Elected by donnica59

donnica59 - Elected

donnica59

Nov 03, 2025 01:02pm

<ul><li>Alice Cooper released this song a few months before the US presidential election of 1972, a contest between Richard Nixon and George McGovern. </li><li>To stir up publicity, Cooper announced that he was actually running for president, and this song outlined his platform: "We're gonna rock to the rules that I make."</li><li> </li><li>He did get some votes, but Richard Nixon won that one.</li><li> </li><li>This is a re-write of an earlier Alice Cooper song, "Reflected," off the Pretties For You album in 1969. </li><li>The two songs have completely different lyrics, but are musically similar. </li><li>Mocking politics was a good strategy for Cooper. </li><li>"We always tried to do things that infuriated parents because we thought that would be the fastest path to getting their children to like us," his manager Shep Gordon said.</li><li>Cooper revived this song every presidential election year, always announcing that he was running. In 2016, he took it a step further, posting his platform on <a href="http://www.votealicecooper.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">votealicecooper.com</a>. </li><li>His campaign slogan: "A Troubled Man for Troubled Times."</li><li> </li><li>Some of his campaign promises: </li><li> </li><li>Adding Lemmy to Mt. Rushmore</li><li>No more pencils, no more books</li><li>Ban on taking selfies, except on a designated National Selfie Day</li><li>When he performed this song in concert during election season, Cooper would have bloody versions of the candidates come out and battle.</li><li class="ql-align-center"> </li><li>This is one of the few Alice Cooper songs with composer credits going to the entire band: Cooper, guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, bass player Dennis Dunaway, and <a href="https://www.songfacts.com/blog/playingmysong/neal-smith-im-eighteen" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">drummer Neal Smith</a>.</li><li> </li><li>Cooper doesn't really want to get elected. </li><li>"That would be my hell," he told Ian Fortnam in 2000. </li><li>"I hate politics, but there's something about social fiction and social fact that's fascinating. </li><li>I don't care about taxes or all of that crap, what I do care about and Alice cares about, are the extremities of violence in this society. </li><li>Alice has his boundaries, his violence is very choreographed and it always happens to him. </li><li>He always gets his comeuppance, gets his head cut off and pays for his sins, but then comes back with a white top hat and tails and it's party time."</li><li> </li><li>Fortnam then suggested that this was not unlike US President Bill Clinton. </li><li> </li><li>Cooper replied: "Yeah, he just gets away with everything and it's amazing. </li><li>The guy just smiles right through it, he's an amazing character."</li><li> </li><li>Mojo magazine commented that as an apolitical person "Elected" was a strange song for Alice Cooper to record. </li><li>He replied: </li><li> </li><li>"Really, it was just us saluting The Who, their big riffs. </li><li>And everyone hated Nixon so much at the time - they hated Nixon more than they hate Trump, and that's what we were tapping into. </li><li>Who's the most unlikely person to run for office? </li><li>Alice Cooper."</li><li> </li><li>This song got John Lennon's vote. He declared it "a great record." Alice recalled: </li><li>"He'd come in every day and listen to the acetate, saying, 'I love this record.' </li><li>He was very political whereas we weren't in the least political. </li><li>But the record was such a great satire on at all. John told me he loved the power of it, and what it said and it was a perfect time for that record. </li><li>Though he said Paul (McCartney) would have done it better - well, duh - of course."</li></ul> Get out and vote....Please 🇺🇸