Me, Alice: The Autobiography of Alice Cooper

by Alice Cooper, Steven Gaines

'Me, Alice' is the very hard to find Alice biography 'as told to Steven Gaines'. It has been out of print since at least 1977 and was never published outside the USA.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Memoir

254 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier) is an American rock singer, songwriter and broadcaster whose career spans more than five decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock.

Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album Love it to Death, which was followed by the even bigger single "School's Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.

Furnier's solo career as Alice Cooper, adopting the band's name as his own name, began with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare. In 2008 he released Along Came a Spider, his 18th solo album. Expanding from his original Detroit rock roots, over the years Cooper has experimented with many different musical styles, including conceptual rock, art rock, glam metal, hard rock, new wave, pop rock, soft rock, experimental rock, heavy metal, and industrial rock. In recent times he has returned more to his garage rock roots.

Alice Cooper is known for his social and witty persona offstage, The Rolling Stone Album Guide going so far as to refer to him as the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer". He helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and has been credited as being the person who "first introduced horror imagery to rock'n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre". Away from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur and, since 2004, a popular radio DJ with his classic rock show Nights with Alice Cooper.

On VH1's "100 Greatest artists of Hard Rock", Cooper was ranked #20.

Reviews

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book with the slight caution that, once you've read it, you will be suspicious of anyone offering you a jelly donut.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most kids steal a piece of candy or trading cards, this book is the one thing I admit to having stolen. I was a teen living in Phoenix and I was obsessed with Alice Cooper. This book was long out of print, so I took it from the Phoenix library. I did pay for it when they called. :) It was a phenominal look at Alice's life, from the inside and very in depth. Very enjoyable.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of almost all Alice Cooper's music, but I honestly don't care much for Alice Cooper the man until sometime in the mid-90's. If nothing else, this book shows how much Alice has matured in the intervening years. These days, Alice is something of an enigma--his stage persona is completely opposite from his real-life personality. In ME, ALICE, however, Alice portrays himself as being just the sort of debauched rock personality that his conservative-minded critics made him out to be.
This book is long out-of-print, and it's pretty easy to see why. No doubt the present-day Alice Cooper is embarrassed and possibly shamed by his 1970's counterpart. ME, ALICE is a vapid, self-indulgent account of rock star excess. While the present-day Alice Cooper is known for demonstrating admirable restraint in both his professional and personal lives, the Alice Cooper of the 1970's can't wait to inform readers of his peculiar masturbatory habits and share with them intricate details of his boob-fondling experiences as a teenager. The quality of writing in this book varies from childish to awful, so I was surprised to see that Alice had worked on it with a co-author.
Now that Alice has released a much more current and readable autobiography (entitled GOLF MONSTER), there is very little reason to invest your time in ME, ALICE.
And I say that as a huge Alice Cooper fan who went into the book expecting to love it.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think there's a good reason why this is so hard to find and so very expensive if you do. I can't blame Alice for trying to snuff it out of existence. I read this a couple times in college (I'm now in my early 50s) and I'm still the biggest Alice fan of anybody I know, by far. I reread this in the past few days and I got a different perspective on it which wasn't surprising and I can see why the author likely has too. This is filled with much sexual promiscuity, an ocean of alcoholism, drug use and the whole impoverished dirty hippie life of the late '60s. I realize this should be expected but I can also understand why he'd rather let this writing be part of his unspoken past and although I haven't read his newer auto bio, I'm confident he's changed a whole lot for the better-certainly the alcoholism which is common knowledge. I feel a little bad about the 1 star review of one of my life long rock music favorites. There are sections where it's interesting and good, but to me, that's pretty much just as it pertains to the actual music and music business. I could do without the hoards of groupies and illicit sex, etc. which I found mostly disgusting. Of course, I'm not in college in my early 2o's anymore, nor is Alice 27 anymore, the age when he wrote this. If nothing else, it can be a testimony of self improvement.

[Mark Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing, self-congratulatory story of the band's rise to fame. I would have liked more about how they made the transition from a second-rate, unfocused psychedelic shambles to a first-rate rock band. But there's plenty of debauchery to keep the plot moving.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in college, and not since. This is one I'd like to revisit to see if my take on it the 1st time has changed. Alice recounts the early days of his career, along with the alcohalism that nearly ended him. Frank Zappa, hippies, sex, drugs, and, of course, rock and roll abound in this autobiography. Also, the origin of the name "Alice Cooper" is revealed. Perhaps it was my young age at the time, but this book has never really left me. Check it out.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've heard about this book for a while and could never figure out why it was out of print, and why it was never reprinted given the iconic status of Alice. Reading it, I can see why Alice wanted this buried. It doesn't paint a very flattering image of Coope which makes you wonder just how drunk he was during the creation of it. Sure, you get the beginnings of the band, but Cooper comes off sleazy, and not very likable. It's almost as if the ghostwriter urged Alice to be as dirty as possible to sell a few copies of the book.

There aren't very many aspects of the book that are all that good. The book itself isn't even worth the going rate of seven hundred dollars because it's only a partial biography that skimps out on a lot of important details, but does give you a lot of insight into Cooper's sex life and there's even a bit of detail about his alcohol abuse which really comes into play later in his career. The Alice presented here isn't someone you really like or feel like you want to know.

Those blackout albums are a few years after this book was completed, and at the time of its creation, we really didn't need a bio. The Alice tours and albums were really all we needed. If the book had been released on a larger scale it may have done more harm than good. If you're a fan and you see this for a cheap price, you should buy it, and promptly burn it. If you want a real honest look at who Alice is, you should read Golf Monster which I plan on reading once I finish this review.

[Robert Waterman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this probably 25 years ago. Been so long I can't remember a lot about it, but bits and pieces stuck with me. Like how he got really sick as a child from poking a dead cow with a stick. And how much he used to drink and how he overcame it. I would like to reread it if I could ever find it.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I was lucky enough to get the chance to read it because it was actually at my local library. If you get the chance, definitely read it!

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and funny, this is a lesson in how to write a good autobiography. You require some fascinating material, such as turning down some executive entertainment with Janis Joplin.

It is difficult to follow at times but no surprise if details were not always clearly recalled.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Alice Cooper autobiography that came out while he was still in the Alice Cooper Band, prior to rehab.

[Ray Daley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly entertaining, well worth the read

[mcfly 1982 · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're going to read any book on Alice Cooper this is the 1.

[Nicole Gelino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Alice Cooper.

[Think-On-It]

If you'd like to know what I thought of this book, please contact me directly and I'd be happy to discuss it with you.

All the best,

- TB

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok read, pretty much what I expected, shame it finished half way through his career.

[Shaun]

The Coop is as interesting as they get.