Alice Cooper's Pretties For You Live in NYC 11/08/15

I purchased this DVD recently & wrote a review on it(there's no specific band name just a bunch of musicians that Nick Didkovsky got together. I had read about it online & decided to give it a try)



Pretties For You - Live in NYC


Recorded Live at the Stone in NYC 11/08/15

Vocals - Paul Bertolino

Guitar - Nick Didkovsky

Guitar - Nick Oddy

Bass - Max Johnson

Drums - Glenn Johnson

Keyboards & Vocals - Adam Minkoff

Source - DVD

Label - Punos Music

Review by Bucky



In 1968 Alice Cooper (the Band) went into Whitney Studios in Burbank, CA to record their debut album "Pretties For You" for Frank Zappa's Straight Records label. The band was very serious about their music but Zappa was planning on changing their name to Alice Cookies & make them a comedy act. While Pretties For You definitely had some good material such as "Sing Low Sweet Cheerio", "Living", "Changing Arranging", "Fields of Regret"(my favorite tune off of the album), & "Reflected" which would later be rewritten into the hit "Elected" a few years later the rest of the material was very strange stuff with songs lasting between 1 to 2 minutes with many different changes during the songs. The album was released in 1969 & the band stopped playing songs from that album live by August of 1970. Pretties For You along with the band's second album on Straight Records "Easy Action" were basically forgotten once the band took off with success & a new direction on their 3rd album Love it to Death.

Which brings us to November of 2015 when guitarist, composer, computer programmer Nick Didkovsky decided to explore the idea of playing the entire Pretties For You album live so he put together a group of extraordinary musicians who were willing to join his trip. John Zorn offered Nick a week long residency at the Stone in NYC for his project. Didkovsky also had the support of original Alice Cooper band members bassist Dennis Dunaway & drummer Neal Smith who answered many detailed questions about the original recording & lyric corrections.

The DVD kicks off with Nick Didkovsky throwing out some thanks including Dennis Dunaway & Neal Smith. Nick introduced the star of the show which the camera zoomed in on the album cover of Pretties for You & the band launched into the lead off instrumental "Titanic Overature". Dunaway stepped up onstage & did a nice little intro by giving some background on the band's beginnings & shared a few memories. From there it kicks off with the under 2 minutes long "10 Minutes Before the Worm" & from there it follows the album with "Sin Low Sweet Cheerio", "Today Mueller" & "Living". Up next was an incredible version of "Fields of Regret" which musically was so intense. The strange "No Longer an Umpire" is followed by the psychedelic early Pink Floyd influenced "Levity Ball". I've got to say I never seen Alice Cooper back then but I have seen a few early videos & Paul Bertolino really has his movements & style down. As he was introducing the Dennis Dunaway penned "BB on Mars" I thought it was Alice talking for a moment there! "Reflected" sounded great as did "Apple Bush Apple Tree" & the quick one minute twenty second "Earwigs to Eternity" was full of energy. "Changing Arranging" closed the album set with some great guitar by Nick Oddy....but wait...It's not over!!! Dennis Dunaway came up & sang "Nobody Likes Me" which didn't make the album but was a regular part of there show back then with Alice singing behind a window. Dunaway remained onstage & the band played a scorching version of "You Drive Me Nervous" from the band's "Killer" album. ...There's more??? Yes! On the Extras if you click on Encore the band kicks back into high gear on "Halo of Flies" featuring the great rhythm section of bassist Max Johnson & drummer Glenn Johnson.

Overall this was an incredible show & the one thing that really hit home with me is what an incredible part of the early Alice Cooper Group lead guitarist Glen Buxton was. Nick Didkovsky was so incredible on lead guitar playing Buxton's leads that it really made me realize even more how important Buxton's playing was in the early days. The whole band was phenomenal. This DVD is really something different & so worth the $13. Also
on DVD extras is a 3 song soundcheck

the DVD is available at Alice Cooper - "Pretties for You" live performance! »

 

Reading that page, it starts with this: "The first Alice Cooper record has grown to be my favorite over many years of listening.".

That's good to read, because the same happened to me. I heard this for the first time (along with Easy Action) around 1973. I had zero interest in it back then.

But it's amazing what spending some hard-earned will do to you, because when I bought the Mini LP set from Japan I found myself feeling obliged to listen to the first two albums again, if for nothing else because I'd spent a small fortune on them.

And indeed, over the ensuing years, Pretties for You and Easy Action have become my "go to" Cooper albums. I just love them. Raw, eccentric, wild, yet just below the surface is the band they would become (which was great).

Wonderful stuff. It only took me, what, 30 years or so to finally "hear" them.

 

When I say the thread my immediate reaction was "NO WAY!!!!" Fantastic idea miles above any cash-in tribute show. Because let's face it: To cover such an obscure and overlooked album takes real dedication. Love the album by the way. Even though I've never heard "Easy Action".... need to change that...

But the idea to drag "Pretties" out of the shadows and take it to the stage after almost 50 years is brilliant!!!!!!

 

I do believe, out of my 10.000+ album collection, PFY might be the hardest album to reproduce!

To perform this on stage it's all about timing. The musicians need to be perfectly attuned to each other because otherwise there's NO WAY anyone can pull it off!!!