Devo chose to subvert the consumerist culture and gave the past a slip with the ironic aroma of this twisted whiptease. The group had stirred things up with their devolutionist debut 'Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!' and the followup 'Duty Now for the Future'; but for their third album, they moved toward a synthpop direction. Devo co-produced 'Freedom of Choice' with Robert Margouleff (who had worked with Stevie Wonder and Tonto's Expanding Head Band) at Record Plant Studios, Hollywood, California. The sessions were engineered by Karat Faye and featured Mark Mothersbaugh on guitar, keyboards, and vocals; Gerald V. Casale on bass guitar, keyboards, and vocals; Bob Casale on guitar, keyboards, and vocals; Bob Mothersbaugh on guitar and vocals; and Alan Myers on drums.
Mark Mothersbaugh muses: "We were in the record industry in a different time. We saw the tail end of the good days before it got really dark. We were actually at Warner Brothers at a time when they had bands that were just art bands; bands that didn't really make money for them, but as long as you didn't lose too much they didn't care. We were always in the black from our first album on. We never made as much money as Prince or Madonna or something but they just thought, 'Okay, we'll sign them because David Bowie said we should sign them. We've already got Captain Beefheart and we got Frank Zappa, and neither of those guys make very much money but that's fine. We got some art bands and Devo's one of them.'... In those days a big label like Warner would have a few of those bands, so nobody paid attention to us. They let us do what we want. We stayed in the black, we never went into the red and lost money for the record company, but after "Whip It" was a hit it was like a double-edged sword because all of a sudden they were like, "Wait a minute. We don't pay these guys very much money and they bring in a profit. Now they've brought in a gigantic profit. We just made $20 million off of them, so let's go see what they're doing at their studio." So they came over when we were recording the next album and they were like, "Hey, do whatever you guys want to do, just do another "Whip It"."
With the top twenty success of "Whip It", 'Freedom of Choice' snowballed to seventy-five in Canada, forty-seven in the UK, twenty-two in the US, nine in New Zealand, and number five in Australia. It was certified platinum in the US and gold in Canada.
Jerry Casale considers: "I hope we cane be remembered giving a voice to disenfranchised people. I hope that we will be remembered for originality. For being what was new about new wave. For not taking ourselves seriously enough to not dip into self-effacing humor. For producing lasting visual icons and subject matter other than sex drugs. Some once said, derisively, that we were a "thinking man’s kiss." I thought if only that were true. If only we were that big and got our message across that well. If we had that many fans and we were the thinking man’s Kiss, that would have been perfect to me. That would have not been a put down...."Whip It" [was] just another one of our songs and we didn’t like it more than any of the others. We didn’t dislike it either. We would not have put it on the record if we disliked it. I do not understand that whole ridiculous, weird, conflicted artistic conceit. It is hypocritical and silly. I don’t get it. You either did it on purpose and if you didn’t do it on purpose, you know damn well that there is no reason to disavow something that became popular when you liked it at the time. It is so stupid. Or, you did do it on purpose and now you are not even honest enough to admit that you were trying to write a hit. I don’t think anybody would accuse Devo of trying to write a hit."
http://www.clubdevo.com/
"Whip It" became a worldwide smash going to number fourteen on the US pop chart, eleven in Canada and New Zealand, and number eight on the US dance chart.
Crack that whip
Give the past the slip
Step on a crack
Break your momma's back
When a problem comes along you must whip it
Before the cream sits out too long you must whip it
When something's going wrong you must whip it
Now whip it into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
It's not too late to whip it
Whip it good
When a good time turns around you must whip it
You will never live it down unless you whip it
No one gets their way until they whip it
I say whip it whip it good
I say whip it whip it good
Crack that whip
Give the past the slip
Step on a crack
Break your momma's back
When a problem comes along you must whip it
Before the cream sits out too long you must whip it
When something's going wrong you must whip it
Now whip it into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
It's not too late to whip it into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
It's not too late to whip it
Whip it good
"Girl U Want"
"Freedom of Choice"
"Gates of Steel"
'Freedom of Choice'
full album:
https://myspace.com/devo/music/album/freedom-of-choice-13911682
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh4A_BUE9Yk
All songs written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V. Casale except as noted.
"Girl U Want" – 2:55
"It's Not Right" (M. Mothersbaugh) – 2:20
"Whip It" – 2:37
"Snowball" – 2:28
"Ton o' Luv" (G. Casale) – 2:29
"Freedom of Choice" – 3:28
"Gates of Steel" (G. Casale, M. Mothersbaugh, Sue Schmidt, Debbie Smith) – 3:26
"Cold War" (Robert Mothersbaugh, G. Casale) – 2:30
"Don't You Know" (M. Mothersbaugh) – 2:14
"That's Pep!" (M. Mothersbaugh) – 2:17
"Mr. B's Ballroom" (M. Mothersbaugh) – 2:45
"Planet Earth" (G. Casale) – 2:45
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