Lyric under scrutiny: "Go ask Alice"
('When I'm President', Pornograffitti)

by Alison Cummings

Not only does the line "Go ask Alice" make a connection to the rabbit arriving in Wonderland ('Li'l Jack Horny'), but it also has a rather wondrous history, branching off in several delightful, and sometimes druggy, directions.

Firstly, and most obviously, we must consider the Alice Cooper connection.   What did he say?  "I wanna be elected!" of course.   For those of you who haven't yet made the Cooper connection, I'll explain.   Alice sings the line "I wanna be elected!" on his 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.  Gary's rendition of it in 'When I'm President' is strikingly close to the original.  The album itself is based on a presidential campaign, in which Alice comments on the "American dream and it's recruits".

Now for the druggy history of "Go ask Alice".  It originates, of course, from Louis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland.  It was Jefferson Airplane who decided that when the storybook Alice ate the mushroom, she was taking drugs (when she grew and shrank, she was obviously hallucinating, they reasoned).   The result of this reasoning?  A song called 'White Rabbit', containing the line "Go ask Alice".  It can be found on Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow album (1967).

It's also interesting that there's a book called Go Ask Alice.   It is the anonymous diary of a teenager in the 1960s, struggling with addiction; it's not a pretty tale and it doesn't have a happy ending.  It's still available as far as I know, so if you're into reading, it is worthwhile checking out.

So there you have it.  The wondrous history of one of many Gary Cherone lyrics - the lyrics of a man as ingenious as any great writer (including Louis Carroll)!