It was brought to my attention yesterday that Monday, November 27th was the 46th anniversary of the release of Alice Cooper’s 4th album, Killer.
Why is that noteworthy you may ask? 
It was sometime in 1972, at the age of 12, that while shopping with my grandparents that I purchased my first LP. Yes, it was Killer. (To be completely honest, I bought two albums that day, the other being Black Sabbath, Paranoid)
I proudly took them home and began the ritual unknown to kids today; I listened to side 1 and then side two, while reading the liner notes and starting to memorize the words to each song. This was a time-honored tradition for my generation.
Unfortunately, it was not a tradition of my parent’s generation and once my parents heard the music, two things happened almost simultaneously. First, my mother took the records to hold until we returned them to the record department at Two-Guys Department store in Union, NJ. Second, she called the church and asked for a priest to come over to exorcise the demons that she believed found their way into her son’s soul.
I am just kidding about the priest, but my parents believed I was starting down a path that would have a bad ending. To say Cooper was not very popular with parents would be an understatement.
The records were returned only to be re-purchased a month or so later. I had been bitten by the bug.
After all those years, Alice is a committed Christian, a recovered, sober alcoholic, a ranked golfer on the ProAm tour, a very wealthy man, and a philanthropist. My mom’s fears were for not.
Anyway, Alice, currently 69 years old, is still touring and the lineup he has now is probably the best ever. There is the triple guitar attack of Ryan Roxie, Nita Strauss and Tommy Henriksen, Chuck Garric on bass guitar and Glen Sobel is behind the drum kit.
Under My Wheels was one of two hits from this record. The performance below was filmed in Birmingham, AL in May of 2017.
Old guys still can rock.
What was the first record you ever bought?
Mitigating Chaos 
I remember when my youngest was going through her ‘Emo’ phase and parents were cautioning me about the dark spiral she was undoubtedly on, reading that a high proportion of very successful people have been the ‘Emos’ of their time …. in the 70s it would involve Alice and later on British Punk then bands like Joy Division and so on. I felt exonerated for allowing her to be who she felt she was. Now aged 22 and with a first class degree in Fine Arts she works in a bank by day and talks about the promotion ladder and volunteers taking parcels and talking to the homeless of Liverpool by night. She has many roads ahead but I do believe her Emo phase was a good not a bad thing 🙂
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Like Mick Jagger used to say, “It’s only rock n roll, but I like it”
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I think my first record was something by Pat Boone…I am a bit older than you. Buddy Holly was just coming to the forefront of his brief career and lived only 30 miles away. A class mate was his drummer but could not make the fateful trip because he was only 16. His mother said ‘next year’.
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Always listen to mother ❤️
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My musical tastes were much tamer than yours and I’m embarrassed to say that I think my first album was Barry Manilow! Possibly Peter Frampton which is a little better. I miss liner notes, cover art, and listening to an album in the order it was meant to be heard. I remember when “wanna come over and play records?” was a common invitation among friends.
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Did you try to play the records backwards to hear the hidden messages? Me and my friends never figured out how to do that.
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No, but reversing the polarity on the turntable motor might get the job done.
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