I know I shared another Alice Cooper song the other day
(Black Widow), and that this song is from the same album, "Welcome to My Nightmare", his concept album about being trapped in a nightmarish dreamscape. However, it's really too good to not share with everyone.
There are some amazing crescendos in this song,
it builds from almost nothing into an explosion of energy. The intro is amazing, just vocals with a piano and a guitar, super simple but dark harmonies... just everything you want from Alice Cooper. This is the 3rd to last track on the album, and since it's towards the end of the nightmare, Steven is trying to wake up and can hear ethereal voices calling to him (possibly the people in reality waking him up out of his sleep). There is a part towards the last chorus, where the voices pan around, and almost hiss into existence... very cool effect they did in the studio, especially for 1975.
The choruses where the group vocals come in
have amazing drum-lines. I love how the beat comes in after the half-rest on an up-beat, slightly early, but corrects itself within the next measure. Very cool and simple way to breakup an otherwise straight 4 rhythm.
Towards the end of the song, at 4:58,
the whole band and orchestral instruments move to VII of the minor key it's in, which makes it feel like it's going to resolve to the relative major, but then drops to the V, and BAM, right back into "STEEEEVEN". So awesome haha.