Alice Cooper - Nobody Likes Us (1970)

The Earwigs formed in Phoenix in 1964 with three of the eventual five Alice Cooper members (Vince Furnier, Dennis Dunaway and Glen Buxton), who were classmates in high school. They were joined shortly afterwards by John Tatum on rhythm guitar and John Speer on drums, and changed their name to The Spiders, with Michael Bruce replacing Tatum in 1966, and Neal Smith replacing Speer the following year. The band relocated to Los Angeles in early 1967, and changed their name again, this time to The Nazz. During their time as The Spiders and The Nazz the band released a number of singles on local labels such as Santa Cruz Records and Very Records. In 1968, the band learned that Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz, and found themselves in need of another name. The legend is that the name 'Alice Cooper' came from a session with a Ouija board and was the name of a 17th century witch. However, Furnier described the incident with the Ouija board as "just pure urban legend...but it was a great story." In fact the name was chosen simply as a gimmick, because it sounded innocuous and wholesome, in humorous contrast to the band's image and music.
After a 1968 gig at the Cheetah club in Venice, California, where most of the club's patrons left after hearing the band play just ten minutes, they were approached by music manager Shep Gordon, who saw the band's negative impact that night as a force that could be turned in a more productive direction. He arranged an audition for the band with Frank Zappa, who was looking to sign bizarre music acts to his new record label, Straight Records. Zappa told them to come to his house "at 7 o'clock" for an audition, but the band mistakenly assumed he meant 7 o'clock in the morning. Being woken up by a band willing to play that particular brand of music at seven in the morning impressed Zappa enough for him to sign them to a three-album deal, and the first three Alice Cooper albums were released on Zappa's Straight label. This album looks back at the early days of Alice Cooper, with their two singles as The Spiders, the sole outing from The Nazz, plus a rare demo from them, the studio version of 'Levity Ball', which appeared on their 1969 'Pretties For You' album in a live rendition, and some choice tracks from their first two albums for Zappa, including a freaked-out version of their 1967 Nazz single. This takes us up to 1970, when they reinvented themselves as the shock-rock glam-racket band that we know and love today. 

Track listing

01 Don't Blow Your Mind (The Spiders single 1966)
02 No Price Tags (b-side of 'Don't Blow Your Mind)
03 Hitch Hike (The Spiders single 1965)
04 Why Don't You Love Me (b-side of 'Hitch Hike')
05 Lay Down And Die, Goodbye (The Nazz single 1967)
06 Wonder Who's Loving Her Now (b-side of 'Lay Down And Die, Goodbye)
07 Nobody Likes Me (The Nazz demo 1968)
08 Levity Ball (studio version 1968)
09 Living (from 'Pretties For You 1969)
10 Fields Of Regret (from 'Pretties For You' 1969)
11 Return Of The Spiders (from 'Easy Action' 1970)
12 Lay Down And Die, Goodbye (from 'Easy Action' 1970)