the NachtKabarett

July 17th, 2007

Six, Six, Sixteen. MARILYN MANSON evoking ALICE COOPER. 1996

Ironically I was scanning images to include this in THE DEVIL'S NOTEBOOK section the same night (unbeknownst to me at the time) Manson & Alice were performing onstage in Romania together:

 

 

Marilyn Manson's first (or at least major) nationwide cover appearance was the May 1996 issue of Circus magazine, shortly after the 'Sweat Dreams' video projected the band into mass marketed notoriety. Though Manson has never made any direct nods to Alice Cooper, the dark and evil female first-named godfather of 'Shock Rock', Manson's wardrobe on this cover which introduced him to the mainstream is a very direct, albeit strategically subtle nod to Alice.

 

Aside from onstage self-beheadings and music infinitely more abrasive than the contemporary music of his peers in the late sixties, Alice Cooper's first act which earned him his everlasting notoriety occurred at the 1969 Toronto Rock 'n Roll Revival where a fan threw a live chicken onstage during his band's performance. Alice rather cavalierly threw the chicken back into the audience believing it would fly away. When it didn't the audience ripped the chicken to pieces, throwing it's dismembered body parts back onstage whilst it's feathers floated throughout the stage like confetti. It was this, unintentional act, which seared Alice Cooper's name into the subconscious of America which lasts to this day, and plastered his photo on the covers of tabloids across North America.

Though the image are not the most descript, Manson's outfit on the May 1996 cover of Circus was a variation of what Alice wore in September 1969 during the infamous "chicken incident".

Ironically, Manson would later (and falsely) be accused of mutilating chickens onstage and throwing puppies into the audience for the audience to dismember, as history repeats itself.

Source: The NACHTKABARETT Click to join discussion