Freedom of Choice (album)

Background and recording

Freedom of Choice was recorded between October 1979 and early 1980, at the Record Plant in Hollywood, California. The album saw the band moving in more of an overt synthpop direction, even though guitars still played a prominent role.

The album was co-produced by Robert Margouleff, notable for his synthesizer work in Tonto's Expanding Head Band and with Stevie Wonder.

Songs

According to the band's commentary on the The Complete Truth About De-Evolution DVD, the lyrics of "Whip It" began as a tongue-in-cheek anthem for then-president Jimmy Carter. The lyrics were also inspired by Norman Vincent Peale's 1952 book The Power of Positive Thinking and the "can do philosophy" espoused within. Devo co-songwriter and bass guitarist Gerald Casale also told Songfacts that the lyrics were written by him "as an imitation of Thomas Pynchon's parodies in his book Gravity's Rainbow."

"Mr. B's Ballroom" is a lyric re-written version of an earlier relationship-focused song called "Luv & Such," which can be heard on the Rhino Entertainment two-disc rarities collection Recombo DNA. The lyric of "That's Pep!" is based on an early 20th-century poem by Grace G. Bostwick.

In 1995, the band recorded a new version of "Girl U Want" for the film Tank Girl. An entire alternate demo version of Freedom of Choice was released in 2000 on the compilation album Recombo DNA. This demo version lacks "It's Not Right," "Ton o' Luv," "Don't You Know" and "Freedom of Choice," but it includes demos of the "Whip It" b-side "Turn Around" and three unreleased tracks ("Luv & Such," "Time Bomb" and "Make Me Move").

In 2009, another demo surfaced entitled "Red Shark." This was an early version of "It's Not Right" with alternate lyrics and was offered as a download-only track for fans who purchased tickets to the Freedom of Choice album concerts.

Promotional music videos

Devo produced three music videos for the album. "Whip It" was based on a 1962 issue of "Dude" magazine that lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh had found in an antique store. The magazine contained a story about a dude ranch where the owner would whip his wife's clothes off. The video also played on the popular misconception that the song was about sadomasochism. "Girl U Want" saw the band performing on a television set in front of a live audience. The colors of the video were heavily saturated. In "Freedom of Choice," the band appeared as aliens. This video also featured professional skateboarders of the day.

Tour

The Freedom of Choice tour was the most ambitious Devo tour up to this time, with dates in Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Canada. While the stage set was still relatively minimalist in keeping with previous performances, the stage was now illuminated by industrial walls and towers with flashing lights. In addition to the infamous red energy dome hats, the band also wore new Tyvek costumes, consisting of grey shirts and pants with long red strips of tape attached to them. Later in the set, Devo donned red, triangular vinyl vests, each one emblazoned with a letter of the band's name in yellow (as well as a hyphen), which can also be seen in the promotional video for "Freedom of Choice."

The Freedom of Choice tour was captured on several different releases. The first was a promotional LP of an almost complete gig from August 16 at the Fox Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, part of the ongoing Warner Bros. Music Show series. This performance was recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show. Shortly thereafter, a distilled version of that LP appeared as the DEV-O Live mini-album, containing six tracks from the album. In 2000, Rhino Handmade issued a limited edition CD of Dev-o Live, containing both the mini-album and the LP on one disc.

In 2005, a performance from the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, California from the following night was issued as Devo Live 1980. This was released in DualDisc format, with one side containing the show in DVD format and the other containing an edited version of the show's audio in CD format.

2009 Album Tour

On September 16, 2009, Warner Brothers and Devo announced CD re-releases of Freedom of Choice and Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, as well as a tour performing both albums in their entirety on back to back nights. These concerts also featured stage set-ups similar to those used in 1978 and 1980 and featured the band wearing their original touring costumes.

The encore performances for the Freedom of Choice show were "Be Stiff" and "Beautiful World," the latter of which featured the Devo "mascot" Booji Boy on vocals.

The opening act for this tour was comedian/performance artist Reggie Watts and, for certain dates, JP Hasson (aka JP Incorporated, aka Pleaseeasaur).

Critical reception

On the Billboard charts, Freedom of Choice peaked at No. 22 on the Pop Albums chart. "Whip It" hit No. 8 and No. 14 on the Club Play Singles and Pop Singles charts, respectively. The album received very positive reviews upon release, and is widely regarded as one of their finest efforts. Writing in Trouser Press, critics Scott Isler and Ira Robbins described the album as "the band's most evocative pairing of words and music". AllMusic's Steve Huey praised the album, calling it "their most cohesive, consistent material to date".

The popularity of "Whip It" garnered the band a number of television appearances, including The Merv Griffin Show, American Bandstand and two appearances on the sketch comedy and variety show Friday's. A planned appearance on The Lily Tomlin Show was canceled when Tomlin saw the video for "Whip It" and objected to the content.

Track listing

All tracks written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, except where noted.

Personnel

Covers

Several songs from Freedom of Choice have been covered by other musicians, most notably "Girl U Want", which has been recorded by the Mummies, Superchunk, Soundgarden, Chancho en Piedra, Robert Palmer and Zombie Ghost Train. Japanese Devo-tees Polysics also lifted the main guitar riff of "Girl U Want" on their song "Each Life Each End".

The album's title track has been covered by 16Volt, The Aquabats, A Perfect Circle, Lagwagon, Snapcase, Psychotica, Big Drill Car and Fu Manchu. Collide and Face to Face recorded versions of "Whip It," which has also been performed in concert by numerous musicians including The String Cheese Incident and Pearl Jam. The song was also covered for the NME 2008 Awards Compilation by the band Does It Offend You, Yeah?. The band Love and Death covered the song in 2012. "Gates of Steel" has been covered by The Hex Dispensers, Skankin' Pickle, Supernova, Yo La Tengo, Groovie Ghoulies, Shihad, Junkyard Dogs, The Flaming Lips, The Men and Snapcase.

The B-side to "Whip It", "Turn Around" was covered by Nirvana and included on the rarities collection Incesticide in 1992.