1978	From The Inside Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills The Quiet Room Nurse Rozetta Millie And Billie Serious How You Gonna See Me Now For Veronica's Sake Jackknife Johnny Inmates (We're All Crazy)

RECENSIONE A CURA DI ALDO MOSCATELLI

“From the inside” è un album molto amato da Alice Cooper, e a onor del vero, anche da numerosi fans. Per Alice rappresentò una sorta di diario personale dalla spiccata valenza catartica, nel quale ebbe modo di mettere a nudo se stesso e le proprie debolezze; l’intero lavoro ruota attorno ai ricordi della lunga degenza trascorsa in un istituto d’igiene mentale, nel quale Alice tentò di porre fine al proprio alcolismo. Se la dipsomania lo avrebbe perseguitato per almeno cinque, ulteriori anni, c’è da dire che da quell’esperienza il rocker statunitense riuscì comunque a trarre qualcosa di buono: un nuovo album, scritto assieme a Bernie Taupin (che sta a Elton John come Mogol sta a Battisti), anch’egli schiavo della bottiglia per anni.
In questo contesto, “From the inside” non sembra neanche un album di Alice: è infarcito di ballads, presenta un sound inoffensivo, è lontano anni luce dalle atmosfere tetre e sguaiate che permeavano album come “Killer” e “Billion dollar babies”, tende più verso il pop che verso il rock duro, sebbene questo album venga descritto nel noto sito inglese “Sickthings” come un “tour-de-force of slick hard rock” (devono aver ascoltato un altro album…).
Ci troviamo al cospetto di un lavoro coraggioso e innovativo, per Alice, e certamente valido, profondo ed emozionante sul piano lirico; sul versante strettamente musicale, invece, le cose vanno diversamente. Ma procediamo con ordine.
L’album viene battezzato dalla title track, introdotta da un basso slappato (terribilmente funky, e già qui si capisce che qualcosa di nuovo bolle in pentola) e dalla voce di Alice, che appare decisamente “addomesticata”, a tratti inoffensiva, come nel chorus. La produzione curata da David Foster non aiuta: la chitarra è in secondo piano, e il suono della batteria scandaloso (purtroppo sarà una costante all’interno dell’album). Va decisamente meglio con “Wish i were born in Beverly Hills”, non a caso uno dei pochi brani tratti da “From the inside” che ancora oggi Alice suona dal vivo con una certa regolarità; ottimo il riff rock’n’roll, nonché il ritornello alla Beach Boys; orribile la sezione ritmica, mentre il suono di chitarra è imperniato su di un AOR in stile Boston (sì, quelli di “More than a feeling”), che in quegli andava decisamente per la maggiore. Con “Quiet room” giunge la prima ballata, e fermo restando la validità di tutti i testi presenti in “From the inside”, c’è da dire che sul piano musicale una ballad come questa non brilla certo per originalità; l’intro piano-voce è decisamente melenso, e i controcanti in falsetto (alla Bee Gees) non agevolano la buona riuscita del brano. Con “Nurse Rozetta” Alice torna ad esplorare sonorità simil funk-rock, ma senza grande successo; si tratta del solito tempo medio che sale di velocità soltanto all’altezza del coro, peraltro poco convincente. Sempre meglio, tuttavia, della track numero cinque, la melliflua ballad “Millie and Billie”, ancora una volta ispirata da individui realmente conosciuti da Alice all’interno del già citato istituto (ma per questioni di privacy, naturalmente, vennero utilizzati nomi fittizi). La voce del vecchio Coop risulta moscia, ma non è nulla in confronto a quella di Marcy Levy, qui partner di Alice: un esperimento a due voci che non convince affatto, per un brano da dimenticare. Giunti alla sesta canzone, è ormai chiaro a tutti che l’album vuole alternare pezzi rock (o pseudo tali) a svenevoli ballate. Per fortuna “Serious” è un gradevole up-tempo che sembra anticipare un po’ certe sonorità del periodo “Constrictor”; ottimo il riffone portante di Rick Nielsen, chitarrista dei Cheap Trick. Peccato per la solita batteria, che anche in questa occasione sembra suonata da un lobotomizzato. “How you gonna see me now” è praticamente una lettera in note, scritta da Alice a sua moglie; toccante nelle liriche, pedissequa nello sviluppo melodico. La solita ballata, insomma. Con “For Veronica’s sake” torna prepotentemente a farsi sentire la chitarra elettrica, in un tempo medio che per certi versi ricorda la title track. Discreto il cantato, funzionale il ritornello, ma da un genio come Alice Cooper è sempre lecito attendersi qualcosa in più; si avverte, qui più che altrove, la mancanza di un assolo centrale. L’ultimo lento del lotto è “Jackknife Johnny”, introdotto da una delicata chitarra acustica; probabilmente si tratta del lento migliore, anche se in questa occasione ritorna l’irritante controcanto femminile di Marcy Levy. A metà brano fa capolino anche un hammond anni Sessanta. La conclusione dell’album è affidata a “Inmates (we’re all crazy)”: l’intro orchestrale ci presenta la canzone più strutturata di “From the inside”, il cui modello di riferimento è chiaramente “Bat out of hell” di Meat Loaf (grande cantante col quale Alice reciterà in “Roadie”). Molti cori, un po’ di sana follia, qualche buono spunto e il solito testo incentrato sul tema dell’alienazione mentale: conclusione convincente per un album altalenante sul piano qualitativo.
Per concludere: “From the inside” è un album che piacerà senza remore a chi predilige il lato intimista e soft di Alice Cooper, e troverà pane per i propri denti fra le varie ballate e le grandi aperture melodiche dei brani pop-rock. Chi invece apprezza soprattutto il lato più duro, sporco e selvaggio di Alice, avvertirà quasi certamente una generale mancanza di “cattiveria” all’interno delle varie composizioni, e preferirà puntare la propria attenzione sugli album maggiormente aggressivi presenti nella sconfinata discografia cooperiana.

From The Inside

I got lost on the road somewhere
Was it Texas or was it Canada
Drinking whiskey in the morning light
I work the stage all night long
At first we laughed about it
My long haired drunken friends
Proposed a toast to Jimmy's ghost
I never dreamed that I would wind up on the losing end

I'm stuck here on the inside looking out
I'm just another case
Where's my makeup where's my face on the inside

All got your kicks from what you saw up there
Eight bucks even buys a folding chair
I was downing seagrams on another flight
And I worked that stage all night long
You were screaming for the villain up there
And I was much obliged
The old road sure screwed me good this time
It's hard to see where the vicious circle ends

I'm stuck here on the inside looking out
That's no big disgrace
Where's my makeup where's my face on the inside

Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills

She looked so sleek and sassy
Rolling down Rodeo Drive
She got her daddy's black Corniche
And her tennis pro by her side

And she wants her mother's lover
To exercise her skill
And if she don't score him fast
She knows that her brother will

Oh I wish I were born in Beverly Hills
I swear I couldn't drink half as much as she spills
I want to live it up get my kicks and thrills
Be a gigolo lover and send her the bills

She says that she's an actress
Just never got a part
Now she's a teenage mess
With a burned out Gucci heart

She cracked one day at Cartier
When things came to a head
They put her trinkets away
And wrapped her up instead

Oh I wish I were born in Beverly Hills
I swear I couldn't drink half as much as she spills
I want to live it up get my kicks and thrills
Be a gigolo lover and send her the bills

She bit like a dog and she screamed like hell
"You ain't taking me to no padded cell
You better take all your hands off my high priced tail"

Oh I wish I were born in Beverly Hills
I swear I couldn't drink half as much as she spills
I want to live it up get my kicks and thrills
Be a gigolo lover and send her the bills

The Quiet Room

The California air
Your nightgown on the stairs
I remember every night
Scenes from home in the Quiet Room

How long have I been gone
Did winter kill the lawn
And all those polaroids you sent
Are on the wall in the Quiet Room

They've got this place
Where they've been keeping me
Where I can't hurt myself
I can't get my wrists to bleed
Just don't know why
Suicide appeals to me

The Quiet Room
Is sterilized and white
It's like a tomb
With just a moth stained naked night

Plastic forks and spoon
No laces in my shoes
They allknow what I tried to do
Outside the Quiet Room

This quiet place
It ain't so new to me
It's haunted atmosphere
Has heard so many scream
My home from home
My twilight zone
My strangest dream

My confidant
I have confessed my life
The Quiet Room
Knows more about me than my wife

They've got this place
Where they've been keeping me
Where I can't hurt myself
I just can't
I just can't get these damn wrists to bleed

A mattress on the floor
No handles on the door
I really need nothing here
I'm alone

Nurse Rozetta

I'm a shepherd for the pentecost
I got my scriptures and my wires crossed
I got no kids and I got no home
They want us holy men to live alone

Since I've been here for a little stay
I see Rozetta day by day
She turns my head makes me cough
I want to tear my collar off

I just can't sleep at night
Rozetta dressed in white
She's got the Devil's light
Shining in her eyes

Screamed my sermon damning sin and vice
When underneath I was a regular guy
My pulpit melted like a block of ice
When a bolt of lightning hit me from the sky

From my stretcher when they wheeled me in
I stared directly in the eyes of sin
Nurse Rozetta standing over me
And I was helpless as a man of God could be

Nurse Rozetta I won't let her
Catch me peering down her sweater
Fantasizing silk suspender on her thighs
Nurse Rozetta make me better
Secretly my eyes undress her
Let me feel your tongue depressor

I'm suddenly twice my size
My pants are all wet inside

She's so creative with a bar of soap
And so inventive with a stethoscope
To check my pulse she gotta hold my hand
I blow the fuse on the encephalogram

Satan sent her from the bowels of hell
I should have recognized old Jezbel
I surrendered to the urges felt
She popped the buckle on my bible belt

I just can't sleep at night
Rozetta dressed in white
She's got the Devil's light
Shining in her eyes

I'd lick her nylon seams
Like a hungry cat with cream
Oh what a vivid seam
And I can't hold back no more

Millie And Billie

Billie I wonder why are we insane
Will we ever get better
Will we stay the same
Billie I'm worried

Millie don't worry
No one knows our pain
Being in love is crazy not alone that way
I know you're worried today

God made love crazy so he wouldn't feel alone
He was thinking of us he was thinking of us
God made love crazy so he wouldn't feel so alone

Billie my mind seems to wander
To events of a night long ago
Driving alone with our guilt well concealed
In the trunk of your '68 Olds

Millie our world's an asylum
And our minds like you say ain't that straight
But you know and I know our passion's
Not deformed it's true to say
We'll love our lifetime

God made love crazy so he wouldn't feel alone
He was thinking of us he was thinking of us
God made love crazy so he wouldn't feel so alone

Billie I dream of our children
They're frightening and gruesome and sad
And I don't want them growing inside me
They're no price for the love that we have

Oh Millie oh Billie criminally insane
Oh Millie oh Billie

Oh Billie it's fresh in my memory
The night that it had to be done
You with your pick axe and scissors
And you with your shovel and gun

And I liked your late husband Donald
But such torture his memory brings
All sliced up and sealed tight in baggies
Guess love makes you do funny things

Oh Millie oh Billie criminally insane
Oh Millie oh Billie

Serious

When I look back at my time at the track
And I played and I played and I played and I was
Shooting the craps at the back of Fat Jack's
Come on fade me Jake
I'm a Las Vegas dreamer they took to the cleaners
A bath what a bath what a bath I'd take
A fish on a hook I was rattled and shook 'cause I lost my stake
I took that serious

All of my life was a laugh and a joke
And a drink and a smoke
And then I passed out on the floor
Again and again and again and again and again

I'm a gambling fool with a roll and cue
Wanna play wanna play wanna play with me
Put my ass on the line rubbed my nose in the grime
And they picked me clean
The chance and the game drove Old Silkly insane
What a pain what a strain on my brain it was
A fish on a hook I was rattled and shook 'cause I lost my stake
I took that serious

All of my life was a laugh and a joke
And a drink and a smoke
And then I passed out on the floor
Again and again and again and again and again

Serious it was serious oh so serious
Serious it was serious oh so serious

All of my life was a laugh and a joke
And a drink and a smoke
And then I passed out on the floor
Or a friend
Again and again and again and again and again

All of my life was a laugh and a joke
And a drink and a smoke
And then I passed out on the floor
Or a friend

Again and again and again and again and again and again
And again and again and again and again and again
And again and again

How You Gonna See Me Now

Dear darlin' surprised to hear from me?
Bet you're sittin' drinkin' coffee, yawnin' sleepily
Just to let you know
I'm gonna be home soon
I'm kinda awkward and afraid
Time has changed your point of view

[Chorus:]
How you gonna see me now
Please don't see me ugly babe
'Cause I know I let you down
In oh so many ways
How you gonna see me now
Since we've been on our own
Are you gonna love the man
When the man gets home

Listen darlin' now I'm heading for the west
Straightened out my head but my old heart is still a mess
Yes I'm worried honey
Guess that's natural though
It's like I'm waiting for a welcome sign
Like a hobo in the snow

[Chorus]

And just like the first time
We're just strangers again
I might have grown out of style
In the place I've been
And just like the first time
I'll be shakin' inside
When I walk in the door
There'll be no place to hide

[Chorus]

For Veronica's Sake

I got my name and number
I got my bed assigned
I got a dog in the city pound
That I left behind
I'm strapped down and wild-eyed
She's locked up in a pen
She needs somebody to feed her
And I'm her only friend

So for Veronica's sake I gotta get out of here
Yeah for Veronica's sake, she can get pretty weird
Yeah for Veronica's sake I gotta get myself out of here

We both been put in cages
We got our shots and tags
I got my sweatin' fist to shake
She's got her tail to wag
She has to bark and whimper
While I could scream and shout
The clock above the psycho ward
Says time is running out

So for Veronica's sake I gotta get out of here
Yeah for Veronica's sake, she can get pretty weird
Yeah for Veronica's sake I gotta get myself out of here

And I can see her howling all night at the lonely moon
They're going to give her the gas if I don't get there soon

I gotta get there soon

For Veronica's sake I gotta get out of here
Yeah for Veronica's sake, she can get pretty weird

Jackknife Johnny

From his army confessions of his military days
You still carry the shrapnel you're shell-shocked and dazed
Dear Johnny have you lost your way
Or like denim and leather are you faded and frayed

Institute lackies with hot bourbon breath
White coats and needles Johnny like to scare you to death
Dear Johnny do you feel your best
When you're strung out at night on your morphine and meth

Jackknife Johnny you're a floor moppin' flunkie
Tool of a dagger's drawn world
Jackknife Johnny them old vets gotta hate you
For bringing home that V.C. girl
Jackknife Johnny welcome to our world

From the tone deaf hearing of the draft board game
You were washing cars down in Dallas when the holocaust came
Dear Johnny your excuse was lame
All your friends sleep in boxes while you sleep in chains

Jackknife Johnny you're a bad jungle monkey
Tool of a dagger's drawn world
Jackknife Johnny them old vets gotta hate you
For bringing home that V.C. girl
Jackknife Johnny welcome to our world

Jackknife Johnny you're a floor moppin' flunkie
Tool of a dagger's drawn world
Jackknife Johnny them old vets gotta hate you
For bringing home that V.C. girl
Jackknife Johnny welcome to our world

Jackknife Johnny you're a bad jungle monkey
Tool of a dagger's drawn world
Jackknife Johnny them old vets gotta hate you
For bringing home that V.C. girl
Jackknife Johnny

Inmates (We're All Crazy)

It's not like we did something wrong
We just burned down the church
While the choir within sang religious songs
And it's not like we thought we was right
We just played with the wheels of a passenger train
That cracked on the tracks one night

It's not like we ain't on the ball
We just talk to our shrinks
Huh they talk to their shrinks
No wonder we're up the wall
We're not stupid or dumb
We're the lunatic fringe who rusted the hinge
On Uncle Sam's daughters and sons

Good old boys and girls
Congregating waiting in another world
With roller coaster brains
Imagine playing with trains

Good old boys and girls
Congregating waiting in some other world
We're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy
Lizzy Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks

And don't think we're trying to be bad
All the innocent crime seemed alright at the time
Not necessarily mad not necessarily mad
We watch every day for the bus
And the driver would say
"That's where lunatics stay"
I wonder if he's talking about us

It's not like we're vicious or gone
We just dug up the graves where your relatives lay
In old forest lawn
And it's not like we don't know the score
We're the fragile elite they dragged off the street
I guess they just couldn't take us no more

Good old boys and girls
Congregating waiting in another world
With roller coaster brains
Imagine digging up graves

Good old boys and girls
Congregating waiting in some other world
We're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy
We're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy
We're all crazy