A very special album today, in its packaging (as a LP) and in what inspired the songs.
First, the package. The front cover displays Alice's face (with the trademark Alice Cooper make-up on) but when looking closer, one can see a rectangle around each eye and a handle on the right nostril, as well as pictures in the eyes. Yes, it was made to look like a door (actually a double door) and when you open the doors, you see the entrance hall of some hospital with lots of people there, some being representation of songs. In the back, one can see a little door with the words "quiet room" written above it. Now, technically, behind this picture, you have the papersheet containing the record and that papersheet has the songs' lyrics as well as pictures, a small one and a big one and when you put the lyricsheet right, the little pic should appear behind the "quiet room" door when you open it. This little pic displays Alice in his padded cell. I will focus on the rest of the people in this hall later. The other picture I mentionned is to appear behind 2 doors on the back cover, which look like the front cover ones, except they're smaller and don't have Alice's face over them. These doors are a casual entrance with a brick wall around and above them and a pavement at the bottom. Behind these doors, you get the "big" picture I mentionned earlier with Alice and a bunch of people (the ones from the hospital hall) running towards that door holding newspapers reading "RELEASED", which could refer to Alice going out of the hospital (since he's dressed in a red costume and blue jacket). The doors have some credits and the tracklist on the outside while the inside reads more credits (engineers, musicians,....).
Now, the inspiration came from a quite odd source: Alice, being in bad shape due to heavy alcoholism by mid-late 1977 (he had been drinking heavily since 1973 but it had kept going worse and worse (the King Of The Silver Screen tour, first leg of the touring for Lace And Whiskey, saw a really drunken Alice on stage, sometimes he as barely able to sing, as seen in the Alice Cooper & Friends VHS (no, it hasn't been released on DVD and one may doubt it ever will) which is footage from the first sho of this tour (and also the only known video footage from this tour)), had to get to rehab in New York to quit drinking. During this rehab, he "met" various people who were here for various reasons (not alcoholism, but other kind of problems) and these people inspired most of the song, along with events happened to Alice.
The tracklisting of this albums goes:
A1. From The Inside
A2. Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills
A3. The Quiet Room
A4. Nurse Rozetta
A5. Millie And Billie
B1. Serious
B2. How You Gonna See Me Now
B3. For Veronica's Sake
B4. Jackknife Johnny
B5. Inmates (We're All Crazy)
As I said, the songs have visual matches in the gatefold picture.
A1, A3 and B2: the padded cell with Alice in it (the songs revolve around Alice or the "quiet room")
A2: a lady wearing a blue dress
A4: a nurse fixing a picture on the wall and a guy behind her, trying to look up her skirt
A5: a couple sitting on a bench
B1: a guy in a wheelchair holding playing cards in front of the couple
B3: a dog (actually, the song is about a guy who wants to go out so he can take care of his dog, who is named Veronica)
B4: a soldier standing, holding a umbrella and looking sad
B5: some people in the upper right corner
I'd say that it's a really good album, not a very heavy one, but the songs are really nice, some being really intimate (The Quiet Room, without a surprise) others being a bit hard (Serious) or others being very moving and touching (Millie And Billie, Jackknife Johnny). I can't really get the words to fully describe my feelings towards it, but I can tell you I really like this album, one of my very favorite of Alice Cooper. Great packaging (in a LP form, the CD couldn't get it that good) and very good music, way underrated (sadly) but it's an album many fans list among their favorite.
Little fact:
Alice claimed that it was his favorite in his discography, likely because it's the most personal.
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