The last installment of the 4 "Lost Albums". DaDa is a very obscure and a bit too "out there" for most mainstream Alice Cooper fans, but to the majority of Die Hard fans, it's a forgotten gem in Alice's extensive catalogue. Personally, I fit into the later group. Sure, DaDa is odd, and sometimes down right bizarre, and yes, it hasn't aged extremely well (especially "Fresh Blood"), but this album also has some great high points. There's "Pass the Gun Around" another one of my favourite Alice songs, the eerie title track and the hilarious "I Love America", a redneck's ode to his favourite country that may well be the funniest song Alice has ever released.
SONG BY SONG RUN DOWN
1. DaDa - This song, mostly instrumental, is just down right eerie. Creepy music, with the sound of what I think is a guillotine falling, following by dripping blood and a toddler saying "Da Da!" over and over all backed by a psycho therapy session, is really not
coming close to describing this one. I don't really know why, but I really like this song.
2. Enough's Enough - Weird song which has a son confronting his father about various "issues", such as "what did you do with mother?". Strange little song. Contains the only swearing in an Alice Cooper song that I can recall with "Go f*ck and f*ck and make a buck", so I guess it's a landmark in that respect. Wagner shines on the guitar here.
3. Former Lee Warner - Possibly Alice's creepiest song. A short ballad from the point of view the brother of the "Former Lee Warmer" character. Sort of a deranged family member in the attic story, kind of like Bart's brother Hugo for fans of The Simpsons to relate to J. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good song, definitely one of the best from DaDa.
4. No Man's Land - Another quirky little story of a man with numerous personalities whom, while working as Santa in a mall, receives an "indecent proposal" from a woman. I love the lyrics in this one, although tapping on the numerous personalities part was odd. Cool Guitar from Dick Wagner here again.
5. Dyslexia - Alice is confused whether he is in love or whether he has Dyslexia. A funny track, with a great "YES! NO! YES! NO!" ending. Lyrically quite good, though somewhat musically repetitive.
6. Scarlet and Sheba - A very sexual song about an experience with 2 sisters into a dominatrix and S&M, Great song, the chorus really sticks in my head whenever here it. Alice does a good job playing the recessive "bullied" character in this song. Not for everyone, but most Cooper fans should get a kick out of it.
7. I Love America - Like stated, this is gold. This is essential Coop. I get this picture in my head of Alice sitting in a pick up, with a huge beer gut, a "Mack" truck cap and chomping away on chewing tobacco. This is a redneck's ode to his country, and lyrically it's flawless. I'd highlight a couple of lines to show this, but I wouldn't be doing the rest of the song justice. Absolutely hilarious, I laugh at this one every time.
8. Fresh Blood - The album's weakest cut in my opinion. It's very dated, with such a flat out 80's feel to it. Not that I'm knocking 80's music, just bad 80's music. Fresh Blood is also a bit too long - I could stand this one being 3-4 minutes, but this goes almost 6 minutes long. It's about a modern day vampire, as far as I can work out anyway.
9. Pass The Gun Around - From the passable to the brilliant. Pass the Gun Around, like I said is one of my very favourite Alice songs. I think it's the most overlooked of all his great work. It's about a depressed guy in a hotel room, contemplating suicide. The song starts with him taking a drink and loading a gun. It goes on, outlining his problems, before finally it ends suddenly with a chilling gunshot, after many repeats of the chorus "Pass the gun around..give everyone a shot, give everyone a shot, pass the gun around…". This song also features a sensational solo from Dick Wagner that runs for just under 2 minutes. It's one of my very favourite guitar solo's of all time - up there with the guitar work in Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird", Slash's solo for Guns N' Roses "November Rain" and Dave Gilmour's solo on my all time favourite song - Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb". Wagner really should have more recognition for his work, because the solo in this song makes it an often forgotten Cooper classic. It's omission from the Life and Crimes box set truly puzzles me.
"DaDa" Prime Cuts - Obviously I think Pass the Gun Around is essential listening, as is I Love America. Also check out Former Lee Warmer and the title track. The rest might be a little out there for a new fan of Cooper.
Overall - "Dada" is a forgotten gem. Pass the Gun Around should be on all those best of compilation, but it never will. From the very first cry of "Da Da!" to the very last, after the chilling gun shot this album is important listening for anyone wanting to truly look deep into Alice's catalogue. Dick Wagner is brilliant on the guitar throughout. This album marked the end of Alice's experimental period which also spawned Flush the Fashion, Special Forces and Zipper Catches Skin - Cooper moved onto the pop metal/ horror movie rock style he stayed with up to 1991's "Hey Stoopid". I wouldn't recommend this for first time listens of Alice, it'd scare them off J - If you are lucky enough to find a copy of this one - grab it, it'll be worth it.
