''Raise Your Fist and Yell'' is the tenth solo

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

by American rock musician

Alice Cooper 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, guilloti ...

, released on September 5, 1987, by

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 w ...

. It features the track “Prince of Darkness”, which is featured very briefly in the

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...

film of the same name, in which Cooper has a cameo as a murderous vagrant. The song can be heard on the Walkman of one of his victims. A music video was made for the song "

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving one ...

", which also became the album's sole single. ''Raise Your Fist and Yell'' is the only Alice Cooper album to feature Ken K. Mary on drums and the second and last to feature Kip Winger on bass. The album continues the

slasher film A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as ...

trend created by Cooper’s previous album '' Constrictor''. The track “Lock Me Up” features a guest appearance from

Robert Englund Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing the supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the '' Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. Classically trained at the Royal Academy o ...

, who portrayed

Freddy Krueger Freddy Krueger () is a fictional character and the primary antagonist in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. He was created by Wes Craven and made his debut in Craven's '' A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984) as the malevolent spirit ...

in the ''

A Nightmare on Elm Street ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise and stars Heather Langenka ...

'' series. The album cover for ''Raise Your Fist and Yell'' was painted by artist Jim Warren.

Tour

The infamous tour for the album, dubbed “Live in the Flesh,” was notorious in Europe in 1988 for its graphic violence and theatricality. The show included many of Cooper’s old favourites, such as the

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

(for the first time since 1972), but offered new theatrics such as impaling a person with a bike (this was also seen in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, used by Cooper in a cameo role as a vagrant killing one of the characters). Most of the tour's more violent acts were heavily inspired by the horror movies of the time, by including graphic onstage deaths and large amounts of stage blood. Cooper has been said to be a big fan of these movies. The show was seen to be so violent that the German government forced Cooper to remove some of the more graphic parts of the show. A (blind) Member of Parliament in the UK,

David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...

, appealed to have the show banned altogether from the country, but his attempt was unsuccessful.

Live performances

Five songs from ''Raise Your Fist and Yell'' were played by Cooper during the album’s supporting tour: "Freedom", "Prince of Darkness", "Chop Chop Chop", "Gail" and "Roses on White Lace". Until “Roses on White Lace” was revived as a regular part of setlists for the 2019 “Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back” tour, nothing from ''Raise Your Fist and Yell'' was ever performed by Cooper subsequent to the close of the “Live in the Flesh” tour.

Track listing

Personnel

- vocals * Kane Roberts - guitar, backing vocals * Kip Winger - bass, backing vocals, keyboards on “Gail” * Paul Taylor - keyboards * Ken K. Mary - drums

Additional Personnel

on "Lock Me Up"

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1987 albums Alice Cooper albums MCA Records albums Albums produced by Michael Wagener Glam metal albums