4:30
Trash, 1989
Written by Alice Cooper, Desmond Child, & John McCurry
In this song, the narrator is torn between his urges for his paramour and his knowledge that she is no good for him ("I wanna kiss you, but I want it too much / I wanna taste you, but your lips are venomous poison"). It's an extended metaphor for true addiction, to a dangerous drug that is as toxic as poison. Alice Cooper has never been my cup of tea, but this song isn't too bad. It's catchy, generic '80s hair metal, sung at an intense falsetto, with wailing guitars. A bit repetitive, relying, as so many mainstream pop songs do, on endless iterations of the chorus. Four very short lines, a six-word chorus, four more lines, chorus, two lines, chorus, chorus, repeat to fadeout. It's too much for me, but it's a winning formula for a lot of hits, so, you go, Alice.