Original Lineup of Alice Cooper Returns With New Single, ‘Black Mamba’

Just a few days after the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper band announced a reunion album and tour, the first single from that record has been released.

Starting with a spooky spoken-word recitation that confirms Cooper as the Vincent Price of his generation, “Black Mamba” finds the 77-year-old Cooper slipping back into his demon-seed role of old (“I’m so beautiful to look at, baby/But so dangerous to touch”). Behind him, guitarist Mike Bruce, drummer Neal Smith, and bassist Dennis Dunaway, all founding members of the classic Seventies band, lather on the vintage rock sleaze. The song also features a wild-eyed solo from another classic-rock icon, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger.

“Black Mamba” is the initial track to be rolled out from The Revenge of Alice Cooper (out July 25), the first new record from the core members of the Cooper lineup since 1973’s Muscle of Love. (And if you remember that Liza Minnelli guested on that album, consider yourself a Cooper expert.) Although original guitarist Glen Buxton succumbed to pneumonia in 1997, he’s heard on “What Happened to You,” which integrates a previously unreleased guitar part Buxton recorded before his passing. Buxton also appears on an unreleased alternate version of the 1970 track “Return of the Spiders,” a bonus cut on deluxe editions of the album.

Described in a statement as a “high-voltage journey into vintage horror and classic ’70s shock rock,” with cover artwork that resembles a horror-film poster, The Revenge of Alice Cooper will be followed by a co-headlining tour with Judas Priest this fall.