Song Name: The Shadow
Artist: DEVO
Album: Total Devo
Year: 1988
Run Time: 3:25
Writing Credits: Gerald V. Casale / Mark Mothersbaugh
Sung By: Gerald V. Casale
Trivia / Info:[]
Songwriting and Lyrics:
- Six weeks before the album was completed, this track was an instrumental demo.[1]
- The chorus of this song is lifted directly from the famous poem "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot. [2]
- "Reverend Jimmy and Tammy Belle" are not-so-subtle references to televangelist Jimmy Bakker and wife Tammy Faye, founders of Heritage USA. Mr. Bakker was currently facing indictment on numerous fraud charges when the album was released, and in 1989 he was found guilty and jailed.
- The lyrics point out that all people have innate negative behavioral influences, not just people with publicized scandals.[3]
- "'The Shadow' is kind of about everything and anybody." - Mark (1988).[4]
- Other DEVO songs refer to the Jungian shadow self, including Peek-A-Boo!
Production:
- Mark and Bob 2 said a layered combination of sounds became the sound like horns on the music track.[5]
Onstage Behavior: This was never played live.
Lyrics:[]
dr jekyll and mr hyde a real nice guy with a n-n-n-n-nasty side in trouble he tried to hide from himself good gawd sad man couldn't face up to the yin and the yang everybody all of us got a shadow who knows what lurks in the hearts of men the shadow knows we become what we do not what we pretend between the intention and the expression between the emotion and the response falls the shadow sometimes i fail to follow through on things that i want to do and other times i find myself doing the very things i hate reverend jimmy and tammy belle big time pumpers with a story to sell wait a minute their finger's pointin' at you pay attention listen up don't try to deny it or cover it up everybody all of us got a shadow
References:[]
- ↑
- Alan di Perna. “Oh, no it’s DEVO – again” : Digital Cartooning, Music & Sound Output (1988, June)
- Photography by Ann Summa
- ...A fully realized instrumental called “The Shadow.” It dated from a month and a half before the album was finished and was accompanied by a note that read “Final version will have vocals.”
- ↑
- "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot. Shmoop [Text of the Poem].
- https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/hollow-men/poem-text.html (From archive.org).
- ↑
- Tommy Gear. “total DEVO”. Roland Users Group, v.6 #2. (1988).
- Jerry said, “Some people got the wrong idea about Devo, thinking it was negative or dangerous. That view is just really wrong!”
- “...The trouble may have come from our sense of humor and use of irony in trying to present a total picture.”
- Mark Mothersbaugh agrees: “Holier-than-thou preaching about universal love or the spiritless messages about selfish desires in most songs conceals the truth about the real conflicts that keep the world turning.”
- “Exactly,” interjects Casale. “The truth is that all of us have a shadow – a big one.
- We have always tried to reveal, rather than conceal, these conflicts. That’s our reason for being...”
- Jerry said, “Some people got the wrong idea about Devo, thinking it was negative or dangerous. That view is just really wrong!”
- ↑
- Tommy Gear. “total DEVO”. Roland Users Group, v.6 #2. (1988).
- "MM: 'The Shadow' is kind of about everything and anybody. It's about Jimmy Swaggart, it's about Ronald Reagan, it's about everybody because it talks about how there are two sides to each person. There's no reason to pretend you are only one thing, because people are also the things they don't want to be - sort of the Jekyll and Hyde in people."
- Tommy Gear. “total DEVO”. Roland Users Group, v.6 #2. (1988).
- ↑
- Tommy Gear. “total DEVO”. Roland Users Group, v.6 #2. (1988).
- "MM: That sound was layered with MIDI - I don't remember the name of all the patches..."
- "MM: That sound was layered with MIDI - I don't remember the name of all the patches..."
- "BC: ...that was created by combining a sample from one of the S-50s and the JX-8P with the guitar.
- On that we used the GP-8 rack mount Guitar Effect Processor, which produced a really radical sound on its own, but when we blended it with horn sounds it alludes to horns but really becomes somthing else."
- "BC: ...that was created by combining a sample from one of the S-50s and the JX-8P with the guitar.
- MM: "...They all went into the board and then we mixed it down to stereo."
Links:[]
- External Links
- "The Shadow" (lyrics) -- Genius Lyrics
- Internal Links