In the classic rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap the band learns their album cover depicting a naked woman wearing a dog collar and a leash and down on her hands and knees being forced to smell a leather glove being held out to her has been rejected by their record company for being too sexist. They protest and point out that fellow rocker Duke Fame’s current album cover is much worse where he’s tied down to a table and naked women are hitting him with whips. But it’s pointed out to them that Duke’s cover is acceptable because it is he getting the abuse, not the women.
It's such a fine line between stupid and clever. But it’s true. Alice Cooper never really got the kind of flack from public watchdog groups you’d expect him to get because he always presented himself as being the victim. As creepy and evil as Alice was, it was always he and not some innocent victim that got the abuse in his shows. It was he who was beheaded, it was he who was hanged, and beaten up and stabbed and chased around by a giant tooth. The anti-hero bad guy as the sympathetic character falling victim to his own evil ways.
This is a common theme in rock music. Paul McCartney’s most famous love song, Yesterday, is about him being heartbroken over losing his girlfriend. The Beatles have probably as many love songs where they’re the losers in the relationship as they have songs depicting them as the romantic conquerors. This makes them much more sympathetic and therefore desirable to their legions of female fans. Another great quote from Spinal Tap, “When you’ve loved and lost the way Frank has...”
It's such a fine line between stupid and clever. But it’s true. Alice Cooper never really got the kind of flack from public watchdog groups you’d expect him to get because he always presented himself as being the victim. As creepy and evil as Alice was, it was always he and not some innocent victim that got the abuse in his shows. It was he who was beheaded, it was he who was hanged, and beaten up and stabbed and chased around by a giant tooth. The anti-hero bad guy as the sympathetic character falling victim to his own evil ways.
This is a common theme in rock music. Paul McCartney’s most famous love song, Yesterday, is about him being heartbroken over losing his girlfriend. The Beatles have probably as many love songs where they’re the losers in the relationship as they have songs depicting them as the romantic conquerors. This makes them much more sympathetic and therefore desirable to their legions of female fans. Another great quote from Spinal Tap, “When you’ve loved and lost the way Frank has...”
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