WikiDevo

Song Name: Girl U Want

Artist: DEVO

Appears On:

Greatest Hits, Hot Potatoes, Pioneers Who Got Scalped, Social Fools: The Virgin Singles 1978-1982
  • 50 Years Of De-Evolution (1973-2023) (2023 remaster)
  • Recombo DNA (demo alternate 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:)
◦ 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.
◦ 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.
◦ 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.

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]
◦Filmed near SFP studios on Rue des Alouettes,[10] at the request of Martin Lamotte[11]


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
⋅ " Girl U Want - Video" Devo - MySpace
Girl

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
Live at the Observatory, Santa Ana, CA

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 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 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 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).
  • 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:
https://www.discogs.com/master/263331-Devo-Girl-You-Want
https://www.45cat.com/45_search.php?sq=DEVO+%22Girl+U+Want%22&sm=se#scrollrecords
https://progrography.com/devo/devo-girl-u-want-1980/
https://connollyco.com/discography/devo/girl7.html

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:

  1. DEVO Live Guide. Website keyword search for "girl u want".
  2. YouTube. "Girl U Want (1982-10-30)" 3-DEVO. "A CEN Satellite Presentation." Uploaded by LiveDevo.
  3. YouTube. "3-Devo- Live At The Warner Beverly Hills Theater October 30, 1982 (Remaster)". Uploaded by MaeGoji.
  4. Craig Rosen. “'Tank Girl' Set Shoots From Hip: Old & New Punk Mark Elektra Soundtrack”, Billboard magazine, (1995, March 25) pp 10 & 41
  5. YouTube. Jula Bell comments for "Tank Girl Opening Credits".
  6. “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...)”
  7. 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).
  8. 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).
    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
  9. "DEVO on french TV - june 1980 - Girl U Want -". Uploaded to YouTube by Alain From France.
    https://youtu.be/2ceebA2KOX4?si=LXLaPBBRJ676sYvq&t=187
    Collaro Show avec Stéphane Collaro & Martin Lamotte.
  10. David Korn. Comments. "Devo Week – Day 2: The One That Got Away". 33 1/3. (2015, May 19).
    https://333sound.com/devo-week-day-2-the-one-that-got-away/#comments (https://archive.ph/7v8K6).
    33 Rue des Alouettes Paris, Île-de-France - Google Street View
  11. ”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].
  12. 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).
  13. Battle Creek Health Builder.
    Vibrating belt massager.
  14. 1984 quote reprinted in:
    ”DEVO Retrospective with Gerry Casale”. DMA Auditorium, Dallas Video Festival (1989, November 9).
  15. "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.)

Links:

External Links
"Girl U Want" -- Rock Band Wiki
"Girl U Want" -- Wikipedia
Internal Links
Girl U Want (outfits)
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DEVO
Mark Mothersbaugh | Gerry Casale | Bob Mothersbaugh
Bob Lewis | Bob Casale | Jim Mothersbaugh | Alan Myers
David Kendrick | Josh Freese
Jeff Friedl | Josh Hager
Record Labels / Publishers
Booji Boy Records | Warner Brothers | Enigma | Devo, Inc. 
Stiff | Virgin | Rykodisk | Infinite Zero | Restless | Discovery | Rhino 
MVD Audio | The Orchard | Superior Viaduct | Futurismo
Production
Brian Eno | Ken Scott | Robert Margouleff | Roy Thomas Baker | DEVO 
The Teddybears | Greg Kurstin | Santi White | John King | John Hill | Mark Nishita 
Official Studio Albums
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978) | Duty Now For The Future (1979) | Freedom of Choice (1980) | New Traditionalists (1981) | oh, no! it's Devo (1982) | Shout (1984) | Total Devo (1988) | SmoothNoodleMaps (1990) | Something for Everybody   (2010)
Other Albums
B Stiff EP (1978) | E-Z Listening Disc (1987) | Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace (1989) | Hardcore DEVO Vol. 1 74-77 (1990) | Hardcore DEVO Vol. 2 1974-1977 (1991) | DEVO Live: The Mongoloid Years (1992) | DEV-O Live (1999) | Recombo DNA (2000) | Live In Central Park (2004) | DEVO Live 1980 (2005) | New Traditionalists: Live 1981 Seattle (2012) | Something ELSE for Everybody  (2013) | Miracle Witness Hour  (2014) | Live at Max's Kansas City - November 15, 1977  (2014) | Butch Devo and the Sundance Gig  (2014) | Hardcore DEVO Live!  (2015) | Art Devo 1973-1977  (2023)
Filmography
In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-Evolution (1976) | The Men Who Make The Music (1981) | Human Highway (1982) | We're All DEVO (1984) | The Complete Truth About De-Evolution (1993) | DEVO Live (2004) | DEVO Live In The Land Of The Rising Sun (2004) | DEVO Live 1980 (2005) | Butch Devo and the Sundance Gig  (2014) | Hardcore DEVO Live!  (2015)
Related Articles
History | Bootlegs | Booji Boy | Devolution | Influence | The Wipeouters | Jihad Jerry & The Evildoers | Devo 2.0 | Akron, Ohio | Kent, Ohio | Music Videos | Cover Versions | Outfits
DEVO: The Brand / DEVO: Unmasked
U S E  Y O U R  F R E E D O M  O F  C H O I C E

("Girl U Want" - Tank Girl movie version - is DEVO's style cover of Soundgarden's cover version of DEVO's original version.)