This is a must have for all Alice Cooper fans. "Life and Crimes" is a four disk set that, in chronological order, showcases the genius that is Alice Cooper. You get quite a bit of the original Alice Cooper band's material from their 7 records together. I have seen other reviewers state that not enough disk space is given to the original band's material, but 2 of the four disks in the set are basically devoted to the Alice Cooper band years. You get all of the hits, "Eighteen", "School's Out", "Billion Dollar Babies" etc. but what I loved about this box set, is that for the first time I was able to hear the songs like "Don't Blow Your Mind" and "Hitch Hike", songs released when the band called themselves The Spiders. You get to hear how Alice and crew took a song called "Respect for the Sleepers" and re-tooled it into "Muscle of Love". You get a demo track "Call it Evil" that is lousy in production value, but as a fan, you can enjoy just the raw sound of the band at work. Alice's old bandmates even get a track "I Miss You" from thier Battle Axe album when they performed as The Billion Dollar Babies. There are so many unreleased and forgotten gems on disk 2 & 3, it's almost like discovering a new Alice Cooper album. You get Alice's great cover of the Beatles "Because" from the "Sgt. Peppers" movie he did with the Bee Gees. There are two songs from a Flash Gordon rock-opera that Alice performed, "I'm Flash" and "Space Pirates". A nice surprise are two songs from the fantastically awful horror movie "Monster Dog" Alice starred in, "Identity Crisis" and "See Me in the Mirror". Also in this set is the song that made it onto the Special Forces LP jacket, but not onto the record, "Look at You Over There (Ripping the Sawdust from my Teddy Bear". There is a great version of "Road Rats" from the "Roadie" soundtrack that sounds so much better than the Lace and Whiskey version, as well as a cleaned up version of "I Am the Future". And ending disk 3 you get "Hard Rock Summer" from the Friday the 13th soundtrack, that is just a great hair metal jam. On disk 4 there is a demo version of "He's Back" that was re-worked into "Trick Bag" off of Contrictor, plus the movie version of "He's Back" from the Friday the 13th soundtrack. Disk 4 also features quite a few songs that were attached to live albums or best-of's, "Is Anyone Home" and Alice's version of "Fire".

If you go beyond the music, this box set has a great, informative booklet, with forward by Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, and liner notes from Alice and bandmates about each of the songs. There are tributes to Alice from everyone from Dick Clark to Rob Zombie. As an Alice Cooper fan, this box set was just a great treat. If you are a fan of any of the Coop's music, pick this up! Hopefully, now that Alice has released 3 more studio albums since this box came out, he will have enough extra material to produce another box-set in the near future. Possibly with a song or two where he reunites with the surviving members of the original line-up?? We can only hope.

Finally, Alice releases a boxed set that he was planning to release years ago. Worth the wait I always say! He's my all time favourite and I was his biggest fan in highschool. I'm also seeing him in concert at the Orpheum theatre, and I know it'll be alot of fun! The set contains 4 CD's! The first one opens up with "Don't Blow Your Mind" that he wrote in the late 60's with his band the Spiders! Sounds alot like a cross between the Stones and The Beatles. Then he formed a group called the Nazz and there's a track called "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye(Original Version)", to which he later released on his 1970 album "Easy Action", the song was remastered to mostly an instrumental track. There's alot of unreleased material on this one which makes this box set really special. I really like a track on here called "Nobody Likes Me" which was released a year before he got signed up to a record company. I also like "No Tricks"(with Betty Wright). There's alot of tracks on here that was used on motion pictures. My favourites are "See Me In the Mirror" and "Identity Crisis" both from his first lead starring direct to video motion picture "Monster Dog", both songs never released until now! I also like "Hard Rock Summer" and the motion picture version of "(He's Back) The Man Behind the Mask",both from "Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives." "Under My Wheels"(with 3 of the Guns N' Roses members) is a masterpiece from the documentary "Decline of the Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years." "I Got A Line On You" from "Iron Eagle 2" is a great stompin' rocker! There's a track on here that was just released on this set called "Hands of Death"(featuring additional vocals and instruments by Rob Zombie) a real killer track that introduces the Coop to the dark grunge world!!!The box set also features a booklet that shows pictures of him in concert and meeting others stars and in the studio, plus many more photos and the story of him and his history of albums, movies, and his gory stage shows. One of the pictures feature him and his band the Spiders, where they all look clean cut with short hair. An early Beatles type look! I hope that he still makes studio albums and keeps on rocking no matter how old he is! Long live the Coop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alice Cooper is the Stephen King of rock music! I like collecting box sets. The only problem with some box sets is you don't get all of the hits or get too many demo or alternate versions. Not so with this Alice Cooper compilation. They are all here! And, for those who don't know much about the music of Alice Cooper, this box set will give you the complete history as well as show you the many musical journeys this misunderstood artist has taken. I say he is misunderstood because there were those in the 1970s (and perhaps even some today) who wanted to label him as sick, Satanic or not a "nice guy" as his song "No More Mr. Nice Guy" would tell us. Well, guess what? He really is a nice guy. He is a performer. The Alice we see and hear is a "performance," not Alice the man. And, what an incredibly original performer he is - and also quite diverse both musically and lyrically speaking. As for the not being a "nice guy" misnomer, even Alice himself admits in the excellent, humorous and informative booklet that comes with the box set that only his parents (the Rev. and Mrs.) seemed to know he was still a "nice guy." He loved the old horror films and wanted to put that "feel" of the old films in a live stage show. Nobody did it like Alice Cooper. Of course, it is not all fun and games with Alice. There are some very haunting and revealing songs on this compilation including the autobiographical "I Never Cry" and "How You Gonna See Me Now" as well as other selections from his excellent concept album "From The Inside" released after Cooper cleaned himself up after years of alcohol abuse. (I would also suggest purchasing the import CD From The Inside with the lyrical help of Elton John buddy Bernie Taupin.) Cooper can do romantic ballads such as "You and Me" (a song even covered by Frank Sinatra), make you laugh with songs like "I Love America," haunt you with the excellent B-side now finally on CD "No Tricks" and of course rock like nobody else on the classic tunes "School's Out," "I'm Eighteen," "Hello Hooray," "Billion Dollar Babies," and many more. Of course, some great rarities and demos are also included in this box set also. I deliberated for months about getting this box set. Finally, I decided to take the plunge and just do it. I guess being raised a "good boy" (and a minister's son just like Alice), I thought I really shouldn't be an Alice Cooper fan - like it was something I should keep hidden in the closest. (Now that I'm 40 years old, I guess it is time to admit I've been a closet Alice Cooper fan all of these years.) Don't wait as long as I did. If you are an Alice Cooper fan, get this box set. I'm glad I did. The best discs for me are discs two and three - both of them contain the Classic Alice!

"THE LIFE & CRIMES OF ALICE COOPER"

REVIEW:

"The Life & Crimes of Alice Cooper," which spans 4 CDs, features 81 tracks of import releases, rare tracks, single version releases, demos and the original studio tracks. Plus, the box set also features Alice's contributions to the various soundtracks he's been featured on over the years. Sadly, Alice's early 80's albums were shortchanged and the absence of live material is sorely missed from this collection. So, this set certainly isn't definitive and isn't necessarily a true retrospective of the great Alice Cooper either.

MUSICIANS:

Various artists.

INTERESTING FACTS:

1. Released on April 20th 1999, "The Life & Crimes of Alice Cooper" failed to chart on the Billboard Top 200.

2. For inclusion on the box set, there was the thought to record a new song with all the original members of the Alice Cooper Group but Warner Bros. nixed the idea.

3. After five long years, the box set would finally arrive featuring atleast one song from each studio album.

PACKAGING:

Very good packaging includes four picture disks and a booklet. The booklet contains an intro written by Johnny Rotten, liner notes written by former 'Creem' editor Jeffrey Morgan, and tributes from Bono, Vince Neil, Iggy Pop, Joey Ramone, Nikki Sixx, Ron Zombie; among others.

APPROX. RUNNING TIME:

Disc One: (21 tracks) 74:19

Disc Two: (22 tracks) 74:35

Disc Three: (22 tracks) 72:44

Disc Four: (18 tracks) 73:26

Total: 4 hours and 54 minutes (... and 24 seconds)

FINAL ANALYSIS:

This set is ideal for the uninitiated but the die hards may be disappointed. **** out of 5.

This box set is so amazing! I own all of his albums on both vinyl and Cd and this box set still gets played more often!

Great mix of songs on each CD.

How is Alice not in the Rock'n'Roll hall of fame (or rather shame)?

The man has put out so much great music!!!

I am a Diehard fan, you can trust me ;)