Muscle Of Love
This album was going to be called “A Kiss And A Fist” but was rejected. Produced by Jack Richardson this is the last album by the original Alice Cooper Group. So there is a little sadness to it even though the band didn’t intend it to be their swan song album. “Muscle Of Love” was caught up in the shadow of “Billion Dollar Babies” best selling record. But MOL has plenty of good tunes and lyrics by the band which was also a big production as much as the previous album. They brought in guests vocalist but some thought it was too Broadway sounding. Which was it’s intention as Alice’s main theme was Broadway as being a big part of New York. With guests vocalists like Liza Minella on “Teenage Lament 74” and “Man With The Golden Gun”. La Belle (Noma & Sarah) & Ronnie Spector on “Teenage Lament 74”. Pointer Sisters on “Teenage Lament 74” and “Working Up A Sweat”.
The backing musicians involved are Dick Wagner, Mick Mashbir on guitar and Bob Dolin on keyboards.

A tribute to a club that Alice Cooper Group performed in N.Y. in their early days. A club called The Hippopotamus was the first track “Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo)” was a tourist view of New York.

skyscrapers and subways and stations
staring up at the United Nations

also points out the seedy side of the city

heard about them messages and all those dirty shows
I read somewhere some places never close

One of my favorite tracks is “Hard Hearted Alice” which is Alice’s view on it’s not always nice to be Alice.

noise seems logically right
ringing ears in the night
when you live in an airport

“Crazy Little Child” reminds me of the foreboding “Lace & Whiskey” album that Alice will release in 3 years. It has that film noir story line. Which takes me to “Man With The Golden Gun” that Alice wrote hoping that the Bond film people will use it. It’s a shame cause it’s classic Bond music.
“Muscle of Love” and “Teenage Lament 74” became singles from this album that both have teenage themes. “Muscle of Love” is Alice’s masturbation song.

I read dad’s books like I did before
now things are crystal clear
lock the door in the bathroom now
I just can’t get caught in here...

It’s interesting that the last song is actually an old song from their early days in the 60’s. It seemed they came full circle. “Woman Machine” was original called “Mr. Machine”. Alice being influenced by TV once again from a series that actress Julie Newmar portraits a female robot.

she’ll do the work in half the time
never sick and can’t go blind

The chorus sounds a bit of “Superstitions” by Stevie Wonder.
At the end of the recording you hear with audio enhancement a robot type voice that’s actually Alice’s who is reading from an Ampex tape recording manual as the song fades out.

Artwork: At least they went out with a great piece of album art. The cover itself was a cardboard carton that reads in pink type “Attention: This Carton Contains one (1) Alice Cooper Muscle Of Love” and “Fragile” on bottom right corner. It also gave the impression of the carton being stained at the bottom.
The back reads “Do Not Bend” “Avoid Excessive Heat” with a silhouette of a nude muscle lady and list of the songs which are not in exact order. It also includes copyright and on bottom right corner it reads “Phonograph Record”. The back is pretty original that when you take the record out you would have to open the perforation on the back cover. So this maybe the first record that the vinyl doesn’t slide out from the side.

The sleeve inside shows the band all dressed as sailors standing outside a club called “Institute Of Nude Wrestling” and canopy over door reads “Muscle Of Love”. The other side shows the band the after math of them being thrown out of the club. They all have black & blues, torn clothes and sprawled all over the sidewalk as a gorilla in a blonde wig stands at the entrance of the club’s door. MPs are shown bending down as they pick up the band.

This lp also comes with a book cover which I almost used. Thank god I didn’t I would shoot myself now. The book cover reads with a nautical logo in the middle “Institute Of Nude Wrestling • Open 24 Hours” and the middle a Warner Brothers looking logo with initials“AC” and an anchor. It also includes the credits on the album and track list. The edges of the book cover have pics of the band in sailor suits.

The back of the book cover shows the band peeling potatoes while sporting bruises and bandages as a MP and Ship’s cook looks on.