Easy Action
{{About|the album by Alice Cooper|the Swedish band|Easy Action (band)|their album|Easy Action (Easy Action album)|the American band|John Brannon (disambiguation){{!}}John Brannon}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Easy Action
| type = studio
| artist = Alice Cooper
| cover = EasyAction.jpg
| alt =
| released = {{Start date|1970|03|27}}
| recorded = November–December 1969
| venue =
| studio = Sunwest Studios, Hollywood{{cite book|author=Eric Tessier|title=CAMION BLANC: ALICE COOPER Le parrain du Shock Rock|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cHLVCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT57|publisher=CAMION BLANC|isbn=978-2-35779-309-5|page=57}}
| genre = {{hlist|Psychedelic rockPeter Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock, Rough Guides, 2003, p. 224 {{ISBN|1-84353-105-4}}{{cite book|author=Doyle Greene|title=Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966-1970: How the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground Defined an Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELeaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA125|date=February 17, 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-2403-7|page=125}}|hard rock|acid rock{{cite book|author=Peter Buckley|title=The Rough Guide to Rock|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fie47qSuTsoC&pg=PA1777|year=2003|publisher=Rough Guides|isbn=978-1-85828-457-6|page=1777}}|garage rock|experimental rock{{cite book |last1=Cope |first1=Julian |title=Copendium: An Expedition into the Rock 'n' Roll Underworld |date=2012 |publisher=Fsber & Faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-571 27034-7 |pages=91–92 |quote=As a rock‘n’roll group, Alice Cooper were always so much more than those first two horrible/brilliant LPs – and even they were genuine experimental rock of the Frankenstein kind. That is, they fell on their face at least seventy percent of the time, but struggled ever upward towards some Doorsian light at the end of the tunnel.}}}}
| length = {{Duration|m=34|s=13}}
| label = Straight
| producer = David Briggs
| prev_title = Pretties for You
| prev_year = 1969
| next_title = Love It to Death
| next_year = 1971
| misc = {{Singles
| name = Easy Action
| type = studio
| single1 = Shoes Salesman
| single1date = June 1970{{cite web|url=https://dutchcharts.nl/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Alice+Cooper|title=Alice Cooper - Shoe Salesman|website=Dutch Charts|access-date=November 29, 2024}}
}}
}}
Easy Action is the second studio album by the American rock band Alice Cooper, released by Straight Records in March 1970. The title comes from a line from one of the band's favorite films, the musical West Side Story. As with Pretties for You, the band's debut from the previous year, Easy Action was neither a commercial nor critical success. Singles include "Shoe Salesman" with "Return of the Spiders".
Drummer Neal Smith later said of the record producer David Briggs, "David hated our music and us. I recall the term that he used, referring to our music, was 'Psychedelic Shit'. I think Easy Action sounded too dry, more like a TV or radio commercial and he did not help with song arrangement or positive input in any way."{{cite web |url=http://www.nealsmith.com/entrevue.html |title=Neal Smith Rock |website=www.nealsmith.com |access-date=January 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040803124752/http://www.nealsmith.com/entrevue.html |archive-date=August 3, 2004 |url-status=dead}} None of Easy Action’s songs have ever been performed live by Cooper since the tour in support of their third album Love It to Death;[http://www.alicecooperechive.com/tourdates/index.php?date=kill Alice Cooper Tour Archive] in fact, only "Return of the Spiders" was performed on the tour for that album.
A small number of early U.S. copies were pressed on the blue Bizarre Records label. These copies carry the same catalog number WS-1845 and album cover as the regular Straight Records release.
Though perhaps considered overlooked work relative to later releases, Easy Action tracks "Mr. & Misdemeanor" and "Refrigerator Heaven" were both later included in the well-received compilation album The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper. "Refrigerator Heaven" was also included in the Warner Bros. compilation album Zapped, which showcased acts signed or produced by Frank Zappa. The closing track "Lay Down And Die, Goodbye", which was originally written and recorded as a single B-side by the band when it was called Nazz, begins with a sample of Tom Smothers saying "You are the only censor; if you don't like what I'm saying, you have a choice: you can turn me off". This is followed by an instrumental jam and finishes with the chorus from the demo. The last part of the song is listed on the Science Fiction album as "I've Written Home to Mother", while the instrumental jam section is listed as "For Alice" or "An Instrumental".
Production
Cooper and Dennis Dunaway were fond of the musical film West Side Story, and quotes from the film appear in the song "Still No Air" ("got a rocket in your pocket", "when you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way); another quote gives the album its title.{{sfn|Reynolds|2016|p=112}}
Release and reception
{{Music ratings
|rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide
|rev2Score = C{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: C|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=C&bk=70|access-date=February 23, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}
}}
The album appeared in 1970 with a cover on which the band posed turned away from the camera, their uncovered backs exposed except where covered with their long hair. A radio commercial that accompanied the album's release touted the band as "unisex, raw, together, and violent—just like you, fellow American".{{sfn|Reynolds|2016|p=112}}
The staff of Rolling Stone did not like the album, stating that "there's nothing nearly that interesting" and that "the pretty stuff sounds like something Walt Disney had the good sense to leave in the can".{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/easy-action-19700416 |title=Easy Action by Alice Cooper |publisher=Wenner Media |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=April 16, 1970 |access-date=July 6, 2011 |author=Rolling Stone staff}} Robert Christgau, in The Village Voice, rated it a C, explaining that it has very few of the "pseudo-decadent and -psychedelic charms" shown on Pretties for You, along with "tuneless singing, tuneless playing, tuneless tunes, and pseudo-musique concrete".{{cite web |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=alice+cooper |title=Consumer Guide Reviews: Alice Cooper |publisher=Robertchristgau.com |work=The Village Voice |access-date=July 6, 2011 |author=Christgau, Robert}}
The music showed little of the hard rock the band became famous for. The songs on its first two albums are more reminiscent of the pop-rock and psychedelia of bands such as mid-1960s the Who and Jefferson Airplane. They failed to find an audience and sold poorly. The group moved to the Detroit area (Pontiac, Michigan), and with the next album, Love It to Death, producer Bob Ezrin had them strip down their sound and simplify the songwriting. That album and its first single, "I'm Eighteen", were the first in a string of big successes.{{sfn|Reynolds|2016|p=113}}
Legacy
AllMusic's Joe Viglione feels that the album "might be the perfect picture of an evolving Alice Cooper Group". And that it "gives evidence that Cooper has more of a voice than he got credit for". He concludes by saying: "That this band could run the gamut from [Frank] Zappa to [David] Bowie, and perhaps inspired both, makes Easy Action a good study and entertaining record."{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r4540|label=Easy Action - Alice Cooper|first=Joe|last=Viglione|access-date=July 6, 2011}}
Track listing
{{Track listing
| all_writing = Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith
| headline = Side one
| title1 = Mr. & Misdemeanor
| length1 = 3:05
| title2 = Shoe Salesman
| length2 = 2:38
| title3 = Still No Air
| length3 = 2:32
| title4 = Below Your Means
| length4 = 6:41
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side two
| title5 = Return of the Spiders
| length5 = 4:33
| title6 = Laughing at Me
| length6 = 2:12
| title7 = Refrigerator Heaven
| length7 = 1:54
| title8 = Beautiful Flyaway
| length8 = 3:02
| title9 = Lay Down and Die, Goodbye
| length9 = 7:36
}}
Personnel
;Alice Cooper band
- Alice Cooper – vocals
- Glen Buxton – lead guitar
- Michael Bruce – rhythm guitar, piano, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Beautiful Flyaway" and "Below Your Means"
- Dennis Dunaway – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Neal Smith – drums, backing vocals
with:
- David Briggs – piano on "Shoe Salesman"
External links
- {{MusicBrainz release group|id=1543c3bf-6edf-354c-b0f1-f3274e74bbf2|name=Easy Action}}
References
{{Reflist|20em}}
=Works cited=
{{Refbegin|40em}}
- {{cite book
|editor1-last = Brackett
|editor1-first = Nathan
|editor1-link = Nathan Brackett
|editor2-last = Hoard
|editor2-first = Christian David
|title = The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
|url = https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac
|url-access = registration
|page = [https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/n24 11]
|year = 2004
|publisher = Simon & Schuster
|isbn = 978-0-7432-0169-8
|chapter = Alice Cooper
}}
- {{cite book
|last = MacDonald
|first = Bruno
|editor-last = Buckley
|editor-first = Peter
|title = The Rough Guide to Rock
|url = https://archive.org/details/roughguidetorock00roug
|url-access = registration
|year = 2003
|publisher = Rough Guides
|isbn = 978-1-85828-457-6
|pages = [https://archive.org/details/roughguidetorock00roug/page/224 224]–225}}
- {{cite book
|last = Hoffmann
|first = Frank
|chapter = Cooper, Alice (4 Feb 1948–)
|editor-last = Hoffmann
|editor-first = Frank
|title = Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-FOSAgAAQBAJ
|year = 2004
|publisher = Routledge
|isbn = 978-1-135-94950-1
}}
- {{cite book
|last = Konow
|first = David
|title = Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZyBtHRq2ncQC
|year = 2009
|publisher = Crown Publishing Group
|isbn = 978-0-307-56560-0
}}
- {{cite book
|last = Miles
|first = Barry
|title = Frank Zappa
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=A5jCBAAAQBAJ
|year = 2014
|publisher = Atlantic Books
|isbn = 978-1-78239-678-9
}}
- {{cite book
|last = Reynolds
|first = Simon
|title = Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TDfnDAAAQBAJ
|year = 2016
|publisher = Faber & Faber
|isbn = 978-0-571-30173-7
}}
{{Refend}}
{{Alice Cooper}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Albums produced by David Briggs (producer)
Category:Straight Records albums