and my mother’s and sister’s. Elton John, Beatles, Shirelles, Elvis, Bobby Sherman, eek! Memories… like the forests of my mind… or however it goes. Peace and shockti Music
@@-davidolivares That's a surprise. I recognized the first two songs. It appears I know the band after all. I didn't listen to the lyrics but the music is fine.
Agriphile? Could it mean Dad is buried in the dirt as well? The bass at the beginning of the album was amazing at the time. On the crummy sound systems at the time, it was difficult to actually understand the lyrics, even with the underproduced sound. AC was always somewhat theatrical and this song is no exception. It was probably one of my three favourite songs by him. "School's Out" and "Eighteen" were the other two. It's does have that little Beatlesque flair at the end. Oddly, even though I liked a few of his songs, AC icked me out at the time. It felt like they were being shocking, just for the sake of being shocking. I was heavily into Wishbone Ash, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin by then. My budget wasn't that big (between my part time job and allowance I was barely making $5 per week and my beer drinking, even at 16, was taking a big chunk of that).
I can understand that many people can be shocked by the lyrics -- but it is taking the form of sarcasm. subject matter is terribly serious. I think some of it is a reference to the crazy argument criminal parent may pull in court to defend themselves.
An agrophile is something which thrives or lives in cultivated soil. Perhaps Alice is suggesting the father is no better than an insect or worm? Not sure. I sometimes wonder if it’s meant to be agoraphile, which is someone with a fetish for open-air sex, or maybe agraphile, someone who takes sexual pleasure from either abusing or being abused - which may make more sense in the context of the song.
Agraphile, slightly changed spelling means An individual with a fetish or an abnormal affection of Sexual abuse. Either when being abused or abusing another sexually.
It’s interesting that this song was about the really serious issue of child neglect. The message was somewhat diluted in the stage shows when he ran through baby dolls with a sword and, later on, when the head of the baby was a mutated freak, but nevertheless great performances.
So, I just gotta ask, and I'm asking you because you're one of the reaction folks that hasn't yet succumbed to this. Is there something going around UA-cam that is encouraging reaction videoists to make of their video thumbnail photos, over-the-top caricature-like expressions of shock and surprise? Drives me a little crazy. Otherwise serious and sober reactors have pictures of themselves that look as if they're making scary/silly faces at babies. I appreciate that you haven't started doing this.
Eh, its just the typical "clickbait-ey" "grab your audiences attention" kind of stuff. I don't do much of that, but the unfortunate thing is that it usually works🤣
I think an agoraphile is the opposite of an agoraphobe. The latter is someone who is scared of the wide open spaces where as the former is a lover of them. Think a hunter, angler, hiker or camper.
Agrophile, not sure. Agraphilia (agraphiliac): a fetish or an abnormal affection of sexual abuse, either when being abused or abusing another sexually.
A good tune this, dark, brooding, and with a decent riff. Not the best on the album, but still pretty good. Due it's largely repetitive nature though, I think it is a tad too long, they could've tightened it up a little. And all the beatles chat/comments aside, I thought there was a little Tull in there, right at the 1st chorus in partic. Re subject, bad parenting, or out and out infanticide. Baby eats pills, pills were on shelf, babies can get stuff off shelves, mum gave baby pills? as didn't want baby anyway... And dad, maybe he just not there, away working. Agro, relating to agriculture, the land. Working in Texas as a farm hand. I believe they're not short of farms in Texas. Oh, and he wasn't bothered about the baby either...
About a 1,000 years ago, I saw Alice Cooper on the Killer tour. Back then, there was no Marilyn Manson to shock people. Alice Cooper was it. During the show, when they played "Dead Babies," Alice Cooper hacked a doll (the baby) up with an hatchet, after which he was dragged to a platform on the side of the stage and hanged. I still have photos somewhere of this show.
Epic man
I saw him in Denver on the Killer tour. It was actually the best concert I've ever been to. They were great, and the crowd was SOO into it! A joyous event--all this yelling, all this agitation, a constant back and forth between the band and the audience.
My cousin saw him in 72 in the UK. She said it was epic.
"What's worse than a truckload of dead babies? A live one at the bottom, eating its way out." - Alice Cooper
That sums up what Alice is about.
This song is about parental neglect, with Alice's typical twist. Alice can sing about dead babies, murder, necrophilia, cannibalism, abuse, torture, psychotic breaks, even sewing mutilated limbs together, and a whole lot worse, and we still love him and sing along. That's what disturbs people about Alice: how easily we just follow along, no matter how sick it is.
50+ years on and it holds up. No one would dare put this out today.
Mr. Alice Cooper on February 4, 2023 turned 75 years old, health and long life to this wonderful artist and rocker!
All us dinosaurs remember how shocking Alice Cooper was in 1971. 1971 folks!
Hell yeah! He carried a damn boa constrictor on stage. That was wild stuff back then.
Still NOT ONE youtube reacter will play "The Alice Cooper band" song "The ballad of Dwight Frye" from Love it to death album. This song is to me and many others the best song Alice and his group ever made, the guitar, the instruments the noises they manage to make to make it seem so real as Dwight goes crazy ends up in the psyche ward, and tells his story of losing mind. I have never ever heard anything like it before, it is so realistic! When I play it for others they are like blown away. Surely if you can play "Dead babies" from Alice Cooper you can play "The ballad of Dwight Frye" JustJP?
Perhaps I'll give it a try; I've only listened to a few AC songs and I'm still pretty new to em :)
@@JustJP You will not be disappointed if you do. Thanks for responding, I appreciate it👍.😎
Wilburn Reactions has reacted to it.
@@krisdoggett483 yes I found that on UA-cam the other day...and another one also reacted to it...both excellent reviews
An album named Killer with a snake on the cover and a song called Dead Babies. That really thrilled some parents when it came out🙃 In reality it is a great public service announcement that may have saved some kids lives!
Apparently Cooper and his manager Shep Gordon determined that if they could record songs that kids liked, but parents hated, then they'd have an entry to popularity. It worked! And so it explains a track like this one. It's also one of the first times producer Bob Ezrin used children in the background. He would do that repeatedly - most famously on Another Brick in the Wall Part 2. Nice reaction!
Dennis Dunaway's bass never made itself too prominent on those albums back when I was teenager, but later I came to appreciate what a great player he is.
Glad you're liking this stuff, as a next Alice Cooper song I highly recommend Ballad Of Dwight Fry from the Love It To Death album. Or if you want to do an album listen, the album it's from is a great pick.
You've got to check out "Billion Dollar Babies." Alice wrote this one a few years after "Dead Babies." It features a duet with Donavan. And there's a great drum part to this tune. It's excellent. And another one, "The Ballad of Dwight Fry." This one came out on his 3rd, and in my opinion, best album. This one is absolutely riveting. It's theatrical story about a man who's losing his mind and gets locked up in a psyche ward. It's one of the greatest songs, Alice Cooper has ever written.
The chords are hollow, metallic-sounding, and lacking in thirds, so emotionally stark. Alice Cooper is so underrated on a purely musical level. They were not only very sophisticated, but very experimental--and boy were they influential--to metal, glam, punk.
If you want to hear another track in this dark vein, Try the (even better) "I Love The Dead" from "Billion Dollar Babies", or the rocker "Cold Ethyl" from "Welcome To My Nightmare".
Such a classic track. One of the many aspects that made the Alice Cooper group so unique is the melodic and dynamic bass playing by Denis Dunaway. He really shines on this track and other Cooper classics like "Billion Dollar Babies", "Halo of Flies", "Blue Turk" and "Gutter Cat vs. the Jets", to name a few.
All the Alice Cooper group's albums are great.
Oh come on now, all the albums are great? I agree Alice had a ton of great albums, in fact my first concert was Alice Cooper in 1972, but there's no way you can think that "Muscle of Love" was a great album. The first album "Pretties For You" is kind of a stinker too.
Outstanding analysis!
You got it right away, while many people "in the old days" judged this song without really listening! (How unusual, lol...)
You're always fun to watch! Peace☮️
“Billion Dollar Babies” is definitely something which should be on your album deep dive to do list. The entire back catalogue is amazing but that one in particular. Don’t sleep on stuff outside his 70s peak and late 80s “comeback” either. 1983’s Dada (during his “blackout period”) and 2000’s Brutal Planet are worth mentioning here.
One of the first songs my high school band learned, waay back in '75. Not long afterwards, we played our very first gig, a high school dance. Being the softies and sentimentalists that we were, our vocalist/rhythm guitarist introduced this song as "a belly rubber for all ages", belly rubber being a slow dance. We got to the "Dead babies can take care of thenselves" line and we could tell the chaperones had had enough of such vulgarness. Not more than a couple of minutes into the song, our power went out. We were told to pack up our gear and leave, that we would be dealt with on Monday.
We packed up and left, laughing our arses off the whole time.
Monday morning, all four of us were called to Chopper's office, our vice principal. He said we all had a month's worth of detention, not just for the song, but for using the term belly rubber, which all of the old folks in the school thought was a dirty reference, although no one could explain exactly why it was dirty.
Even explaining everything to them didn't change their minds. We were each given detentions until after Christmas break.
Love, love, love Alice! More, please!
Excellent story man. Your band had a good time anyway. I'd say it was worth a month's detention.
@@spazimdam Yeah, it actually was a good time. LOL! We were somewhat popular for playing events around town after that.
BTW, the band is almost unchanged since that time. Only thing different is that one of us moved to Colorado. But the other three of us are still together, forty-eight years later.
@@Drummingvulture That's cool you're still playing together. My high school band also played Alice Cooper, back in '73-'75. We never tried Dead Babies, but we did Ballad of Dwight Fry, Sick Things and Halo of Flies. Good memories.
I have all the early Alice Cooper on my ipod. When I was a kid, to the religious community and the government, he was like the Antichrist. Now I appreciate the music.
Hi Justin. Another great song! "Killer" is my favorite Alice Cooper band album as it really is "Killer" from start to finish. Every song is excellent. I really hope you will consider listening to the entire album as it is very worthwhile.
I was totally going to say that when the brass comes in, it sounds amazingly Beatle-esque. Before that, it doesn't sound like Beatles much at all, but a simple change of arrangement, instrumentation and production, and voila'! Awesome song!!! And Killer is a truly great album, with perhaps the best cover art of all time.
my favorite AC album
to hear the original Alice. Are his very begining with his high school band The Spiders. Bad recording but makes it very clear where he was headed.
Ha! Listened to this off my own bat three days ago. This is one of AC's best and reflects the clever musicality and outré lyricism of the band in those days. Even the earliest Alice Cooper has much to recommend it and, yes, I do include Pretties For You. Given the lyrics here, who would believe that Alice himself is such a nice guy in real life?
I've liked Alice Cooper ever since I heard the album love it to death I was about 14 then and now 60
I got into Alice Cooper when I was 15 and now I'm 61!!
Me too. The first time I heard Alice Cooper was a Saturday night and I listened in bed in the dark on headphones as a local rock FM station broadcast the whole Billlion Dollar Babies album..it was a transcendent experience. I was about 15 at the time.
A public service announcement of a song. This band was amazing.
Black Sabbath has been credited, and rightly so as the originators of Heavy Metal but this album and this song in particular is the birth of Goth,
The Unholy Trinity of Alice Cooper albums are "Love it to Death", "Killer" and "Billion Dollar Babies". Keep sampling the tracks. You won't be disappointed.
It's a four album list for me with Schools Out making the list. Definitely prefer the Alice Cooper Band stuff to anything he did later on...
Very pleasantly surprised. This was much better than the solo AC that emerged later and became just one more of those rock acts that presume to be 'hard' and 'dark' but, seriously, were just easy-listening mush. This, however, was awesome and kept me interested throughout.
🤘
@@JustJP As an old fart I would love to see your reaction to Elected from Billion Dollar babies.
For some Alice Cooper of a different era I'd recommend something from the album Brutal Planet which he released in 2000. It's an album where he leaned more towards a heavy metal/hard rock sound. I don't know what the general consensus is amongst fans but I think it's solid. Check out either Pick Up The Bones or the title track.
Analog production has that "dryness", rawness, and doesn't lend itself as easily as digital production to over-production.
As I said previously with Halo of Flies… the Killer album is a killer!!! My second favorite Alice Cooper next to Billion Dollar Babies.
I suspect an aggrophile is someone who loves aggression... and I love how songs like this on Killer have a breakdown that wouldn't be out of place on an early Genesis record. Love it.
You might try Ballad of Dwight Frye next. Alice was always an old horror movie buff and Dwight Frye was the actor who, in 1931, played Fritz in Frankenstein and Redfield in Dracula.
I think you meant Renfield.
You might have been thinking of Chris Redfield, appearing in the Resident Evil videogames!
Chris "Boulder-punching" Redfield😅
@@AriadneJC Yeah I meant to say Renfield. Just goes to show ya what happens when you don't proofread the text!!
Hearing The Beatles is what got these guys together. They are also influenced by early Pink Floyd, The Yardbirds, The Stones, The Who and ,of course, The Doors. Their first two albums, "Pretties for You" 1969 and "Easy Action", 1970 had a lot of these influences. Liked your reaction and I would have loved for you to have continued listening to the title track, "Killer", after "Dead Babies", esp as they are joined together, it's a killer track!. I've been listening to the album, "School's Out", [1972] just today and would highly recommend it, maybe "Luney Tune", or "Public Animal No. 9", to start, or the title track, which was a single. All their albums have a different vibe, whilst retaining their style and it's fun seeing someone enjoy the music you absolutely loved, growing up...and to this day.! Stick with The Coop Justin, it's worth it.
Great tune. I suggest listening to the album "Billion Dollar Babies" .. especially the title track and "Generation Landslide"
Alice was not afraid to go there. Enough said. Killer was a fantastic album and at the time, most critics and radio DJs weren't sure how to deal with it. It is a surprisingly progressive collection of songs.
Father is a farmer I seen Alice about 10 times I heard him say that line like this daddy is a cattle farmer in tx
Also farmer's are known to work from sun up to sun down anyway that's what I think I might be wrong
Amazing album. In my top 3 AC albums. You need to listen to the next track - Killer.
I love the way you listen to the whole song before commenting instead of constant interruptions like other reviews.
Perhaps Daddy is dead and buried in Texas. Feeding the soil. Just thought of that and I've got my original copy of the vinyl...
To add to (and possibly confuse further) the meaning of that word agoraphile (assuming that was the word used in the lyrics - and of course it may have been misspelled!)..to me the most obvious meaning would be the direct opposite of agoraphobe. If an agoraphobe means someone terrified of adventuring into new and strange places and situations, then an agoraphile would thrive in such situations, which would explain why the father was never at home - definitely not the domestic type. Here endeth the lesson.
I Love the Dead is another dark treasure.......and Steven as well....dont forget the title track of this album.....your in the rabbit hole now!!....Cheers from Canada
Agrophile, in short, means a plant that thrives in soil: agriculture. The dad could be a farmer or he thrives in the dirt literally or figuratively. In this song it could have a double meaning in that Betty would be part of the soil, eventually.
Ah Justin- way to go! Dead Babies by the original Alice Cooper band. Excellent choice my friend. This is from an album which is literally a "killer" album. I have always dug the shit out of this album. Too bad you didn't know beforehand, but you should have let it go right into "Killer", because "Dead Babies" just slides right into "Killer" which is also a very cool song. You'll have to do it another time. Also from this album you should check out "Desperado", a cool almost western song about a six gun wielding killer in the old west. Yeah I agree with you on the production. I think it is purposefully underproduced, so as to better feature the band's sound and atmosphere. As always I loved your reaction and analysis. You really appreciate how good this band was, and how well crafted the songs are. Cheers!
Ty Monte!
You're right, it's a mix of neo-metal and baroque pop.
Told you you'd like it, Justin. 😉 Early Alice Cooper is amazing. Here's hoping for a few dozen more!
I always thought Agrophile had something to do with agriculture, like in Texas it would be good to do research in how to grow certain crops on terrain that can't be watered properly or find ways to bring water to the fields.
Killer is a brilliant album..... alll A.C albums are great up until 1978.
"Agrophile" here refers to the father being a Texas A&M fan, an "Aggie", I think - absorbed in his college football dreams...
I still think Welcome to my nightmare is my favorite album from Alice Cooper. Only Women Bleed and title song still stuck in my head from my youth. Vincent Price does a voice track for one of the songs on that album.
I was thinking the Beatles too, in that section. Kind of like an abbreviated "middle eight" where they change it up for a few bars. It sounds very Beatle-ly. I LOVE Alice Cooper. I have 25 of their songs in my go-to playlist, from seven different albums.
I think that the "Beatle-ly" section was a salute the Beatles referencing the infamous "Dead Babies" album cover. :)
@@dragonan5674 Good point! You may have something there.
Agrophile - he strives in the soil... he's buried in the field
It's satire. An exploration of a deeply significant social phenomenon: child neglect & abuse. 'Cause obviously dead babies don't need to be taken care of - that's why they're dead! And you gotta love that hypnotic riff in the outro.
Teenage Lament ‘74!
If you like songs about dead babies, try "Baby's on Fire," by Eno.
Because I love prog rock from the 70s (Genesis, Yes, ELP, etc), my metalhead friend turned me on to this album - it's great! By the way - you should try some early Phish....maybe The Squirming Coil or Esther. Cheers!
Bob Ezrin and the band didn't have a lot of money until this record came out.
Glad you decided to review this song. Being one of those who pointed you in this direction, as a follow-up, check out Graveland by The 69 Eyes. On the heels of Easter it also ties into 'dead babies'. BTW, your analyses are by far the best at breaking down song and lyrics.
PS. that should've read 'babies CAN'T get stuff of shelves' but i'm sure that typo was recognised :)
Daddy was a farmer.
These albums should be listen to in one sitting
Killer
Love it to death
Schools out
Billion dollar babies
Muscle of love
♥
And yes they can sing the most bizarre lyrics but yet in upbeat.
At that time kids was not overprotected and the childhomes, asylums etc. sure was run by weirdos in many cases..
Love the cascading guitars at the end of the song - so melodic. Yep, I too hear the Beatles in the "Well, we didn't want you anyway" section. I'm also hearing Iron Maiden vibes, especially with the interplay between bass and guitar. And that descending guitar/bass line is very Slayer, right out of "South of Heaven". Last comment: my brother must have played this song to me when I was really young (like 2-3) because I would go around the house singing "dead babies, dead babies" - I'm sure my parents must have been thrilled. I have no recollection of this but now all these years later I'm impressed at my young self because the song is so awesome!
At least one more from this phenominal album you should check out Desperado
Good morning from New England..Im a new sub and I went thru ur DOORS vids yesterday and left comments..ALICE COOPER was the first shock rocker having been on the music scene since 1968-69 and he even used to hang and drink with Jim Morrison when they lived next to each other in Laural Canyon in L.A.--- Good pick..I LOVE THE DEAD is another great song..Perhaps do a GOJIRA reaction..their drummer Mario Duplantier is a monster and the whole band is unique with thier own distinctive sound...The songs STRANDED or FLYING WHALES are a good place to start..Peace from the Northeast...
Appreciated Brian! I actually did some Gojira a few weeks or so ago :) I've listened to some of their albums on my own in the past, they're quite good
@@JustJP Cool I'll search ur channel for the GOJIRA vids..thx for the heads up..Peace
Thank Bob Ezrin for this!
Agrophile is a lover of high places
It's completely true Justin, the production is dry but it's not a bad thing (on the contrary !) and moreover the arrangements are brilliant and amply compensate for this lack of embellishment (which would have softened the composition and the subject). And all the same, I find that the brass and the choirs sound very Beatles (from their psychedelic era). Great track from a great album !!!
'Ole Audiophile to pal JP, Buddy, I prefer not to scold. You picked one of his two best albums ever. The album is simply LOADED with hits, almost every single song is. Why Dead Babies? This came out while I was a teen. You have very little idea how middle America reacted to this song, especially the bible belt. When I met my wife 45 years ago, she HATED Alice Cooper in the worst terms. Why I asked her? Because he wrote Dead Babies she admitted to me. Apparently, her brother came home drunk, put on that side of the album, then passed out playing that side of the album on repeat the whole night long. I knew she was reasonable or I wouldn't be dating her. Wait a few days & sneak on a good Alice Cooper song. "Who was that?" she immediately asked. Alice Cooper. Few days later, put on another great Cooper song. "Who was that?" she queried. "That was superb!" Me: Alice Cooper. Again...and again...and again. One day she looks at me & out pops "You know I find I love Alice Cooper, why does EVERYBODY associate Alice Cooper with ONLY the song Dead Babies?" Me: "Because most folks are simple idiots when it comes to music sophistication, darling." That's why a high percentage of the population hates that song. I don't hate it, but if one really listens to that album, it's the worst song on the entire album for content. Thanx bud.
Now thats a great story!
Check out the opening riff on cold ethyl
You should do elected by Alice Cooper, a classic brilliant single from 1973 .
Something I heard startled me. Listen to the guitar and bass lines with their harmonies right after the line "can't take care of themselves" (2:10 on your video). It sure sounds a lot like the Jethro Tull song " To Cry You A Song" from the Benefit album.
In my opinion one of the best albums of the 70s by anyone, also check out billion dollar babies, another track in similar vain to this is - I love the dead ( it’s hilarious) , like that you got the Beatles vibe - a bit magical mystery tour ? 👍🇬🇧.
It's so cool that you get AC's music.. Some tunes are quite dark but beautifully written.. Check out "Millie and Billie"
Ty Blair :D
Alice Cooper songs that sound like the Beatles: Shoe Salesman, Alma Mater
Alice talks of both responsibility and selfishness in this song. Great social commentary from Coop, as are 90% of his songs. A greatly misunderstood song and artist.
JP, another eerie but great tune by Alice Cooper that I think you might appreciate is Cold Ethyl. I recommend you react to this song
You should check out "Only Women Bleed" next.
LOVE MY 1-2+3-4-5 ALBUMS...OF ALICE COOPER 👍👍👍🤘🤘✌️🇦🇺
Dennis Dunaway shows masterful bass skills in this one. People forget, Alice Cooper was the band, before it was the guy. I still like the band better.
Definitely a great track….but should really be paired with the next track, Killer. This whole album is worth reacting to, as is the previous album, Love it to Death.
For the algorithm. Hope you react to all the songs on this album!
Please do a reaction video for The Ballad of Dwight Fry ✌️
Daddy is a farmer
Check out Uncle Salty from Aerosmith which is about child abuse.... Good review!
Pre- Nirvana quiet/ loud, bass and chorusy tones… agree with the Beatle feel in the post chorus pre outro… I don’t know what I’m saying.
All I can say is hallelujah.
Killer was my intro pre chorus to AC band. It later kinda fit with the abortion thing.
Anyway, good choice today.
Makes me think of sitting on the floor, albums laying all around me and my small record player. Chicago 1&2, James Taylor, Paranoid by Black Sabbath, Guess Who’s greatest hits, Grand Funk Live Album, Killer, and various singles I bought and my mother’s and sister’s. Elton John, Beatles, Shirelles, Elvis, Bobby Sherman, eek!
Memories… like the forests of my mind… or however it goes.
Peace and shockti Music
I never did listen to Nirvana. Perhaps I should.
@@maruad7577
Perhaps, if you’re ready.
@@-davidolivares Where do I begin? I can listen while I clean up the kitchen.
@@maruad7577
Hard question, I would go to Nevermind, but some would say Bleach. That’s the order I went in.
@@-davidolivares That's a surprise. I recognized the first two songs. It appears I know the band after all. I didn't listen to the lyrics but the music is fine.
Agriphile? Could it mean Dad is buried in the dirt as well? The bass at the beginning of the album was amazing at the time. On the crummy sound systems at the time, it was difficult to actually understand the lyrics, even with the underproduced sound. AC was always somewhat theatrical and this song is no exception. It was probably one of my three favourite songs by him. "School's Out" and "Eighteen" were the other two. It's does have that little Beatlesque flair at the end. Oddly, even though I liked a few of his songs, AC icked me out at the time. It felt like they were being shocking, just for the sake of being shocking. I was heavily into Wishbone Ash, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin by then. My budget wasn't that big (between my part time job and allowance I was barely making $5 per week and my beer drinking, even at 16, was taking a big chunk of that).
I take agrophile as meaning the opposite of agoraphobia being a fear of going out ie daddy is out all the time and never at home
I can understand that many people can be shocked by the lyrics -- but it is taking the form of sarcasm. subject matter is terribly serious. I think some of it is a reference to the crazy argument criminal parent may pull in court to defend themselves.
An agrophile is something which thrives or lives in cultivated soil. Perhaps Alice is suggesting the father is no better than an insect or worm? Not sure. I sometimes wonder if it’s meant to be agoraphile, which is someone with a fetish for open-air sex, or maybe agraphile, someone who takes sexual pleasure from either abusing or being abused - which may make more sense in the context of the song.
It's a farmer I believe
I like early Alice but I’ve always thought this song was sick. I get the message but it still creeps me out.
Agraphile, slightly changed spelling means An individual with a fetish or an abnormal affection of Sexual abuse. Either when being abused or abusing another sexually.
It’s interesting that this song was about the really serious issue of child neglect. The message was somewhat diluted in the stage shows when he ran through baby dolls with a sword and, later on, when the head of the baby was a mutated freak, but nevertheless great performances.
He played golf with Bob Hope back in the day. Not exactly a satanist!
Agreed, simple and fairly unproduced but Alice got it fine tuned on the stage.
So, I just gotta ask, and I'm asking you because you're one of the reaction folks that hasn't yet succumbed to this. Is there something going around UA-cam that is encouraging reaction videoists to make of their video thumbnail photos, over-the-top caricature-like expressions of shock and surprise? Drives me a little crazy. Otherwise serious and sober reactors have pictures of themselves that look as if they're making scary/silly faces at babies.
I appreciate that you haven't started doing this.
Eh, its just the typical "clickbait-ey" "grab your audiences attention" kind of stuff. I don't do much of that, but the unfortunate thing is that it usually works🤣
I think an agoraphile is the opposite of an agoraphobe. The latter is someone who is scared of the wide open spaces where as the former is a lover of them. Think a hunter, angler, hiker or camper.
Agrophile, not sure. Agraphilia (agraphiliac): a fetish or an abnormal affection of sexual abuse, either when being abused or abusing another sexually.
A good tune this, dark, brooding, and with a decent riff. Not the best on the album, but still pretty good. Due it's largely repetitive nature though, I think it is a tad too long, they could've tightened it up a little. And all the beatles chat/comments aside, I thought there was a little Tull in there, right at the 1st chorus in partic. Re subject, bad parenting, or out and out infanticide. Baby eats pills, pills were on shelf, babies can get stuff off shelves, mum gave baby pills? as didn't want baby anyway... And dad, maybe he just not there, away working. Agro, relating to agriculture, the land. Working in Texas as a farm hand. I believe they're not short of farms in Texas. Oh, and he wasn't bothered about the baby either...
I heard Tull in the guitar fills!
@@justintime42000 Not just me then, nice 🙂
The music resembled funeral music, eh? A sort of funeral dirge...