Style: shock rock, hard rock
Label: Epic
Year: 1989
Home: Arizona
Members: Alice Cooper ~ vocals
Mark Frazier, Jack Johnson, John McCurry, Guy Mann-Dude ~ guitar
Paul Chiten, Steve Deutsch, Gregg Mangiafico ~ keyboards
Allan St. John ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Hugh McDonald ~ bass/b. vocals
Bobby Chouinard ~ drums
Diana Grasselli, Jango, Louis Merlino, Jamie Sever, Myriam Naomi Valle, Bernie Shanahan, Tom Teeley, Joe Turano ~ b. vocals
Additional: Kane Roberts ~ guitar/b. vocals
Desmond Child, Maria Vidal ~ b. vocals
Guests: Steve Lukather, Joe Perry, Richie Sambora ~ guitar
Tom Hamilton ~ bass
Joey Kramer ~ drums
Steven Tyler, Kip Winger, Michael Anthony, Stiv Bators, Jon Bon Jovi ~ b. vocals
This is not AC, let's take care of that fact first. Yes, his name is on it, it's his release, it's his recognizable voice & it's his back-up band, including early 80's songwriting partner/guitarist Kane Roberts on a track, but there's another ingredient in the pot that tips the scale. The ingredient goes by the name of Desmond Child. To explain,
Trash came after a decade with no charting songs & a career stepping around but not finding success.
Trash was AC's attempt, starting a few albums earlier with Kane Roberts, to recreate both himself & his career following a commitment to sobriety & Christianity. It was a deliberate attempt at a comeback & thus the magical writing talents of Desmond Child were called in who was riding high engineering the comeback of Aerosmith with their
Pump album. The result is that this is really a Desmond Child album with the AC band & a few guests, including Aerosmith, performing his songs. With a career that includes Cher, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith & many more, the shock rock of AC seems an odd person for Child to pen songs for. The problem is not Child's talent but that his stamp dominates the outcome. This is an album of 10 love songs with some light tongue-in-cheek shock rock humor thrown ... & could easily have been an album by Bon Jovi or Aerosmith. It's far from bad with nearly every song a hit ... but an album of only sappy love songs isn't exactly fitting the Alice Cooper mold ... but re-inventing the mold to suit the songs. If anything that's the one true success of
Trash. It reinvented the mold by fully turning AC into a anthem spouting leather clad hard rocker totally in sync with the hair metal of the era. It also spawned a place on the coveted MTV with four videos, chart topping hits & an around the world tour, recorded on the
Classicks album five years later & the
Trashes The World home video. Finding the success he sought AC abandoned Childs for the follow-up
Hey Stoopid & brought the shock/monster imagery back to the rock. But,
Trash would firmly set the path/mold for a long time with the current tours of 2011 even being the modern version of
Trash in many ways.
Trash gave AC something that he could twist turn over the years to make personal with a musical & visual platform. The psychedelic AC of the 70's was gone forever across the board leaving many fans divided between the 70's & the later AC, though some see the later leather AC as the authoritative character as the earlier AC was a member of a band followed by a solo outing that went through numerous images including balladeer. "Poison", "House Of Fire", "Spark In The Dark", "Why Trust You", "Only My Heart Talkin'", "Bed Of Nails", "This Maniac's In Love With You", "Trash", "I'm Your Gun", "Hell Is Living Without You" ... if any of these songs make you rock out than you'll enjoy
Trash & what would follow. But, the reverse is also true so if you don't like
Trash you may want to stick with the 70's AC. Later albums, particularly
The Last Temptation,
Brutal Planet &
Along Came A Spider, might be more interesting & varied musically but
Trash largely sets the pace. It's big hair anthemic 80's rock with bursts of energy balanced by bursts of acoustic ballady moments. There's a reason
Trash became as big as it did & it's not just because of Desmond Child. It's basically a good album chock full of memorable hits that any musician should be pleased to make. Ironically, AC had earlier done an album with Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin & it floundered ... for those who say that AC could have chosen any great writer & had a hit album as the outcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment