Wiki
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Release Date
25 July 2008
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Length
14 tracks
Along Came a Spider is Alice Cooper's 25th studio album, which follows his 2005 studio album Dirty Diamonds. It was released July 28, 2008 in Europe and July 29 in North America through Steamhammer Records/SPV GmbH and is Cooper's highest charting album since 1991's Hey Stoopid, charting at #53 in the US and #31 in the UK.
Cooper first revealed the album's storyline on his radio show Nights with Alice Cooper and that the theme revolved around a "cool, calm and collected"] serial killer named Spider. The police are baffled by the bodies of Spider’s victims, which are cocooned in a silk web, and are each missing a leg. Spider's task is to collect eight legs in order to complete the construction of his own spider. However, things get complicated when he falls in love with his eighth victim. The theme of the album, i.e. that of a serial killer/psychopath terrorising female victims, could be said to be revisiting territory explored on 1987's Raise Your Fist and Yell. In addition, the last minute of the album, on the track "I Am The Spider" also makes reference, through a spoken outro by Cooper, to Steven. Steven was a character best-known from 1975's Welcome to My Nightmare - he also resurfaced on the final track of 1991's Hey Stoopid and again on the 1994 concept album The Last Temptation.
The album had originally been marked for release in 2007, but problems with producer scheduling and a busy touring schedule caused it to be delayed a year. A number of songs and demos for the album were prepared and short listed during 2007, and further recording and writing work took place on the album in February 2008. In an interview with Billboard Cooper stated that the album was 75% done as of April 18, 2008.The album's first single, "Vengeance Is Mine", debuted on Cooper's official MySpace profile and website.
Slash and Ozzy Osbourne perform as guests on two tracks on the album.[ Cooper's backing band for the album's tour will feature guitarists Keri Kelli and Jason Hook, bassist Chuck Garric, and drummer Eric Singer. The full album was uploaded onto the official Alice Cooper Myspace page a few weeks before the album was released. Only three songs were left on Myspace once the album was released.
2008 Tour
The "Psycho Drama" World Tour which started on July 6 in Bulgaria, is a continuation of the 2007 tour by the same name with only two songs from Along Came A Spider being added to the setlist since August. Photos from that first show in Bulgaria and the British Motor Show Music Festival at the ExCeL in London ] are available online.
The 2009 World Tour "Theatre of Death" featured the song "Vengeance Is Mine" from Along Came A Spider.
Track list
1."Prologue / I Know Where You Live" (Cooper, Saber, Hampton)- 4:21
2."Vengeance Is Mine" (Featuring Slash) (Cooper, Saber, Hampton) - 4:26
3."Wake the Dead" (Featuring Ozzy Osbourne) (Cooper, Osbourne, Saber) - 3:53
4."Catch Me If You Can" (Cooper, Saber, Hampton) - 3:15
5."(In Touch with) Your Feminine Side" (Cooper, Garric, Johnson, Kelli) - 3:16
6."Wrapped in Silk" (Cooper, Saber, Hampton) - 4:17
7."Killed by Love" (Cooper, Garric, Bacchi, Kelli) - 3:34
8."I'm Hungry" (Cooper, Saber, Hampton) - 3:58
9."The One That Got Away" (Cooper, Kelli, Jani Lane) - 3:21
10."Salvation" (Cooper, Saber, Hampton, Fowler) - 4:36
11."I Am the Spider / Epilogue" (Cooper, Saber, Hampton) - 5:21
iTunes Bonus Tracks
1."Shadow of Yourself"
2."I'll Still Be There"
3."Salvation" (Unplugged With String Section)
There is also a 10 minute video clip with "Vengeance Is Mine", "In Touch with Your Feminine Side" and "Killed by Love".
Tracks are encoded at 256kbit/s AAC and are Digital Rights Management free.
Personnel
Alice Cooper - Lead/Backing Vocals
Danny Saber - Guitars (Tracks 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,10 and 11); Slide Guitars (4); Ebow (4); Bass Guitars (1,3,6,8,10 and 11); Piano (7); Keyboards (1,3,6,7,8,10 and 11); Synths (4); String Arrangements (10 and 11)
Greg Hampton - Guitars (2,4,6,8,9 and 11); Bass Guitars (4); Keyboards (4,9 and 11); Backing Vocals (1,2,3,4,6,8 and 11); String Arrangements (2 and 11)
Keri Kelli - Guitars (5,7 and 9)
Jason Hook - Guitars (5)
Slash - Lead Guitar (2)
Whitey Kirst - Guitars (8)
Chuck Garric - Bass Guitars (2,7 and 9); Backing Vocals (2)
Eric Singer - Drums (1,2,4,5,6,7,9 and 11)
David Piribauer - Drums (8 and 10)
Steffen Presley - B3 Organ (6)
Ozzy Osbourne - Harmonica (3) (Credited as 'J. Osbourne')
Bernard Fowler - Backing Vocals (1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11)
Calico Cooper - Backing Vocals (5); Spoken Word (9)
Charts
Year Chart Peak Position
2008 Billboard 200 53
2008 UK Albums Chart 31
2008 Austrian Albums Chart 37
2008 Dutch Albums Chart 76
2008 Canadian Albums Chart 19
2008 Finnish Albums Chart 22
2008 French Albums Chart 101
2008 Norwegian Albums Chart 33
2008 Swedish Albums Chart 25
2008 Swiss Albums Chart 37
2008 German Albums Chart 26
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