Pete Zaremnba and Keith Streng of the garage rockers The Fleshtones still can’t get enough of a Coop classic. Pete Zaremba: For a guy who begged his mom to send away a quarter and a Bosco Chocolate Syrup label when he was three for a 45 of Russ Tamblyn singing the “Tom Thumb Theme” it’s odd that my mind goes blank when asked what my favorite record is. Could it be the first album I ever bought with my own money, The Best Of The Animals? Maybe the second, The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s almost perfect Are You Experienced? — the beginnings of an album collection that would eventually number in the hundreds. The Ramones, Gun Club, and Dream Syndicate’s debut LPs are all contenders, but since I gotta choose, I’ll say Alice Cooper’s Love It To Death. I had been following Alice Cooper but their Zappa-related recordings went for the odd-ball factor and lacked focus. “I’m Eighteen” hit me like a bolt of lightning. At a time of increasingly meandering and self-indulgent prog rock, it was everything I was longing to hear — the guitar arpeggios, Kinks-like power chords, zero lead guitar noodling, the harmonica, a beat that made sense and made me want to move, not to mention the lyrics that seemed to speak directly to me.  After all, I was eighteen. Love It To Death, their LP that followed, went even further — a nightmarish but still concise rocking “concept” album evoking madness and voodoo ending with the glorious redemption of “Sun Arise.” Whose genius idea was it to take a Rolf Harris B-side and give it throwback production touches like a soprano singing away in the ride-out? Bob Ezrin’s?  Of course, I had to sell my copy along with most of my collection during the tough times of my Ebay era, but I always know, and be moved by, this whole album by heart. (Straight/Warner Bros.) Keith Streng: When Alice Cooper’s Love It To Death was first released [in 1971], the original bass player of the Fleshtones, Jan Marek Pakulski, and I bought it and played it to death. We were 16 years old and would turn lights out and listen in the dark to maximize the eerie black, somewhat dangerous atmosphere the album emoted. Especially “Black Ju Ju.” What about that intro into the beginning of “The Ballad of Dwight Fry,” a moment for sure in recording rock ’n’ roll history. From the first track “Caught in a Dream” to the glorious “Sun Arise,” this album is a stand-out. My fav. I tried comparing it once to Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and I realized playing them back to back how light and cute Bowie’s finest record was in comparison.  ❖ The Fleshtones’ album It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves) is out November 1 via Yep Roc Records.   The post Playing Alice Cooper’s ‘Love It to Death’ to Death appeared first on LA Weekly.