Lace and Whiskey

Lace and Whiskey is the tenth studio album by Alice Cooper, released in May 1977.

Background
After many years of portraying a dark and sinister persona Alice Cooper decided to try something new and donned the persona of a heavy drinking comic PI named "Maurice Escargot" - a fictional character in the same vein as Inspector Clouseau. Cooper is pictured as Escargot on the back cover of Lace and Whiskey, which was still a rock-based album but was stylistically influenced by Cooper’s love for 1940s' and 1950s' movies and music. The album only peaked at #42 in the US and #33 in the UK.

The album's lead single, “You and Me”, was an easy listening ballad which provided Cooper with his last US top-ten single for twelve years. “(No More) Love at Your Convenience”, a disco-inspired pop song, was released as the second single – it did not chart in most countries. Music videos were created for both songs, at a time well before the advent of MTV. The song "King of the Silver Screen" features a sampling of the main motif of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Cooper’s “King of the Silver Screen” tour, in support of this album, featured a stage set designed as a giant TV, with its slitted screen allowing Cooper and his dancers to jump into and out of it along to filmed choreographed sequences during songs, and had comedic mock commercials screened in between some songs. The tour only ran in the US and Canada, throughout the summers of 1977 and 1978 (renamed the ”School’s Out for Summer” tour in 1978). Filmed highlights from the opening night of the 1977 tour, capturing a very inebriated Cooper, were featured in the Alice Cooper and Friends TV special. The tour’s Las Vegas concerts were recorded, resulting in The Alice Cooper Show live album. With the exception of “It’s Hot Tonight”, which was a regular part of setlists on the 2001 ‘Brutal Planet’ and the 2008-2009 ‘Psychodrama’ tours, nothing from Lace and Whiskey has been performed live since the end of the tour supporting the following From the Inside album.

It was after the completion of the 1977 tour that Cooper checked into a New York-based sanitarium for his first treatment for alcoholism.

During the initial stage of this album’s era, when it was clear that Alice was not going to return from his new success, original Alice Cooper group members Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith, and Michael Bruce formed a new band with Mike Marconi and Bob Dolin called "The Billion Dollar Babies". Michael Bruce sang their lead vocals.

Lace and Whiskey was digitally remastered and re-released on CD by Metal Blade Records in 1990.

Personnel

 * Alice Cooper - vocals
 * Dick Wagner - guitar, vocals
 * Steve Hunter - guitar
 * Tony Levin - bass
 * Allan Schwartzberg - drums
 * Additional personnel
 * Prakash John - bass
 * Bob Babbitt - bass
 * Jim Gordon - drums
 * Jimmy Maelen - percussion
 * Josef Chirowski - keyboards
 * Bob Ezrin - keyboards

Charts
Album - Billboard (United States)

Singles