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DaDa
1983 studio album by Alice Cooper From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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DaDa is the eighth solo and overall fifteenth studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released in September 1983, by Warner Bros. Records. DaDa would be Cooper's final studio album until his sober re-emergence in 1986 with the hard rock album Constrictor.
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Background and recording
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DaDa was produced by long-time collaborator Bob Ezrin, at the time his first production with Cooper in six years since his third solo studio album Lace and Whiskey (1977), during that interim Ezrin had produced Pink Floyd's studio album The Wall (1979), with people comparing certain track's sound on DaDa to Pink Floyd.[6] With the guitar solo on "Pass the Gun Around" being compared to David Gilmour's playing-style.[7]
The album was recorded at ESP Studios in Buttonville, Ontario, Canada, and made use of local musicians with contributions from Juno Award-winning vocalist and keyboardist Graham Shaw, bassist Prakash John and vocalist Lisa Dal Bello, who would soon be known by her stage name Dalbello. A mostly synthesizer-focused album, it made extensive use of the then-new digital sampling synthesizer, the Fairlight CMI.
Guitarist and co-songwriter Dick Wagner revealed in 2014 that Cooper had relapsed to drinking heavily during the recording of DaDa,[8] and had suggested that the album was a contract fulfillment requirement for which Warner Bros. was not pleased and consequently made no effort to promote,[9] though Warner Bros. has never confirmed or denied this. This and other details, like the real-life cocktail waitresses that inspired "Scarlet and Sheba" are in his autobiography Not Only Women Bleed (2011).[10]
DaDa is the final of three albums in which Cooper refers to as his "blackout" albums, the others being preceding studio albums Special Forces (1981) and Zipper Catches Skin (1982), due to substance abuse. Cooper stated "I wrote them, recorded them and toured them and I don't remember much of any of that",[11] though he toured only Special Forces, the tour for which ended in February 1982.[12]
In 1996, Cooper said that DaDa was the scariest album he ever made,[13] and that he never had any idea what it was about. There was no tour to promote DaDa, and none of its songs have ever been played live.
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Artwork and packaging
The front cover for DaDa was based on a painting by Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí titled Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire (1940). The back cover features a photograph of a young Cooper holding a dog with a separate photograph of an old man next to it.
Release and legacy
DaDa failed to chart on the US Billboard 200, marking a continued commercial downturn for Alice Cooper in his home country. However, the album achieved modest success in the UK, where it peaked at No. 93. According to a Warner Bros. press release issued at the time, "Dyslexia" was intended to serve as the album's lead single.[14] Despite this designation, no single was ultimately released from DaDa in the US. Instead, "I Love America" was issued as a single exclusively in the UK shortly after the album's release there, though it failed to chart.
This was Cooper's final studio album for his long-time label Warner Bros., and after its release he took a hiatus from the music industry, working on family affairs as well as songwriting and acting for movies, which eventually lasted 3 years.
Influence
DaDa is cited as[15] the main inspiration behind the birth of the Italian gothic and shock rock band the Mugshots, the first ever European band produced by Dick Wagner, who is also featured on Love, Lust and Revenge. That EP contains the first cover ever recorded of "Pass the Gun Around", a live favourite for the Mugshots.[16]
Critical reception
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Gary Hill wrote that "As Alice Cooper albums go, this one is really far above average." Adding that "This album is a rather varied release, showcasing several sides of Cooper's musical tastes, but it is all very entertaining. If you missed it when it first came around, do yourself a favor and give it a try now."[17]
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Track listing
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Personnel
Credits are adapted from the DaDa liner notes.[18]
Musicians
- Alice Cooper – vocals
- Dick Wagner – guitar; bass guitar; backing vocals
- Graham Shaw – Oberheim OB-X; Roland Jupiter; backing vocals
- Bob Ezrin – Fairlight CMI programming; keyboards; drums; percussion
- Richard Kolinka – drums ("Scarlet and Sheba", "Former Lee Warmer", "Pass the Gun Around")
- John Anderson – drums ("Fresh Blood")
- Prakash John – bass guitar ("Fresh Blood")
- Karen Hendricks – backing vocals
- Lisa DalBello – backing vocals
- Sarah Ezrin – DaDa
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Production
- Shep Gordon: Executive Producer
- Produced by Bob Ezrin; associate producers: Dick Wagner and Robert (Ringo) Hrycyna
- Recording and mix by Bob Ezrin
- Track 1 copyright Under-Cut Co. Inc. Tracks 2 and 5 copyright Ezra Music Inc./Mystery Man Music/Rightsong Inc. /G. Shaw Music Publishing Ltd./Under-Cut Co. Inc. Tracks 3, 4, 6 and 8 copyright Ezra Music Inc./Mystery Man Music/Rightsong Inc./Under-Cut Co. Inc. Track 7 copyright Ezra Music Inc./G. Shaw Music Publishing Ltd. Track 9 copyright Ezra Music Inc./Mystery Man Music/Rightsong Inc.
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Charts
References
External links
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