Song Name: Shrivel Up
Appears On:
- Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!, Greatest Misses (album version)
- Art Devo 1973-1977 (early version)
- The Ultra Devo-lux Ltd. Edition [box set],(live 2009, May 6) [Mark vox][1]
Run Time: 3:03 (album version)
Year: 1977
Year Released: 1978 (album version)
Years Performed: 1977, 1978 (Oct. 17 only), 1979, 2009
Writing Credits: Gerald V. Casale/Mark Mothersbaugh/Bob Mothersbaugh
Sung By: Usually Mark - also Jerry
Alternate Versions: DOVE Version, Jerry vox mix
Demo Versions: None known
Trivia / Info:[]
- "Buy 'em by the sack" references a jingle by White Castle hamburgers. This advertising slogan was coined by founder J. Walter Anderson. WC now has their corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.[2][3]
- Mark and Jerry both recorded vocals for this song. Mark recorded a track in Germany during main production, and Jerry recorded a track in America during the mixing process. They both claim responsibility for the vocal track that appears on the album, leading fans to assume that they have just forgotten which take was used in the final mix. The exact answer is still unknown to this day.
- Mark sings "Shrivel Up" at concerts.
- Mark did not play keys on this recording – Eno and Bob 2 did.
- Devo did not reduce Brian Eno's production on this song the way they did on several other album tracks. - “Shrivel Up” is said to contain the only sequencer on the Q/A album, added by Eno at Conny Plank’s studio in Germany to the track recorded at Patrick Gleeson’s “Different Fur” studio in the USA.[4][5]
- “The only sequencer on the first record is on ‘Shrivel Up’.” - Jerry (1988)[6]
- “Neil [Young] became fascinated and he wanted us in his film. So we said, ‘We’ll be in your film, but we wanna trade off. We want some footage for a song called “Shrivel Up.”’ And he said ok. So they were gonna shoot two songs and let us keep the footage for one of ‘em.” - Mark (2016)[7]
- DEVO may have intended several meanings associated with the idiom “shrivel up”[8][9][10]
- Live versions of "Shrivel Up" are available from BBB.[11]
Onstage Behavior:[]
- (2009) L to R – Josh, Jerry, Mark, Bob 1, Bob 2
- ◦ DEVO wear the black undersuit, knee pads and boots.
- ◦ Mark is usually center stage but sometimes plays his synth, situated on stage between Bob 1 and Bob 2.
- Audience Behavior: Some early audiences reportedly would writhe on the floor during this song.[12]
- See also: DOVE
Lyrics:[]
well it's a god-given fact (that you can't go back)
it's a god-given law that you're gonna lose your maw
it's a god-given fact you gotta buy 'em by the sack
it's a god-given law that you're gonna get small
may be just another rap but you're running out of sap
well you better take the rap dying under daddy's cap
it's at the top of the list that you can't get pissed
its rule #1 living right isn't fun
time-tested and true you gotta pooty poo-poo
Video:[]
Short Film / Music Video - None.
Live Video[]
- ◦ Official live video of DEVO performing "Shrivel Up" is on the DVD "DEVO: Live At The HMV Forum London, England, May 6, 2009", in the Ultra Devo-lux box set.
- ◦ Amateur live video exists and can be found online.
Film Appearances[]
- Mark, Jerry, Alan, Bob 1 and Bob 2 were twice filmed miming a performance to the "Shrivel Up" album track.
◦ For the movie Pray TV they appeared as DOVE.
◦ For the movie Human Highway they dressed in a uniform similar to DOVE. On the same day they were filmed miming part of Come Back Jonee but only the Jonee footage was used.[13]
- Footage of Mark, Jerry, Alan, Bob 1 and Bob 2 as DOVE performing a version of "Shrivel Up" live is available as an extra on the Live 1980 DVD+CD release.
Song Reviews:[]
- ∘ “...Shrivel Up is a creepy and nervous as the Stranglers when they’re good.” - Andrew Ochrymowych (1978)
- The McGill Daily, Vol.68 No.23, (1978, October 12) p.6
- ∘ “Shrivel Up gives us a Devo-view of getting old and drying up, even though aging doesn’t necessarily have much to do with it: ‘well you better take the rap dying under daddy’s cap/it’s at the top of the list that you can’t get pissed/it’s rule number 1 living right isn’t fun.’” - Doug McVadon (1978)
- City On A Hill Press, (1978-10-05) p.18
- ∘ “‘Shrivel Up’ satirically pinpoints the problem in taking commonly held ideas as the last word.
well it’s a god-given fact / (that you can’t go back) / it’s a god-given law / that you’re gonna lose your maw / it’s a god-given fact / you gotta buy ‘em by the sack” - Michael Glynn (1978) - Phoenix, (1978-11-16) p.11
- ∘ “‘Shrivel Up’ satirically pinpoints the problem in taking commonly held ideas as the last word.
- ∘ “After ten songs of loud bombastic rock and vibrant quirkiness, they finish the album with "Shrivel Up," a subdued yet uptempo piece of creepy surf-spy-sci-fi rock that leaves chill bumps on your arm even as you tap your dancey foot to it.” - Mark Prindle (2009)
- Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! - Warner Bros. 1978 *: DEVO: Mark’s Record Reviews (2009)
- ∘ “‘Shrivel Up’–The most well-constructed song on the album wraps it all up with a plastic prettiness. The bounce is ominous, the alien signal is cryptic, and the spidery guit-fiddle spreads its web in a second flat. - JenntheBenn (2012)
- "The Space In Between Is the Place: The Music of Devo and The B-52s (Fragment One Is Yellow and Grotesque)", (2012, January 24)
- ∘ “You can still hear the Eno imprint, though. Tinted and textured, Casale’s bass glistens wetly. ‘Shrivel Up’ is dank with synth slime, and abject feel that fits the lyrics about decay and mortality.” - Simon Reynolds (2005)
- Rip it up and start again : post-punk 1978-84 (2005), p.44
- ∘ ‘I do like the album closer, “Shrivel Up,” a “cool-rock” piece accented by reverb-heavy guitar that stretches the meaning of “god-given fact” to include consumerist wisdom from White Castle (“it’s a god-given fact you gotta buy ’em by the sack”) and the sad inevitability that all dicks must shrivel up (whether in response to cold, hemorrhoids or recent ejaculation). [Mark’s] vocal is delivered in the creepy-nice-guy voice of a commercial announcer, the guy who wants to come across as your friend but secretly thinks you’re a dumb piece of shit. The most chilling lines appear at the start of the closing verse:
It’s at the top of the list / That you can’t get pissed / It’s rule number one: living right isn’t fun / Living right isn’t fun’ - altrockchick (2019) - "Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! – Classic Music Review", (2019, April 13)
- ∘ ‘I do like the album closer, “Shrivel Up,” a “cool-rock” piece accented by reverb-heavy guitar that stretches the meaning of “god-given fact” to include consumerist wisdom from White Castle (“it’s a god-given fact you gotta buy ’em by the sack”) and the sad inevitability that all dicks must shrivel up (whether in response to cold, hemorrhoids or recent ejaculation). [Mark’s] vocal is delivered in the creepy-nice-guy voice of a commercial announcer, the guy who wants to come across as your friend but secretly thinks you’re a dumb piece of shit. The most chilling lines appear at the start of the closing verse:
- ∘ "...'Shrível Up' un tema sobre todos nosotros; hemos ido demasiado rápido y ya no podemos volvernos atrás, vamos a ir de mal en peor hasta un final que no pode mos Imaginar. Y aquí termina el programa, levantamos y desconectamos el televisor mientras un rótulo cruza la pantalla: producido por Brian Eno. El viejo profesor otra vez, pensamos mien tras nos retiramos a dormir. Y con una última píldora cerramos nuestros cansa dos ojos, mañana hemos de volver al trabajo, Got a Gut Feeling." - Ignaciao Julia (1978)
- Star・40 (1978) p.39
References:[]
- ↑
- ↑
- Hogan, David Gerard. Selling ’em by the sack: White Castle and the creation of American Food. New York: New York University Press, (1997).
- ↑
- Vickers, Jim. “How White Castle Created the Fast-Food World.” Ohio Magazine, (2021, March).
- ↑
- "Gerry Casale from the band Devo". “takin’ a walk“: Music History On Foot [podcast], (2024, March).
- “[Brian Eno] did a lot of cool things. A lot of great sounds he came up with, and he was very influential on the song Shrivel-Up. He worked on that sequencer line...” - Jerry (2024)
- ↑
- Brian Eno: Oblique Music, edited by Sean Albi, (2016), pages 225-226, Eno and Devo, by Jonathan Stewart.
- “A phased eight-note circular synthesizer riff (containing more filtered white noise) simultaneously undulates through the song in cycling stacked fourths that only partly concord with the whole tone scale of the guitar.”
- ↑
- Pat Lewis and Tom Kidd. “DEVOted to Subversion”. Music Connection, Vol. XII, No.16, (8/8/88). Kristen A. Dahline, photographer.
- ↑
- ↑
- ∘ Colin Keinch. “If The Spud Fits Wear It”. Zigzag, #82, [Kris Needs, Editor],(1978, March to April)
- ↑
- ∘ “...We did this long version of ‘Shrivel Up’ by Devo, and they all started doing ‘The Worm,’ our friends would fall down on the ground and start twitching around...” - Jake Austen (2006) Rocktober #42, (2006) p.
- ↑
- “‘Shrivel Up’ is an uncharacteristically moody piece, reminiscent of those edgy ‘Twilight Zone’ TV soundtracks. Once again DEVO refer back to an old idea, in this case that Jack Ripper’s theories of defluidation in Dr. Strangeglove were erroneous. It wasn’t the Reds who were robbing us of our vital bodily fluids – it’s in the natural order of things.”
- - Colin Gardner (1979)
- Synapse: International Electronic Music, (1979, January/February[PDF p. 17 of 16]
- ↑
- Live versions of "Shrivel Up" are available from Booji Boy's Basement:
- boojiboysbasement.com/?s=Shrivel+Up
- Live versions of "Shrivel Up" are available from Booji Boy's Basement:
- ↑
- “Cratedigger's Lung with Rich In Washington: Playlist from May 28, 2021”. WFMU.org
- “Rich in Washington: I remember hearing an interview where they said Shrivel Up was a early fan favorite. the entire audience would just hit the floor and writhe like worms.”
- ↑
- At the May 27 filming at Mabuhay Gardens DEVO first lip-synched to "Shrivel Up" wearing a DOVE-like uniform, then projected the "Satisfaction" short film, and finally changed into the "fascist cowboy" outfits and mimed "Come Back Jonee."
- At the May 27 filming at Mabuhay Gardens DEVO first lip-synched to "Shrivel Up" wearing a DOVE-like uniform, then projected the "Satisfaction" short film, and finally changed into the "fascist cowboy" outfits and mimed "Come Back Jonee."
- On the same day in 1978, DEVO were filmed miming part of Come Back Jonee, but only the Jonee footage was used in the released movie.
- This was also the first time the entire new album was played publicly.
- This was also the first time the entire new album was played publicly.
- Source: Michael Snyder. “Neil Young Meets DEVO”. Berkeley Barb. Volume 27, Issue 24 (670). p12. (1978, June 16-22). Photo by Chester Simpson.