Alice Cooper
Billion Dollar Babies (50th Anniv) Triple-vinyl Golden Jubilee expansion of Cooper magnum opus.
If you’ve got an original ’73 Billion Dollar Babies knocking about the place, with its cannily conceived rabbits-lyrics-dosh inner sleeve, massive Billion Dollar note (neatly folded next to 11 press-out-’n’-shuffle bubblegum-styled picture cards), in a beautifully rendered garish green, faux snakeskin embossed wallet, you’ll not feel particularly moved to replace it any time soon with this painstakingly buffed ’n’ bloated Golden Jubilee replica.
Until you see it, that is. And feel its not insignificant (805 gram or, for pre-punk readers, 1lb 123/8oz) triple-vinyl heft. And trip your fingertips across its seductively emboldened reptilian scales. Of course, it’s been significantly celebrated before: expanded to double-CD in ’01, with 11 extra triple-guitar-driven (Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce with additional soundfattening ornature from Mick Mashbir) live tracks from a pair of Texas dates on 1973’s B$B tour, along with three out-takes (an alternative Generation Landslide and two versions of NME flexi promo Slick Black Limousine). So how exactly are Rhino planning to tempt you from your hard-earned cash this time? What’s so great about this alleged Trillion Dollar reboot?
Physically? Not a lot. Six extra tracks, four of them previously available: an EP’s worth, basically; single mix/edits of Hello Hooray, Billion Dollar Babies, Elected and Mary Ann; a pair of additional lives (School’s Out and Under My Wheels, again from Texas ’73) and an oral history/making-of booklet. Sonically? The remaster’s crisp, revealing, punchy, but more so than in ’01? To these ears there’s a hairsbreadth in it. If that.
It’s the packaging that’ll swing it for upgraders. Those new to The Coop’s ultimate statement as an album artist shouldn’t hesitate. The core record’s constituent material, Bob Ezrin’s immensely ambitious maximalist production and the band’s performances (and Alice Cooper were still very much a band at this stage of the game) are reliably flawless. The live take of My
Stars is simply extraordinary, and the single incarnation of Elected entirely essential.
Billion Dollar Babies isn’t just another record, it’s a sonic portal into the most enduring and potent strain of morally bankrupt, juvenile delinquency known to humanity (I know… I was that soldier), and for that at least, we should all be truly thankful.