While I do think the WORD choice of the song is definitely and intentionally provocative, begging the idiots who misinterpreted "Whip It" to think that of this too, because, who cares? "We're Through With Being Cool".
HOWEVER, just like Whip It, the song does also have an actual, deeper, more serious meaning. New Traditionalists is well known for being much darker, more serious than their two previous albums.
I think, and can present reasonable evidence, that this song is about the election of Reagan and how his election was the culmination of conservative efforts to transform the political landscape of America. It made for a sort of "coup" for them. The 80s were the worst, and it was because of Reagan. He cut taxes for the wealthy and raised them for the middle and lower classes. He began outsourcing jobs as well, and doubled the country's unemployment rate. And because he cut those taxes, he started up a debt that was to become the largest debt America had ever had. And the climax of this monstrosity (that was apparent at the time of this album's release) was his deinstitutionalization of America's mental hospitals, starting with California when he was governor. - putting millions of mentally ill patients out on the street, creating the country's enormous homeless problem, and lead to much more frequent and widespread violence all around. Basically everything he did domestically, to the American People, went terribly wrong. And the lead up to this would have been brewing in the culture, and he was elected by an overwhelming majority.
So I think this song is about the state of mind of the people who held the burden of these awful policies. Devo sings, "you told me people like to suffer, you told me that's the way it is" and "you said that things were getting better, you said I should ACCEPT all this" [the lyric above is incorrect] which is true, but the opposite of what they were being told was actually happening. Hence the "you got me jerkin' back 'n' forth".
Just like the silly-sounding words of the chorus, the lyrics "You think it's funny, but what I say is true: the reason that I live like this is all because of you." say it all.
You can see this sort of political commentary in a large amount of Devo's work. And their newer, 2010 album, Something For Everybody has a few songs about George W. Bush's failings and ineptitude.
While I do think the WORD choice of the song is definitely and intentionally provocative, begging the idiots who misinterpreted "Whip It" to think that of this too, because, who cares? "We're Through With Being Cool".
HOWEVER, just like Whip It, the song does also have an actual, deeper, more serious meaning. New Traditionalists is well known for being much darker, more serious than their two previous albums.
I think, and can present reasonable evidence, that this song is about the election of Reagan and how his election was the culmination of conservative efforts to transform the political landscape of America. It made for a sort of "coup" for them. The 80s were the worst, and it was because of Reagan. He cut taxes for the wealthy and raised them for the middle and lower classes. He began outsourcing jobs as well, and doubled the country's unemployment rate. And because he cut those taxes, he started up a debt that was to become the largest debt America had ever had. And the climax of this monstrosity (that was apparent at the time of this album's release) was his deinstitutionalization of America's mental hospitals, starting with California when he was governor. - putting millions of mentally ill patients out on the street, creating the country's enormous homeless problem, and lead to much more frequent and widespread violence all around. Basically everything he did domestically, to the American People, went terribly wrong. And the lead up to this would have been brewing in the culture, and he was elected by an overwhelming majority.
So I think this song is about the state of mind of the people who held the burden of these awful policies. Devo sings, "you told me people like to suffer, you told me that's the way it is" and "you said that things were getting better, you said I should ACCEPT all this" [the lyric above is incorrect] which is true, but the opposite of what they were being told was actually happening. Hence the "you got me jerkin' back 'n' forth".
Just like the silly-sounding words of the chorus, the lyrics "You think it's funny, but what I say is true: the reason that I live like this is all because of you." say it all.
You can see this sort of political commentary in a large amount of Devo's work. And their newer, 2010 album, Something For Everybody has a few songs about George W. Bush's failings and ineptitude.