Song of the Day 4/12: Dada, “Dizz Knee Land”

The worst thing about this timeline is that it makes me root for people and institutions I hate. The FBI and CIA, for instance. I hate them, but I hate Trump more, so I end up rooting for the FBI and CIA. I resent that, and it’s far from the only example – Liz Cheney, anyone?

That’s why I was glad to hear that Disney settled its legal dispute with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new oversight board for the theme park’s self-government. I hate Disney, but I hate DeSantis more, so I had to reluctantly root for the Mouse House. Now that they’re not fighting I can go back to hating them both.

Southern California band Dada scored a No. 5 hit on the Modern Rock chart with the first single from its 1992 debut album – the line “I just flipped off President George” is about the first George Bush, not his feckless son. Though the refrain plays off the then-current Disney ad campaign that paid sports stars who just won a championship to say “I’m going to Disneyland!” bassist Joie Calio, who wrote most of the song, said, “The song isn’t about Disneyland at all.”

It has more to do with the craziness of the juxtaposition of the state of your every day. Just looking around you. You could see a guy’s head being chopped off and, you know, a leg flying away and someone embracing someone in a lovely kiss and then flip the channel and then a chainsaw goes buzzing through, you know, some butter and it accidentally cuts your mom’s head off and then you flip again and they’re making love and then you flip again and it’s [Joe] Montana going ‘I’m going to Disneyland.’

The band is still active, but they’ve never had another hit.