Duck Duck Gray Duck

This is a song from my past that has always haunted me. I was too young at the time this song was released (1975) to understand it’s meaning. All I knew was that the lyrics and the music accompaniment were creepy. Nonetheless, I would sit take the album from my older brothers collection of rock music and listen to it. I was drawn into the story.

There is a lot of misinformation about the song “Steven” and the album “Welcome to my nightmare.” Rumors have circulated that Alice Cooper (real name Vincent Damon Furnier) was molested by his father and left at a carnival, while others claim it’s about a father that kills his baby.

What we do know is that Welcome to My Nightmare was a concept album; the songs, heard in sequence, form a journey through the nightmares of a child named Steven. You cannot make sense of the song “Steven” without hearing the other songs in succession. This album shows why Alice Cooper was a master storyteller.

The best description of the song I found was this:  The song is an exploration inside the mind of a man (Steven) who is stuck psychologically at the age of a little boy (“I’m a little boy, No I’m a great big man”), due to some trauma (“all my toys are broken, and so am I inside, mom”). The song Steven is the “nightmare” he experiencesas he comes to terms with his past. As for dying (I don’t want to feel you die”), I think this is Steven dealing with the past. Young Steven has to “die” so that the trauma can be dealt with and adult Steven can move on.

Buy the song here. Buy the album here.