from the LP Billion Dollar Babies, Warner Bros. Records, 1973
The term “clairvoyant” isn’t necessarily the first word one might think of when conjuring their feelings about Alice Cooper---“gruesome” for sure, or perhaps “theatrical” on the lesser end of that spectrum, but an omen?! I kid you not brothers & sisters, there is a reason this man comes off so glib on his radio show, because he’s been reading between the lines since he could read, and it all comes together on this LP like a fucking sociology textbook! Cooper manages to speak on several levels within the same song here: mocking traditional parents “…please clean your plate dear, the lord above can see ya; don't you know people are starving in Korea?” and lambasting their efforts to modernize “…while Mothers' Lib burns birth certificate papers; dad gets his allowance from his sonny, the dealer…” While this might come off, on the surface anyways, as a praising or hailing of the youth culture from which Mr. Cooper both came from & played to, he really takes the piss out of himself and kids in general, more so than the adults, “…Kindergarten people. they use 'em, the need 'em; the over indulgent machines were their children, there wasn't a way down on Earth here to cool 'em, ‘cause they look just like humans, at Kresges and Woolworths, but decadent brains were at work to destroy…” Ultimately, even with all the control in this fictional tale, the kids wind up being “involved in high finance” and owning fancy cars care of their folks. Basically he nailed it, simultaneously calling out the baby-boomers for selling out to consumerism and materialism, and their parents for being to old-fashioned and reactionary---frankly, he only missed it by one letter, as we’re now set to become Trillion dollar babies here pretty soon…
from the LP Billion Dollar Babies, Warner Bros. Records, 1973
