Michael Bruce (musician)
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Michael Bruce | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Michael Owen Bruce |
Born | March 16, 1948 |
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Years active | 1965–present |
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Michael Owen Bruce (born March 16, 1948) is an American rock musician who was a founding member of the original Alice Cooper band.
Early life and Alice Cooper Group
Michael Bruce started playing guitar and piano in early adolescence and was heavily influenced by the Beatles. In 1966, Bruce replaced John Tatum in popular Phoenix-based group The Spiders alongside Vincent Furnier, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, and John Speer. The group quickly established themselves as a top regional act, sharing the stage with such notable groups as The Yardbirds, The Animals, and The Hollies. After relocating to Los Angeles, the group rebranded themselves as the Nazz.
In 1968, after discovering that Todd Rundgren had formed a group called Nazz, Bruce and company changed the name of their project to Alice Cooper, reflecting the sardonic humor that characterized the group and their style. With Bruce's contributions as a songwriter, the band released a string of hit albums in the 1970s, including Love It to Death, School's Out, and Billion Dollar Babies.
Bruce's distinctive guitar riffs and keyboard parts became an essential component of the group’s sound, and his songwriting skills were crucial to the band's success.[citation needed] He wrote or co-wrote many of the band's most famous hits, including "I'm Eighteen", "Under My Wheels", "School's Out", and "No More Mr. Nice Guy".
In My Own Way
In 1973, Bruce began working on his own recordings with a group of musicians that included Mick Mashbir (guitars and vocals), Bob Dolin (keyboards and vocals), Frank Crandall (bass and vocals), and Don Lindley (percussion and vocals). Mashbir and Dolin had performed as members of the touring band with the Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies tour. This line-up recorded and produced four songs ("King of America", "As Rock Rolls On", "Oh, My Love" and "Nothing on Earth") that producer Jack Douglas mixed.
When Bruce decided to leave Connecticut in 1974 and move to Lake Tahoe, Crandall and Lindley did not follow. Bruce, Dolin and Mashbir were then faced with finding a new rhythm section. Drummers such as William "Curly" Smith (Jo Jo Gunne) and John Barbata (The Turtles; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) came to play and record at Bruce's Nevada home.
Bruce's album In My Own Way was recorded over the course of three months in 1975 with producers
Billion Dollar Babies (band)
Billion Dollar Babies was the name of the band founded in 1976 by Michael Bruce, Mike Marconi,
Solo career
During 2010, Bruce was called on for participation in a new Alice Cooper record Welcome 2 My Nightmare (the sequel to the original Welcome to My Nightmare). Bruce co-wrote the song "When Hell Comes Home" on the album. Welcome 2 My Nightmare also featured performances by Neal Smith, Dennis Dunaway, Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter. Additionally, Alice invited Bruce, Hunter, Dunaway and Smith to perform with him that December at his annual Christmas Pudding fundraiser at The Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona.
In spring 2011, Bruce (as a member of the original Alice Cooper group) was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the "Performer" category.[1]
In early 2016, Bruce's new band, Michael Bruce Force, played a show at Asylum Records celebrating Record Store Day on April 6, 2016, in Mesa, Arizona.[2]
Bruce was featured on three songs on Alice Cooper's next release, the 2017 album Paranormal: the song "Rats", as well as two bonus tracks featuring original Alice Cooper band members: "Genuine American Girl" and "You and All of Your Friends". He was subsequently featured on several tracks on Cooper's 2021 album Detroit Stories.
Discography
Solo
- In My Own Way, Polydor (1975) (Re-issued on CD by One Way Recordsin 1997)
- Rock Rolls On, ETR (Euro-Tech Records & Tapes) (1983) (Re-issued on CD by Gonzo Multimedia in 2018)
- Halo of Ice (Live in Reykjavik, Iceland, May 2001), Burning Airlines (2002)
- The Second Coming of Michael Bruce - Alive and Re-Cooperated (Live in Akureyri and Reykjavik, Iceland, October 2002; plus bonus studio tracks), GB Records (2005)
- Be Your Lover - Michael Bruce Anthology, Evangeline Records (2011)
With Billion Dollar Babies
- Battle Axe (1977)
With Alice Cooper Group
- 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)
- Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits (1974)
- Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)
- Paranormal (2017)
- Live From The Astroturf(2018)
- Detroit Stories (2021)
References
- ^ "Alice Cooper: inducted in 2011 | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum". Rockhall.com. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
- ^ "Original ALICE COOPER BAND Members NEAL SMITH And MICHAEL BRUCE Schedule Arizona In-Store Appearance This Saturday". Bravewords.com. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
Bibliography
- Michael Bruce; Billy James (2000). No More Mr. Nice Guy: The Inside Story of the Original Alice Cooper Group. SAF Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-946719-32-2.
- ISBN 978-0-689-10616-3.