Alice Cooper is a christian or at least he says so. He never ventures into what kind of christian he is but has said it's a personal kind and that he goes to church and reads the bible.
For some reason this upsets some christians. Many of the critics say that his songs are satanic, even the songs of the three records that sometimes get labeled ''christian''; The Last Temptation, Brutal Planet and Dragontown. I don't understand because nowhere can I find any glorification of The Devil, The Devil sure is tempting the listener or some character in the songs but it's clear he's no nice guy and that you shouldn't do any deals with him. I guess that they think it's satanic to sing about Satan but isn't The Devil, in a little different shapes, a part of most christian mythologies? If you really, really believe in God and Jesus, shouldn't you also usually believe in this evil entity that tries to lure people to stray away from what's right or some kind of entity that tests God's ways by trying to find shortcomings in God's reasonings? Isn't that what you usually is supposed to? Or do most christians not believe in any of the different devil figures?
If they do, what's the satanic in having a person singing about an entity that tries to lure people to stray away and that that's no good? Or does it get to complicated to understand when Alice weaves it into the hard life of youths in modern America or that Alice often plays several roles, both on records and on stage? Do they really listen or just condemn? On the other hand, one blog condemned all rock 'n' roll because the word in it self was no good (used to mean to have sex, any other meaning except a musical style I don't know of).
Of course it could be hard to accept a song like Cold Ethyl, which he still performs, that's actually about necrophilia but then you have to bear in mind that the song is part of the nightmares of the young Steven who gets trapped in a sequence of nightmares directed by the mysterious nightmare spirit who tries to get to Steven in some way. A song that have got some beating is Prince of Darkness but again I can't understand it, nowhere's any glorification of the evil ways. The song describes the situation, there's an former angel that fell from Heaven, shunned Earth and found his place in Hell and from there works against God and his ways.
Maybe it's satanic to do a live horror show just because it's fun and exciting but that's not the accusations I see. Alice himself has sometimes said that some people need to get a little distance and/or humor wich sounds a little like Pat Boone who did a jazz cover record of hard rock songs (In a Metal Mood with, among other songs No More Mr Nice Guy) and got heavily criticized for that and told the critics to go get some humor. I rather might have a problem with Alice being a christian but he doesn't seem to preach and don't let it get in the way of good music and a good show so if it makes him happy…
illern (a) illertass.se
By the way, Reverend Smith is the guy who punches Alice in the nose when he goes to church in the kind of self biographical song No More Mr Nice Guy.
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