Booji Boy

Booji Boy is a character created in the early 1970s by American New Wave band Devo. He resembles a simian child, typically in an orange nuclear protection suit, is portrayed by Devo lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh in a mask, and is the son of the fictitious General Boy. The intent of the figure is to satirize infantile regression in Western culture, a quality Devo enjoyed elucidating. This character was officially introduced in the 1974 short film "The Truth About De-Evolution".

The name is pronounced "Boogie Boy"—the strange spelling resulted when the band was using letraset to produce captions for a film, and ran out of the letter G.

Booji Boy has continued to feature in the band's visual imagery throughout their career, for example he plays a prominent role in the video of their 1981 single "Beautiful World", and appeared on stage regularly during the band's European tour of 2007. He also appeared in the 1982 Neil Young film Human Highway in a very comical yet unsettling role predicting the end of the planet.

Booji Boy publicly announced his pending resignation on multiple occasions, most recently on August 13, 2007, yet he appeared at the Puyallup Fair concert on September 21, and continues to appear on Devo's 2008 tour to sing "Beautiful World", the final song of the set.

'Booji Boy' was also the name of the independent label Devo used to record their earliest songs. The following vinyl releases were sold under the 'Booji Boy' banner:

* Mongoloid "Jocko Homo B-Side"
* (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction "Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin') B-Side"
* Be Stiff EP "(Contains previous two Booji Boy releases and Stiff Records 'Be Stiff' single)"
* Mechanical Man (a 4 track, 7" EP of old demos, apparently a bootleg, but rumored to be put out by the band themselves)

Live Sightings / Mis-Adventures of Booji Boy

*December 31, 1982 - The Warfield Theater , San Francisco , California : Booji Boy has a close encounter with E.T. on stage , when Booji decides to touch his extended glowing finger , E.T. blows up!

*October 27,2006 - The Grove , Anaheim , California : Osama Bin Laden appears on stage with Booji Boys decapitated & bloody head on a spear. Thus leaving it up to Jihad Jerry , to sing , "Beautiful World".

Booji Boy's Book, "My Struggle"

Booji boy wrote a book titled "My Struggle". The title , is the English translation of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" , and the book featured a red leather cover as a poke at Chairman Mao Tse Tung's "little red book". [http://www.boojiboysbasement.com/forum/index.php?topic=44.0] It is no longer in print , but excerpts can be found hidden in the Devo P.C. game "Adventures Of The Smart Patrol".

Booji Boy's Singing Career

"( Known recordings performed by Booji Boy )"

* "Hey Hey , My My (Into The Black) " - performed with Devo & Neil Young in the film "Human Highway".

* "It Takes A Worried Man " - spoken word segment - performed with Devo in the film "Human Highway"

* "The Words Get Stuck In My Throat" - performed live with Devo on several bootleg albums. In 2000 a studio version was recorded for the compilation "Pioneers Who Got Scalped"

* "Gotta Serve Somebody" - performed with Dove ,and found on the Devo compilation album "Recombo DNA"

* " Red Eye Express" - performed live with Devo, and seen in the film "The Men Who Make the Music"

* "Beautiful World" - performed live with Devo , since 1981 , this is very nearly Booji's signature tune.

References

*In the P.C. Game "Adventures Of The Smart Patrol" , it is mentioned that Booji Boy's "real name" was "Craig Allan Rothwell". Coincidentally , this is also supposedly the real name of the dancer known as "Spazz Attack" . ( Seen in the Devo videos for " ( I Can't Get No ) Satisfaction " & " Peek - A - Boo " , and the " Oh No , It's Devo!" tour ).

External links

* [http://www.clubdevo.com Devo's Official Website]