Alice Cooper - Alice Cooper Goes To Hell - (1976) - Vinyl - {First US Pressing} 24-Bit/96kHz + 16-Bit/44kHz *NEW RIP*

Alice Cooper Goes to Hell is the ninth studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1976. A sequel to Welcome to My Nightmare, this concept album was written almost exclusively by Cooper with guitar player Dick Wagner and producer Bob Ezrin. With the success of "Only Women Bleed" from his first solo effort, Alice continued with the rock ballads on this album. "I Never Cry" was written about his drinking problem, which would in one year send the performer into rehab. Cooper called the song "an alcoholic confession". The "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell" tour of 1976 was completely cancelled prior to commencement due to Cooper suffering from anemia at the time. The music bears a resemblance to the music of Welcome to My Nightmare, and one can see some sort of story structure in the lyrics. However, the story is more possibly about Alice, than about Steven. Steven is just the one who is listening to the bedtime story. The story is about how Alice is sentenced to go to Hell (the song “Go to Hell”). Hell is symbolized by Disco music (“You gotta dance”). In Hell, Alice meets the Devil (“I’m the Coolest”) and realises that he has met him before (“Didn’t We Meet”). This implies that the Curator is in fact The Devil, and that Alice is Steven. The song “I Never Cry” deals with Alice’s real alcohol problems and in “Give the Kid a Break” Alice’s pleas to the Devil to let him go. In “Guilty” Alice’s says that if doing rock n’ roll dooms him to eternal Hell, than it’s worth it and he is guilty because he loves rock n’ roll and doesn’t care if this makes him guilty. “Wake Me Gently” is a song that connects to the Welcome to My Nightmare theme, where Alice thinks (or realises) that everything is a nightmare, and wants to wake up. In “Wish You Were Here” Alice’s makes a phone call from Hell to his girlfriend. This song could also be interpreted as a prayer to God. In the song “Going Home” Alice is indeed going home, escaping Hell. Quoted from the inner sleeve: “Lay still, Steven, and I'll tell you a bedtime story. I'll tell you a bedtime story that's not for all children. It's a very special story, that only special children will understand. It's a half-awake story, and it will be better if you close your eyes. It's a story that takes place in a dream, like other nightmares you have known. It's a dream that Alice has dreamed. You can dream along with him. You can follow Alice down the staircase, deep, down the stairs to the pit where he doesn't want to go, but he has to. If you go to sleep now, Steven, you can go down the long and endless stairway and sing sweet songs to Alice and free him. And if you can't get to sleep, Steven, and in the middle of the night you get out of bed, when everything is quiet and the trees are still and the birds are hiding from the dark, you can lie down on your bedroom floor and press your ear tightly to the boards. If you listen very carefully you can hear Alice searching for a way out, forever chasing rainbows. Sleep tight, Steven. And have a good night.” I have included full scans.