Alice Cooper “Black Widow” With Vincent Price
Alice Cooper “Black Widow” was the keystone piece of Welcome To My Nightmare, both the album and the tour. “Black Widow” was the song where Vincent Price got involved. Eight years prior to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, Alice created a nightmare video with Vincent Price as “The Spirit of the Nightmare,” that had Alice trapped. Vincent’s speech at the beginning of the video was written by Bob Ezrin and Alice Cooper specifically for Price.
Alice Cooper “Black Widow” The Video
Alice Cooper’s “Black Widow” is actually male:
The horror that he brings
The horror of his sting
The unholiest of kings
The Black Widow
This ties back to the concept that Vincent Price is the black widow.
Alice Cooper “Black Widow” On Tour
During Alice’s 1975 tour for Welcome To My Nightmare, “Black Widow” was a huge production in which Alice’s vocals weren’t really center stage. The song was performed with a lot of guitar solos and fighting spiders. Many of the props and backdrops for the video for “Black Widow” were actually stage props from the tour.
During the live performances, Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter dueled on guitars for several minutes as the stage transformed into a spider lair. Vincent Price’s voice played and then Alice took the stage. Here’s a live performance from 1976. “Black Widow” begins around the 34 minute mark. You can see the stage transform and spiders crawling through webs. Nobody does macabre theatrics like Alice Cooper. The guitar duels go for seven minutes before Vincent Price’s vocals kick in.
As for the meaning behind this song or any of Alice Cooper’s catalog, Alice sums it up. “I project images to the audience and they make up their own story to fit it. I have no message at all… never did.” – Alice Cooper
Do you believe Alice? Want more Alice? I got you.