Billion Dollar Babies Battle Axe 2019 REUNION (ex-Alice Cooper Group)

R.I.P GB!!


Read a Goldmine interview where Michael Bruce said the live 1977 Flint Show was recorded in a high school auditorium and also said that the Battle Axe lead single Rock n' Roll Radio (penned by Smith) had been considered for the Muscle of Love album.

GOLDMINE: The “Battle Axe Suite” of five songs on the new live CD is quite epic.

Dennis Dunaway: The suite was the concept of the show. A boxing ring rose from underneath Neal’s drum risers as the gladiators enter. Michael Bruce was the red gladiator and Mike Marconi was the green gladiator. battling with axe guitars. This was our concept for the next Alice Cooper concert tour, which didn’t happen, as Alice went solo, so we used it for our show. Bob Dolin on keyboards was a key part of it. He was on the Billion Dollar Babies album and tour and on the Muscle of Love album, too. He was inspired by Keith Emerson. He would take ELP albums and slow them down to learn the music.

Billion Dollar Babies Goldmine Giveaway and interview - Goldmine Magazine

 

I went to the reunion gig last night, it was a lot of fun. I've seen Dennis, Michael, and Neal play (both separately and together) in recent years, so I kinda knew what to expect going in. Mike's voice is pretty shot, and his playing isn't at peak form. I also think he still lives out west, while the others live on the east coast -- so I am not sure if he'd had a chance to rehearse with them much, if at all.

The guys looked great -- Neal's hair is back down to shoulder length, Michael wore a long, purple coat and looked like a rock star, and Dennis was as cool as always. Unfortunately, the set was hindered early on by jitters and monitor problems, which resulted in some pretty nasty mistakes and misfires in some of the first few songs. They got it together about 4-5 songs in, and really started to catch fire. Really sounded great as it went on -- if Alice had been on vocals, and Michael had been able to focus more on his playing (and less on singing), it would've been amazing.

They had another guitarist with them, who played all of Glen's parts quite capably, and he and Dennis did a great job backing up Mike vocally. About 2/3 of the way through the 45 minute set, they brought out Mike Marconi from the original Billion Dollar Babies as a third guitarist, and then it really came to life musically.

They setlist wasn't too surprising, with a couple of exceptions -- they did "Black Juju" with Dennis taking a lead vocal (which I guess he sings with Blue Coupe, but I was unaware of that going in), and they did "I Miss You" from Battle Axe, which I was pretty excited to hear. The complete setlist was:

Caught In A Dream
Be My Lover
Billion Dollar Babies
Muscle Of Love
Desperado
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Black Juju
School's Out
Under My Wheels
I Miss You
I'm Eighteen

 

Wow, nice review, thanks for posting it!! It's great that Marconi showed up too. While there weren't many B$B songs in the setlist, any chance to see these guys plays together again is a blessing at this point.

A very recent 4 part interview with a very long haired Neal Smith where he discusses B$B:

 

Another gig for the guys coming December 14th 2019 at AZ's Celebrity Theater, which is a very intimate 2600 seat venue:

 

I see Cherry Red will be releasing a 3 CD set in November.
Billion Dollar Babies: Battle Axe - Complete Edition, 3CD - Cherry Red Records

 

The content looks the same as the one Michael Bruce tried to put out on his own a few years back, before the rest of the band blocked it.

SickthingsUK: Billion Dollar Babies - Battle Axe

 

Big fan of the original Alice Cooper Band, with Pretties For You and Easy Action being my favs. Listening to this Battle Axe album for the first time (that I remember).

Not a fan of this. Michael Bruce is not a strong lead singer and oh man is he doing an Alice impression some of the time, which is understandable I guess. I wonder if Alice had/has an issue with this?

It sounds like someone doing the Alice band but without the soul or something. I think the songwriting is a step down from previous efforts, so is the production, and the musicianship sounds a little stock.

Were these songs and this Battle Axe concept kicking around the band and were the guys pushing Alice and Shep to make this the next album/show?
If so, I think I can see why the band broke up.

 

I don't believe there any concrete plan for any of these songs to be "the next Alice album" -- meaning these songs were never directly presented to him.

At some point in '74, they had all agreed to take the next year off. Michael and Neal worked on solo projects, as did Alice. I don't think it was until they saw the new Alice Cooper album and tour -- Welcome To My Nightmare -- that the other four guys realized that he and Shep had essentially pulled the rug out from underneath and turned "Alice Cooper" into a solo act -- but even then, I think they were still counting on their old pal Vince coming back to the band Alice Cooper when the tour was complete.

I believe the bulk of songs on Battle Axe were written in '75-'76 with an eye on building the next album project, but when Alice never reached out to them and instead started working on Goes To Hell with other musicians, they finally got the message that they were done. Considering that the songs were written with Alice in mind, it's not at all surprising that Michael's channeling him a bit in the vocal department. As for whether Alice had an issue with it...well, I doubt he felt threatened by it at all...and if he was bothered by it, he'd kinda have some nerve, considering the way things went down.

I've said it before, and will say it again. Naming their band "Alice Cooper", and then letting the singer adopt that name for himself was the dumbest move these guys could've ever made. Hindsight being 20/20, you can see it coming from miles away -- yet they simply trusted that their high school buddy wasn't gonna do them wrong. When it became a big business, and when some members became a liability, something like that was sadly inevitable.

 

i never even heard about it till the cherry red set came up on my feed ! its a decent album !

 

Just ordered this set for $23 incl tax & shipping at importcds using coupon code: CD69FV852

I read comments that the album itself has finally been remastered from original tapes for this set. Previous 'releases' have all been needledrops of the original botched vinyl that was in the process of being recalled when the band folded per Bruce. (pics from amazon)

 

Thanks. Ordered even though it's backordered right now. Saw their Chicago show.

 

I completely agree. Vince and Shep screwed the band when they sold them in the name being Vince’s character and all of that. Shep screwed them and told Alice to not bring them back. It took decades for their old pal Vince to reach out and have them play a few songs on his tour. The legacy of the Alice Cooper Group is what his whole “solo” career were built on and he didn’t even write most of the songs. Anyway, they were all better together, but it was kind of over after Billion Dollar Babies. Muscle of Love and the Battle Axe albums are diminishing returns. They made a hell of a run though. Alice Cooper is theatrical metal poop rehashing his hits with them. He hasn’t been rock and roll since he got saved and started golfing

 

I was able to verify with someone involved in the project that the main album on this new 2020 3-CD Battle Axe release HAS NOT been sourced from the master tapes but was reportedly the best of multiple sources available.

I wonder if the cassette or 8-Track fared any better than the skewed vinyl. Has anyone heard the cassette or 8 track?

I will check back in with my thoughts when my copy arrives this weekend.

 

Well guess what just arrived 2 days early! Spinning it now against my mint, white label promo vinyl.

This is definitely a major improvement from my shrill, echo-ey, tinny sounding LP. While I'm no expert, I believe I do hear tape hiss on the quieter parts. I may hear some light turntable rumble too though. The bass is certainly more pronounced and prominent and the vocals seem up front a bit more. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of a more educated ear.

Whatever the case, this is a BIG improvement over my original vinyl and someone obviously took some care in making this album sound it's best. Better by far, no comparison, glad to have it! Goodbye and good riddance to my old vinyl copy.

 

Weird. I tried looking this up on ImportCDs, and although they show it in the search bar when you type it in, when you click on the link, it doesn’t come up. It just brings you to three non related items? Amazon has a listing for about $29, though.

 

Nice, informal interview with Michael Bruce from just last week! He goes thru his top 10 Coop albums telling anecdotes on each one. He discusses Battle Axe starting at 16:15 - he introduces the album as "Another tragic story of rock n' roll." He says the entire OG Cooper band is currently writing a reunion album for next year and talking about having a guest guitarist on each song to replace Glen. Says they have rehearsed with Alice and have 7 songs in the bag already!!