The Devo song that was investigated by the FBI: “Not the best career move”
Devo have always been ones to embrace the strange and bizarre in their work.
From their affinity toward science fiction, to their love of surreal and satirical humour in their lyrics and their eccentric presentation as otherworldly beings, often seen with red energy dome hats on-stage, Devo (named for the concept of “de-evolution”, wherein species revert to a more primitive form, acknowledging that mankind had regressed) and their personal brand of electronic satire have continually polarised American mainstream audiences, ever since they founded in Akron, Ohio, in the 1970s.
“That’s what excited us. That made us laugh, that juxtaposition of the two worlds colliding, and it was very entertaining,” co-founder Gerald Casales told Far Out. “We were aliens, not alienated. We were just looking at the prevailing culture, almost like alien beings would observe another species.”
The synthesised dominance of the 1980s granted Devo their mainstream breakthrough. Considering the critical reviews hurled at their earlier work that described the band as “fascists” and “clowns”, they sought to make an album that would tackle the question of, “What would a record sound like by fascist clowns?”
The result was 1982’s Oh, No! It’s Devo, which would hear them orient their sound in synth-pop, heavily reliant on programmed synths and drum machines, with minimal guitars. The band would garner further controversy with a song that appears towards the end of the album, ‘I Desire’, its contents taken largely from a twisted story of true crime and obsession.
‘I Desire’ adapted most of its lyrics from a poem written by John Hinckley Jr, the man who attempted to assassinate former US President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Hinckley believed that this act would impress the actress Jodie Foster, whom he had a longstanding obsession with and subsequently stalked. Devo first came across Hinckley’s poem in the National Enquirer, which had been publishing his love letters and poems to Foster.
“We were reading them, going, ‘Wow, these are pretty great. If he hadn’t shot the president, people might think differently about him,’” co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh told Rolling Stone in 2018. “It was like, ‘I pledge alliance to the fact that your love is all that matters.’ I love that one. Anyhow, he shouldn’t have shot anybody, though.”
While incorporating Hinckley’s lines and listing him as a co-writer on ‘I Desire’, Devo simultaneously turned a mirror to the man’s psychotic behaviours. “For nothing is more dangerous,” the final line warns, “Than desire when it’s wrong.”
Foster requested to hear the song before it was released and met Devo in the studio, where they explained their added third verse that disparages the obsession, turning the song from a devotional love story to a haunting tale. Foster granted her permission and, as Mothersbaugh recalls, “I think she figured, ‘Well, this song’s so weird, nothing’s ever going to happen with it,’ and she said, ‘OK, you guys can put it on the record.’”
Despite getting Foster’s blessing, Mothersbaugh maintained that their inclusion of the song on Oh, No! It’s Devo “was not the best career move you could make”, after the song caught the ear of the FBI, who issued Devo several warnings. “They called us up with threatening remarks like, ‘Well, you know his fans are gonna be your fans, and his fans all want to kill him,’” Mothersbaugh recalls. “We were like, ‘Oh, that’s great.’”
While no further activity with the FBI transpired, Devo did catch the attention of Hinckley, who wrote a letter to the Dallas radio station KZEW, requesting that they play the song an exact 58 times a day. He also wrote to Devo directly, who’d heard that he was proud of the song, despite the band’s evident distortion of his intention.
