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| I was witnessing genius... |
I had a very satisfying project called One Hit No More, and that’s what steered me to DEVO. At the same time, hitting DEVO put that project into the realm of bands I grew up with, aka, bands I know fairly well. And DEVO fits that better than most.
Having grown up on early (the earliest, in fact) MTV, I couldn’t wrap my head around DEVO as a “one-hit wonder.” Part of that followed from the fact that MTV playe a lot of DEVO; between “Through Being Cool,” “Beautiful World,” “Love Without Anger,” “Freedom of Choice,” and “Satisfaction,” it simply never occurred to me that “Whip It” was their only Top 40 hit.
And that was despite all the visibly weird shit/themes they presented and played with. I remember watching it, understanding it was different, but, young as I was - their prime years hit when I was 9-11 years old - all of it went over my head. So, let’s fill in some blanks.
Somewhat Briefly
“…here are the five basic components of the Devolutionary Oath:
1. Wear gaudy colors or avoid display
2. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one
3. The littlest may survive & the unfit may live
4. Be like your ancestors or be different
5. We must repeat”
Even if I, like everyone from DEVO, came from Ohio, I had no hope of wrapping my head around that. Then again, they had quite the head start…
The main members of DEVO - Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale - met at Kent State, when Kent State was Kent State, i.e., Casale was present for the university’s most infamous moment, saw his friends die, and lived through the hyper-reactionary backlash. Suffice to say, it changed him:
“Until then I was a hippie. I thought that the world is essentially good. If people were evil, there was justice and that the law mattered. All of those silly naïve things. I saw the depths of the horrors and lies and the evil. In the paper that evening, the Akron Beacon Journal, said that students were running around armed and that officers had been hurt. So deputy sheriffs went out and deputized citizens. They drove around with shotguns and there was martial law for ten days. 7 PM curfew. It was open season the students. We lived in fear.”
Casale, then a senior, had actually met Mothersbaugh shortly before that shit-storm through Kent State’s art school (that they were art-school geeks was the least surprising thing in all this). Casale had noticed flyers pasted around the campus showing an astronaut standing on the moon, holding a potato and figured it was Mothersbaugh. So, he introduced himself and they formed the band from there. The potato turned out to be an anchoring concept for them, though in more recent interviews, they give different spins on the concept. To quote Mothersbaugh (because it seemed like he fleshed out the idea best):
“So we started into this dialogue about potatoes and humans and the hierarchy of vegetables and that potatoes were the lowest in a way because they come from underground and they’re dirty but they’re a staple of everybody’s diet. People ate potatoes every day but they never thought about it. They had eyes all around, so they saw everything going on. Early on, since we were both from working class families, we said, ‘Yeah we’re potatoes.’ We interchanged the word ‘spud’ with ‘comrade.’ We used it pejoratively and also [as] a ‘welcome comrade’ type thing. ‘Hello spud!’”
The first iteration of DEVO started playing in 1973, and they played highly-conceptual, fairly confrontational material. Inspired, at least in part, by early 20th century movements associated with the Dadaists, their shows featured a collection of characters - e.g., Booji Boy and General Boy - and they built out the idea of de-evolution, i.e., the idea that “instead of continuing to evolve, mankind had begun to regress, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society” (of which…holds up). Moreover, the brazenness started from day one (I fucking love this):
“We got booked and we say: ‘Here is one by Foghat.’ And we would just play one of out tunes. It took people about three songs to realize ‘Wait a minute, that is not Foghat.’ And then guys started getting really pissed off and throwing beer bottles. The manager came over and stopped the set. Her said: ‘Listen I don’t want you playing her anymore. Here is 100 bucks, get outta here.’”
That was their first show…so awesome. They started a label in the late 1970s, Booji Boy, and released some singles - “Jocko Homo” (inspired by a comic that sounded like Jack Chick), “Mongoloid” and a cover the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” (the story about Mick Jagger approving it is good) - but, after some time, DEVO got noticed. David Bowie and Iggy Pop were early champions; when prior engagements forced Bowie to drop out of producing their first album, Brian Eno stepped in (good connections, if you can make them). Warner Bros. singed them in 1978 and that’s where the DEVO I know started. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! came out in 1978, Duty Now for the Future dropped in 1979, but their real breakthrough came with 1980’s Freedom of Choice - i.e., the album that featured “Whip It.”
Having grown up on early (the earliest, in fact) MTV, I couldn’t wrap my head around DEVO as a “one-hit wonder.” Part of that followed from the fact that MTV playe a lot of DEVO; between “Through Being Cool,” “Beautiful World,” “Love Without Anger,” “Freedom of Choice,” and “Satisfaction,” it simply never occurred to me that “Whip It” was their only Top 40 hit.
And that was despite all the visibly weird shit/themes they presented and played with. I remember watching it, understanding it was different, but, young as I was - their prime years hit when I was 9-11 years old - all of it went over my head. So, let’s fill in some blanks.
Somewhat Briefly
“…here are the five basic components of the Devolutionary Oath:
1. Wear gaudy colors or avoid display
2. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one
3. The littlest may survive & the unfit may live
4. Be like your ancestors or be different
5. We must repeat”
Even if I, like everyone from DEVO, came from Ohio, I had no hope of wrapping my head around that. Then again, they had quite the head start…
The main members of DEVO - Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale - met at Kent State, when Kent State was Kent State, i.e., Casale was present for the university’s most infamous moment, saw his friends die, and lived through the hyper-reactionary backlash. Suffice to say, it changed him:
“Until then I was a hippie. I thought that the world is essentially good. If people were evil, there was justice and that the law mattered. All of those silly naïve things. I saw the depths of the horrors and lies and the evil. In the paper that evening, the Akron Beacon Journal, said that students were running around armed and that officers had been hurt. So deputy sheriffs went out and deputized citizens. They drove around with shotguns and there was martial law for ten days. 7 PM curfew. It was open season the students. We lived in fear.”
Casale, then a senior, had actually met Mothersbaugh shortly before that shit-storm through Kent State’s art school (that they were art-school geeks was the least surprising thing in all this). Casale had noticed flyers pasted around the campus showing an astronaut standing on the moon, holding a potato and figured it was Mothersbaugh. So, he introduced himself and they formed the band from there. The potato turned out to be an anchoring concept for them, though in more recent interviews, they give different spins on the concept. To quote Mothersbaugh (because it seemed like he fleshed out the idea best):
“So we started into this dialogue about potatoes and humans and the hierarchy of vegetables and that potatoes were the lowest in a way because they come from underground and they’re dirty but they’re a staple of everybody’s diet. People ate potatoes every day but they never thought about it. They had eyes all around, so they saw everything going on. Early on, since we were both from working class families, we said, ‘Yeah we’re potatoes.’ We interchanged the word ‘spud’ with ‘comrade.’ We used it pejoratively and also [as] a ‘welcome comrade’ type thing. ‘Hello spud!’”
The first iteration of DEVO started playing in 1973, and they played highly-conceptual, fairly confrontational material. Inspired, at least in part, by early 20th century movements associated with the Dadaists, their shows featured a collection of characters - e.g., Booji Boy and General Boy - and they built out the idea of de-evolution, i.e., the idea that “instead of continuing to evolve, mankind had begun to regress, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society” (of which…holds up). Moreover, the brazenness started from day one (I fucking love this):
“We got booked and we say: ‘Here is one by Foghat.’ And we would just play one of out tunes. It took people about three songs to realize ‘Wait a minute, that is not Foghat.’ And then guys started getting really pissed off and throwing beer bottles. The manager came over and stopped the set. Her said: ‘Listen I don’t want you playing her anymore. Here is 100 bucks, get outta here.’”
That was their first show…so awesome. They started a label in the late 1970s, Booji Boy, and released some singles - “Jocko Homo” (inspired by a comic that sounded like Jack Chick), “Mongoloid” and a cover the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” (the story about Mick Jagger approving it is good) - but, after some time, DEVO got noticed. David Bowie and Iggy Pop were early champions; when prior engagements forced Bowie to drop out of producing their first album, Brian Eno stepped in (good connections, if you can make them). Warner Bros. singed them in 1978 and that’s where the DEVO I know started. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! came out in 1978, Duty Now for the Future dropped in 1979, but their real breakthrough came with 1980’s Freedom of Choice - i.e., the album that featured “Whip It.”
To finally acknowledge the rest of the band, DEVO’s most famous line-up featured Mark Mothersbaugh (guitar, keys, vocals) and his brother Bob (guitar, vocals), Gerry Casale (bass, vocals, bass synth), and Alan Myers (drums). Other members came and went, but that was the prime line-up. They blew up big as you like, playing Saturday Night Livein October 1978 (host, Fred Willard!), then playing the SNL knock-off Fridays twice, first one, second one); they submitted their cover of “Working in a Coal Mine” for the movie Heavy Metal (big deal at the time, honest), only it didn’t make the cut and only saw the light of day on 1981’s New Traditionalists, i.e., the album where debuted a new look of “Utopian Boy Scout uniforms” and “a plastic half-wig modeled on the hairstyle of John F. Kennedy.”
Partially because they actually hit it big when they did - they’d been in the business seven years before the world really noticed - they fizzled out pretty quick. Neither Oh, No! It’s Devo! (1982) nor Shout (1984) did well, the latter more so. Still, both of the members had massive second-careers, e.g., Mothersbaugh writing for Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Rugrats, Wes Anderson’s early movies, plus scores more soundtracks, (literally) hundreds of commercials and music for video games. Casale has kept up/busy as well, and they’ve reformed DEVO with one line-up or another since 1996.
I want to close with three quotes, and mostly because that get at why I feel like I missed at least one boat I should have sailed on with DEVO. In no relevant order:
“Part of coming out to Hollywood for Devo was feeling like, after seeing what happened at Kent State and watching the rebellion get put down, we were asking, ‘Who does change things?’ And it was Madison Avenue. They were getting people to eat shit food, drive shit cars, wear shit clothes, and be happy. We thought we would use their techniques.”
- Mark Mothersbaugh
“Some once said, derisively, that we were a ‘thinking man’s KISS.’ I thought if only that were true. If only we were that big and got our message across that well. If we had that many fans and we were the thinking man’s KISS, that would have been perfect to me. That would have not been a put down.”
- Jerry Casale
Finally, and most relevant to today and what I felt like I missed:
“Devolution happened. We don’t need to talk about anymore. It was an artsy joke and turned out to be true. Now we live in devolved world. Things we were talking about came and passed. We are in it now. We are fish in the water.”
Ended on an up…
Sources
Wikipedia on DEVO
Stereogum interview with Mark Mothersbaugh
Vermont Review interview with Jerry Casale
Sampler
Because I couldn’t stop getting engrossed, I went a touch nuts on this one. The sampler came in at 25 songs. To flag the ones I haven’t already linked to above…by album….
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!: “Uncontrollable Urge,” “Too Much Paranoias,” “Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy),” and “Come Back Jonee.” These are mostly guitar-based, fairly jittery, and pleasantly-disturbing. Great, great stuff.
Duty No for the Future: “Clockout,” “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize,” “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA,” and, the Johnny Rivers cover they used to trick people into liking them, a la, the bit with Foghat, “Secret Agent Man.” Still, pretty guitar-driven, but the synth/tech sound gets going here.
Freedom of Choice: “Don’t You Know,” “That’s Pep!,” and, two classic, “Girl U Want” and (personal favorite) “Gates of Steel.” Synths come forward, but the edge/bit is very much still there.
New Traditionalists: “Pity You,” “Race of Doom,” and “The Super Thing.” All in on synth/super concept.
Oh, No! It’s Devo!: “Explosions” and “That’s Good,” but I really should have included “Peek-a-Boo,” because, if memory serves, that was the lead single.
Finally, I pulled some songs from Turn-Around: B-Sides & More, most of which I could have pulled from other DEVO albums, but…eh. Those are: “Penetration in the Centrefold,” “Snowball,” and, the song I start the sampler with, by way of setting the tone, “Nu-tra Speaks (New Traditionalist Man).”
For what it’s worth, I’ve never listened to DEVO this broadly or closely in my life. I regret nothing…that said, I didn’t get to Smooth Noodle Maps (1990), which was bad enough between the album and the supporting tour to break up the band, apparently. Something about seeing Spinal Tap, and seeing themselves in it…
Partially because they actually hit it big when they did - they’d been in the business seven years before the world really noticed - they fizzled out pretty quick. Neither Oh, No! It’s Devo! (1982) nor Shout (1984) did well, the latter more so. Still, both of the members had massive second-careers, e.g., Mothersbaugh writing for Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Rugrats, Wes Anderson’s early movies, plus scores more soundtracks, (literally) hundreds of commercials and music for video games. Casale has kept up/busy as well, and they’ve reformed DEVO with one line-up or another since 1996.
I want to close with three quotes, and mostly because that get at why I feel like I missed at least one boat I should have sailed on with DEVO. In no relevant order:
“Part of coming out to Hollywood for Devo was feeling like, after seeing what happened at Kent State and watching the rebellion get put down, we were asking, ‘Who does change things?’ And it was Madison Avenue. They were getting people to eat shit food, drive shit cars, wear shit clothes, and be happy. We thought we would use their techniques.”
- Mark Mothersbaugh
“Some once said, derisively, that we were a ‘thinking man’s KISS.’ I thought if only that were true. If only we were that big and got our message across that well. If we had that many fans and we were the thinking man’s KISS, that would have been perfect to me. That would have not been a put down.”
- Jerry Casale
Finally, and most relevant to today and what I felt like I missed:
“Devolution happened. We don’t need to talk about anymore. It was an artsy joke and turned out to be true. Now we live in devolved world. Things we were talking about came and passed. We are in it now. We are fish in the water.”
Ended on an up…
Sources
Wikipedia on DEVO
Stereogum interview with Mark Mothersbaugh
Vermont Review interview with Jerry Casale
Sampler
Because I couldn’t stop getting engrossed, I went a touch nuts on this one. The sampler came in at 25 songs. To flag the ones I haven’t already linked to above…by album….
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!: “Uncontrollable Urge,” “Too Much Paranoias,” “Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy),” and “Come Back Jonee.” These are mostly guitar-based, fairly jittery, and pleasantly-disturbing. Great, great stuff.
Duty No for the Future: “Clockout,” “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize,” “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA,” and, the Johnny Rivers cover they used to trick people into liking them, a la, the bit with Foghat, “Secret Agent Man.” Still, pretty guitar-driven, but the synth/tech sound gets going here.
Freedom of Choice: “Don’t You Know,” “That’s Pep!,” and, two classic, “Girl U Want” and (personal favorite) “Gates of Steel.” Synths come forward, but the edge/bit is very much still there.
New Traditionalists: “Pity You,” “Race of Doom,” and “The Super Thing.” All in on synth/super concept.
Oh, No! It’s Devo!: “Explosions” and “That’s Good,” but I really should have included “Peek-a-Boo,” because, if memory serves, that was the lead single.
Finally, I pulled some songs from Turn-Around: B-Sides & More, most of which I could have pulled from other DEVO albums, but…eh. Those are: “Penetration in the Centrefold,” “Snowball,” and, the song I start the sampler with, by way of setting the tone, “Nu-tra Speaks (New Traditionalist Man).”
For what it’s worth, I’ve never listened to DEVO this broadly or closely in my life. I regret nothing…that said, I didn’t get to Smooth Noodle Maps (1990), which was bad enough between the album and the supporting tour to break up the band, apparently. Something about seeing Spinal Tap, and seeing themselves in it…
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