“D.O.A.” is the eight track on Van Halen II.
This song was on the band’s Warner Brothers Demo. On the demo, though, the lyrics were in some instances completely different from the final version and in other instances mumbled, suggesting the song still needed to be refined a bit lyrically. This may be the reason this song was left off Van Halen I.
Guitar World:
By combining Eddie Cochran teenage blues, Tom Waits gutter grit and one-chord punk-rock raunch, Van Halen created a poetic anthem of untamed youth that’s the aural equivalent of Fifties juvenile-delinquent exploitation film. As acrobatic solo acends, dives and spins out of control like a stunt pilot and ends with him wiggling and obnoxious mocking melody with his whammy bar, like a stiff middle finger waved under a police officer’s nose.
Lyrics:
We was broke and hungry on a summer day.
They sent the sheriff down to try and drive us away.
We was sittin’ ducks for the police man.
They found a dirty faced kid in a garbage can.
And I’m alone, I’m on the highway, wanted dead or alive, dead or alive.
Broken down and dirty, dressed in rags a from the day my mama told me, “Boy, you pack your bags.”
Send the mayor down in his pickup truck.
The jury look at me, say, “Outta luck.”
And I’m alone, I’m on the highway, wanted dead or alive, dead or alive.
Now, I’m broken down and dirty, dressed in rags a from the day my mama told me, “Boy, you pack your bags.”
We was sittin’ ducks for the police man.
They found a dirty faced kid in a garbage can.
And I’m alone, I’m on the highway, wanted dead or alive, dead or alive.