10 Deep-Cut Alice Cooper Songs Every Rock Fan Should Check Out
4. Roses On White Lace
Controversy had always been in Alice Cooper's repertoire, and the album Raise Your Fist and Yell - as well as its accompanying 'Live in the Flesh Tour' - saw him appalling parents and conservative figures by taking his blood-soaked stage-show and overtly violent approach to hair-metal to bold new heights.
The songs were heavier, the lyrics were nastier, and the theatrics were bordering on sadism - much to the delight of fans the world over. So it seems only fitting that the album's best track is this nasty slice of heavy metal that details the exploits of the prostitute murdering Ripper, as he rather graphically dismembers a bride on her wedding day.
The central riff is savage, the drums are fierce and Alice genuinely sounds like a man possessed. Equating the spatters of blood across the bride's dress to roses resting gently upon white lace, and gleefully singing of how they're never going to find the poor girl's head. It's incredibly sick, but oh so enjoyable.
This song is preceded on the album by 'Chop Chop Chop' and 'Gail', two songs that add further mythos to the Ripper character, but neither can match the ferocity and sheer menace of Roses on White Lace.