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Devo - Robert Hilburn interview (1981)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 มิ.ย. 2009
- This interview was conducted by LA Times Pop Critic Robert Hilburn and was aired around Jan/Feb of 1981. I'm not sure which music show it was part of (Casey Casem's American Top 40?) but it featues Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh answering questions about the uproar that was caused by their latest song, "Whip It".
"If the spud fits, wear it" - Mark's input for the entire interview. Love it.
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
Jerry's manner is like this calm rage, and he is so articulate. Truly gifted individuals
He needs to be testifying to congress with the energy dome on.
Jerry Casale has always been the most succinct, articulate and thought provoking punk musician, pop-star or whatever you want to call it. Everything he says has weight.
Unlike a lot of rebel punk bands at the time, there was nothing adolescent, dim-witted, or idealistic about Devo's message. They were absurd realists. In 2019 we're still living the nightmare they laughed at.
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😊
i love that Hilburn took them deathly seriously, as opposed to 99% of the populous of the time.
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.
Hilburn keeps calling Devo's videos "films." It was the pre-MTV era, and they hadn't started calling them videos yet.
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.
And may I add, Devo is the greatest rock and roll band of all time.
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!!🤘🤘
I have friends who had a band that was doing a wedding reception and since “Whip It” had become popular someone in the crowd requested it. The keyboard player knew it and had the whip crack sample so he launched into it and the rest of the band faked their way through it. When they ended the song they were told to pack up their gear, they were done for the night.
They still got paid the full amount for the gig.
These dudes were ahead of their time. Period.
Mister Casale has a very clear mind!
devo really are the best geeks ever
I'm really diggin' Mark's suit.
Me too!
Does this guy look like a sexist?
I LOVE Mark's suit. I would soooooo wear that!
This was from NBC's "The Midnight Special" (February 6, 1981) - the next to last original episode ever.
We're all DEVO now!
They're energy domes, goddamnit.
Hey, Jerry was the one who called it a flower pot.
@@mournblade1066 fair enough lol
Evidently the term "music video" was still not yet in common use in 81 ( "film" )?
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.
Don't know much about Devo...but always liked them...and now via the wonder of TH-cam etc can hear how intelligent these guys were....Jerry speaks so well
I believe you're right about the date. This interview appears to have been from the music show known as "The Midnight Special" - Season 9, Episode 19, dated February 6, 1981. The listing for that episode indicates it included Devo's "Whip It" along with a Robert Hillburn interview of the band.
REVENGE OF THE NERDS!!! Devo was TOTALLY the inspiration for this great movie if you've never seen it though.
Stay away from the sequels like the plague though.
Love these guys and that they stand for something
Akron, Ohio is full of artists, deep thinkers, and iconoclasts. It’s no wonder that Devo originated from there.
Devo expressed the futility of social norms by mocking everything it held dear. If you don't see that we are de-evolving you are a tater-tot.
Great interview and good to see. Growing up in Australia we did not have the opportunity to see things like when they were occurring, but good to see some of the controversy "Whip It" caused! Truely, "If the spud fits, wear it!" ;-)
40 years ago Jerry had the novel opinion that people should have to prove their accusations.
How did that work out? Devolution indeed.
I got into Devo in the mid nineties when I was in high school. When people were listening to Nine Inch Nails and Tool,I was listening to a lot of eighties stuff that at the time wasn't cool.
.......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....
I was in middle school in 1981 and seen them at a autograph signing event...badass band-new wave rocked!!
One of the most underrated bands ever. Without doubt both Mark and Gerry intellectual geniuses
"I mean does this guy look like a sexist?"
That cracked me up because, I mean really, just look at Mark. Ha ha.
He looks like a dorky reject from the 1970s mod scene in that jacket, lol.
Rockin' the doublebreasted big houndstooth print pantsuit!! ❤️
Love this interview so apropos especially now BRILLIANT
He looks really sofisticated and clever in that hat..
Mark looks thrilled to be there
Devo = The best punk band ever! So so, good!
Very articulate and thoughtful guy.
Devo are always cool even in Interviews
These guys saw the future.
Yo Gabba Gabba makes so much more sense now
Imagine that an interviewer who is genuinely interested in a band's ideas.
"Dreamed I laid a toaster/Daddy caught me in the act/Can you take it?"
It's from *The Midnight Special* [Season 9, Episode 19; Feb 6, 1981 NBC]
It's all up to our Bob Dobbs.
2:26 -3:13 SO fucking smart & eloquent. Smh.
mark is the one you notice the space age buddy holly love em!
I love these guys
"Very seldom does an artist have a voice concerning the accusations made against him."
Best Band Ever!!!
This video painfully foreshadowed cancel culture nearly 40 years before its rise. Though, in an ironic twist of fate, it's no longer just the ideological, self-righteous right that wants to censor what it deems inappropriate. The ideological, militant left too now is calling out what it finds problematic. Oftentimes missing the nuance of the art itself and that it usually represents a critical deconstruction versus an endorsement. Devolution remains relevant. Devo was obviously moderately liberal for their time but you can just see how much the political spectrum has shifted in 40 years. 2021 left makes 1981 left seem like center-right at the very least 😅
Very well stated.
devo rule!!!!!!!!!!! .
Considering that Jerry just had his first child at 74 after marrying someone young enough to be his granddaughter ( his wife is 41 years younger) there's nothing more patriarchal than that. It's not the opposite of sexist. And when he married in 2015 on September 11, they chose a tacky 9-11 theme. Now that's irony. I'm sure he wouldn't find it funny if someone poked fun of the Kent State shootings, so he ended up apologizing but blaming "a friend with bad taste" for the twin towers wedding cake.
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 TH-cam. Check it out. 📺
Houndstooth FTW
"Does this guy look like a sexist?" lol
2:10 Great quotes in modern history
You just have to love them
legends
genius
It happened in the "Satisfaction" video.
I think they were talking about the video, it goofs on S & M. That video got aired on daytime tv. Children saw it OMG!
What video are they talking about?
Whip it
The Whip It video is still controversial 43 years later
Genius. Today n forever annoying ppl dictate what is what they consider wrong yet the rule don’t apply to all
Dats an actual eff bomb for the caption sounded like a friggen` bomb
Funny how times have changed where this was once deemed perverse LOL
Sense of humor? Wonder what Zappa thought of Devo?
Love me some Devo!
If the goddamn spud fits, wear it!! Fuckin Mark and Gerry are awesome.
"We need more Outer Space music like Devo": Leon Russell
What's the "toaster incident"?
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. 🎸
Several cowboys at home fell over, or possibly they all simultaneously fired at Jerry on-screen.
Devo was/is just as much punk as new wave.
LOL. I grew up in L.A., and Robert Hilburn was the crappiest critic ever! Good to see him playing it straight.
Agreed 👍
It's depressing that Mark went on to literally become part of the advertisement industry.
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.
A slick product, which we are NOT!
Devo totally had sexist lyrics during their early days. Go listen to songs like I Need A Chick and Baby Talkin' Bitches if you don't believe me. Jerry Casale is being defensive here because the band was guilty of being sexist. That doesn't mean Devo isn't a great band, because they are, it just means that I think he is full of it in this interview.
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 😳😳😳
@stapler942 Your comment made me lol. I tip my energy dome to you, good sir.
How could humans have avoided all the trappings? Our highly evolved brains are our downfall. As soon as the first human invented the barter system, it was the beginning of the end. ALL human problems come down to money. Poverty, greed, violence, competition, class, inequality, socio- resentments, technology, nuclear technology, h-bombs, politics, religion, global warming...... IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY .. money makes the world go down
How the fuck could anyone actually think that "whip it" was about sex??..
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.
same lesson over and over disregard haters have your fun grow old and be content you chose wisely
Edward Norton could play casales in a Devo film
seriously what the fuck is mark looking at throughout the entire interview
+TheSyconerd Way past cool. Someone who is a Sonic The Hedgehog fan as well as a Devo fan. :)
Robert Hilburn was one of the worst critics who ever lived, but he does a good job with this interview.
You have a lot of catching up to do. :-)
Jerry looks like Reviewbrah here
Can someone elaborate or provide some insight on what he meant by TNA commercials or sitcoms?
Tits & Ass. We all know (or at least recognize) that sex sells.
"T&A," short for "tits & ass."
DEVO big fan...whatever this is...
If the spud fits, wear it. 😆
That's Mark's giglio outfit
I grew up in the L.A. area, and we considered Robert Hilburn to be the biggest douche on the planet. Lots of people did! It's interesting to see him in person.
Me too & yes! I would open up the LA Times and wonder what kind of bullshit Hillburn was saying this week
0:53 Did someone die?
It's Bill and Ben the flowerpot men.
Think CHOP/CHAZ - these guys were 50 years ahead of their time.
SUBURBAN ROBOTS THAT MONITOR REALITY...
Aware individuals. Wake up
@MezzanotteCorvo Mark is!!! wait Im a duuuuude!?!?!? AAAUUUGHHH!!!
That one dude looks like he could be related to Chester Bennington.
Do you have anything else to contribute?
I wonder if prior to this interview starting Jerry and Mark agreed Jerry would do all the talking for this so Mark could have a break from explaining
Jerry is the ideological motor behind Devo.
his finger's pointed at de-vo
Devo is funny. The music is funny.
Funny how?
Are we not men? 😎
...forum...for, um...
Jerry looks like Frank Sinatra
I'm reminded of a CIA operation to socialy engineer a generation.