Alice Cooper became known as the face of shock rock in the 1970s, but his all-time favorite album is a blues classic. Alice Cooper has never dabbled in the blues as a genre, but he still holds a special place in his heart for the music, and there is one CD in particular that stands out in his collection.
Because of his parents, Alice Cooper was exposed to the blues at a young age and has never lost his love for it. He has discussed several musicians that he likes in interviews over the years, and in a conversation with Forbes from 2020, he identified the album that everyone should listen to at least once in their lives.
The album he was referring to was the 1968 album, ‘Eli and the Thirteenth Confession‘ by singer Laura Nyro. He said, “That and her first album, you listen and there’s not one mistake anywhere on it. And you sit there and go, ‘That’s songwriting.’ The other one is maybe Burt Bacharach’s Greatest Hits. Every single song is perfect, absolutely perfect.”
“You listen to that and it’s like listening to the Beatles. There are only two people I can think of that write perfect songs. That’s the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. Laura Nyro’s stuff was so personal, but it was so well written and so well sung.”
“You listen to that and it’s like listening to the Beatles. There are only two people I can think of that write perfect songs. That’s the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. Laura Nyro’s stuff was so personal, but it was so well written and so well sung.”
Not only that, 10 years before in 2010, while choosing songs he would take to desert island, one of them was ‘Timer’ from the same album. At that time, he said, “Laura Nyro may be the most underrated songwriter of all time. But her first two albums, every song is a hit.”
“The second album ‘Eli and the Thirteenth Confession’ just crushed me, had me by the throat, like a Burt Bacharach, you know. So she was the female Burt Bacharach, that album, I worn it out ten times.”
