Peek-a-Boo Lyrics
i can see you
and i know what you do
so put your hands on your face
and cover up your eyes
don't look until i signal
peek-a-boo! peek-a-boo!
peek-a-boo!
the way that we weren't is what we'll
become
so please pay attention while i show
you some
of what's about to happen
peek-a-boo!
i know what you do
cause i do it too
laugh if you want to or say you
don't care
if you cannot see it you think it's
not there
it doesn't work that way
The Line "if you cannot see it you think it's not there - it doesn't work that way" is a reference to the game "Peak-A-Boo". It had been said that babies think that when they can't see you, you no longer exist.
"Peek-a Boo! was a song about Devo's circus-like look and the dark side of human nature, the side we try to keep secret, the side we try to deny, in this Christian world where we're only supposed to have happy endings and only supposed to be good, and instead Devo is dealing with what evil is here in a very light-hearted manner."
-Gerald Casale, DEVO's bassist.
Basically it's someone looking into a mirror & trying to hide from their own dark side. No matter how they try to pretend it doesn't exist we all have to face it at one point or another. Some of us are just better at accepting & coping with it than others.
Well, this is a different take on things. I believe it to be about people who think they can get away with everything, or at least cut corners and cheat when it suits them. However, that kind of thing can never work forever. For example, in the video they show a guy on an old exercising machine while drinking a milkshake. They're implying that cheating on a diet won't help you lose weight. Rationalizing doing the wrong thing is a very deevolved thing. The devil clowns with the pills swirling around them is actually from a Spanish public service announcement in the early 1980's that tries to equate using illegal drugs with evil. Here they're using it to equate doing bad things with evil. (As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.) The underlying message is this: instead of doing wrong, do right. One of the biggest lies then (and it's only gotten worse) that we teach people is that it's okay to break the rules as long as you're not caught.
I know that it's about looking in a mirror and seeing your own darkness, when I was a kid, I was convinced it was about advertising. Subliminal messages from large corporations feeding your mind with "wants and needs" . Spoon fed like a child, because you have no original thoughts. Seems even more rational now with cellphone tech and AI feeding you adds.
my take on it is it's about electronic surveillance and the attitudes/thinking that goes along with it.
or it could be simply be refering to how people avoid varrious problems
The problem with DEVO is that some of their songs are completely reliant on the video to infer any meaning from it. I think this song is a post-modern version of Plato's cave. The images that come on the screen are distractions from the lyrics themselves.
I think the Billy Idol looking clown thing, was a representation of aimless fashion rebellion, that never goes anywhere and doesn't help the music only distracts from it.
I totally agree with fractured sanity on this one. I was just listening to it and I remembered that DEVO actually makes social commentary with their songs, so it couldn't possibly be about the "game" of Peekaboo!
Anyway I came here to write about it but fractured sanity has it covered.