Generally, I would create separation between the artist and their music, but the history of this needs to be understood to really get a taste for this album. DaDa is a terrifying affair from a terrifying period in Alice’s life. Recorded maybe at the peak of his alcoholism, Alice reportedly doesn’t even remember recording it or the album before it.
Anyone who knows anything about rock history knows alcohol has taken many of the greatest before their time, and others had very close shaves it, maybe none as close as Alice Cooper in the mid 80s. He made the miraculous turnaround and has been sober for more than two decades, but this record is one of the most haunting examples of how close rock stars get to the edge. A song by song approach seems appropriate here
DaDa- This was written entirely by producer Bob Ezrin, and seems to not feature Alice at all, this might be strange on a solo record, but it’s downright chilling with its atmosphere. There seems to be a conversation going on between a dad and some sort of doctor, probably a shrink of some sort. It’s dark, and scary in ways Alice has never been before.
Enough’s Enough- This seems to take place from the point of view of a son, although possibly not the son of the father in the previous track. The son seems to rail about how he’s had it with his dad and how he doesn’t need his dad anymore, whereas the dad in the previous track talks about his son takes care of him. This could have fit in as an oddball rebellion track on any of his previous records, but on this, it leaves the listener thinking more than usual.
Former Lee Warner- This one is pretty messed up again, darker than the previous track, and I can only imagine the name is a pun about Alice keeping a dead brother in his attic or something. If he’s not dead, he’s certainly on the brink of it. It’s important to know that Alice Cooper and Vincent Damon Furnier are two different people, and I’m pretty sure Mr. Furnier has always enjoyed quite a stable family life.
No Man’s Land- This one feels a bit less creepy, but full of weirdness nonetheless. It’s basically about a guy who gets a job with a mall santa, until some rich girl comes and asks him to come home with her. So he leaves, and the parents and kids all freak out, so he goes home and has a one night stand and that’s that. Music is nothing special, just one of those weird things that came out of Alice’s head in the 80s.
Dyslexia- This is about as downright goofy as you can get on this record. The song title is nothing deceptive, and this might have felt right at home on any of the three previous records, but it’s colored darker by the context of the record.
Scarlet and Sheba- Aaaand we’re back. “I just want your body Sheba, I don’t want your brain, Scarlet gets what’s left of my remains”. It’s not like necrophilia is new territory for Alice, but I think in an odd decision he forgot the aspects of parody and irony. They’re still there if by accident, but its more serious than say, “I love the Dead”.
I Love America- Which is not to say he’s forgot sarcasm because I Love America is absolutely DRIPPING with sarcasm, released as a single in the UK, this is a sarcastic “Glorification” of all things America. Baseball, apple pie, and used car dealerships. It’s brilliantly funny, and wonderfully out of place.
Fresh Blood- Now I’m usually not a fan of the 80s synths, I love the 70s analog sound, and I don’t think synths stop sounding like shit until the mid 90s. But DaDa has made pretty serious use of them, and Fresh Blood in particular. Maybe what makes this so remarkable and refreshing is that even though it’s an “Alice Cooper solo record”, a lot of it really doesn’t rely on him. Part of that is probably because he was in a pretty unreliable state, but you can’t deny the result.
The writing credits are shared between Alice, Bob Ezrin, and guitarist Dick Wagner, but I can only assume it was Alice who wrote these lyrics. They’re about a vampire, pretty basic concept, but the music is anything but gothic, and the lyrics are anything but ominous. “In the paper, seems a florist, Found in Lincoln Park, died of some anemia, No one raped her, poor Doloris, Just detained her and drained her on the spot”. I can’t help but laugh when I read the lyrics sheet, but I can’t help but be a little creeped out when I hear the song. Well played Alice.
Pass the Gun Around- This is the song that really takes the album from “Interesting” to “Brilliant”. It’s no more musically explorative than the rest of the album, creepy and synthy. The lyrics aren’t the most complex or “Poetic” in the traditional sense, and the primary wordplay of the chorus is almost so basic that it’s stupid, but the chorus goes “Pass the gun around, give everyone a shot, give everyone a shot, and dump in the local river let me float away”. I could say that he’s indirectly talking about alcohol here, but what would be more accurate would be that he’s just merging the suicide gun and the shots of alcohol into one thing, because the end result “Dump me in the local river let me float away” is the same.
What makes it so chilling is that we know now just how close the world of Rock was to this really happening to Alice. After the album he moved back to Arizona to try and save his marriage and make one last attempt to kick the addition, had he failed that time, this might have been the final work of Alice Cooper, his twisted, drunken farewell to the world. Alice is not particularly known as the most emotive voice in rock history, but he makes an exception for this track, and it really makes DaDa one of the most underrated albums I’ve ever heard. Although “Underrated” might be a bit disingenuous, while it was a complete commercial flop at the time, rock reviewers of the present day seem to give it universal, and deserved praise.
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This is the type of album that Alice could have only pulled off once before he got into the territory of the whiny, fast paced on the road to crying lyrics of “Woe is me!”. In 3 years, Alice released “Constrictor”, a back to basics hair metal album with no real thought put into it, and that’s fine because sometimes that’s what Alice about, but for any Cooper fan, this is an absolute must have record
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