Published by Cel Manero from Global One Media, Inc.
“The Godfather of Shock Rock Picks Out the Emo and Grunge Classics He Wishes Were His Songs”
Alice Cooper has a rich catalog of timeless classic rock anthems to his name, including hits like “School’s Out,” “Elected,” “I’m Eighteen,” and “Under My Wheels.” However, occasionally, he hears a song on the radio and finds himself pondering why he didn’t come up with it himself.
In a recent interview with Vulture, the 75-year-old rock legend pointed out an emo anthem and a grunge classic as songs that he wishes he had written.
During the interview, Vulture writer Brady Gerber paid tribute to Cooper’s influence on various genres, noting, “You opened the doors for a lot of genres: hard rock, heavy metal, punk, pretty much anything with a guitar and a sense of dramatics. Even in emo, like My Chemical Romance’s ‘The Black Parade.'” This prompted Cooper to identify a My Chemical Romance song that he felt could have been an original by him.
“Teenagers is a great song,” Cooper shared. “I listened to that and said, ‘How did I not write that? That and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ When I heard that on the radio, I went, ‘Dammit, I should have written that song.'”
When asked if there’s anything he would have changed about Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Alice Cooper responded with a definitive “No.”
He went on to praise the song, noting that it was perfect because Cobain was speaking for his generation, and even though Cooper didn’t fully grasp the attitude and language at first, he ultimately understood it. He added that it’s challenging to find bands that write good songs, as it’s easy to create good parts but difficult to craft complete songs. He also mentioned that the last band he was truly enthusiastic about was the Strypes and their album “Snapshot,” highlighting that there wasn’t a weak track on it.
In another part of the interview, Alice Cooper shared that his original band had aspirations of becoming “America’s Yardbirds.”
“We wanted to be that band that could play with Led Zeppelin,” he explained. He emphasized the importance of having strong songs, noting that without them, a band is essentially a puppet show, and they would not have lasted in the industry.
