Schools Out
Produced by Bob Ezrin, “School’s Out” is pretty much close to a concept record. More so than “Killer” even though “Killer” had it’s theme. Alice Cooper Group played like the Rolling Stones using a more raw sound as well as blues. Glen Buxton came out with the opening notes to “School’s Out”. Glen once said the beginning was like when kids tease one another they go “na na nana na” he use to just play those notes during previous jams. Finally they picked up on it and it blossomed into a trade mark hit of Alice Cooper.

One of my favorite song from this album is “Blue Turk” a very bluesy tune that Alice’s voice is in that Morrison tone.

tastes like whiskey on your lips
and earthworms rule your brain

I love the brass and the bass line which the smell of cigarettes and whiskey come wafting through the speakers. It’s as if I’m sitting in a blues bar with my shoes sticking to the tacky barroom floor. Glen Buxton once mentioned he really enjoyed playing “Blue Turk”. l also heard they did a long jam of this in the studio. I would of love to hear it.

Alice tips his hat once again to Bersteins “West Side Story” in two songs. One is “Gutter Cat vs The Jets” the other is the end of “Grande Finale”.

Alice also pays tribute to Sci-Fi movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still" as they quote the line "Klaatu barada Nikto" which is in the background of "My Stars".

Alice is growling in the school yard to “Public Animal #9” hanging out with his classmate Glen Buxton.

Me and G.B. we ain’t never gonna confess
we cheated on the math test
we carved some dirty words on our desk

As “Alma Mater” written by Neal Smith shows Alice saying goodbye to his school
and ends off in a western theme of cowboy riding in the sunset.

maybe I’ll see you around some time, uh?
don’t make a stranger of yourself, uh?
remember the Coop, uh?

Truly we’ll remember The Coop for years to come.

“Grande Finale” you can tell has Bob Ezrin written all over it with the lavish orchestra production. This seems a bit over the top after the rest of the album is more garage rock.

Artwork: One of the creative things about Alice Cooper was his album design concepts. “School’s Out” front cover was a picture of the top of a school desk which the band scrawls in graffiti their names. The back is the bottom of the desk which comes with a track list in the wrong order and a punch out desk legs you can actually stand up.
The inside is what you may see inside of a students desk. It’s picture of books, paper, pencils, etc...
The inside front cover was a picture of the band as to appear as being taped under the lid of the desktop. It shows the band as juvenile delinquents dressed in leather and carrying a pool cue, swigging liquor as the floor is littered with empty Michelob bottles. It took me a while to notice Dennis Dunaway who was sitting inside a trash barrel pointing a handgun at the camera.
The original album came with paper panties that later was banned for some reason. They’re many different stories why so I guess it’s whoever you hear it from at the time. Also inside was a report card that came out that list credits & track list.