On this day · 44 years ago · 1982
44 Years Ago Today: Alice Cooper's Zipper Catches Skin Was a Blackout He Doesn't Remember Making
Alice Cooper calls Zipper Catches Skin, Special Forces, and DaDa his three 'blackout albums.' He wrote, recorded, and by his own account barely toured them without remembering much of any of it.
By Axel, Classic Rock desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Alice Cooper released Zipper Catches Skin on August 25, 1982, on Warner Bros. Records, his seventh solo and fourteenth overall studio album. Co-produced by bassist Erik Scott, it leaned into new wave and pop rock over Cooper's usual hard rock, and it became his first studio album since 1970 to miss the Billboard 200 entirely. Cooper has called it one of three 'blackout albums' from his early-80s substance-abuse years that he barely remembers making. Longtime guitarist Dick Wagner left partway through the sessions, and the album was never toured; none of its songs have ever been played live.
A new-wave detour from the king of shock rock
Alice Cooper released Zipper Catches Skin on August 25, 1982, on Warner Bros. Records, his seventh solo album and fourteenth overall. Per Wikipedia's account of the album, Cooper co-produced it with bassist Erik Scott, chasing the new wave and pop rock sounds then dominating the charts. Scott described the intent bluntly: the record "was meant to be lean, stripped down, and low on frills. Punkish and bratty." Cooper, in a contemporary interview, was equally blunt about his target: "Rock and roll right now is jammed with clichés," he said, and claimed the album had none.
The album Alice Cooper doesn't remember making
Cooper has since grouped Zipper Catches Skin with 1981's Special Forces and 1983's DaDa as his three "blackout albums," records he wrote and recorded during a period of heavy substance abuse that he says he barely remembers. "I wrote them, recorded them and toured them and I don't remember much of any of that," he told The Quietus in 2009, per Wikipedia, though in fact only Special Forces got a supporting tour; Zipper Catches Skin never did, and none of its songs have ever been played live. Guitarist Dick Wagner, a longtime Cooper collaborator, left partway through the sessions and later described them in blunter terms than Cooper's own recollection allowed for, calling the record "the off to the races speedy album" and, separately, "a drug induced nightmare," per the same Wikipedia account of the album's production.
Four guitarists, one commercial dead end
The guitar chair didn't stay empty after Wagner's exit. Mike Pinera, John Nitzinger, and Billy Steele all played guitar across the album's ten tracks, credited alongside Wagner on the finished record. Per Ultimate Classic Rock's 30th-anniversary retrospective, the results were a mixed bag, "an off-kilter hybrid of the Knack and the Cars," with the closing "I Better Be Good" singled out for "ace guitar work." None of it translated commercially: Zipper Catches Skin became Cooper's first studio album since 1970's Easy Action to miss the Billboard 200 entirely.
Nita Strauss, who built her name touring in Cooper's band in the 2010s, is a very different chapter from the four-guitarist revolving door of 1982. CYS hasn't found a documented string gauge for any of the Zipper Catches Skin sessions, so here's a standard-issue hard rock electric set from the same era instead of a guess.
Ernie Ball Regular Slinky · Classic Rock Electric Set
Ernie Ball Regular Slinky 10-46
Not a claim about what any of the four guitarists used on this specific record, which isn't documented anywhere CYS can verify. The standard early-80s hard rock gauge, and still the set most beginners land on first.
Source: CYS Ernie Ball Regular Slinky review.
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