Alice Cooper Covered Bob Seger’s “East Side Story” – Listen Here

Alice Cooper has recently released his new EP Breadcrumbs, and it contains a rather shocking (pun intended) addition: his own rendition of Bob Seger’s “East Side Story”.

Bob Seger released his original version in 1966 as his first single with the band The Last Heard, and paved the way for his solo career.

In an interview with Billboard, Cooper says he witnessed a live online performance of the song, and suggested to producer Bob Ezrin if they could do it uniquely. “I had never heard that song on the radio. We could jazz that song up a little bit and turn it into something else. It has a great story, and I love the chord structure and everything to it. We just treated it a little more hard rock.”

He said his EP was a look back to his Detroit roots, stating “When people say, ‘Well, what is your music?’ I say it’s Detroit rock – we just put a different slant on it. At the bottom of it, all Alice Cooper records are Detroit, Chuck Berry, hard rock and then twisting it up into what we are lyrically and performance-wise. But you take the bottom of all those songs and they’re all guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll songs, which is what I associate as the Detroit sound. I wanted to use all Detroit players and songs either about Detroit or written by local musicians.”

Cooper also reveals that he met Seger while on tour, and confessed that his song was going on Cooper’s new EP. “I said, ‘We’re gonna do one of your songs,’ and he probably thought I wanted to do one of the hits. I told him ‘East Side Story,’ and he goes, ‘What?!’ I said, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna do that one.’ I hope he likes it. I’m glad we gave it a second life.”

The Breadcrumbs EP will be launched on September 13, and will be a teaser for Cooper’s next album, which will feature original material carrying the Detroit sound.