25: Whip It - Devo

Oh, we have to whip it.

Hello and welcome to We Can't Rewind, We've Gone Too Far,

a podcast where a Scotsman, an Irishman and a Bulgarian

discuss the worst, silliest and weirdest as fuck music videos.

Say hello everyone.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Oh wait, no, we don't need to say our names.

Hi, I'm Neil.

Oh yeah.

Does it matter, everyone, with this video?

They just speak over each other.

It's fine.

We're all very confused by this video

and I'm hungover.

So this is going to be one of those episodes.

And it's also 11am on Sunday.

So...

Yeah, I should be in church.

Oh, lords.

Help us.

It's Whip It by Debo.

It's a bunch of dorky guys

with silly hats who play music on a ranch.

And there's some cowboys and cowgirls.

Also whips and visual innuendos.

Which is hilarious

because the song is explicitly

not supposed to be about BDSM.

If you haven't seen the video, what are you even doing here?

Go and watch it right now.

Go and watch it right now.

Go and watch it right now.

Don't laugh, Nelly.

I see you laughing.

I was laughing because it got so worried for you trying to read what I've written down.

I can.

It's good because I can now read Bulgarian because this is clearly Bulgarian.

Go, seek, and seek.

Should I continue with the history?

Yeah, sure.

Why not?

The song is from Devo's third album,

Freedom of Choice,

and at 41, it's by far the oldest video we have looked at on the podcast.

It was released in 1980.

The video had a budget of $15,000 and was directed by Gerald Cassell,

one of Devo's band members.

The band meant to make the video satire both cowboys mythos

and the right-wing racist values.

How is this video aiming at racist values is still undetermined.

The video comes with its own controversy,

as it was deemed misogynistic due to the whip aiming at a woman.

At a woman.

Women!

The band was even cut from a live performance due to some backlash from the video.

Sorry.

According to the band...

Anyway.

According to the band, the video was supposed to be timeless and demeaning but funny.

Let's whip on into this and see what we think.

No, no, no, no, no.

I haven't seen this video for years.

I remember seeing this when I was round at a friend's house 10, 15 years ago, something like that.

Was that just before the whips came out?

not that good a friend unfortunately but uh well that's an instructional video

oh we have to whip it whip it real good

yeah i think my main my main impression was it was the hats i just i'd pretty much forgotten

everything about this video apart from the hats which i think they wear all the time don't they

is this a devo thing it is yeah it's a bizarre devo thing i mean the the idea that these help

of creative energy is completely absurd but yeah whatever floats your boat wait what the

the create energy no creative energy so the the hats um supposedly um harness um the creative energy

in your head and keep it within the the hat which then makes devo i guess who they are so that's why

they perform i mean it's probably a character um thing but um but yeah they're called energy domes

Neil, are you previously IKEA alumni?

Do you remember those IKEA bins?

Yeah, I'd probably get them from IKEA, let's be honest.

They look very Scandinavian.

No, but do you remember the bins that IKEA sold?

I found myself a picture wearing one of them.

So they used to have red ones, and they moved to transparent white ones.

They were very, very similar.

Oh God, they do look like those bins.

So if you take the hats off them, do they lose their devil powers?

Yeah, they do.

They probably lose...

Their coolness.

Their overwhelming coolness, as you can tell,

flowing off them as they're jerkily playing their instruments.

The thing is, with the hats that I got immediately,

is this isn't serious.

Yeah, well, yeah, there's that.

I'm going to have a bit of fun.

I'm not going to be like, what is this shit?

You know, I can take it with base value.

I was actually surprised this is the oldest video that we've watched,

Because, I don't know, you don't really associate sort of kind of jokey bands.

It seems like a more sort of modern invention kind of bands that are purely taking the piss.

I mean, that video was released before, or just like at the onset of MTV, I guess.

Music videos were not big in the late 90s, sorry, late 70s, early 80s.

I think MTV's from 1983.

I'll take it over on that.

But yeah, I mean, think of all the 70s videos.

There's some cool videos, but you know, you had your Bohemian Rhapsody and that's pretty

much it.

Yeah.

Before MTV came around and then it's like, oh, those cool videos because we have an outlet

for it.

81, August the 1st.

So they got this out just in time.

Question is, what would you guys do with $15,000?

I know the freedom to make a music video about whipping.

I'd make Bonnie Tyler's, what was that song called again?

The one we reviewed.

I think you might like it.

No, that was John Travolta.

That's a different whipping video.

Go through our podcast archives.

It's one of the best episodes.

Holding out for a hero.

Holding out for a hero, yeah.

Yeah, I'd remake holding out for a hero,

but with John Travolta.

I love you, John.

That's exactly what I'd do.

Would John Travolta need to have a high hairline?

Well, he's got a cowboy hat on.

I'm imagining him as the evil cowboy.

Or maybe, no, both the evil cowboy and the good cowboy.

Yeah, but who's doing the whipping then?

Are they whipping each other?

how is that going to work

I don't know

I thought this through

are they both switches

these are questions

that don't need answers

these things just work

those are the questions

that exactly need answers

I can't remember the actual video

who was it

it was a bad cowboy

whipping Bonnie Tyler

so it would be

John Travolta

whipping Olivia Newton

John

and then

another John Travolta

a John Travolta clone

whipping

another John Travolta clone

while John Travolta

is masturbating

in the corner

I think that might change age rate in a bit, but sure.

This sounds like a sequel to Face Off.

Yes.

Yeah, basically.

Yeah, basically it's Face Off with Whips.

So who's going to play the role of the old lady who's whipping cream?

Yeah, she was weird.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

We're back to this video now.

Yeah, OK.

Oh, she was just in the room with Bonnie Tyler panning over the guy.

She was just whipping butter, churning butter in the corner.

The camera just slowly pans over to her,

just holds on her just a little bit too long.

Music fades out and all you hear is a whipping sound.

That didn't sound right.

What was it?

It's a bit better.

The thing it made me think of was

when you live in the middle of nowhere

and you have to be pretty inventive to pass the time.

Oh yeah.

It kind of made me think of that.

I was like, is this just what these cowboys do

just to pass the time?

They're like, okay, we've got nothing on the day.

Should we play the weapon game again?

Not in that way.

So I read into this a little bit,

and they're on what's called a dude ranch.

A dude ranch?

Yeah, which is a ranch which is just based for tourism.

So it doesn't have any, well, they might have animals,

but it doesn't have what normal ranches would have.

It has just enough so tourists can come and say they've been to a ranch.

So I guess it's like the American version of Butlin's,

just about all the charm.

When you say they have no petting animals,

they clearly have a whole Devo band.

So, I mean...

I guess that's the difference.

I mean, why do you need animals when you have a Devo?

They do seem to be keeping Devo in a pen.

So I don't know if they're, like, raising them

and then, like, selling off the music that they make it

so they're literally just...

Milking the music out of them.

They're milking Devo.

That explains the cream.

Yeah.

Oh.

All makes sense.

For context, everyone, David's face just went sour,

like the cream they have just whipped.

Let's not think too hard about that one.

Too late.

It's happened now.

When we was watching it,

I was thinking of how the fuck are we going to talk about this?

Just keep thinking about Go West.

Go West is more convoluted,

because this at least kind of tiny bit feels like there is a story to it.

I've forgotten how short it was.

It was like two minutes, 40, something like that.

Yeah.

And really nothing happens apart from this woman getting whipped.

And they go eat some pie at one point.

And then a woman who's cross-eyed shoots a can.

That's about it.

Yeah, I didn't get that bit.

So the woman in the house shoots a can, but she's cross-eyed and all goes...

Yeah, they actually show her vision to go.

It's very short, it's very brief.

And then one of the cowboys whisks her away into the bedroom, very obviously.

She seems into it, so nothing inappropriate here, at least, I hope.

Maybe we should talk very briefly of the bit of a slightly serious point,

which was the misogynist controversy.

I can kind of see it, but also, do you guys just think it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek?

Sort of cheeky, wink-wink, nudge-nudge sort of thing.

I could see how people would draw that conclusion, but I don't think it is particularly misogynistic.

I guess they are in Dressner, though, so maybe there's that.

The way I would imagine is why people got angry about it

is because of the fact that there's only female characters

that were portrayed in...

No, I mean, let's be honest,

there's only female characters that had a character

because every other cowboy guy was literally the same carbon copy.

Yeah, it makes me think of, like, carry-on camping and stuff like that.

It's that kind of humour, I think.

It's where, you know, kind of all innuendos and sex jokes and stuff,

but it's kind of harmless in a weird way.

Or at least I've not watched any of them ever,

So I don't know if it is harmless, but from what my impression of it is that it's relatively

harmless.

I think it's the oldie British humour.

Yeah, it's I didn't think is when I watch this, I didn't feel it was like I didn't feel

it was misogynistic.

I kind of felt it was just a bit just a bit campy and ridiculous.

If this is the first time you've ever seen them or watched this video, you know, you're

looking at these mad people wearing these ridiculous hats.

I mean, I kind of think nothing you can't take anything serious with it because you think

about it, right?

How can you whip off someone's clothes?

I think that's a play on that word, you know, like whip your clothes off.

Is that a term?

Is that a Northern Irish term?

Whippy?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've heard that, yeah.

I've heard whip your clothes off, yeah.

You can whip anything off if you try hard enough.

Bag this with me for a second.

Scott.

Yeah.

Scott from English Corner.

Is there such an expression to whip your clothes off?

To whip my clothes off?

Yeah, or your...

I would understand what you meant if you said...

But is it an expression that you could anyone use?

It's not a common one, I wouldn't say.

A little bit.

A little bit.

can think of in a specific example billy conley says whip your tweeds off all right okay so it is

it is a northern thing then so maybe yeah maybe it's like whip the tweeds off then whip your tweed

tweed trousers off so so maybe it is maybe it's a scottish and everything i guess i'm trying to find

its origin it's one of those phrases that i've heard but i wouldn't call it like a phrase is just

something which could you could theoretically say and it would make sense you don't know what the

phrase means right i don't know i don't know it's not like an established phrase but it's right okay

i mean you heard scott's response which was scott from english corner response yeah he would understand

if people say that but yeah you know yeah he also understands when i talk which let's be honest

sometimes and just say things which make sense in my head so potatoes is that what the song is about

is it whipping real good or is it just just just utter nonsense i've got the feeling it's just utter

nonsense i think it's nonsense dev i think it's supposed to be about very very loosely i just

getting on with things whip it into shape i was very very vaguely listening to the lyrics

crack the twip give the path a slip step on the crack break his mama okay let's not talk about

breaking your mama's back that needs something else um when when a problem comes along you must whip it

yeah i think it's trying to do kind of a bdsm approach to dealing with your issues

that is a good a good general interpretation song is it's got to get on with it so yeah but i think

it's mostly nonsense because there's something about uh yeah breaking your mama's back which is

no hold on is is that a is that a saying to break someone's back unless you mean literally to break

someone's back yes have you never heard people use it david do you want to take this one

I don't really know what the phrase is either.

This entire episode is us mutually not having heard phrases.

Let's Google it out.

Phrase, break your mama's back.

Break someone's back?

Break her back.

I've heard break a leg.

Break your back when someone is really good at sex

and leaves you sore the next day.

There you go, thank you.

I don't want to say it again, but this is what I meant.

When you're doing the walk of shame and you're limping a little bit.

That's how it's true.

When you're walking like a carry boy.

Now whip it.

Into shape.

Shape it up.

Get straight.

Go forward.

Move ahead.

Try to detect it.

It's not too late to whip it.

Whip it good.

The question is, this is this dude ranch that we've got.

Is the women they're whipping, is that one of this collective of weird cowboy people,

or have they literally just went out and captured someone?

I mean, she's already there at the start of the video, right?

So, I mean, she wasn't just a visitor like them, right?

My theory is that they all take turns doing this to pass the time.

Judging by the look on their face, it's not very fun being the one in the middle.

Pardon the expression.

Okay, so there is actually a songfacts.com page about this video.

The director told songfacts.com about the video.

We made the video to the song for like $15,000.

that was shot in our rehearsal studio, which actually makes sense.

We kind of magnified that myth that this was a song about whipping in sad masochism.

We decided to make the video feed.

That popular misconception and had a lot of fun doing it.

It was one of the few times Devo worked like that.

Usually it would start with a visual idea of Tory and write music to fit it.

Okay.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah.

In this case, we didn't originally have a video idea of Whippet, shockingly.

And when people started thinking it was a song about walking off or, say, the masochism,

would collect from drink stores and vintage magazine stories.

It served as inspirational jokes.

There was this one magazine that they found in a store in Santa Monica.

It was a 1962 men's girly mug called Dude, I think.

Dude farm.

It adds up.

Why was it porn magazine or like nudist magazine or whatever called Dude?

If it was aimed at guys.

Because it's four dudes?

Four dudes by dude?

Well, I mean, I'm not judging, obviously.

I'm just saying.

There was a feature article on a guy who had been an actor and fell on hard times.

He wasn't getting parts anymore.

He moved with his wife to Arizona, opened a dude ranch,

and charged people money to come hang out at the ranch.

Every day at noon in the Coral for entertainment,

he'd whip his wife's clothes off with a 12-foot bullwhip.

She sewed the costumes and put them together with Velcro.

the story was in the magazine about how good she was and how he never hurt her we had such a big

laugh about it and we said okay that is the base for the video we'll have these cowboys drinking beer

and cheering uh mark which is the lead singer as he's in the barnyard whipping this pioneer women's

clothes off while the band plays in the corral there you go create all this around the porn

porn magazine story they basically stole an article nice but well at least that confirms that if

they're basically based on that then it's not some random they've captured it's probably actually

like a performance piece that they're doing for the cowboys well it was a bit so juicy in this

case then wasn't it i mean i understand that the woman was hopefully being happy to do all of this

yeah but also having her clothes whipped off in front of strangers every day yikes i was a bit

dodged i mean i really hope that she was a willing participant in all of this let's not

should we just move on it's good to know what the fuck was actually going through their head when

they're making this though because that explains a lot.

The actual set that they've made in the rehearsal studio

is actually quite impressive. I'm just watching

it there because they've got the big

paper backdrop of everything and

only really clocked that it was a paperback

background there somehow so it's like

it obviously works. Can you be reminiscent of our

previous video?

The logged cabin looks like it's just like

a square bit of cardboard or whatever

logs painted on it. Star foam.

So it's actually quite an impressive set for

whipping it together.

I completely honestly have a bit of an issue with watching the video.

I don't have ADHD, but it feels like ADHD, someone with ADHD fever dream, fever nightmare.

it just because things happen as you said it's very short things happen very fast it's very

not concentrated it's a bit difficult to pay attention to blink and you'll mess up is it silly

yeah it's really silly is it funny well trying to be yeah he's trying to be definitely it just

feels a lot of like uh revenge of the nerds-esque c for effort i remember liking this video a lot more

than re-watching it i kind of was i was a bit underwhelmed i think maybe because it's because

it's so quick it's just like it's like in and out guy whips on his clothes off that's it i was a

little bit kind of meh about re-watching it again i think maybe just the fact i was drunk when i first

time watched it and they had silly hats on but i do actually really like the song and it's already

stuck in my head when i was walking to get water earlier i was walking along going do do do do do i

whipped the tap the water came out it was great yeah so i first heard this song in the video game

rock band and i absolutely hated it now in 2021 i actually don't mind it i think it's fun campaign

does not take itself seriously so my most favorite part of the video is uh just the whole the whole

aesthetic of the band like the clothes they paired and the dumbass hats and just trying to look cool

like i i know that they weren't trying to look cool but also they were trying to look cool i think

it's double as fuck and I love it

the worst part

I don't think there's something I particularly

hate

about the video

I just don't think, I think it's silly but I don't think

it was as funny or witty as it was

trying to be but it was fine

it's fun, I enjoy it

it's short. My favourite part

is, I think there's a few of these shots

but the first one's at 20 seconds in

where the band are playing and then

the singer just sort of jumps in

from the side of the frame with a whip when when it says you must whip it and he just jumps in from

the side and that got an actual got a genuine laugh at me every time it happened the frame the

framing is just funny especially when he when he i think later on he jumps in and he's like sings

you must whip it into the camera as well makes that eye contact i think my worst part is just uh

i didn't yeah yeah i was kind of same as you know i didn't have any specific thing i didn't like about

it just kind of i don't know left me slightly underwhelmed for some reason maybe that's hangover

the worst part is that it was hungover when i watched it which isn't their fault favorite part

was uh mama in the window not knowing what the fuck was going on you know i just i just laughed

every time she was on the screen i felt like she was just pulled i think she was the catering woman

for the shoot and she was just told stand in this doorway worst part the just the rhythm of the entire

song just doesn't gel with my head and it kind of makes my brain hurt um i don't know it's just it's

just the way that

I know nothing about music and

the way it's made but it's just that sort of

the tempo

of it or the way the beat goes

it's just

I couldn't get along with it.

Eyes and nose?

I? Yeah.

I think it's a pretty saturated video.

You can't really say no to that.

It's a very good talking point isn't it?

Yeah. Would you recommend it?

I think it's worth a watch. Late I for me.

Yeah I think it's worth a watch.

Let's just say it's good if you're with friends

and you're having a couple of drinks.

That was the first time I watched it

and I enjoyed it a lot more in that point

because I think we're all just sitting around

and going,

what the fuck is going on in this movie?

And as well as podcasters.

Hey.

If you were to put this on,

people would watch it, right?

They're not just going to ignore it.

So I think it's good for that reason.

It's not too late to whip it.

Whip it good.

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Say goodbye everyone.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.