american idle

Alice Cooper - Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills, from the LP 'From The Inside' (1978)

In this era of disposable entertainment, where television programs exist that are dedicated to the celebrity meltdown - and even more so during the current Lindsay Britney relapse ambulance chase - I can't think of a more timely mention of this gem of a song.
This is from Alice Cooper's 1978 album, written about patients he met in a mental hospital while going through rehab for alcoholism himself. While I'm not sure how it came about, this album got hours of play among a couple of my friends in the early 80's. The answer to why, isn't so much in the standard late 70's hard rock therein, but in the characters of the songs themselves: the shellshocked Vietnam Vet, the bottomed out alcoholic, the compulsive gambler, the suicide failure, and of course the crash and burn socialite. They all have their stories, and they're lyrically written here well enough that you can't help but develop some empathy with them and understand what they've went through to end up in a mental health facility. Kind of like a rock and roll twelve step meeting.