Welcome to the DEVO Album-By-Album Thread. In celebration of the release of their first all-new studio album in two decades, I thought it would be a good idea to have a single thread dedicated to discussing their past releases. There has been discussion and debate on a few separate threads lately, regarding which Devo albums were best, and at what points they lost the plot. This thread will give everyone the chance to spout off on your favorite (and least favorite) ones. And we begin with.... Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! Released August 28, 1978 Recorded October 1977-February 1978 Produced by Brian Eno Side one 1. Uncontrollable Urge (Mark Mothersbaugh) 3:09 2. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) 2:40 3. Praying Hands (Gerald V. Casale, M. Mothersbaugh) 2:47 4. Space Junk (G.V. Casale, B. Mothersbaugh) 2:14 5. Mongoloid (G.V. Casale) 3:44 6. Jocko Homo (M. Mothersbaugh) 3:40 Side two 1. Too Much Paranoias (M. Mothersbaugh) 1:57 2. Gut Feeling / Slap Your Mammy (M. Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh)/(G.V. Casale) 4:54 3. Come Back Jonee (G.V. Casale, M. Mothersbaugh) 3:47 4. Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin') (M. Mothersbaugh, B. Mothersbaugh, G.V. Casale, Gary Jackett) 2:40 5. Shrivel Up (G.V. Casale, M. Mothersbaugh, B. Mothersbaugh) 3:05 "Thirty years ago, people said that we were cynical, that we had a bad attitude. But now, when you ask people if de-evolution is real, they understand that there was something to what we were saying. It’s not the kind of thing you want to see proven right, but it does make it easier to talk about." -Mark Mothersbaugh Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! is the first full length album by Devo, and in my opinion, it's far and away their best. Thirty-two years later, the core songs are still the meat of their live show, and with good reason. They're great songs. This is truly Devo's manifesto, and an album that stands on its own. If Devo had broken up at the end of 1978, I think we'd still be talking about it. With Brian Eno in the producer's seat, they made a very tight-sounding record. In "Uncontrollable Urge", we get an all-time classic album opener -- one of my favorite starts to any album. And the songs which had been previously released on Booji Boy singles, such as "Jocko Homo", "Mongoloid", and "Satisfaction" are all improved upon, IMO. These are the definitive versions. I think I heard Devo's version of "Satisfaction" before I ever heard the Stones' original. I first heard Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! in late 1978, when I was 5 years old, and I have been a Devo fan ever since. There's obviously a silliness about these guys that would appeal to a kid that age, even if the subject matter of the songs goes way over his head. I found it pretty amusing when I hit my teens and suddenly realized what Devo was singing about in a lot of their songs. I was lucky enough to have had a close relative who was in college when Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was released, so I got to hear a lot of stuff like this when I was very young and impressionable. It's though to say how much of the love and respect I have today for this album is based on the quality of the music, and how much of it is sentimentality -- all I know is, after all this time, it doesn't disappoint. I've owned many copies of this album over the years, on vinyl, cassette and CD. The current expanded CD remaster on Rhino is very good -- louder than the WB, but a decent remaster nonetheless -- definitely better than the lifeless 1993 UK 2-fer. The bonus tracks are a complete 2009 live performance of the Are We Not Men? album. While the performance is excellent, I consider it a lost opportunity to include the Booji Boy singles. I'd have bought the 2009 performance as a separate release and I would have been pleased with it. The new Rhino yellow vinyl issue sounds great, and looks extremely cool -- but the original US vinyl sounds just as good, which isn't hard to come by. On a ten-point scale, I give this album a 10, easily.
Also, feel free to discuss the early Booji Boy singles -- "Mongoloid", "Satisfaction", "Be Stiff"....but keep in mind that the Hardcore Devo releases of early material will be discussed later on.
Picked this up when it first came out without really knowing too much about them, but I was on an "I'll buy anything with Eno's name on it" tear at the time. Was rather amazed at how popular it became so quickly - as much as I loved it I wouldn't have imagined it would have been the breakout hit it quickly became. They finished recording it in February but it didn't come out until August? Man, that's a long time to have to wait.
I was twelve in 1978. I was befuddled when I saw DEVO on Saturday Night Live. At the time I was listening to what my older brothers and sisters were listening to. Lots of solo McCartney, Beatles, plenty of 70s prog-rock like Yes, Genesis, Kansas. I didn't know what to think. A few years later I got in a high school band with some friends who turned me on to DEVO and Gary Numan. This album started to make sense to me. I still love it. The "Be Stiff" import 12" from the UK is great also, even if it has much lower production value. I've owned Q/A on the original warner LP, original Warner CD, and the current remasterd CD and LP. The current yellow vinyl re-press LP is very good.
Ah! Probably should have included a nod to that release as well. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Jocko Homo Be Stiff Mongoloid Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Getting) Social Fools
This album finally just clicked for me a scant few weeks ago after the remaster. I love it. I became a Devo fan briefly at the time of Duty Now for The Future, but then their music became so over saturated on the "Rock of the 80s" radio station I listened to that I grew tired of them. This is a great album though and even though I had it on vinyl in the 90s I never really listened to it all the way through (loving a few songs off of it.) Since I have gotten the remaster I have been enjoying some of the lesser known but still brilliant tracks, like "Praying Hands" and "Shrivel Up". I remember (and this is only a few weeks ago) the first time I really paid attention to "Too Much Paranoia" and realized what an amazing thing that is (somehow I do hesitate to call it "song").
The inclusion of the "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce" motto is brilliant. The fact that it's delivered with such authority and without smugness is what makes it so great. He really means it. Mark Mothersbaugh could sell me the Brooklyn Bridge if he delivered the pitch like that.
That is exactly the part where it clicked for me. I have never heard such banality delivered with "in your face" extreme force as this anywhere else.
I haven't compared the cover of the remaster to the past releases. However, the front and back covers to the album are identical (with the exception of the Q/A) -- and I believe the image is reversed on the back, isn't it? I'm at work so I don't have any copies around. Come to think of it, the image I included in the first post looks a little off....is that the remaster cover?? Coincidentally, the image on the cover is an altered illustration of golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez as it appeared on a golf ball package. They changed his face around to avoid potential litigation, as they didn't bother to clear the rights to the image. The original Chi Chi appears on the "Be Stiff" 45 picture sleeve.
Actually, what happened was the head of Warner Bros. didn't want the Chi Chi cover because he felt they were insulting golfers. (Seriously.) Chi Chi actually signed off on it, but by the time he did, they'd already made a replacement cover. It's based on a morphed image of four presidents' heads.
I used to have this on lp - the "marble" vinyl pressing - used to listen to it late at night on headphones - surreal to say the least, and still a killer record in 2010. For reasons beyond I cannot fathom I no longer have the lp. @$#%#$%. I have seen this band many times over the years and they remain as one of my favorites. Professional, hard working, sincere, DEVO.
I pretty much love the first five Devo albums pretty equally, and there have been times where I've felt that all five of them will never be topped, in terms of what resonates with me artistically, sonically and aesthetically. Some folks absolutely swear by this early guitar-oriented incarnation of the band, but it isn't my favorite sound of the band by a long shot. In fact, I find it odd that they were basically trying to sound like a warped surf band on Q&A. I have also often wondered whose idea it was to significantly up the tempos on these songs. If you listen to the early demo versions (and even some of the early live versions), the songs are much, much slower. I also have to say that I feel "Uncontrollable Urge" doesn't live up to its full potential on record. I much prefer the live versions. I still give the album full marks, though, because it's a pretty consistently solid listen and it has some of their strongest "manifesto" songs. Plus the brilliant "Satisfaction" cover is the best cover they ever did, for my money, and one of the best covers ever done by anyone. I remember when I heard "Jocko Homo" for the first time. I'd grown up with "Freedom of Choice" and "New Traditionalists" and didn't hear "Jocko" until "Greatest Hits" came out in 1990. I was just about to enter high school and had never heard anything quite like that. I'd heard a bit of the song in Weird Al's "Polkas on 45" and thus was not expecting the original's bizarre 7/8 time signature. "Gut Feeling" is my second favorite Devo song ever. "Praying Hands" is another big favorite. The weak spot for me here is "Come Back Jonee." I have never warmed up to the sort of "amphetamine-fuelled spaghetti western" sound of that song. It just seems to stick out like a sore thumb for me. I also have to be in the mood for "Space Junk." BTW, the boys can be seen performing "Shrivel Up" (as Dove, the Band of Love) in the long-forgotten '80s movie "Pray TV."
That's a good question. I would assume it was Eno's doing. They were still playing many of the songs much slower right through 1977. Whoever it was that made the call, it was the right one to make. On the next LP, "Secret Agent Man" would also get a tempo boost. The early versions of that are really slow and sluggish. Ken Scott produced Duty Now For The Future -- does he still post here? I'm sure he could give some interesting insight....
It's all a matter of perspective. This is how they sounded when I first heard them, so it's what makes sense to me. If your first exposure was Freedom Of Choice, then that's the definitive "Devo sound" to you -- but even as a young kid, I could tell that by that time, their sound had changed since the first one. I'm basically a rock fan at heart, and not so much a fan of synth bands, so I don't really see the changes in their sound as a positive thing. But we'll get to that!
The first time I read about Devo was in one of Hit Parader's "Random Notes". They were visited backstage by David Bowie and that little fact gave them a good deal of promotion. That was before they had even recorded their debut album. Later I found "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" in a bargain bin at a local store and decided to give it a try. I must admit my first impression wasn't very good. What was that, "nerd rock"? It took a few years, but the Devo sound eventually grew on me. Today I have their classic albums on British twofers. I have a nephew who used to be crazy about them.
There are early live gigs prior to the recording of Q&A where the tempos are already accelerated. The gigs on "The Mongoloid Years" all feature faster tempos. One interesting thing about the Eno production: I've long felt that the synths and trademark Devo weirdness were really watered down on Q&A, and for a long time I thought that must have been due to Eno's presence. (I hadn't heard Bowie's "Low" yet!) But I read an interview with Mark recently where he said that the band decided not to use many of Eno's contributions, and that they only popped up in one or two songs. He added that he occasionally has the desire to let Eno remix the entire album, just to see how he'd do it. I actually prefer that early demo version. I think something really got lost when they recorded the studio version. He doesn't post here any more, but he did contribute a few thoughts on the album's recording back when he was a regular here. I think there's an entire thread about the album. No, that's not it at all. I would not call FOC the "definitive Devo sound." (That's like saying "Tubeway Army" was Gary Numan's "definitive sound," even though it's not representative of his overall catalog in the slightest.) As I said in another thread, I think Q&A was kind of a fluke in their catalog. If you listen to the early demo recordings and live gigs, they are more akin to albums like "Duty Now for the Future." Knowing that, it's kind of funny that you decided to start this thread, since the majority of their catalog is synthpop!
Love it- saw them on SNL when I was young and thought "WTF?" but I liked it--I think Eno worked wonders with it...they never really recaptured the punk urgency of this LP again for me (which is cool because they were interested in making a different type of music that was actually far more original and arguably more influential). My brother picked it up and I listened to it endlessly--never own the actual LP until I found a blue vinyl UK import a year or two later...
Eno said in an interview in MOJO about his outside production work that he felt this was one of the most unsatisfying projects he was involved with because DEVO already had a clear vision of what they wanted the album to sound like, rather than Eno's in-the-moment approach. They had brought tapes and demos and instructed him to recreate certain tones already established. I loved them from the start. I got the humor, the satire, their idea that we as a species are turning (devolving) back into monkeys on a social and intellectual basis; all of it! And I was a hard core "rock" guy at the time. I was suspicious of "New wave". This album cured me of that. You CAN like differing genres after all! Almost every song on this LP is memorable, clever and hooky. I especially like Gut Feeling with it's mutated repeating Classic Rock-Like Guitar Chord sequence, then melting into Slap Your Mammy.
My favorite Devo album. I love the guitars, though I also love the mix of synths and guitars on Freedomofchoice. I picked up the UK import lp when I was a kid (the cover is grainy video stills) and it's been my go-to copy for the last 25 years or so. This is the perfect coalescence of the music and their ideas, IMO. My band used to play "Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy." Quite fun to play.
Ken Scott (sadly) appears to be gone from the forum. It's a shame 'cause I would have loved to have heard his recollections on the recording of "Swelling Itching Brain"! The 2nd album is truly my favorite Devo album - especially the introduction of the term "Spud Boys". But I shall wait until discussions of the first album are over before I go into "Duty Now For The Future". I was lucky enough to be hanging with a group of guys who were 19 and 20 years old back in 1977-78 - so as a 13-14 year old - I got turned onto many things a little earlier than most of my contemporaries. My elder buddies had all of the Booji Boy releases - as well as the Stiff & Virgin imports - so I had a great introduction to the band. When I heard they were going to be on SNL I was so psyched 'cause I knew it was going to be much talked about in school on Monday morning! I've only seen the group once back in 1980, but I've always had (and always will) a soft spot for these Spud Boys from O-HI-O!
Yeah, I know....I'm not anti synth-pop in the least, but I do have a preference for guitar-based rock. It's those first three albums that I really love -- but as they were among the first bands I ever got into as a kid, I continued to follow them through the years, even if their direction didn't always meet my expectations. There's not a Devo album that doesn't have something I really enjoy, even the real synthesized ones. What Devo fan wouldn't love "That's Good" or "Shout"?
Yeah, I agree that DNFTF is more representative of their early sound. I think we should probably jump into that album within the next day or so -- I'm interested to read people's overall thoughts. Maybe we can dig up that old thread you mentioned. Maybe my "definitive sound" comment came off wrong. I think I meant more of what we each expected them to sound like, based on what we already knew. If your knowledge of Devo's music started with 1980, then going backward to 1978 must have seemed a little jarring. To those who heard Q/A first, there was a natural progression....and I think depending on your taste, that can be a good thing or a bad thing. If there's a "definitive Devo sound", it might be the sound of Oh, No!....ever hear Weird Al Yankovic's "Dare To Be Stupid"? That's a paint-by-numbers Devo parody, and it's definitely got the sound of "Time Out For Fun" and "Peek-A-Boo"!
Yeah. Having led a few of these album-by-album threads, I can say that it seems best to keep each album's discussion to just a few days. Otherwise the discussion runs out of steam. I'm wondering where some folks are, though. For instance, I know soundQman would probably be interested in this thread. Well, that's definitely true. As I said earlier, hearing "Jocko Homo" for the first time was a shocker for me...but in a good way. OTOH, I think that's one of the band's greatest strengths: no two Devo albums sound the same. I've got a funny story about that, but maybe I should save it for the "Oh, No!" discussion.
