| Raise Your Fist and Yell | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Alice Cooper | ||||
| Released | September 5, 1987 | |||
| Recorded | 1987 | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 36:53 | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Producer | Michael Wagner | |||
| Alice Cooper chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
Raise Your Fist and Yell is the 17th studio album by rock musician Alice Cooper released on September 5th 1987. It features the track "Prince of Darkness", which is featured very briefly in the John Carpenter film of the same name, in which Cooper has a cameo as a murderous vagrant. The song can be heard on the Walkman of one of his victims. A music video was made for the song "Freedom" which also became the album's hit single.
The album continues the slasher film trend created by Cooper's previous album Constrictor. The track "Lock Me Up" features a guest appearance from Robert Englund, who portrayed Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare On Elm Street series.
The album also seems to loosely have a story. The story is about an unnamed serial killer that has an obsession with horror movies, he then proceeds to ride around at night picking up prostitutes and murdering them. He also sees a young woman named Mary as "Gail" one of his previous victims whom he stabbed in the chest with a knife and buried (possibly a coincidence, but Alice's wife Sheryl Cooper's middle name is Gail). In the final song "Roses on White Lace" it is revealed that the killer breaks into the room of a bride-to-be and brutally kills her; after which he proceeds to hide away pieces of her body. The story has a few similarities to Cooper's 2008 concept album Along Came a Spider.
The album cover for "Raise Your Fist and Yell" was painted by artist Jim Warren.
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The tour for this album, dubbed "Live in the Flesh," was notorious in Europe for its graphic violence and theatricality. The show included many of Cooper's old favourites, such as the gallows, but offered new theatrics such as impaling a person with a bike (This was also seen in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, which Cooper himself had a cameo role in, playing a vagrant who kills one of the characters). Most of the tour's more violent acts were heavily inspired by the horror movies of the time, by including graphic onstage deaths and larger amounts of stage blood. Cooper has been said to be a big fan of these movies.
The show was seen to so be violent that the German government forced Cooper to remove some of the more graphic parts of the show. A Member of Parliament in the UK, David Blunkett, appealed to have the show banned altogether from the country, but his attempt was unsuccessful.
All songs written by Alice Cooper and Kane Roberts except where noted.
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | The Billboard 200 | 73 |
| 1987 | UK Albums Chart | 48 |
| 1987 | Swedish Albums Chart | 15 |