12 years old and up late watching Saturday Night live, I saw a video in black and white that scared the living crap out of me. I had to figure out these guys.
Devo.
What the hell was this crap? Who were these guys and why didn’t I know who they were? There are two albums that I rode my bike to purchase “London Calling” and “Are We Not Men, We Are Devo”.
No shame, it was a 10 speed and I had to stand on a step to get on it. Swag.
From the insanity of the opening ticks to the swirly fun house ride through sound there was no containing my love of this album. Loving Devo was a death sentence. The opening techno explosion of Uncontrollable Urge”, to this day bumps up my blood pressure to unhealthy levels. It’s a revving engine sound, of things to come. Two drumstick clicks and we are off……yeahyeah yeah…
What. The Hell. IS THIS? I had no idea but I blasted that sucker so loud it’s a wonder Id didn’t make the neighbors go deaf. The twitters and whizzing sounds were a psychotic pinball machine and that was it. I was a fan. Diehard fan.
More please.
“I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)” FINALLY someone made the Stones cool. The bass in this tune is outstanding AND I think this may have ignited my love of cover tunes. To this day this is the weakest song on the album. They performed it on SNL so that was cool in their silly jump suits but their original stuff was so much trippier
“Praying Hands” as a nice Catholic girl this freaked me a bit. It was more the Holy hokey pokey. Not really cuz Im pretty sure that diddling bit has nothing to do with a higher power. Musically this was so funky. Reminds me of a late 60’s sitcom dance scene. ‘roll over play dead and get spiritually minded’. Again the question is WTF are they on about? I thought maybe it was cuz I was too young to figure it all out but now— nope. Just weirdo’s.
“Space Junk” This is great, the childish rhyming and choppy delivery makes this all the more novelty ‘on Christmas eve said norad, a soviet sputnik hit Africa…’ What starts out as a nearly 1950s image ends up a big fat mess. Why this song reminds me of Pee Wee Herman is beyond me but it totally does.
“Mongoloid”, this has a dang sexy intro for a totally politically incorrect tune. “One chromosome too many” C’mon now, tell me this wouldn’t be greeted with protest now. Buried in the underground new wave scene no one caught this. Let’s start a media blitz on it now. “he wore a hat, and he had a job and he brought home the bacon so no one knew…’ HA! this is horrible. Happier than you and me indeed.
“Jocko Homo”, “Are We Not Men? We Are Devo”, the title tune just confused me. But live- it was outstanding. The Robotic reply was corny, so much so that it elevated it to cool These guys were the original nerd rock but in a really subversive almost mad science sort of way. What’s the deal with all the pinheads? Ramones dug pinheads too, we need to bring back the pinhead.
“Too Much Paranoia’s”, hold he pickle hold the lettuce”, do you remember this little jingle? Yeah well they threw it in this song (along with anything else) creating another oddity of genius. It takes a lot to be that weird and not need to be medicated. Devo rode that line from cool to get the straight jacket. Then again, didn’t we all?
‘’Gut Feeling”, ‘there’s something about the way you taste that makes me want to clear my throat’. Perhaps one of the most provocative lines in new wave. Take that a million different ways. Its writing genius. Coupled with the gorgeous intro to this piano and guitar its nearly Elton John-esque. Until the lyrics start, then you’re back to feeling a bit uncomfortable Devo had the ability to make you feel just a bit uneasy. They were weirdly dangerous. Maybe not to the 20+’s who they were playing too, but certainly to me. The “Slap Your Mammy” outro absolutely had me dancing around the room like I belonged in an asylum. Holy shit, this is fantastic stuff.
“Come Back Jonee” my favorite! This was my tune! “you made her cry” I thought Mark Mothersbaugh was cute by the way. Yeah, had a geek thing goin’ on. The drumming in this song is the most wonderful sound of the album. It’s so fast and so subtle that I have a hard time explaining so just go listen to it. ‘went head on into a semi, his guitar is all that’s left now”. Bad boys get what they deserve.
“Sloppy”, ’HEYHEYHEYHEY! This song is so punk rock its off the charts. Now I suppose this has some smarmy meaning but Im not in it for that Im in it for the screaming and the wicked fast beat. “she spent her money on a BRAND NEW CAR!”. ‘La hole la hole la hole’…..yeah ok. There is no denyting that to pogo to this took mad skills and if you didn’t punch someone in the eye or get punched you were doing it wrong. This song is to be thrashed about with wild abandon. Four times in a row and Im still not sick of it.
“Shrivel Up”, was one of the most disturbing tunes my young ears had heard “well it’s a God given fact..’, A doomsday prophecy song is soft tones. Holy shit this tune is cool even today. What were these guys on and how fucking cool and absolutely bizarre they were. No wonder David Bowie and Brian Eno were fans. Art school good times indeed.
(If you care to go and revisit this album DO NOT get the reissued live version it sucks so bad that I couldn’t even make it through. God awful sounding old and pathetic with horrible sound quality my ears nearly bled- stick with the original)
OH, and 2 years later on July 18, 1980 I would strut in to a rock club in West Hartford CT chest out and shirt low and watch as my brother (10 years my senior) sister (7 years my senior) were frisked and had to produce ID to enter the doors. At age 14 I strutted in with a handwave. I owned that place from that day on. Wait I take that back- I owned the scene from that day on.