The 1981 Listening Post - Lisa Dal Bello (AKA Dalbello) - Drastic Measures

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler

Released: 1981 Lisa Dal Bello (AKA Dalbello) Drastic Measures Genre: Rock Rating: 3 out of 5 Highlights: Princess Telephone Bad Timing Bob: Coo-oo-oo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-choo, Coo-oo-oo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-choo. Good day and welcome to the Great White North. I’m Bob McKenzie and this is my brother Doug. Doug: How’s it goin’ eh? Bob: It’s goin’ good. Doug: Beauty. Bob: Yah. So. Today’s topic is music, eh? Doug: Oh, music. Beauty. Bob: Right. OK, so, my topic for today is, how come on the Juno awards, they got all these awards for Canadian artists, right? Doug: Well, yah, because it’s the Junos, not the “You knows.” Ha! Get it? Bob: No. Doug: Oh. Well, it kinda made sense. Bob: No, it didn’t, you hoser. Doug: You’re the hoser, hoser. Bob: Take off, eh. Doug: You take off! Bob: OK, so, like, back to my topic, right? Doug: YOUR topic. Whatever, eh. Bob: My topic is, how come they got all these Canadian artists that win all these awards, but, like nobody in the states has ever heard of ‘em? Doug: Cuz people in the states are– Bob: I mean, like, everybody in Canada knows who, like Billy Joel is, right? Doug: Well, yah, I mean– Bob: Or like Pat Benatar, eh? Doug: Oh beauty, Pat Benatar. Bob: Yah I like her. Doug: She is hot! Bob: Yah, she’s hot. Doug: Totally. Bob: Yah, so like, how come the only Canadian artists ANYBODY knows are, like, Rush, and, um… Bryan Adams, and, like, that’s it? Doug: Not ANYBODY, hosehead. Just people in the states, eh? Bob: Right, yah. So, like, how come people only know like, three artists from Canada? Doug: Who’s the other one? Bob: Huh? Doug: The other one. You only named, like, two artists. Bob: I did? Doug: Oh, never mind. I don’t remember. Go. Bob: No, you go. I’m tired of talking. I’m havin’ another beer. Doug: OK, so like, good day, welcome to the Great White North. My topic is, like, how come nobody in the states knows who Lisa Dal Bello is, eh? Bob: Oh, beauty! Yah! How come, eh? Doug: Right? Cuz, she made that one record with Bryan Adams, eh? Bob: Everybody knows– Doug: And, like, she’s won like seven million Juno awards, eh? Bob: Everybody knows who Bryan Adams is, but, like, nobody knows who– Doug: We covered that already, hosehead. Bob: We did? Oh, yah. Doug: Plus, like, she is just as beautiful as, like, Pat Benatar or, or Bob: Or that other girl singer. Doug: Right! That one. She is hot. Bob: Yah, she’s hot. Doug: Totally. Bob: OK, so, good topic. Doug: Yah, beauty topic. I'm havin' another beer. Bob: Yah, so Lisa Dal Bello is a Canadian singer, eh? She made that one album with Bryan Adams. That was pretty good, eh? And she sings, um… She sings… Doug: Songs. Bob: Duh, right, I meant, like which songs? (LISA DAL BELLO ENTERS) Lisa: Hey you hosers! You can’t even remember what songs I sing, eh? Doug: Holy cow, it’s, it’s what’s her name. Bob: Shut up hoser, it’s Lisa. Um. Lisa: Lisa Dal Bello is my name you guys. Doug: Get out! She came on my show, eh? Bob: No way, eh? She totally came on MY show. Lisa: Anyway, I was gonna sing Princess Telephone. You know the song where I mention one of you guys? Doug: Oh yah, totally, I mean, I always knew that was – Bob: Wait, you mention one of US? Lisa: Oh yah totally, hosers. There’s a line in the song about Mr. McKenzie. Doug: Whoa. Beauty! Bob: Oh my gosh, yah. Beauty, eh? That’s just – wait, which one is it? Lisa: Hm? Bob: Which one of us is in the song? Doug: Oh yah, you gotta tell which one it is. Lisa: (grins) I’ll never tell. Doug: I bet it’s me, hoser. Bob: No way, eh, it’s gotta be me. Doug: Totally me. Take off! Bob: You take off! (Bob and Doug begin pelting each other with back bacon and donuts) Lisa: Um, I’m gonna sing my song now guys. Guys? Oh well… 1-2-3-4! (Lisa sings Princess Telephone. It’s pretty good.) Bob: Wow, that was, like, so– Doug: Yah, I mean, that was– Lisa: Thanks guys. Should I do another one? Bob: Oh, yah. I mean, if you wanna. Doug: You heard her, hosehead, she wants to do another one. Bob: I just thought, you know, if she’s got like a plane to catch. Doug: Pfft. Plane to catch. What a hosehead. Bob: Shut up. Lisa: OK, this one’s on the album Drastic Measures too. It’s all about how I shoulda been a much bigger star but my label fired me and wouldn’t let me produce my own music, and basically how the music industry sucks, eh? Does that sound alright? Bob: (to Doug) I think I might be in love. Doug: Ha ha! Whatever, eh. I saw her first. Bob: No way! I totally saw– Lisa: OK, this one is called Bad Timing. 1-2-3-4! (Lisa plays Bad Timing. It’s also pretty good. End of scene.)

The 1984 Listening Post - Dalbello - womanfoursays

Dalbello - whomanfoursays

#245

1984 Housekeeping

Dalbello

whomanfoursays

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Gonna Get Close to You

Cardinal Sin

This album opens with a song that sounds like a dejected and angry female response to Prince’s music. It works because it’s tight, taut and soulful. I don’t know if the singer wants to get “close” because she loves the object or wants to kill him. That menace pervades. 

There is a contemporary artist named Meg Myers. Her music is similar to this. Studio created, ominous, a little more sexual but a lot of that could be because we are an even more progressive society than we were in the 80s. 

Dalbello is what you get if you take the opera out of Annie Lennox and inject her with more Cristina. 

This is a record for those who like Laurie Anderson, Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, Cristina and any and all of those solo female drivers in the 80s who were not Madonna and, in a different world, a better world, Dalbello takes the world by storm and Madonna is in the dance chorus of Miss Saigon. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/whoman-foursays/515105089