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“Glam singles became great events, full of sirens, explosions, shocked expressions, themed with mysterious plots, chock-full of chants that sounded meaningless but who really knew”?
“The songs were ultra-ludicrous platform-booted forced marches through exclusively teen domain, designed specifically to annoy dad as he relaxed in front of Thursday nights Top of the Pops. Hell, Sweet’s Steve Priest even delivered his camp one-liner dressed in a Nazi uniform.
Ultimately, Glam Rock may have had no more message than a simple ‘Wake Up!’ But it was unashamedly attempting to be top entertainment at a time when most so-called serious rock was so far up its own ass that even putting on stage clothes was considered gauche by the delicate flowers of the singer/songwriters scene.
And considering David Bowie’s enlightened demand that rock’n’roll be reborn by becoming a parody of itself, the reality as it descended upon the 1970’s pop charts was, at times, quite spectacular and inventive. That we still have trouble defining this apparently simplistic phenomenon is a true testament to its clod-hopping Will ‘o’ the Wispiness”.
From ‘Re-Make/Re-Model’ by Julian Cope – a ‘GlamRockSampler’
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/1990
American Glam part 1
In America, unlike the UK, glam rock (or glitter rock as it was known) was much less successful as a commercial genre. Bands that became popular on the US glam scene were a lot heavier and raw and less ‘bubblegum’ than their UK counterparts. Eventually Popular American glam rock acts such as Alice Cooper, The New York Dolls and Kiss rivalled the success of similar British artists such as David Bowie, by using a different stylistic and sound in their music.
Although glam rock is primarily a UK-centred genre and initially had a nebulous impact in the US (artists such as T Rex and Roxy Music had only a fraction of the success they had in the UK), glam rock rapidly influenced popular culture to the point where acts as disparate as The Osmonds and the Rolling Stones wore some glitter and makeup. Even though their music didn’t have much to do with glam rocks general themes.
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Alice Cooper’s (real name Vincent Damon Furnier) career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock, and fitted in perfectly with the emerging glam rock scene.
Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith.
The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album ‘Love it to Death’, which was followed by the even bigger single "School's Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album 'Billion Dollar Babies'.
"Teenage Lament" was a UK # 12 in 1974. The song features backing vocals by US divas Liza Minelli and Ronnie Spector. The song can be found on the 1973 album ‘Muscle of Love’.
Image taken from "Marvel Premiere" # 50 by Marvel Comics Group.
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