Freedom of Choice - 2009 Remaster

This is often misinterpreted as a song celebrating personal freedom. It's actually a commentary on how people really want choices made for them. The song's statement is made in the last chorus: "Freedom of choice is what you've got, freedom from choice is what you want."

Devo was founded by Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, who met at Kent State University. Here's what Casale told Songfacts about "Freedom Of Choice": "We loved that song very much when we were creating it. It was about how people were throwing away their freedom of choice into meaningless choices like between Pepsi and Coke, or pink fur shoes or blue suede shoes. Just mindless consumerism, they'd rather not be free, they'd rather be told what to do, because that's what appeared to us was the case, especially in the Reagan years. That was a very Devo position - Freedom Of Choice is what you've got, Freedom From Choice is what you want."

The lyrics about the dog in ancient Rome who had two bones are based on an old Aesop's fable about a dog that's walking across a bridge with a bone in his mouth. He looks down in the water and sees another dog with a bone, and he gets so upset that he finally goes to attack the other dog and loses his bone. Or, as Mark Mothersbaugh explained to Songfacts, "It could have been about the Cocker Spaniel that lives in my house. There's two Pugs, and if I give the Cocker Spaniel a treat, she's happy until I give one to the other dogs, and then she drops hers and can't believe that they have the treats too. She thinks they've gotten her treats, so she's upset until that's over."