Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!: My Adventures In The Alice Cooper Group

Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!: My Adventures In The Alice Cooper Group

A hair-raising backstage memoir of the Alice Cooper Group, from the bassist and co-songwriter, co-written by the journalist who first covered the band for Rolling Stone, with an all new introduction by Alice Cooper."Before the world heard of KISS, the New York Dolls, Marilyn Manson, or Ozzy Osbourne, there was Alice Cooper, the original shock-rock band." -Rock and Roll Hall of FameAs teenagers in Phoenix, Dennis Dunaway, bassist and co-songwriter for the Alice Cooper group, and lead singer Vince Furnier (who would later change his name to Alice Cooper) formed a hard-knuckles band that played prisons, cowboy bars, and teens clubs. Their wild, impossible journey took them from Hollywood to the ferocious Detroit music scene, and along the way they discovered the utterly original performance style and look that would make them the stuff of legend.Speaking out for the first time about his adventures in the Alice Cooper group, Dunaway reveals a band that was obsessed with topping themselves, with their increasingly outlandish shows and ever-blackening reputation. Dunaway takes readers into back rooms, behind brainstorming sessions, and into the most exclusive parties of the 1970s, revealing the talent, drama, and characters that drove two teenagers to create what would become America's highest-grossing act.From struggling for recognition to topping the charts with a string of hits including "I'm Eighteen," "School's Out," and "No More Mr. Nice Guy," the Alice Cooper group was entertaining, outrageous, and one of a kind.Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! is a riveting account of the band's creation in the '60s, their strange glory in the '70s, and the legendary characters they met along the way. Review ?Dennis vividly details in the first person how the Alice cooperative of five endearingly misfit pioneering adolescents put the Woodstock generation to rest.? ?Huffington Post?A visit to the magical, blood-spattered world of the Alice Cooper Group, courtesy of Dunaway, the band's bassist, co-songwriter and "theatrical conceptionalist."... the book is more than just an homage to his old friend; it's a love letter to an era... An affectionate, sharp-eyed memoir.? ?Kirkus Reviews?I still consider Dennis Dunaway to be one of my best friends. Dennis is one of the few true surrealists that I've ever met?.This book carries on in Dennis' own private surrealistic world.? ?Alice Cooper?If you think you've heard all the Alice Cooper stories, think again...Though Alice was the iconic face of the band, Dunaway was the brains behind many of their best-known songs...It's safe to say that, without Dunaway, the group's now-legendary look and sound would have been vastly different. There might not even have been an Alice Cooper.? ?Village Voice?A wonderfully detailed memoir? ?Connecticut Post?Dennis tells the story from the inside out with wit and wisdom and adds brilliantly to the Alice Cooper Group mythos. There may be many versions of this story, but Dennis' is one of the most colorful, insightful and entertaining!? ?Bob Ezrin, record producer?Dennis Dunaway's book brought me right back to those days in Laurel Canyon. So many times, people ask me ?what was it like in the 60's?' I give them a blank stare and say ?if you can remember it, you weren't there' or ?uh, I forget,' or ?it was great'?Well now I'll just tell them to read Dennis' book.? ?Robby Krieger, song-writer and guitarist for the Doors.?The fact that it historically chronicles one of the greatest hard rock bands of all time is just icing on the cake? ?Classic Rock Revisited?For a fan of the Alice Cooper band, as I have been since my adolescence in the 1970s, Cooper bassist Dennis Dunaway's first-hand account of the group's humble beginnings, heady triumphs and arguably inevitable implosion is gripping stuff.? ?Michael J. Fox, New York Times bestselling author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future?Steve Martin once said ?Those French have a different word