Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American … Read Full Bio ↴Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by many music journalists and peers to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences.

Originating in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1964, "Alice Cooper" was originally a band with roots extending back to a band called the Earwigs, consisting of Furnier on lead vocals and harmonica, Glen Buxton on lead guitar, and Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar and backing vocals. By 1966, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar joined the three and Neal Smith was added on drums in 1967. The five named the band "Alice Cooper", and Furnier eventually adopted it as his stage pseudonym. They released their 1969 debut studio album with limited chart success. Breaking out with the 1970 single "I'm Eighteen" and the third studio album Love It to Death, the band reached their commercial peak in 1973 with their sixth studio album, Billion Dollar Babies. After the band broke up, Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper and began a solo career in 1975 with the concept album Welcome to My Nightmare. Over his career, Cooper has sold well over 50 million records.

Cooper has experimented with a number of musical styles, mainly hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, and glam metal, but also new wave (1980–1983), art rock on DaDa (1983), and industrial rock on Brutal Planet (2000) and Dragontown (2001). He helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and has been described as the artist who "first introduced horror imagery to rock 'n' roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre". He is also known for his wit offstage, with The Rolling Stone Album Guide calling him the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer". Away from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur, and, since 2004, a radio disc jockey (DJ) with his classic rock show Nights with Alice Cooper.

Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Cooper

Band studio albums
Pretties for You (1969)
Easy Action (1970)
Love It to Death (1971)
Killer (1971)
School's Out (1972)
Billion Dollar Babies (1973)
Muscle of Love (1973)

Solo studio albums
Welcome to My Nightmare (1975)
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell (1976)
Lace and Whiskey (1977)
From the Inside (1978)
Flush the Fashion (1980)
Special Forces (1981)
Zipper Catches Skin (1982)
DaDa (1983)
Constrictor (1986)
Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987)
Trash (1989)
Hey Stoopid (1991)
The Last Temptation (1994)
Brutal Planet (2000)
Dragontown (2001)
The Eyes of Alice Cooper (2003)
Dirty Diamonds (2005)
Along Came a Spider (2008)
Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)
Paranormal (2017)
Detroit Stories (2021)
Road (2023)

The Nightmare Returns
Alice Cooper Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I'm a little tired and feeling hazy
I just need to rest my eyes
But I won't go to sleep because it's crazy
What happens to me in the night
'Cause when I go to deep into my slumber
Ugly faces, awful places I don't want to go, no

"All aboard, watch your step people

Last call for the nightmare express
I found myself slipping away
Just this side of dead
I woke up in a box car
I wasn't in my bed

I found my leg chained to a spike
That ran down through the floor
Attached to thirteen angry men
All rotten to the core
But I'm innocent I cried right out
I'm in someone else's dream

They looked around and laughed out loud
Said, "Brother, so are we"
"Yeah brother, so are we"
But I'm a big celebrity
Known all round the land
"Well buddy you ain't no one here
Man, you ain't in demand"

Speeding towards a flaming wall
Like a screaming sonic boom
I really gotta wake up now
Or I may meet my doom oh lord,
I may meet my doom
So all that I remember

Is how much my body hurt
Now I'm sleeping in the graveyard
On the wrong side of the dirt
Yeah I'm on the wrong side of the dirt

Wrong side of the dirt, don`t you know
I'm on the wrong side of the dirt

Overall Meaning

The song The Nightmare Returns by Alice Cooper is a vivid portrayal of a surreal experience in which the singer is taken to a horrific dreamworld. The lyrics are full of dark imagery, describing ugly faces and awful places that the singer encounters in his sleep. He refuses to go to sleep because he is afraid of what he might see. However, soon he finds himself slipping away and awakens in a boxcar, an unfamiliar place.

The singer describes how he found his leg chained to a spike that ran down through the floor, and he was chained to thirteen angry men, who were rotten to the core. Even though he cries out his innocence, they ridicule him by saying that he is in someone else's dream, and he is not a big celebrity as he thought. In the end, he is rushing towards a flaming wall and realizes that if he doesn't wake up, he might die.

The song is a commentary on the horrors of nightmares and how they can seem very real. It also portrays how people may not be what they seem in the dreamworld, and even the most well-known people can be lost and forgotten there.

Line by Line Meaning

I'm a little tired and feeling hazy
I am fatigued and disoriented

I just need to rest my eyes
I want to close my eyes for a bit

But I won't go to sleep because it's crazy
I refuse to close my eyes due to the strange occurrences in my dreams

What happens to me in the night
The bizarre happenings that occur in my dreams

'Cause when I go to deep into my slumber
When I fall into a deep sleep

Ugly faces, awful places I don't want to go, no
I encounter unpleasant sights and destinations that I wish to avoid

"All aboard, watch your step people
A warning to potential passengers

Last call for the nightmare express
The final opportunity to board the train of nightmares

I found myself slipping away
I began to lose consciousness

Just this side of dead
At the brink of death

I woke up in a box car
When I came to, I was in a train car

I wasn't in my bed
I was not in my place of rest

I found my leg chained to a spike
A metallic spike was anchored to my leg

That ran down through the floor
It extended through the ground

Attached to thirteen angry men
Thirteen hostile individuals had similar chains attached to them

All rotten to the core
They were all thoroughly immoral

But I'm innocent I cried right out
I proclaimed my lack of guilt

I'm in someone else's dream
I'm part of another individual's dream

They looked around and laughed out loud
The others ridiculed me

Said, "Brother, so are we"
They remarked that they were also part of someone else's dream

"Yeah brother, so are we"
A confirmation of their previous statement

But I'm a big celebrity
I hold a prominent status in society

Known all round the land
My fame is widespread

"Well buddy you ain't no one here
One of the others dismissed my fame in this location

Man, you ain't in demand"
I am not highly sought after here

Speeding towards a flaming wall
We were moving quickly towards a wall of fire

Like a screaming sonic boom
Our passage was marked by a deafening sound

I really gotta wake up now
I must rouse myself from my slumber

Or I may meet my doom oh lord,
Failing to wake up may result in my destruction

I may meet my doom
I might perish

So all that I remember
The only thing that lingers in my mind

Is how much my body hurt
Is my physical discomfort

Now I'm sleeping in the graveyard
Currently, I am slumbering among the dead

On the wrong side of the dirt
Underneath the soil

Yeah I'm on the wrong side of the dirt
Reinforcement that I am buried in this resting place

Wrong side of the dirt, don`t you know
A reminder that this is a less than ideal location

I'm on the wrong side of the dirt
A final reiteration of my position

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ROBERT A. EZRIN, ALICE COOPER

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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