Song Name: Girl U Want
Artist: DEVO
Appears On:
- Freedom of Choice (single/album version)
- 50 Years Of De-Evolution (1973-2023) (2023 remaster)
- Recombo DNA (demo alternate version)
- DEV-O Live, DEVO Live: 1980, New Traditionalists: Live 1981 Seattle, Now It Can Be Told - Devo At The Palace, Butch Devo And The Sundance Gig
3-DEVO (EZ live version), Live in Central Park, Live at the Observatory, Santa Ana, CA (live versions)
- E-Z Listening Cassette, E-Z Listening Disc, EZ Listening Muzak (EZ version)
Run Time: 2:55 (album version)
Year Written: 1979
Year Released: 1980 (album version)
Years Performed: 1979-present [1] setlist.fm stats
Writing Credits: Mark Mothersbaugh/Gerald V. Casale
Sung By: Mark Mothersbaugh
Alternate Versions:
- ◦ E-Z Listening Version (4:58)
- ◦ Girl U Want 1995 / "Tank Girl U Want" (3:51)
- ◦ Boy U Want, Girl U Want (Devo 2.0 versions) (both 2:56)
Demo Versions:
- ◦ Girl U Want (demo alternate version) (2:59)
- ◦ Freedom of Choice Home Version Demo
Trivia / Info:[]
- Partly inspired by The Knack's "My Sharona" according to a music critic.
- "Girl U Want" was the lead single for Freedom of Choice, and "The Girl You Want" was considered as a title for DEVO's third album.
- The single cover art was adapted from a potato chips bag sourced from Akron, Ohio. [DEVO: The Brand, pg 83]
- First performed live on 29 December 1979.
- WB released one "Girl U Want" single - the hard to find b/w "Mr. B's Ballroom."
Virgin released the single overseas b/w "Turn Around," the spelling is "corrected" to "Girl You Want."
WB released a promo single in the US. - The E-Z Listening Version was so popular DEVO performed it on the 1982 tour with Mark singing the full lyrics. Bob 1, Bob 2 and Jerry vocalize individual letters, as in the EZ studio version.[2][3]
- A rerecorded version appeared on the soundtrack for the film Tank Girl in 1995, becoming the first new DEVO recording since 1990.[4]
The movie version added a vocal track by Jula Bell. [5][6]
- Freedom Of Choice did not include published lyrics and Mark's vocals are sometimes doubled.
This track continues the DEVO tradition of Mark singing lyrics altered from the expected so the listener has to figure out the lyrics used.
The expected "love" lyric in "Girl U Want" was altered to lust and performed ambiguously. See: "Spelling / Orthography: Lyrics" below.
Onstage Behavior:
- (On stage L to R:)
- (On stage L to R:)
- ◦ Alan sets a driving beat, playing acoustic drums.
- ◦ Alan sets a driving beat, playing acoustic drums.
- ◦ Bob 1 stands while playing electric guitar and steps forward while soloing, extending his pick arm during the end of the solo.
- ◦ Bob 1 stands while playing electric guitar and steps forward while soloing, extending his pick arm during the end of the solo.
- ◦ Jerry plays keys and dances with his feet planted shoulder-width apart.
- ◦ Jerry plays keys and dances with his feet planted shoulder-width apart.
- ◦ Mark uses both hands to hold a microphone while leaning forward towards the audience, at the beginning of the song. Mark stays within arms reach of his keyboard, which he sometimes plays one-handed.
⋅ In later concerts Mark holds the microphone one-handed and moves it around in different ways throughout the song.
⋅ During the lyric “drips on down” he extends his left arm with the back of his hand to the audience and his wrist flexed. He move his fingers while drawing down his hand.
- ◦ Mark uses both hands to hold a microphone while leaning forward towards the audience, at the beginning of the song. Mark stays within arms reach of his keyboard, which he sometimes plays one-handed.
- ◦ Bob 2 bobs to the rhythm while playing keys.
- ◦ Bob 2 bobs to the rhythm while playing keys.
- ◦ At the song’s conclusion all bend their heads down, with the dome angled towards the audience, as seen at the beginning of the Girl U Want music video.
- ◦ At the song’s conclusion all bend their heads down, with the dome angled towards the audience, as seen at the beginning of the Girl U Want music video.
- Behavior on French TV in 1980, performing "Girl U Want" to audio playback:
- ◦ Mark mimes singing and occasionally licks two ice cream scoops on a twin wafer cone.[7]
- ◦ Jerry sits at his keyboard and Bob 2 stands.
- ◦ Bob 1 mimes playing an Ibanez Iceman.
- ◦ Alan's musical props include two analog syndrums manufactured by Electro-Harmonix in 1979 and later reissued.[8]
- ◦By the end of the song Mark gets some ice cream on everyone’s face.[9]
- ◦ Mark mimes singing and occasionally licks two ice cream scoops on a twin wafer cone.[7]
Lyrics:
- You're in a corner everywhere you turn
- You know you're headed for the "planet of burn"
- But the words get stuck on the tip of your tongue
- She's the real thing but you knew it all along
- She's just the girl, she's just girl
- The girl u want
- She sings from somewhere you can't see
- She sits in the top of a greenhouse tree
- She sends out an aroma of undefined lust
- It drifts on down in a mist from above
- She's just the girl, she's just the girl
- The girl u want
- Look at you with your mouth watering
- Look at you with your mind spinning
- Why don't you just admit it's all over
- She's just the girl u want
- She's just the girl, she's just the girl
- The girl u want
- She's just the girl, she's just the girl
- The girl u want
- You're in a corner everywhere you turn
- You know you're headed for the planet of burn
- But the words get stuck on the tip of your tongue
- She's the real thing but you knew it all along
- She's just the girl, she's just the girl
- The girl u want
- She's just the girl, she's just the girl
- She's just the girl, she's just the girl
- The girl u want
Video:
Short Film / Music Video
- Appears in the releases:
◦ We're All DEVO
◦ The Complete Truth About De-Evolution
- ⋅ " Girl U Want - Video" Devo - MySpace

The "Girl U Want" video title card
- ◦ Laraine Newman portrays the girl on the swing spraying the mist referenced in the song lyrics. Mark was Laraine's boyfriend at the time. [12][1]
Newman plays Donut Rooter in We're All DEVO. - ◦ Robert L. Mothersbaugh, Sr. again plays General Boy, who uses a device to remotely control two "robotic" dancers.
- ◦ “The film insert of the fat man in the weight-reducing machine
[13] drinking a milkshake is enough to somewhat redeem the piece.” - Jerry (1984)[14]
Live Video
- ◦ DEVO Live 1980
- ◦ 3-DEVO (a simulcast)
- ◦ Butch Devo and the Sundance Gig
- ◦ DEVO Live
- ◦ Live In The Land Of The Rising Sun
Single Releases:
- The album version of “Girl U Want” (2:56) was released for sale as a 7-inch, 45 rpm single in 1980.
- ◦ The UK+Europe Virgin release "Girl You Want" included “Turn Around” (2:10) as the b-side.
Mark’s cover art was inspired by a potato chip bag bought in Akron, Ohio.
(Catalog numbers at Discogs)
- ◦ The UK+Europe Virgin release "Girl You Want" included “Turn Around” (2:10) as the b-side.
- ◦ The US WB release included the album version of “Mr. B’s Ballroom” (2:45) as the b-side.
The “bunny” released this single in a plain paper sleeve. [ WBS-49524 ]
Released in New Zealand through WEA Records N.Z. Limited.
- ◦ The US WB release included the album version of “Mr. B’s Ballroom” (2:45) as the b-side.
- ◦ The Philippines WB release included the album version of "Snowball" (2:28) as the b-side.
The “bunny” released this single in a plain paper sleeve. [ WB-77-227 ](FWB 0405)
- ◦ The Philippines WB release included the album version of "Snowball" (2:28) as the b-side.
- ◦ The Japan WB release included “Turnaround” (2:12) as the b-side.
The cover art included Japanese translations and a photo of DEVO in Japan, wearing their international “goodwill uniforms”. [ P-589W ]
Manufactured by Warner-Pioneer Corporation in Japan, with a full-color cardboard cover, paper sleeve, and Japanese+English lyric sheet (only included in Japanese releases).
- ◦ The Japan WB release included “Turnaround” (2:12) as the b-side.
- A 1980 US WB release of “Whip It” (2:37) included “Girl U Want” (2:56) as the b-side.
The “bunny” released this single in a plain paper sleeve. [ GWB-0400 ](YCA 9403S)
- After 1980, the album version of "Girl U Want" was released in album and single reissues, compilations and remastered issues:
Additional Info:
Spelling / Orthography
- Title of Song and Single
- This track titled “Girl U Want” on album release, compilations and WB single releases. Title printed on record label in an uppercase sans serif font.
- Titled “Girl You Want” on Virgin single releases. Stylized in the single cover art with non-aligned letters set in a colored lowercase sans serif font. Title printed on record label in an uppercase sans serif font.
- Lyrics
- The lyrics include some non-intuitive word choices, and some of Mark’s vocals are indistinct. Mark may intend the audience to add multiple interpretations to the resulting mondogreens.
- Ambiguity also results from both recording performance techniques:
- In the album recording, Mark's vocals are sometimes doubletracked with one recording on top of another.
- In live performances, Mark sometimes clearly sings "undefined lust" instead of "undefined love", and "greenest tree" instead of "greenhouse tree".
- "Love / Lust:"
- The expected "love" lyric in "Girl U Want" was altered to lust and performed ambiguously.
- Mark uses the word "lust" in the versions on Recombo DNA and on the Tank Girl soundtrack. [15]
- Because Mark does not fully voice the lyric "love" in the album version, leaves the word ambiguous and open for interpretation. Other DEVO song's lyrics altered to unexpected ambiguity include "silver linings" mutated to sniffy linings, "soft" corrected to stroft [meaning strong and soft], and "greenest tree" purposely changed, in this song, to greenhouse tree in some verses.
References:
- ↑
- ↑
- YouTube. "Girl U Want (1982-10-30)" 3-DEVO. "A CEN Satellite Presentation." Uploaded by LiveDevo.
- ↑
- YouTube. "3-Devo- Live At The Warner Beverly Hills Theater October 30, 1982 (Remaster)". Uploaded by MaeGoji.
- ↑
- Craig Rosen. “'Tank Girl' Set Shoots From Hip: Old & New Punk Mark Elektra Soundtrack”, Billboard magazine, (1995, March 25) pp 10 & 41
- ↑
- ↑
- “Movie soundtracks”. Jula Bell Official Page: Everything About the Artist Jula Bell. (2022, December 3).
- julabell.com/movie-soundtracks/ (https://archive.ph/bhpyC).
- “In the 80’s Jula Bell started doing voice overs and sound track work. She worked with Mark Mothersbaugh (Tank Girl opening sequence duet with Devo for Girl U Want...)”
- “Movie soundtracks”. Jula Bell Official Page: Everything About the Artist Jula Bell. (2022, December 3).
- ↑
- Mark's shiny red cornet de glace resembles plastic and ice cream made of plastic was later reported on French public television.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKNbfiJfmo4
- "World’s first ice cream made with plastic • FRANCE 24 English". Uploaded to YouTube by FRANCE 24 English. (2023, September 28).
- ↑
- DEVO Live Guide. https://web.archive.org/web/20071006025354/http://huboon.com/images/1980-06-12_01.jpg
- huboon.com/devo800612.html (https://archive.ph/uE3h2).
- huboon.com/1980.html (https://archive.ph/1A0Mf).
- DEVO Live Guide. https://web.archive.org/web/20071006025354/http://huboon.com/images/1980-06-12_01.jpg
- EHX Super Space Drums [two types].
- "PEDALBORED - Electro Harmonix Super Space Drum". Uploaded to YouTube by @danieldangerously.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5B4xMTnzw8
https://experimentalistsanonymous.com/diy/Schematics/Full%20Synths%20Drum%20Synths%20and%20Misc%20Synth/EHX%20space%20drum.gif
- ↑
- "DEVO on french TV - june 1980 - Girl U Want -". Uploaded to YouTube by Alain From France.
- ↑
- David Korn. Comments. "Devo Week – Day 2: The One That Got Away". 33 1/3. (2015, May 19).
- 33 Rue des Alouettes Paris, Île-de-France - Google Street View
- ↑
- ”THE BAND U WANT." Devo chez Collaro – 1980. INA, National Audiovisual Institute.
- https://www.facebook.com/Ina.fr/videos/devo-chez-collaro-1980/1226653394581110/
- ”...Devo performed the song ‘Girl U Want’ in the street at the request of Martin Lamotte…"[translation].
- ”THE BAND U WANT." Devo chez Collaro – 1980. INA, National Audiovisual Institute.
- ↑
- Green, Michelle. “While She May Not Be Perfect, Laraine Newman Braces Herself for Another Shot at Stardom”. People magazine, Vol. 24, No. 2. (1985, July 08).
- people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20091240,00.html (From archive.org).
- Green, Michelle. “While She May Not Be Perfect, Laraine Newman Braces Herself for Another Shot at Stardom”. People magazine, Vol. 24, No. 2. (1985, July 08).
- ↑
- Battle Creek Health Builder.
- Vibrating belt massager.
- ↑
- 1984 quote reprinted in:
- ”DEVO Retrospective with Gerry Casale”. DMA Auditorium, Dallas Video Festival (1989, November 9).
- 1984 quote reprinted in:
- ↑
- "Tank Girl Script - Dialogue Transcript". Drew's Script-O-Rama. (n.d.).
- http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/t/tank-girl-script-transcript-lori.html (https://archive.ph/wip/L1K43).
- (Page begins with transcription of Girl U Want ‘95 [with Mark’s vocal] from the soundtrack of the Lori Petty and Naomi Watts movie.)
- "Tank Girl Script - Dialogue Transcript". Drew's Script-O-Rama. (n.d.).
Links:
External Links
- "Girl U Want" -- Rock Band Wiki
- "Girl U Want" -- Wikipedia
Internal Links
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("Girl U Want" - Tank Girl movie version - is DEVO's style cover of Soundgarden's cover version of DEVO's original version.)