Shout (Devo album)

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Shout

Studio album by Devo
Released	October 9, 1984
Recorded	1984
Genre	New Wave
Length	40:28
Label	Warner Bros. Records & Virgin Records
Producer(s)	Devo
All Music Guide link
Devo chronology
Oh, No! It's Devo (1982)	Shout (1984)	E-Z Listening Disc (1987)

Shout is a 1984 album by the New Wave rock band Devo. It was their 6th album and their last for Warner Bros. Records. Keeping with the synth-pop sound of their last few records, Shout sounds very much of its time. Despite the popularity of synth-pop in 1984, the album was a commercial and critical failure which ultimately led to Warner Bros. Records dropping the band. Following its release, the band went on hiatus for 4 years.

One of Shout's best-known tracks is "Are You Experienced?", a Jimi Hendrix cover that carried on the Devo tradition of 'mutating' famous songs which began with 1978's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". Ironically, the cover was marginally more accessible and danceable than the heavily experimental Hendrix track, perhaps harkening to the idea of "de-evolution" through its return to a more conventional sound. Many believe this to be a smart move on the band's part considering the trouble with Warner Bros. Records at the time ("Are You Experienced?" being a 'sacred cow' of the WB catalog). As well as that Hendrix song, the chorus melody of Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" is transformed into a guitar solo partway through the piece. The track "The 4th Dimension" incorporates the guitar hook from The Beatles' song "Day Tripper".

The album was Devo's first, and last, to use the recent Fairlight CMU computer to create songs. This approach further pushed the sound of the guitar into the background of their music. Alan Myers left the band shortly after the album's release, citing feeling creatively deprived, partially from the band's use of drum machines and the Fairlight.

1 Track listing
- 1.1 Album Versions
2 Music videos
3 Tour
4 Personnel

[edit] Track listing

"Shout"
"The Satisfied Mind"
"Don't Rescue Me"
"The 4th Dimension"
"C'mon"
"Here to Go"
"Jurisdiction of Love"
"Puppet Boy"
"Please Please"
"Are You Experienced?"

[edit] Album Versions

In 1997, Shout was re-released on Infinite Zero records, and included two bonus tracks: "Growing Pains" (a B-Side to "Are You Experienced?"), and "Shout (Hello Kitty)", a version of the title track from Devo's E-Z Listening Music collections. This version is out of print, and very rare, often fetching up to $50 on eBay. In 2004, Collectable Records re-released Shout without bonus tracks. This version is currently in print.

[edit] Music videos

A lavish video for "Are You Experienced?" was produced by the band and Ivan Stang of the Church of the SubGenius. Its many highlights include Devo as floating blobs of 'wax' in a lava lamp (a definite 60s image) and Hendrix (played by an impersonator) stepping out of his coffin to play a solo. Despite being one of Devo's most visually impressive (and expensive) videos, it wasn't included on the 2003 DVD-format video retrospective The Complete Truth About De-evolution (although it was included on the laserdisc of the same name issued in 1992). This is explained below in an extract from an interview with Gerry Casale for Earcandymag.com:

"E.C.: Speaking of de-evolution, why didn’t the Hendrix estate give you permission to put the “Are U Experienced” video on the DVD?

Gerald Casale: Further de-evolution. You understand that the consortium of people that now represent the Hendrix estate are basically run by lawyers; the lawyer mentality. Lawyers always posit the worst-case scenarios. Though that video was loved for years by anybody who saw it including the man who commissioned it - Chuck Arroff - a luminary in the music business who still claims to this day that it was one of his five most favorite videos ever; they [the lawyers] didn’t get it and assumed we were making fun of Jimi. That’s like saying “Whip It” makes fun of cowboys. This is so stupid it’s unbelievable."

[edit] Tour

As the band were dropped by their record label and went on hiatus following Shout's release, there was no tour to promote it. They had apparently planned a show with a video backdrop similar to the Oh, No! tour.