Hello my little children,
So I've heard that this week is the dreaded week when students find out whether or not they got the A-level grades they were after. Scarier than Halloween? Maybe.
Sure I think education is super-important, and hopefully the effort you put into your studies will wow the crowd and get you where you want to go. But now I think it's time to tell you a little story about my total complete lack of academic will power. It's this underlying lack of interest in all of the pencils, books, teachers, dirty looks... all of this led me to write a song called School's Out. Maybe you've heard it. It's the song that launched my band's career. It's EVERY school's anthem. So I think the message from the get-go is: Never lose hope, be lucky, have a plan, keep working, write a hit song, and a little blood and eye make-up never hurt anyone.
As I'm SURE you know, School's Out was released back in 1972 (That means it's the 40th anniversary of its release THIS month in case you skipped out on maths like me). You A-level guys were a long way off being born - but I still think this track stands the test of time, as do I (vampires live forever you know...) - and what I'VE learned along the way might help YOU make sense of the hopefully not disappointing results you've just gotten, and give you an idea of what to do now with whatever it is that you're stuck with.
Out of the 14 Top 40 songs we've had, School's Out was the only song I was ever sure of. I said "if this isn't a hit, I don't belong in this business". It had every element - it was released right when school was letting out, it was a summer song, it had that hook, it had the lyric and I would have been SHOCKED if that wasn't a hit. And it was Britain that made it a hit. Mary Whitehouse banning us was publicity we couldn't BUY - all we could do was send flowers! At first we were worried we couldn't come to England - but then we realised it was the best thing that ever happened to us and they couldn't print enough tickets. It was perfect!
At the time, School's Out was very subversive compared to what was on the radio. Everything was still pop-oriented, and here comes this subversive song about kids saying, "let's blow the school up, yayyyy!" Luckily, no-one took it seriously, but they got the point that every single kid in the world absolutely HATED school on the last day.
This is the craziest thing about me though. I wrote a song about 99% of the people that hated school. But essentially I was Ferris Bueller, and I basically ran the school. You have to picture what happened - we are freshmen and sophomores in high school. We have the number one band in Phoenix, Arizona where a thousand kids from the schools are coming to see us play at clubs on weekends. Also, three guys in the band are on the unbeatable track and cross-country team. We've got the jocks, we've got the rockers, the girls love us because we're in a band and we're also sports heroes and I'm going, "We OWN this school!" We had girlfriends doing our homework, and the teachers loved us because we made them laugh. So school was like a piece of cake for me. Not that I ever DID anything, I was just the class clown. When I wrote the song, I was like, "Jeez, this doesn't apply to me at all! I love high school, I'd spend the rest of my life here!"
But in all seriousness, right now, I know getting a job for young people is really tough. My son just graduated with honours at Arizona State University, and he is just barely getting into a job.
He's in a position which is way below what he is capable of doing, but I said you have to start somewhere. And for some people that means toilets! No, seriously though, start wherever you can and be the best you can be.
I think kids are starting to depend now on their cleverness rather than on their knowledge. I've always said from the very beginning, you should specialise. Don't be a general knowledge guy, be the BEST guy at one thing. For example, be in a position where you've done a vocational course, not necessarily a degree, where you can go to a company and be so good at graphic design, they can't live without you. Make yourself indispensable. Or you're the best chemist, maybe in just one area. If you're in the general work pool, you're gonna get lost - even if you've got a degree. You have to be THE guy/gal.
So, if you want to be a journalist, go on a journalism course and aim to be the most clever journalist. Be the one that your paper can't live without. Be the feature writer that is so huge that if they lose you, they lose a whole bunch of people. Or else totally forget a degree or a qualification and create your own company - or just create your own niche in life. Or be a bum. What do I know?
In all seriousness, I DO think that you are all going to be the most successful kids.
One final thought... Make some noise will ya? Someone I once knew used to say "The squeaky wheel gets the oil."
Good luck my kiddies!
Alice Cooper's Halloween Night of Fear III Tour hits the UK October 24-November 1. Tickets - http://www.livenation.co.uk. The album Welcome 2 My Nightmare is out now.
Follow Alice Cooper on Twitter: www.twitter.com/realalicecooper
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I enjoyed school and was good at it, but I loved my summers, too, and still love the song School's Out. I just wish today's kids enjoyed the same summer freedom we did, to do whatever the hell our imaginations -- or boredom -- came up with, barring serious injury to life, limb, or property. My parents let me dig up their back yard to plant a garden and grape vines, and let me use what little money I earned doing chores or babysitting to subscribe to Organic Gardening magazine. While I didn't became an organic farmer, I still enjoy gardening when I can, and can still daydream about owning a chicken farm.
One of the major things society has lost is its relationship-based infrastructure. We've cocooned ourselves into our own little worlds as much as possible to protect our fragile egos from offense. And now we have forgotten how to relate to one another - in an honest and caring manner. Yet right now is the pivotal time when we are going to need to relate to one another. Because the consumer based 'empire building' society is changing into a 'cooperative phase'. First by necessity rather than personal choice we are going to need to cooperate with one another to discover how to build a society based on sustainability. To do this we need the next generation to be prepared. The current educational style does not offer this.
Here is an interesting article about the changing needs in education http://goo.gl/29los
Uh, no. One of the lamest novelty acts in rock history, maybe.
Remember there is only one first place finisher in a race, all the other's are not winners. Which is alright, they make the first place finisher the winner. This convoluted logic does make since in the work place for years to come. A company does not exist on the back of one person, the president or owner, what ever case it may be. It takes dedication and undying loyalty on the part of the employees to make a company successful. Sometimes the boardroom does not realize this, what a shame. It's the little people that really make it easier for the top people to be on top.
One other thing that Cooper said is to start at the bottom, it's easier to learn the company on your way up and try various jobs which will help later, especially during the down sizing season. Life is a whole lot better being sent down the ladder a little then kicked off it completely.
To all you high school kids that diploma is only good enough to get you into a college of tech school, it will not get you any further in life, keep this in mind. Voice of experience speaking!!
I'll always know MJ stole the Vincent Price voice over from you
These words he speaks are true ..............
One of the few things you and I agree on - you a Baby Boomer and I a GenXer - is that this current crop - the millennials - will do all right. They understand technology far better than anyone employed at a Gartner Magic Quadrant Company does. They understand critical thinking FAR more than I would have predicted, considering our schools abandoned that concept years ago. And, they fully understand there is no free lunch. Never has been, and there isn't now.
--MK
Meanwhile, the 20/30 somethings who have been working off the books to maintain as slack a lifestyle of possible, and who have never paid into any of these programs whine and moan about all their "hardships" and how they aren't going to get anything.
Big deal -- you're GenX families have been mooching out of mine and Mr. Cooper's wallet for eons. In face, Alice Cooper probably paid more in taxes over the course of his business than you and you're entire family genome could ever muster in a thousand years!
If you're going to give advice, make it short and sweet. Something like
Follow your bliss - but don't bank on it to pay the rent.
Alice, you were never anything but a novelty act. No wonder punk music got going in the mid-70s. It was a reaction to pretentious phonies like you.
It does seem to me though that media in general always shows us what is going to happen in the future.
I remember a movie with Arnold where he walked past billboards in a mall and they advertised directly to him. Facebook ring a bell?
I remember a Cruise movie where "pre-crime" was the theme. We have all read about that in the works lately.
I fear for my children's future.
Alice, even today's kids love that song. I am not sure how much money you have. You might have enough to pay all your expenses or not. You might have to continue your show as is/was to survive..in your lifestyle.
A great article, and you have no idea the influence you could have on my/ your generation with your truth.
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And keep your resume warm. In some organizations, being the best toilet cleaner in the business means you get to keep cleaning toilets until you quit or get fired.