Legendary Rock Songs: I'M EIGHTEEN: ALICE COOPER.
Disc:Love It To Death.
Year:1971.
A generational anthem if ever there was one, we could say that “Im Eighteen” (released in April '71 as a single although it had been the b-side of the single “Caught in a Dream” released in November of the previous year) was the first great song of Alice Cooper's first great album. Finally the band, after two first albums (“Pretties For You” and “East Action”) still somewhat lost in psychedelia, the 60's halo and the long shadow of Frank Zappa, found its natural way of expression in hard rock and began to forge its theatrical concept of rock show.
“Love it to death (June '71) marked the band's first collaboration with producer Bod Wzrin, a rock King Midas, who helped turn the album into one of the masterpieces the band would record in the '70s. Ezrin himself remembers the first time he saw the band on stage at the Max Kansas City in New York and how impressed he was with the magnetism they gave off on stage.
Excited by the possibility of working for the band, he approached them and... the rest is history. The anecdote has precisely a great relation with this particular song; once locked in the studio with Ezrin, he quoted them a song called “I'm Edgy” that had caused him a special impact in the aforementioned show. We don't know if it was the producer's bad ear or Alice's bad communication (or maybe certain intoxicating alcoholic beverages that were clouding his tongue) but the fact is that they finally came to the conclusion that the song Bod was referring to was this “I'm Eighteen”.
The song had been born from a jam of the group seasoned with cheap wine under the initial name of “I wish i was eighteen again”. A desire to return to adolescence that ended up taking another turn through the lyrics of Mr. Vincet Fournier”, or in other words, Alice Cooper, who finally began to let his character take center stage in the storyline of some of his songs.
With his shrewd, intelligent and acid style, Alice based his work first on his criticism that an 18 year old boy could be drafted to serve in the army without having the right to vote, but he ended up writing, not without a touch of his characteristic humor and sharp sarcasm, a song of confusion and youthful frustration, of the feelings of a boy in the transition from boy to adult, of his questions and incomprehension in the face of his sudden conversion into a man in the eyes of society and the laws, a song of youthful confusion and frustration, of the sensations of a boy in the passage from child to adult, of his questions and his incomprehension before this sudden conversion into a man in the eyes of society and the laws, “I am in the middle without any plan, I am a boy and I am a man”.
My people I hope you like this work and well a great song of this incredible band like Alice with its unique and irreverent style. With nothing more to say I hope you like this editorial work.
