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List Price: $5.98 | | Label: Rhino Flashback
Salesrank: 10432
Released: November 11, 2008 |
| Our Price: $2.12 |
| Used Price: $2.97 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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School's Out Track Listing:
1. School's Out
2. Luney Tune
3. Gutter Cat vs. The Jets
4. Street Fight
5. Blue Turk
6. My Stars
7. Public Animal #9
8. Alma Mater
9. Grande Finale
Editorial Review:
Great collection at a great price.
Description of School's Out:
Alice Cooper used to claim he wrote entire albums worth of lyrics in an afternoon with the TV on. True or not, whatever led to moments of ultraclarity such as "We got no class / And we got no principles / And we got no innocence / We can't even think of a word that rhymes" should be bottled and force-fed to Marilyn Manson. School's Out (1972) is where Cooper's show-biz tendencies first fully flowered--"Gutter Cat Versus the Jets" more than nods to West Side Story and "Grande Finale" sounds like the band was trying to ace Elmer Bernstein out of a gig--but it also rocks hard, and most of the ambition-laden stuff (especially the epic "My Stars") really does work. Nasty and grande as they wanted to be. --Rickey Wright
School's Out Reviews:
one to blast on the last day of Class! 
2009-12-10 - School's Out is a classic! A must have for any Cooper fan. This album rocks with the best of them. Besides the title track, My Stars really rocks, and I love the West Side Story feel of Gutter Cat vs. The Jets ! Plus wrapping it all up in the concluding Grande Finale. School's Out is fun, listenable, a definate classic.
Something's wrong here 
2009-08-19 - Way back in my long gone youth I was a monstrous Alice Cooper fan. Up until the man and the band parted ways that is. After the band left I found the music to be a bit on the lame side. Now 37 years after the deliciously packaged vinyl was released I picked up this CD and to say the least I'm a bit disappointed - there's something wrong here...something missing. I know that this was Cooper's first "theatrical" release where the show replaced the shock value of the previous two recordings and the music isn't nearly as exciting as it was on "Killer" or "Love It To Death" but that's not what's missing. What's vacant is the sound...the depth. The mix seems to be off on this CD. The title track sounds great, just like I remember it, but then it suddenly goes flat and hollow. The bass is missing and I find myself straining to hear the guitar work. It all seems to be drums and vocals. On top of that the darn thing just didn't age very well. Only "School's Out" and "Public Animal #9" are entertaining these days and the rest of the album seems to be comprised of filler or throwaway material. In retrospect I guess the original album packaging (with the panties and the school desk) was better than the music it contained and I'm a bit confused as to why they didn't even bother to reproduce the original cover on this CD - they could have easily given us a photo of the inside of the desk to reminisce over though I admit a 5 inch pair of panties just wouldn't be too impressive. For the price though I suppose that it's worth the price but that's a very hesitant "I suppose".
school's out 
2009-08-11 - even after 35 years die-hard alice fans still argue over which alice cooper album is the best - proving that alice's music touches people on a very personal level. about the only thing they probably do agree on is that the alice cooper group belong in the rock and roll hall of fame (true) and alice the solo artist hasn't made a decent album since "welcome to my nightmare" (not true). while we all hold our breath for a long overdue reunion, we can take comfort in the fact that @61, alice still performs most of his classics on tour and with each new studio release proves that he at least still has a sense of humor.
alice cooper's fifth release, "school's out" opens with one of the best rock anthems of all time. not only does it have a great opening riff and bass line, it contains the classic lyric "we can't even think of a word that rhymes". the song served as the battle cry for millions of teenagers for the next seven years until another bob ezrin produced single, "another brick in the wall" by pink floyd became a #1 single in 1979.
the best packaged lp of the year, "school's out" was a disappointing departure from the heaviness of "killer" and overshadowed by the huge title hit. which is a shame because this often overlooked gem is a great rock album, albeit with a jazzy flair. it featured some of michael bruce and glen buxton's best work with excellent fuzz guitar throughout as well as the addition of great keyboards. although the obvious tribute to "west side story" is not well received by all, "gutter cat vs the jets" has its merits and "blue turk" has got to be one of the most interesting songs in cooper's catalog. i even liked "grand finale". the rockers are "my stars" (guest guitarist dick wagner) and "public animal #9" which ends with a growl that is pure alice. falling into the love it or hate it category - "alma mater" is a rare neal smith treat about their old high school and features the memorable line "remember the coop".
the "school's out" tour featured the same "killer" props as before with alice's pet boa and being hung every night on the gallows. thousands of paper panties were dropped onto the audience from a helicopter before the hollywood bowl show. todd rundgren was the opening act (partial tour). -- set list: instrumental intro/public animal #9/caught in a dream/under my wheels/be my lover/i'm eighteen/is it my body/halo of flies/gutter cat vs the jets/street fight/killer/long way to go/school's out
released june 1972 it reached #2 usa and #4 uk -- single: school's out b/w gutter cat vs the jets (#7) - the first single in the us released in a picture sleeve
every alice cooper album has great songs that never made radio. it's not the hits, but the deeper cuts that are the real black beauties... blinddog pick: my stars / luney tune / blue turk
Pow!
2009-07-22 - In June of 1972, just as high school was closed for the summer, this Junior marched right out on the day this was released and plunked down a fraction of my first week's summer wages. I had been enthralled by the previous year's Killer album, especially the dead man walking coda/title track. Both albums, Love It To Death and Killer were a new breed of hard rock from a close friend of Jim Morrison. The difference being that Morrison took himself extremely seriously, and David Fernier considered his band a show act and their music a prop for entertainment. Schools Out took a new direction with just a little exercising from Easy Action, a little known previous effort two years earlier. When I brought the album home I was immediately satisfied that this dark glam-rock group had taken the next step into artistic creativity. First of all, the album cover was a reasonable facsimile of the old time lift-top student desks (they still existed in some rooms of my high school) heavily carved up and sporting the carved initials of the members of the band Alice Cooper. This was the fifth band album and would be the second to last before David went solo and kept the name Alice Cooper as his own personal stage name. When you lifted the "lid" to the album cover desk, what should appear but a vinyl album wrapped in a pink pair of girl's panties, oh this was going to be good! The interior of the album was rendered into pens and pencils, sundry school supplies and the gadgets and gizmos and joke paraphernalia of most acne laden boys in those days.
Now on to the music. School's Out, as an album, a complete conceptual piece, is both a satirical teenage angst work of comedic art, and an homage to Bernstein and Sondheim's classic West Side Story, a musical dearly loved by David Fernier and referenced before in Easy Action, that title and snippet in the album being a spoken line in the musical ("Action" is one of the Jet's gang members) and "easy, Action!" is a line delivered to calm him down during the performance of Keep Cool Boy. School's Out also sports some lyrics from Easy Action, now re-written into a better system of delivery. School's Out is not the rampaging rock of albums that came before it. Yes there is some dirty-grungy music typical of the Cooper stylings, but this album fronts some highly experimental music, even by Alice Cooper standards. The title track only introduces us to the voyage about to be undertaken. Yes it was a Top-10 ticket for the band and became a "teenage anthem" long before Another Brick In The Wall Part Two, but the purpose it serves as an album opener should be thought of as opening credits music to a juvenile delinquent passion play.
And so the fun begins. Looney Tune is a gore-fest story of suicidal youth and mental lockdown, heavy on bass and rhythm and David singing in his lower register with just a hint of maniacal edge. The bass and drum work with lead guitar cuts gets a nice atmospheric effect when the bridge asks "is this all real, is this all necessary, or is this a joke?" Well we all know Alice and can answer that question! It's a nice shuffle-rocker piece that is unnerving without screaming or pounding.
Those familiar with Pink Floyd's The Wall are undoubtedly familiar with the name Bob Ezrin who laid a heavy hand down on that work's orchestrations as co-producer. Bob's early work as "the producer's producer" came with Alice Cooper's Love It To Death, Killer, and School's Out. I bring it up here because beginning with the third track, School's Out takes a very Ezrin-ish voyage, calling up orchestral, brass, symphonic, chorals, and film/Broadway sound tracking. Tracks 3 and 4 (originally together on the vinyl record), Gutter Cat Versus The Jets and Street Fight are a huge send-up to West Side Story. A comical tale of juvenile delinquency captured in a cat gang and a hormonal tomcat out looking for feline fatales, they romp into the territory of The Jets and what ensues is cat-scratching, meowing, and injured tails. The synthesizer keys hold that introductory note, when the song segues into Bernstein territory and anyone with the slightest familiarization with West Side Story knows what's coming. It's pure delight for those of us whose musical taste transcends genre and who can kick it to everything from garage bands to Wagner. Alice Cooper Band are a very talented group of musicians and whether you think them the dark harbingers of Black Sabbath or the Monty Python of hard rock, they could press many instruments and styles into service as needed. The Street Fight is followed by another West Side Story parallel, but one not so obvious.
Blue Turk is a thinly veiled teenage lament of young lust and sex. The euphemisms used by David in his lyrics, and Michael Bruce in his synth and organ playing are diametrically opposite to the sweet and innocent love portrayed by Tony and Maria in the musical. There, love was a thing of beauty and softness. Here, Alice Cooper courts the dirty side, and infantile lust with blues lyrics and bent unerringly towards a beatnik jazz jam that thrills and spikes and blows. Lusty horns and guitar picking are reminiscent of the early works of Alvin Lee and Ten Years After before they became a "rock" band. It's sweaty, grimy, beat, hip, and entirely entertaining and in my opinion, the highlight track of the entire album! Alice Cooper never sounded as formidably talented as they do on this piece, with its extended instrumental jams. Of course David returns before the end to make sure we understand the orgasmic and spasmodic coda. This song originally ended side one of the vinyl LP.
My Stars and Public Animal #9 returned the album to its rock roots with some fantastic piano progressions and tubular bells mixed right into the rock'n rhythm and after My Stars warps into a fitful psychedelic hammering, the hammering quickly becomes making license plates as Mr. Bluelegs escorts our juvenile delinquent to jail for being an incorrigible Public Animal #9.
The finale, appropriately enough, are the two songs Alma Mater and Grande Finale. Uncharacteristically for Alice Cooper, Alma Mater is one of the "sweetest" songs ever performed by them/him. Even "Only Women Bleed" has dark underpinnings, but Alma Mater is a tearful goodbye to High School complete with happy reminiscence and bittersweet joviality. It is also a nod to Cortez High School where David truly graduated from in Phoenix Arizona, and hence, the Old Western clippity clop music that segues Alma Mater to Grand Finale where once again Bob Ezrin raises his orchestral head, and once again the West Side Story homage returns for a finale "Pow!" and then it's over.
I purchased this CD two years ago and have finally gotten around to reviewing it now because I pulled it out again for a nostalgic revisit. I have it loaded on my computer and certain songs get played infrequently, so I wanted to experience the work as a whole again. At my age you can look at School's Out as being dated infantile humor or you can look at it as a slice of late 60's early 70's progressive rock experimentation. I prefer the latter and it goes well after a viewing of the deluxe remastered West Side Story on a stormy evening. The CD quality is very good, not fantastic but better than most re-issues from this period. The vinyl LP was one of the best produced and engineered albums of its day for sound quality and it carried over into the CD mastering. It is not muddy but there are a couple spots where I think frequency loss took place and one instrument ended up lost behind another. For the price though, it's excellent, and you can even find it from third party amazon merchants new and cheap. I would give this 4 and one half stars but not so low as four so I am forced to give it five. Enjoy!
Disappointing remaster from Audio Fidelity 
2009-04-29 - Has the Huffman lost his touch, or is being a celebrity wanabee going to his head? It is very doubtful that this is from the original analog master tapes, and even the liners are very vague on the source used. Sonics tell the tale. There is lots of definition and detail, excellent separation, and as good a soundstage as this can have. But it still sounds digital, unlike the earlier Huffman remasterings for the defunct DCC. Clarity is favored over warmth, and the high end - cymbals in particular - sound bright and exhibit digititis.
Not a bad remaster at all, and betters the stock Warners CD. But not up to the standards of DCC, or for that matter, anywhere close to what the Mobile Fidelity true analog, and true original master standard is.
Not worth the money. Message to Huffman - upgrade your digital front end, and stick to original analog master tapes.
