Energy Dome - Mythology

Mythology

According to Gerald Casale on the Devo website:

It was designed according to ancient ziggurat mound proportions used in votive worship. Like the mounds it collects energy and recirculates it. In this case the Dome collects energy that escapes from the crown of the human head and pushes it back into the Medula Oblongata for increased mental energy. It's very important that you buy a cheap plastic hardhat liner, adjust it to your head size and affix it with duct tape or Super Glue to the inside of the Dome. This allows the Dome to "float" just above the cranium and thus do its job. Unfortunately, without a hard hat liner, the recirculation of energy WILL NOT occur.

In keeping with Devo's love of facetious "truths", several accounts of the origins of the energy domes exist. According to one, the band took the design for the hats straight out of a Little Lulu comic book. Another story has it that that they were inspired from a passage in the book The Beginning Was the End. Still another involves inspiration from an old art deco lamp from Jerry Casale's collection. Mark Mothersbaugh also liked to refer them as "ziggurat hats" in interviews. Another inspiration for the headgear were lamps from their old high school.