Top 5 Rare Alice Cooper Songs

Let’s face it – when a band or artist releases a new album, the singles are never as good as the deep cuts. In the cases where a deluxe edition is released with a bonus track or two, even those songs end up sounding competitive to what made it on the album, leaving fans to question why those that didn’t make the cut got left on the cutting room floor. With all the albums that shock rocker Alice Cooper has released over his 54-year career, he has also been a member of this club, having released several bonus tracks or even demos that were left for the hardcore fans to discover. Being released in this fashion inevitably leaves songs like these to fall into obscurity, so before Cooper’s performance in Wilmington, NC this Thursday, October 5, let’s take a look at a few songs that deserve some more shine.

5. “I’ll Still Be There” (Along Came a Spider Bonus Track, 2008)

A natural when it comes to conceptual albums, Alice Cooper’s 2008 slasher tale Along Came a Spider follows a serial killer named Spider who wraps his victims in silk and rips a leg off each of them in an attempt to construct a human spider. There’s a twist that he falls in love with the eighth victim, putting his project on hold, as well as some connections to his 1975 classic Welcome to My Nightmare, and Along Came a Spider ended up being his highest-charting album domestically since 1991’s Hey Stoopid. The iTunes-only deluxe edition and eventual 2010 physical CD re-release included the bonus tracks “Shadow of Yourself,” “I’ll Still Be There,” and an unplugged version of album cut “Salvation.” Both original tracks are solid in their own right, but in the context of the rest of the album, “I’ll Still Be There” is a slightly better fit, and could comfortably be a bit of a cliffhanger to set up a sequel – Cooper was actually working on a sequel, called “The Night Shift,” with the album being written but not recorded, with Welcome 2 My Nightmare being made instead. Now 15 years since the first installment, hopefully the Along Came a Spider follow-up sees the light of day eventually.

4. “The Sharpest Pain” (Dirty Diamonds Bonus Track, 2005)

Like its 2003 predecessor The Eyes of Alice Cooper, 2005’s Dirty Diamonds had a bit of a garage rock sound akin to the days of the original Alice Cooper band. Songs like the title track and “Woman of Mass Distraction” have been live favorites over the years, and Cooper still fits them in the setlist every now and then, but the most impactful track from these sessions may be one that didn’t even make the cut. Available as a bonus track on European promo CDs, “The Sharpest Pain” is the lyrical antithesis to “Novocaine” from the Eyes album, but musically fits as if they’re connected. As a fan, it’s hard to know why this song didn’t make it onto the album, as it could’ve easily been swapped out with one of the tracks that did. While it suffers from the same fuzzy production as the rest of the album, it still stands as a solid Cooper song and a wonderful addition to his diverse repertoire of love songs.

3. “No Tricks” (“How You Gonna See Me Now” Single B-Side, 1978)

Alice Cooper’s 1978 epic From the Inside talks about his experiences and the people he met at the Cornell Medical Center in White Plains, NY while he was being treated for his alcoholism, and to this day is one of his best albums from a musical standpoint. The lyrically touching ballad “How You Gonna See Me Now” was the album’s most popular track, and was physically released as a 45 single – on the flip side was the song “No Tricks,” which didn’t appear on the full album. It’s a slower song without reaching full ballad territory, and Cooper’s vocal performance is one of the strongest out of the entire album sessions. With Betty Wright on guest vocals, the song is about how addicts will make promises that they're done with their vices but eventually revert back to them, which is thematically fitting with the rest of the album. 

2. “Under the Bed” (Welcome 2 My Nightmare Bonus Track, 2011)

Following up the concept of Welcome to My Nightmare over 35 years after the original, Welcome 2 My Nightmare had all sorts of releases all over the world with different bonus tracks on each one – there were live tracks from Cooper’s performance at the 2011 Download Festival, a cover of The Animals’ “We Gotta Get Outta This Place,” and two new originals “A Bad Situation” and “Under the Bed.” The former talks about Cooper’s worst nightmare of all (being stuck in a 9-5 job), and the latter is a realization that the main character is trapped in a nightmare again. “Under the Bed” could have been added to the album, finding a perfect home between the tracks “The Nightmare Returns” and “A Runaway Train,” or possibly even replacing “The Nightmare Returns” entirely. The verses build up to the chorus really well, and the chorus is an explosive cry for help from the main character as he doesn’t want to revisit the past. What’s even more fun for the hardcore fan is the sonic nods to Welcome to My Nightmare classics “The Black Widow” and the title track, making it even more bewildering as to why it wasn’t included on the full album.

1. “If Fourth Street Could Talk” (Hey Stoopid Outtake, 1991)

Alice Cooper’s Hey Stoopid is one of his most solid albums to date – released after the 1989 commercial hit album Trash, Hey Stoopid masters the glam rock sound while lyrically focusing on substance over style. The title track is an anti-suicide anthem, “Might As Well Be On Mars” is one of the greatest songs of Cooper’s entire catalog, and “Dangerous Tonight” is one of the best hard rock songs about vampires, to name just a few examples. With an album this great, there’s also a fair amount that was left on the back burner, such as the moody “It Rained All Night,” the hairspray-driven “Chemical Reaction,” and the hard-hitting “If Fourth Street Could Talk.” While the first two songs were eventually released in some capacity as bonus tracks on regional releases and anniversary reissues, “If Fourth Street Could Talk” only exists in demo form, which is a shame because of how much fun of a listen it is. Lyrically taking inspiration from his old stomping grounds of Detroit, MI, this song features one of Cooper’s most raw performances in his entire glam rock era (which may be enhanced by the fact that it’s a demo, in all honesty) – from start to finish, it’s just a wicked catchy and high-energy track that refuses to let off the gas.

Alice Cooper’s fall leg of his “Too Close for Comfort” Tour kicks off on October 4, and will continue until October 28. For full tour dates and tickets, click here.

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