Alice Cooper is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. A fitting honor for the original shock rocker.

I listened to a great interview with Alice on NPR’s Fresh Air today. During the show he explained how he modeled his stage performance after classic vaudeville. He simply updated the vaudeville model to rebel against the folksy hippy trip that was the late sixties music scene. In his own words, Alice Cooper was “driving a stake through the heart of the Love Generation.” He is the original shock rocker, and all of the acts that followed have reformulated his style to varying degrees of success: KISS created superheros and flashpots, GWAR opted for humor and outrageous costumes, Marilyn Manson played up the androgyny and spectacle, and Slipknot took the horror and anger to new heights. All are great shows in their own right, but none have unique, dramatic blend of horror, humor and extravagance that is and Alice Cooper performance.

Born Vincent Damon Furnier, he and four classmates from the track team formed a group called the Earwigs while still in high school, and, several names later, renamed themselves the Alice Cooper Group. In 1972 Vincent legally changed his own name to Alice Cooper. According to the Fresh Air interview, Alice claims they came up with the name to evoke the image of a sweet looking girl hiding a hatchet behind her back.

I love the Alice Cooper classics: I’m Eighteen, School’s Out, Welcome to my Nightmare, No More Mister Nice Guy. It’s great punk attitude tunes for the time, and they still hold up today. And I like the metal revival he enjoyed in the late eighties. But my favorite Alice Cooper album is “Special Forces,” a brilliant, underrated, and largely ignored LP he released in 1981. This is one of those albums you need to listen to in its entirety. It rolls along with smooth groove, tasteful elements like vibraphones, castanets and cool synthesizers. It’s not really a rock album, certainly not a metal album, but rather a “just right” blend of pop, a little punk, and some of the dreamy storytelling sounds of mid-70’s Alice Cooper. I have the original on vinyl, but for some reason I had to order the CD as an import, but it’s now available in the U.S. Seriously, check it out. It’s a fantastic album, and features all the classic elements of the great Alice Cooper sound.

So here’s to you Alice, now immortalized as an original in American music.