Alice Cooper – Easy Action – 1970
Just like Alice Coopers first album Pretties for You Easy Action was released by Frank Zappa’s Straight Records. It’s really hard to say what’s really the truth. But the first two albums were released at least, that’s a fact. Both albums are pretty out there in my opinion but Easy Action is more settled down than its predecessor. And of course, compared to the great late Frank Zappa himself, this is very easy listening. Everything is about perspective, it depends on your baseline and what you choose to use as a reference.
Compared to other music from the era this might be harder to understand. But we also need to remember that this came out when the Doors and other psychedelic band where big on the musical scene. Compared to that you might argue that this is quite normal music.
In any case, this isn’t really my bag of tea. I find it slightly better than the previous album but Easy Action is still too far out there for my tastes. There are saving graces though. The opening Mr. And misdemeanor is great and is the one song where you can hear an embryo of the sound the band later would adopt. There is a genius line in there by the way. I don’t know if it’s intentional or but taste this line – “Here’s new pretties for you”. A stroke of genius!
Some of the songs on this album are quite long. That’s common when it comes to psychedelic rock of course. But seen from a more straight forward rock perspective, 6-7 minutes must be seen as epic from this time period. In my opinion the Alice Cooper band wasn’t exceptionally until their next album but as a music historian this is an absolute must to own!
