Psychedelic Lunch

Welcome to our “Psychedelic Lunch” series, “Spooktober Edition” where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore music from the 60’s to today. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

Alice Cooper, ‘I Love the Dead’

I could have filled the spooktober list with Alice Cooper songs. It seemed more fair for the sake of this list to limit each artist to a single track. And this one is a ghoul-tide gem, from the opening verse, “I love the dead before they’re cold from the album Billion Dollar Babies 1971. Their bluing flesh for me to hold. Cadaver eyes upon me see … ” Pause. “Nothing.” Other lines that make this song the greatest Halloween track ever? “I never even knew your now-rotting face.” “While friends and lovers mourn your silly grave, I have other uses for you, darling.” And the sing-along chorus is genius.

Alice Cooper lived up to his shock-rocker rep with this a darkly humorous track about necrophilia. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Cooper expresses his fascination and sexual attraction for fresh corpses – a pretty risky and taboo subject to take on in song, even by today’s standards. And as disturbing as the subject matter is, the track boasts some great playing by the Alice Cooper band. All of the members acquit themselves here, displaying their considerable chops as musicians.

During his Billion Dollar Babies tour, Cooper would simulate sex with a mannequin while performing this song. He would also stage a mock beheading of himself during the song.