Paul has spotted DEVO 2.0 at Disney online. It's kids lipsynching to fairly tight, "family friendly" versions of the songs, with backing tracks re-recorded by the original band. As Paul notes, the lyrics have been changed: it's not just taking out the dirty words, but "removing or reversing their original core meaning."
I watched the "Freedom of Choice" vid and I don't think I can go on. It's well done and fun, and you can't fault DEVO for selling out--in essence, they inoculated themselves from that criticism early on by tying their concept of "Devolution" to a general decline in culture and intelligence, INCLUDING becoming commercial hacks--"We're devolving, see?"
But as an early fan of the band it's just too painful to hear the lines "Freedom of choice is what you've got/Freedom from choice is what you want" changed so that the "from" in the second line becomes a second "of." Or the lyric about the dog "who sniffs one bone, then licks the other, then spins in circles till he drops dead" changed to "he drops down."
Choice killed the dog, OK? Is that too much for a kid to grasp?
I wonder if boogie boy makes an appearance. That would be creepy.
On the original VHS tape of their videos there's a bit where General Boy crushes Booji's head in an industrial press--essentially decapitating him. I'm betting that won't be on the Disney version. (Even though real kids would love it.)
|
Paul has spotted DEVO 2.0 at Disney online. It's kids lipsynching to fairly tight, "family friendly" versions of the songs, with backing tracks re-recorded by the original band. As Paul notes, the lyrics have been changed: it's not just taking out the dirty words, but "removing or reversing their original core meaning."
I watched the "Freedom of Choice" vid and I don't think I can go on. It's well done and fun, and you can't fault DEVO for selling out--in essence, they inoculated themselves from that criticism early on by tying their concept of "Devolution" to a general decline in culture and intelligence, INCLUDING becoming commercial hacks--"We're devolving, see?"
But as an early fan of the band it's just too painful to hear the lines "Freedom of choice is what you've got/Freedom from choice is what you want" changed so that the "from" in the second line becomes a second "of." Or the lyric about the dog "who sniffs one bone, then licks the other, then spins in circles till he drops dead" changed to "he drops down."
Choice killed the dog, OK? Is that too much for a kid to grasp?
- tom moody 8-28-2006 7:31 am
I wonder if boogie boy makes an appearance. That would be creepy.
- jmb (guest) 8-28-2006 11:10 pm
On the original VHS tape of their videos there's a bit where General Boy crushes Booji's head in an industrial press--essentially decapitating him. I'm betting that won't be on the Disney version. (Even though real kids would love it.)
- tom moody 8-29-2006 2:11 am