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Editorial Reviews

In time for the 40th anniversary of the seminal School's Out, Alice Cooper's Old School 1964 1974: Special Edition is the incredible true story of the Alice Cooper group.

A career-spanning 4 CD and download set taking you inside one of rock's great bands in a unique full-length school yearbook, with an array of amazing audio rarities direct from the depths of the band s own vaults and personal collections, with unearthed gems also generously provided by family, friends, road crew and long-time fans.

This set features 4 discs crammed with demos, pre-production and rehearsal recordings of classic Alice Cooper tracks, radio spots, interview anecdotes, plus a full live show captured on the 1971 Killer tour Live in St Louis along with a 60-page yearbook charting the incredible rise of Alice Cooper complete with many rare photos. Old School 1964-1974: Special Edition also includes School's Out demos, live versions and audio of the original recording sessions with producer Bob Ezrin and the kids choir from the chorus.

Alice Cooper flipped hippie ideals on their head and astonished the world, "driving a stake through the heart of the Love Generation," as the group's namesake put it. Heavy Metal took the imagery, punk took the tunes, rock and pop took the showmanship as fans the world over fell in love with the band s macabre sense of humor.

This Special Edition is a condensed version of the original sold-out Old School: 1964 1974 super deluxe box set released in 2011.

Disc One: TREASURES ONE
Disc Two: TREASURES TWO
Disc Three: IN THEIR OWN WORDS- Alice Cooper group interview disc
Disc Four: BOOTLEG CD- Killer Live in St. Louis, 1971

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 7.64 x 0.98 inches; 12.7 Ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ UMe
Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2012
SPARS Code ‏ : ‎ ADD
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ October 3, 2012
Label ‏ : ‎ UMe
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0099NA3HY
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 4

Best Sellers Rank: #239,893 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #3,506 in Pop Metal (CDs & Vinyl)
- #100,969 in Rock (CDs & Vinyl)
- #115,594 in Pop (CDs & Vinyl)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 120 ratings

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4.5 out of 5

120 global ratings

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Alice Cooper - 'Old School (1964-1974)' 4-CD (Universal Music Group)

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

Waited long enough to finally get me a physical copy of this must-own Alice Cooper 4-CD box set. Definitely well worth the wait. In all honesty, the 60-page irreplaceable booklet is almost worth the price of admission alone. Discs 1 and 2 are jam packed with rare demos, rehearsals and must-hear radio ads. Disc 3 feature interview snippets of all five band members - absolutely priceless. Disc 4 is a live gig from St. Louis, MO that was recorded in December, 1971. I, personally know fans that were at this very show. I can remember that when Alice Cooper played my town - in that same region, I wanted to go - but being a pre-teen, my parents wouldn't let me. If you purchase just one music purchase this year, month, entire quarter, etc. - make this the one. So highly recommended, I nearly get light-headed just thinking about it.

17 people found this helpful

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Brad M. Schofield

Awesome!!!

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2011

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This truly is for the hard core Cooper fan. I am that fan and know that not having this set would have eaten at me for life. The old footage and rare demos are cool. the replica items are amazing and I am happy to finally have a 72 bootleg that is easy to understand. My original is awesome and I have it both on vinyl and cd but now i can let those original bootlegs rest in my collection and enjoy the cleaner sound. So if you are a Cooper fanatic all i can say is GET IT! GET IT! GET IT! BUY THIS BABY YOU WILL LOVE IT! If you are not a true hardcore fan save your money or at least don't leave a bad review because this is loaded with the rare stuff that us hardcore fans have spent tons of money on, well more than this box set cost. I call it an investment in my listening pleasure. Now if he would just re-release his 4 tv specials so i can retire my vhs copies!!!!!!!!

10 people found this helpful

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D. Reid

Thank you again Alice Cooper

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2011

Verified Purchase

Picked up the giant box at the post office the other day. Didn't quite expect a box within a box. Had fun on the mountain bike. Great comments from the band members. Loved that they took the time to pass on the stories and anecdotes. Is it expensive? Well perhaps...but then again no more than a few pricey bar bills. Come on it is Alice in the formative days. I will now go out and chase up some of the individual projects of the band. Of course I am a die hard fan of the old band and later of what Alice seemed to have morphed into. Suffice to say great notes, good comments and a great collection overall. Could there be more? Of course? Bring it on. Makes you think "What if..?" Again, thanks to everyone involved for the effort...it is a great rush. Looking forward to some more Alice here in the Down Under.

3 people found this helpful

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Kevin W.

GREAT BOX SET , A MUST HAVE

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2013

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I am glad that I went with my gut instinct and purchased this set. I saw a few negative reviews and I can,t understand why. I just finished listening to the three music cd's, I have not listened to the interview disc yet, and they are fantastic. The sound quality was much better than I thought it was going to be, after reading some of the other reviews. So I would defininately recommend this set to anyone that is an ALICE COOPER fan, as it definately should be part of your collection.

5 people found this helpful

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Syd

NOT WHAT IT COULD HAVE BEEN

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

My first gripe about this is the plastic hubs on the inside. I like the ‘book’ storage for box sets, but the discs have to slide in to a slot on the hub and are not stacked on straight onto it. They are hard – and dangerous – to get in and out.

The sound quality is NOT bad, in the sense that they are not faithful to their original sound. These are bootleg type recordings. Some are called studio demos but they are just a mic in a room with no studio production are all.

Some of these clips are not complete. The live Chicago show probably exists in complete form. They should have put the whole show on here.

The Seattle clip is not complete at all. If you have ever heard the whole show, it’s absolutely amazing. It’s the complete Love It To Death live and it’s much better than the LP because the songs are played in different order, making it sound so much more like a concept album than was put out. If Seattle was an album, it would surely be their best. Again, they should have put the whole show on.

The other live show appears complete and it’s great. They really should have used the complete Chicago, complete Seattle and made it an excellent box, and skipped the interview stuff.

I’m not disappointed, but the choice of material and the pain in the neck storage makes it something I wouldn’t listen to a lot.

6 people found this helpful

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Rob Sanderson

For Die Hard Alice Cooper Group Fans

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 6, 2011

Verified Purchase

The package looks great and there are some excellent parts to it and you can tell it's not just a cash-in for the groups rock and roll Hall of Fame induction as it is a real attempt to build on the visual quality of the original Alice Cooper group album designs and succeeds in that respect having been put together with a lot of love and respect for the original AC group and with their full co-operation. It is much more worthy of your money then say the Stones Exile on Main Street Box.

The glossy hardback book has lots of excellent rare photos and a good history of the band and lets face it where else will you get this, (not in WH Smiths!).

The art cards are very good.

The repro of the Killer 71 programme is excellent, as this Group did some of the best concert programmes, with lots of colour and black and white photos.

I personally could have done without the vinyl live 71 Killer album and early single, especially as the live album is also reproduced as a CD (also the vinyl single a side "Why don't you love me" should have made it onto CD disc 1 as that has yet to have an official digital release and you have to wonder when that will now ever happen)and these must have added a hefty amount to the final price. However the live CD and the DVD are the gems of the package. The Love it to Death and especially the Killer tours (represented here) along with the studio LPs are the pinnacle of lead guitarist Glen Buxton's contributions, because as die hard fans now know, he was already drifting by the time of the Schools Out LP sessions although he did come up with the classic riff and co-wrote the centre piece: Gutter Cat vs the Jets)and played very little on B$B and possibly nothing on Muscle of Love. Also by B$B Alice Cooper's voice live was often very rough due to the affects of drink.

The two rare CDs are for the real fans of the original group giving a very good sprinkling of demos / rarities not previously officially available (and there is certainly some that I, as an avid collector of Cooper group bootlegs, have never encountered before). Quality generally very good but two Muscle of Love pre-production demos are so dire they should never have been included even for so called "historic value". (e.g. "Call Me Evil" quality) There are however some good quality early run throughs from the "Schools Out" Album and alternate lyric versions of songs from Killer, Muscle of Love, some with very different guitar parts. More should have been used from the Killer and Love it to Death Demo sessions as they are generally better audio quality than the Muscle of Love demos, especially as they have missed including an excellent demo of "Is it my Body" with the "going to the graveyard" coda which was used on all subsequent live band versions and is at least 4 minutes longer than the familiar album version. (however there is a full version on the live CD/LP from the Killer tour)

The DVD has some great rare footage with at least five complete songs which is good as I hate all the rip off talking DVDs which only show brief extracts, although there are some of these on it as well. Rarities include colour TV appearance of two Pretties for You songs and a Love it to Death era live outdoor concert footage and an extended number of songs recorded in the studio around time of LITD (tubeway session). There are some excellent interviews both with Alice and the band together and separately. Which brings me onto the interview disc cd which is unfortunately a complete waste of time as most of it is culled from the DVD.

While I said the package looks great there is a significant design fault, as for some reason (authenticity?)the opening lid to the desk is wider than the bottom holding all the contents (which are cleverly stored in two levels with an inner draw that lifts out!) which means it is very easy to damage the lid sides if it gets knocked, even though it is quality thick cardboard. For the same reason you cannot store it sideways on a shelf like a normal box set or old style lp and so where to store it (as it is a very large,heavy lump) will be an issue for a lot of people.

I understand that licensing of clips costs a lot of money but I still think that costs could have been reduced especially as one Cd is totally superflous as indeed for some people is the Vinyl (a lot of re-release vinyl these days costs in the region of £25-35 and that being omitted could have trimmed the price)

To summarise, for the die hard original Alice Cooper group fans (they were our Beatles after all and we knew who all five were by name) it may be a luxuary but is still a must, being a limited edition of 3000 (mine was already up to 2975) you have to get it before it is too late, as this only comes out once in a lifetime. It could have been better but then obsessive fans always say that. At least we have it. Get it if you loved the original group and can afford it.

What we now need is a DVD of the full Don Kirshner 72 colour US TV broadcast (Schools Out is included from it on the DVD) and the full 71 live shows from USA and France 72 Canadian / French broadcast and also the never offically released Whistle test performance of "Is it my Body" from OGWT which is in the BBC archives with outtakes! Also what has happened to the full Hollywood Bowl Schools Out,Teenage Lament 74/Hello Hurray promos which are available in collecting circles as these shout out for an official release and any others AC mgt might have.

Gems still missing which I believe should have been included are the original B side of the Schools Out single an edited Gutter Cat, which sonically sounds radically different in places to the LP version and is now the only official release never to be included on CD. Sort this out someone, perhaps as part of a deluxe Schools Out reissue whch could have a full 72 concert as a bonus disc. Same goes for Killer and LITD and MOL the space on CDs means you could put demos as extras on original disc and have a second soundboard / radio broadcast or good audience live disc. (There is another great Killer show) Come on Alice's management please do it before it is too late and we all die.

39 people found this helpful

lewis remy

The Desciples Know..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

"I know your all crazier than us"

Well he sure got that right, to us they are the Beatles and the songs r like hymns so never mind the £60 price hike for a 2nd edition with no new material go out and buy this.
why? Because in Killer live u r purchasing the most controversial moment in the controversial history of rock music.
lIKE Johnny Rotten i think Killer was the greatest album ever made, with the possible exeptioin of their own Billion Dollar Babies.
Musically the irony is strong as most interesting demos are from Muscle of Love, the album supposed to have split the band. but if Muscle is a bad record i am Gene Simmons (i am not gene simmons) But the reworking of Never Been Sold Before and Working up A Sweat here would have graced the album bettter.

Main gain is the 2 hour dvd with all band members reminiscing, very watchable more so than Super Duper Alice cooper and genuinely funny (Bob Ezrin did u really sleep with all five of their girlfriends before agreeing to produce them ?}
Packaging wise some rare items but not the lp size suggested by the promo photos. The photo bokk is inferior to that of Super Duper (who invents these titles?) but u must remember these photos r chosen for their rareness rather than their impact.
Sadly only Alice is given an opinion on the breakup of the band which wrankles as u have rocks most controversial band at their most defiant pinnacle, the travesty was they sold 25 million records in the blink of an eye, it took alice solo 16 albums to even approach that figure but he is inducted to the hall of fame a decade earlier.
In between issuing of this there has been the exellent value Treasures box set which will give u the demo tracks and Super Duper box set with better value additional material but only on this package r u seeing the band or rather owning the band at their controversially notorious peak.

When Alice Cooper disbanded i was a lonely tear stained Billion Dollar Baby now i am a broke one but a happy vindicated one. Love It To Death------------

3 people found this helpful

LapOfGods

Treason statt Treasure

Reviewed in Germany on April 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

Wenn ich mir die bisherigen 4 Kundenrezensionen durchlese, dann habe ich nur bei einem Verfasser den Eindruck, dass derjenige sich auch die CDs mal angehört hat statt sie direkt originalverpackt zwecks Wertsteigerung in die Vitrine zu stellen.

Ich habe mir zum Glück nicht die Luxusausgabe sondern nur die später erschienene 4-CD Special-Edition (ohne Vinyl, ohne DVD, normale Boxset-Verpackung) gekauft und muss sagen, dass dies mit Abstand mein schlechtester Kauf seit Menschengedenken war.

Oft wird der Begriff Bootleg-Qualität benutzt um klanglich nicht astreine Veröffentlichungen zu beschreiben. Wer Bootlegs kennt, weiß, dass es da himmelweite Unterschiede gibt. Von Schrott bis quasi perfekt. Hier haben wir es leider fast ausschließlich mit Schrott zu tun.

Es ist schon ärgerlich, dass eine Interviewscheibe dabei ist. Da wäre die DVD sicherlich interessanter gewesen. Das wusste ich allerdings auch vorher. Die Interviews sind auch nicht besonders interessant, da es sich um zeitgenössische Interviews handelt. Und wann geben Musiker Interviews? Wenn sie eine neue Platte draußen haben und die verkaufen wollen. Also gibt's hier nur Verkaufsveranstaltungen zu hören auf denen das damalige Image rauf und runter gebetet wird. Eine aktuelle Reflektion der damaligen Zeit wäre interessanter gewesen. Aber gut, ist geschenkt. Die Interview-CD interessierte mich auch vorher nicht groß.

Zunächst hatte ich mir sowieso das Live-Konzert aus St. Louis 1971 angehört. Das erfüllte durchaus die Erwartungen. Gute, wenn auch keine perfekte Qualität. Aber schön, dass es veröffentlicht wurde. Das lief bis dahin also noch wie geplant, aber dann...

Da waren ja noch die beiden "Treasures" betitelten CDs mit den Outakes, Demos, etc. - das vermutete eigentliche Highlight. Aber denkste! Die sind eine völlige Zumutung und die reine Lärmbelästigung, dass ich nur noch froh war, als ich sie endlich überstanden hatte. Teilweise von beschädigten Bändern (Mono-Cassetten?), durch die Bank total verrauscht und hoffnungslos übersteuert, dass es wirklich nur unangenehm ist. Da ist von vorne bis hinten überhaupt nichts hörenswertes drauf. Das sind keine Treasures (Schätze), dass hier ist Treason (Verrat) am Fan.

Inhaltlich ist es auch irgendwie merkwürdig, dass das berühmteste Album der alten Alice Cooper Band - nämlich "Billion Dollar Babies" - komplett ausgeklammert wurde. Allerdings ist es bei dieser Tonqualität eh egal, was drauf oder nicht drauf ist: Es klingt alles nur ganz entsetzlich grausam.

Ich kapiere nicht, wie man so einen Müll so aufwendig verpacken (Deluxe Version) und überhaupt veröffentlichen kann. Aber auch als Käufer der wesentlich billigeren Special Edition ist man geschädigt genug. Ein sicher ganz nettes Live-Konzert, ein Bilderbuch und 3 Getränkeuntersetzer für 30€ - das ist dann durchaus auch was happig.

Die Vollbedienung für Alice Cooper Fans ist diese Veröffentlichung bestimmt nicht. Die ist eher eine Selbstbestrafung für Komplettisten. Und an langjährige Fans wendet sich ja eine solche Box ja grundsätzlich eher als an Gelegenheits-Alice-Hörer. Wobei hier schon der Eindruck entstehen kann, dass man eine essentielle Sammlung der klassischen Alice Cooper Band bekommt, was aber überhaupt nicht der Fall ist. Ersthörer wären nach dem Teil aber wohl für immer verschreckt.

Wer eine gute Alice Cooper Box mit viel 70er-Jahre-Material (und einigen Raritäten) sucht, der soll sich das 99er Boxset "The Life & Crimes Of Alice Cooper" und/oder die Deluxe-Ausgabe von "Billion Dollar Babies" kaufen. Die sind absolut ihr Geld wert.

Diese Box hier ist nur unterirdisch. Ich bin überhaupt nicht froh das Geld zum Fenster rausgeschmissen zu haben.

17 people found this helpful

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Jerry B

Poor Audio Quality (New 2012 Stripped Down Box Set)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2012

Verified Purchase

Let's start right out with the facts....I'm one of the biggest Alice Cooper fans on the planet! The first 45 RPM single I ever bought was 'Elected'. My first 33 RPM album was 'Easy Action'. Since then I've bought just about everything else Alice, both the band and as a solo artist, has ever released on vinyl, CD, VHS, DVD, etc. I hate to say it but this collection sounds like "crapola" overall. There are only a couple songs I would ever listen to more than once again because they sound so bad. I read the reviews and noted some saying this was for hardcore collectors only, but I disagree. Hardcore fans not only deserve but should expect better than this. Now that the price has come down for the reissue I took a chance mostly for the 1971 bootleg concert and even that is just OK at best. I am sure they've got better quality stuff in the vaults but probably couldn't get permission from Warner Brothers to release it. There are a couple of live songs (Muscle of Love in Rio 1974 and Under My Wheels in NYC 1973) that make be believe there probably are full tapes of these shows. Why not release them? Also, where is anything from Billion Dollar Babies? I'm sorry guys, I love the original Alice Cooper Group but this is more than a little bit of a let down.

29 people found this helpful

Tommy Stooge

For Die Hard Alice Cooper Group Fans

Reviewed in Canada on September 22, 2013

Verified Purchase

Originally over priced at over $200, but the repackaged $40 is a good investment...

But being a complete ACG diehard fan, I bought the awesomely packaged $200 version. Being a diehard fan, I loved listening to Ezrin talk with the giggling kids for the School's Out single, wish there was more of this on the box set.

If you are a fanatical Alice fan, this is for you...if you are a casual fan, buy the other boxset, The Life and Crimes Of Alice Cooper, it will have what you are looking for.

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