It took a long time, but Detroit's own gets inducted Monday

Susan Whitall / Detroit News Music Writer

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will get a much-needed injection of Detroit attitude Monday when shock-rocker and native son Alice Cooper is inducted with the Class of 2011 at the annual festivities at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

Last year, even at the seasoned age of 62, freshly minted inductee Iggy Pop (nee James Osterberg of Ypsilanti) ruffled the black-tie Hall of Fame crowd by partially disrobing and dropping f-bombs. Chances are Alice won't hang or guillotine himself, but expect something good.

"You know he's going to say something about the Motor City when he's onstage," said longtime WCSX-FM air personality Doug Podell. "Our (Detroit) groups have attitude, and the Hall may not be ready for that."

With the Stooges and Alice finally in, it appears that Detroit's edgier acts are finally making it past the insular nabobs of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame board. On the other hand … what took them so long? After all, Alice Cooper was eligible for induction 16 years ago, but only made it on the ballot last year (and was immediately voted in).

"Maybe New York and Cleveland are jealous of Detroit," Podell quips.

Cleveland, of course, is where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum is located, but New York is where the rock hall's board is located, and where mysterious meetings are held where unnamed kingpins and queenpins decide who gets to be on the ballot each year. (Performers are eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording.) These are the meetings where the Ramones were chosen for the ballot before the Stooges (without whom they wouldn't exist) and where John Mellencamp was nominated before Mitch Ryder.

Producer Don Was thinks there's a regional bias. "I'm a voter, but I don't quite understand how it works," he admits. "Nobody deserves to be in more than Mitch Ryder."

For years, when asked why he wasn't in the Hall of Fame, Alice has expressed a Midwesterner's affable skepticism, admitting he had no idea what the standards were, but he was confident he'd eventually get in.

'Detroit totally got it'

Detroit claims Alice, although Phoenix is in the mix. He was born Vincent Damon Furnier on Feb. 4, 1948, in the Saratoga Hospital on Gratiot in Detroit, and grew up on the east side, in a house he remembers fondly as filled with "smoke and boxing and beer." He relished those days when his uncles Vince (Furnier, just like him), Lefty and Jocko would watch the fights on a black-and-white TV with his dad. During commercials, young Vince would be tutored in boxing, "Lead with your left, jab jab, then go to the ribs! Go to the ribs!" He became a lifelong fan of all Detroit sports. Then the family moved to Phoenix.

"I left in 1958 when I was 10; I had asthma," Alice told The News in 2008. There, as a teenager, he formed a band, the Earwigs (later, the Spiders). After a regional hit, they moved to Los Angeles in 1967. While Frank Zappa signed the group as "Alice Cooper" and released "Pretties for You" (1969) and "Easy Action" (1970), it wasn't until Alice and the band returned to his native Detroit that things exploded.

"We were too intense for L.A.," recalled Alice. "So we said, the first place we play where we get a standing ovation, we're going to stay there. We played the Saugatuck Pop Festival with Iggy and the MC5, and I said, 'This is our audience right here!' Where L.A. didn't get it, Detroit totally got it."

A fascination with horror films and a love for high-energy British Invasion bands like the Yardbirds led to Alice's amalgam of kick-out-the jams rock and theatrical hijinks, a show that early on, included a mock gang knife fight (Alice "kills" the entire band) and culminated in a grand finale in which he hung himself. It was shock and horror for parents, awe for teenagers, and a schtick that led a reviewer for The News to call Alice "a combination of Lon Chaney and Mick Jagger" in 1972.

Some songs, some snakes

Detroit audiences appreciated a good display, and the music culture wasn't all peace and love, like California. A little song, a little dance, some snakes and an online hanging. As Alice said, "Iggy is theater. MC5 had a certain theater, Ted Nugent had theater, and we fit like the other finger in that glove."

In 1970-72, Alice played on bills at the Eastown and the Grande, his two favorite local venues. "It was the Amboy Dukes (Nugent's group), the Stooges, Alice Cooper and the Who, for like, nine dollars. That's a pretty good bill!" Alice said. "The thing I used to love, we would be at the Eastown with Iggy and Elton John would be playing another place, Steppenwolf another place, the MC5 somewhere else, and it all was sold out. That tells you what a healthy rock scene it was at the time."

It was producer Bob Ezrin who helped create the riff-heavy Alice Cooper sound that led to eternal anthems like "Eighteen" and "School's Out," tapping into the eternal adolescent psyche while keeping his humorous edge. "Billion Dollar Babies," with its hits "No More Mister Nice Guy" and "Elected," shot to No. 1 on the album charts in 1973.

Alice Cooper will perform both "Eighteen" and "School's Out" during Monday's festivities. And he is poised to take advantage of the expected Hall of Fame bump in popularity. Appropriately enough, he and Ezrin are putting the finishing touches on "Welcome 2 My Nightmare," a sequel to his 1975 smash set for release later this year, with appearances by Alice Cooper band members, as well as later sidemen like Dick Wagner.

Hey, Hall of Fame — you forgot somebody

Iggy and the Stooges last year, Alice Cooper this year … so what overlooked Michigan act is next?

"I think Coop will lead the way for Ted Nugent. And why isn't Mitch Ryder in there?" says WCSX's Doug Podell.

The Marvelettes: The death of lead singer Gladys Horton last year lends a special poignancy to the continued snub of Motown's original girl group, but it's never too late to do the right thing. "They were the queens of the Motown stable," says Billy Wilson of the Motown Alumni Association. And indeed, before the Supremes or Martha and the Vandellas (both of which are in), with 1961's "Please, Mr. Postman" the Marvelettes helped open the door to the girl group fad of the early to mid-'60s, which led to groups like the Ronettes and Darlene Love and the Crystals, who are also in.

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels: Clips from national shows of high-energy hits like "Devil With the Blue Dress" and "Jenny Take a Ride" tell the story. Then and now, there are few singers who can muster a soulful howl like Ryder, and with the Wheels he produced some of the most infectious, high-energy rock ever.

The MC5: The Stooges were widely known as the MC5's "little brother" band, but Iggy has had a higher profile for years and OK, he beat the 5 in. It's time for Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis and Dennis "Machinegun" Thompson to take their rightful place in the Hall of Fame, with so many punk and metal groups they influenced already in there.

Jack Scott: Born in Windsor but raised in Hazel Park, Scott was one of the most popular singers of the late '50s and early '60s, racking up hits like "What in the World's Come Over You" and numerous appearances on "American Bandstand."

Ted Nugent: Forget his politics, watch young Ted playing his heart out on the '60s psychedelic/garage band "Journey to the Center of Your Mind" with his Amboy Dukes — Ted and the Dukes were a vital part of the '60s rock scene in Detroit, all that and career longevity are enough to get him in.

26th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

10 tonight:  A double-bill of documentaries, "Mad Genius: Alice Cooper" and "Mad Genius: Rob Zombie" (Zombie is inducting Alice Cooper), will air on Fuse TV.

Monday: The actual ceremony takes place Monday night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York.

9 p.m. March 20 : Telecast of the whole three-hour-plus induction ceremony on Fuse.

swhitall@detnews.com

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Hey, Hall of Fame — you forgot somebody

Iggy and the Stooges last year, Alice Cooper this year … so what overlooked Michigan act is next?  "I think Coop will lead the way for Ted Nugent. And why isn’t Mitch Ryder in there?" says WCSX’s Doug Podell. 


The Marvelettes: The death of lead singer Gladys Horton last year lends a special poignancy to the continued snub of Motown’s original girl group, but it’s never too late to do the right thing. "They were the queens of the Motown stable," says Billy Wilson of the Motown Alumni Association. And indeed, before the Supremes or Martha and the Vandellas (both of which are in), with 1961’s "Please, Mr. Postman" the Marvelettes helped open the door to the girl group fad of the early to mid-’60s, which led to groups like the Ronettes and Darlene Love and the Crystals, who are also in. 

 

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels: Clips from national shows of high-energy hits like "Devil With the Blue Dress" and "Jenny Take a Ride" tell the story. Then and now, there are few singers who can muster a soulful howl like Ryder, and with the Wheels he produced some of the most infectious, high-energy rock ever. 

 

The MC5: The Stooges were widely known as the MC5’s "little brother" band, but Iggy has had a higher profile for years and OK, he beat the 5 in. It’s time for Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis and Dennis "Machinegun" Thompson to take their rightful place in the Hall of Fame, with so many punk and metal groups they influenced already in there. 

 

Jack Scott: Born in Windsor but raised in Hazel Park, Scott was one of the most popular singers of the late ’50s and early ’60s, racking up hits like "What in the World’s Come Over You" and numerous appearances on "American Bandstand." 


Ted Nugent: Forget his politics, watch young Ted playing his heart out on the ’60s psychedelic/garage band "Journey to the Center of Your Mind" with his Amboy Dukes — Ted and the Dukes were a vital part of the ’60s rock scene in Detroit, all that and career longevity are enough to get him in.

 

26th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

10 tonight: A double-bill of documentaries, "Mad Genius: Alice Cooper" and "Mad Genius: Rob Zombie" (Zombie is inducting Alice Cooper), will air on Fuse TV.

 
Monday: The actual ceremony takes place Monday night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York. 

9 p.m. March 20 : Telecast of the whole three-hour-plus induction ceremony on Fuse.