Devo - Robert Hilburn interview (1981) 

So agree! My favorite then Gary Numan, The Tubes, The Cars and on.

I think it was a running joke because I've seen the same situation in other interviews during this time

He needs to be testifying to congress with the energy dome on.

In retrospect I think they were actually very conservative, especially from 1980 on. Look at Jerry's suit here. Maybe they didn't like Reagan at the time, but when you listen to Freedom of Choice you don't hear a record with young guys whining about how unfair life is. You hear a bunch of songs about tragic ironies of life, but also songs about taking responsibility for your own choices and forging your own destiny. Nowadays they claim "Whip It" was an ironic song, which seems defensive to me, like they're trying to maintain their leftist cred. But irony sure didn't make Whip It a hit, and I don't think the song was really ironic at all.

@@Margatroid take your schizo pills bud...

Amen😊

The reason no one (in the media) would take them seriously is because the whole concept of de-evolution was inherently mocking them and the establishment that they represented… so “they had to be a joke”. Time has proven that DEVO were 100% irrefutably *RIGHT* about their theory. They called it right from day one.

CharlieHipHop greatest band period,best rock and rock,best "new wave" obviously, best punk band, BEST FUCKIN ARTIST OF OUR TIME . devo was so fucking punk rock that Mohawks,snarled lips,spikes and being beligerent not needed. the natural anti conformist ,pioneering orignality of devo makes them the actual DEFINITION OF PUNK.

God bless the 80s and best NEW WAVE band ever

@Spencer Proctor some people just don't get it.

I started to dispute this, and then realized I couldn't think of a better one.

@@andrewbuck171 was my thoughts exactly, spud patrol forever!!🤘🤘

Actually, they had (started using the term ‘music video’). It just wasn’t common everyday vernacular yet, as it would become a year or two later. Still, it wasn’t all that uncommon to hear someone say ‘music video’ before MTV happened. I remember how HBO (then referred to in full as ‘Home Box Office’) used to show music videos during the long breaks between movies in the late 70’s, and most people I knew back then (the ones who had cable at least) called them just that - music videos. I don’t think I ever heard them referred to as ‘films’ until I saw this.

Me too!

Does this guy look like a sexist?

I LOVE Mark's suit. I would soooooo wear that!

He looks like a dorky reject from the 1970s mod scene in that jacket, lol.

Rockin' the doublebreasted big houndstooth print pantsuit!! ❤️

Hey, Jerry was the one who called it a flower pot.

@@mournblade1066 fair enough lol

.......so you’re Through Being Cool then? ☃️

Tool lead singer Maynard James Keenan named his son Devo. Read that in a comment recently and verified it to be true. So it seems the kids listening to Tool and you listening to Devo kind of had something in common. Kinda cool.

If you like NiN ....I'd think you'd be intelligent enough to understand DEVO.....or thier fans....

MTV was still another 6 or 7 months away at this time... but yes. People did use the term ‘music video’ at this point. It just wasn’t common everyday vernacular yet, like it would be a couple of years later.

Yeah I was surprised when the interviewer said "film" haha.

Very well stated.

Agreed 👍

No, not literally about sex, but there is an element of truth (to the song’s actual meaning) in the video. Gerry Casale once explained the song’s origins in a 1995 interview, and said it all came from some old pamphlet from the early 60’s he found, for some dude ranch in Arizona, where the highlight for every guest’s stay was watching the dude ranch’s owner literally bullwhip the clothes off of his wife. Is that overtly sexual? No, not in today’s context... but there is more than a bit of innuendo involved there, that’s so utterly absurd and funny that DEVO could not resist making parody of it. Apparently, blatant, humorless sex is ok for Joe Q. Public... but sexual parody is a big no-no.

@@Brewzerr No, not quite. That's where the VIDEO came from. The song itself is a take on those "motivational" phrases, such as, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." "When a problem comes along, you must whip it." Jerry said that people thought it was about sex, so they then came up with the ridiculous video as a joke.

Are you sure they weren't trying to hold a mirror to the very sexist blue collar culture that they grew up in? Not trying to defend it, just curious.

They were FILTHY. Listen to "The Mongoloid Years". LOVE IT

You have to understand though, those were VERY different times (the mid to late 70’s). It was pre-Reagan conservatism, pre-PC, pre-AIDS, post-sexual revolution times. A very hedonistic time, when ‘key parties’ and wife-swapping were all the rage. No one thought of those kind of lyrics as ‘sexist’ back then. Maybe a bit naughty... but not sexist.

bruv, how can you listen to anything devo did in the early days and interpret as anything but satire? the main point of those songs was to be a pisstake of popular music of the 70's which might as well have said the same thing. you've gotta remember, that the band was, from the beginning, a piss take.

Yeah I love devo but 😳😳😳

Whip it

The events you so accurately described are pretty cringeworthy. Especially for a DEVO fan like myself. Devolution indeed. 🙈🙉🙊🥔🥔🥔 Jerry took a fair amount of heat for his Jihad Jerry and the Evildoers album “Mine is not a Holy War” which was inspired by the events of 9*11. Pretty decent album nevertheless. 💿

@@xyrzmxyzptlk1186 I know. I've always been a fan too. But I have never listened to his Jihad Jerry album.

@@carmensandiego7749- It’s on RU-vid. Check it out. 📺

Why? I mean, don’t get me wrong... I fucking HATE that industry, but Alan is gone. Bob2 is gone. General Boy is gone. DEVO has already run it’s course (the beginning WAS the end, after all). So, why shouldn’t a man of Mark M’s talents find a more lucrative avenue to apply himself to before he retires? Besides, he has always been one of the most SUBVERSIVE artists in modern history, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he might just be doing one giant piss-take on the advertising industry.

Mark Mothersbough has never compromised his vision. He may have mellowed in old age from the angry young man he was, but he always does what he wants. Plus, DEVO always sold products: look at the energy domes and the album-themed clothing items. They just did it cynically.

Me too & yes! I would open up the LA Times and wonder what kind of bullshit Hillburn was saying this week

Tits & Ass. We all know (or at least recognize) that sex sells.

"T&A," short for "tits & ass."

+TheSyconerd Way past cool. Someone who is a Sonic The Hedgehog fan as well as a Devo fan. :)

devo's video for the song "satisfaction" was banned because it showed someone sticking a fork into a toaster. lol

The toaster wasn’t even plugged in. Devo adheres to all safety protocols. They even wear safety helmets. 🎸

Jerry is the ideological motor behind Devo.

Do you have anything else to contribute?

Funny how?