Girl U Want

Song Name: Girl U Want

Artist: DEVO

Appears On:

Freedom of Choice (single/album version)

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)

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:)

◦ 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