Nerd’s Eye View: Devo

By Ben “Mouse” McShane

Nerd’s Eye View is a monthly featured column on Web in Front, one that operates from the vantage of–you guessed it–the music nerd. Filling this role is Ben McShane, who maintains the L.A.-based (and compulsively readable) blog, Classical Geek Theatre (you can also follow him on Twitter). Each month, “Mouse” will investigate a different band or artist, their music and their history with his unique blend alacrity, humor and “one guy’s eyes’ perspective.” This month’s featured artist is Devo, who will be playing a two-night stint at the Henry Fonda Theatre tonight and Wednesday–tickets here.

• Everyone remembers the music video for “Whip It,” but Devo was pioneering the combination of video and music since their debut performance in 1973. In 1974 they filmed The Truth About De-Evolution, which won First Prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1977. It can be found on Devo: The Complete Truth About De-Evolution,  a must-have for music video geeks.

•    The pamphlet that inspired the Devo track “Jocko Homo”:

•    Former member Bob Lewis successfully sued Devo in the 70’s for theft of intellectual property. In truth, Mothersbaugh seems to have latched onto the devolution concept rather than have a hand in its invention.

•    Devo’s cover of The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” was released as a single twelve-years after The ‘Stones unleashed the original. Without taking credit away from The ‘Stones for writing one of the greatest rock n’ roll songs of all time, Devo should get credit for making it even more important.

One might assume Devo’s “mutation” of the classic track was pure mockery, but I think not. Their cover single-handedly links post-punk with rock n’ roll; when Mothersbaugh sings “but he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke the same cigarettes as me” he’s also implicitly stating that he and Jagger do “smoke the same cigarettes” and that the frustration Jagger expressed in the song is universal.

Another way to look at it: “Satisfaction” was controversial when The Rolling Stones released it in 1965. By the time Devo released their version, the ‘Stones’ relevance had been fading fast. Devo essentially made the song controversial all over again by mutating it from the cutting edge of the mid-60’s to the cutting-edge of the late 70’s.

•    Following the release of that single and Q: Are We Not Men A: We Are Devo!, the band would release Duty Now for the Future, which was mostly comprised of material from the same period. Freedom of Choice is Devo’s third full-length but it’s the first full-length of “new” material. Without coincidence it is also the first Devo record which can be comfortably labeled as “new wave,” not “post-punk”.

•    A lot of Devo “fans” only appreciate the band’s post-punk beginnings; to them the electronic albums are an abomination and “Whip It” was the point where Devo sold-out and jumped the shark. Maybe. But “Whip It” really is a perfect pop song.  And Mark Mothersbaugh has made a living with perfectly formulated music. Even his experiments are perfect equations.

•    Booji Boy, the Devo stage character that satirizes what is worst about fearful American culture, predicts the end of the world in the Neil Young film Human Highway.

•    Human Highway was released in June of 1982 and also features a performance of “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” where Booji Boy sings with Devo while Neil Young plays guitar.

Young would record his electronic album, Trans, about three months after the film’s release.

•    Booji Boy also has his own song (“Words Get Stuck in My Throat”) performed live on the essential rarities two-disc set, Recombo DNA. Buy that now.

•    Smooth Noodle Maps is a criminally under-rated album. It’s hard to tell if the record is a sincere attempt (and success) at symmetry-perfect new wave or a searing send-up of the genre Devo helped pioneer. Either way, it ages much better than the other later entries into the Devo catalog.

By the time Smooth Noodle Maps came out, Daydream Nation was nearly two years old and Dave Grohl had just joined Nirvana. Released in 1990, one might call Smooth Noodle Maps the great, dying gasp of new wave music; “Et tu, Brutus?”

•    Devo side-projects include Dove (“The Band of Love,” really Devo performing as a faux Christian soft-rock band that opened for Devo on tour), Visiting Kids (Mark Mothersbaugh, his then-wife, Bob Mothersbaugh, and his daughter), Jihad Jerry and the Evil-Doers (Gerald Casale), The Wipeouters (an allegedly reunited, pre-Devo surfrock band), and Devo 2.0, a Disney-financed rerecording of Devo songs (recorded by the band) featuring child actors singing lyrics edited to be more family friendly and non-subversive. Now that is devolution.

•    Most hipsters know that Mark Mothersbaugh scores most of Wes Anderson’s films. (His Royal Tenenbaums score being the best) But he’s also defined the sound of several generations of childhood. Mothersbaugh’s greatest hits in scoring include the Rugrats theme, Beakman’s World, and some work on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

•    Not to suggest Devo isn’t self-aware, but it is hard to ignore that the aging, overweight white guys who still dressing-up in silly costumes and sing subversive anthems for a lot of money are starting to represent the very culture they once subverted. I think they know that and don’t care, but it does taint the band’s earlier work.

Top 15 Devo Songs (originals only, no mutated covers)

1.    Whip It (Freedom of Choice)

2.    Gates of Steel (Freedom of Choice)

3.    Uncontrollable Urge (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!)

4.    Girl U Want (Freedom of Choice)

5.    Jocko Homo (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!)

6.    Come Back Jonee (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!)

7.    Beautiful World (New Traditionalists)

8.    Smart Patrol / Mr. DNA (Duty Now For The Future)

9.    Through Being Cool (New Traditionalists)

10.    Freedom of Choice (Freedom of Choice)

11.    Spin That Wheel (Smooth Noodle Maps)

12.    Shout (Shout)

13.    Pity You (New Traditionalists)

14.    Devo Has Feelings Too (Smooth Noodle Maps)

15.    It Takes a Worried Man (Pioneers Who Got Scalped)

November 3, 2009 | Filed Under Exclusive Features, Music News, Nerd's Eye View 

Comments

3 Responses to “Nerd’s Eye View: Devo”

  1. Dustin on November 3rd, 2009 2:43 pm

    Great article. BTW, “It Takes a Worried Man” IS a mutated cover. It’s a traditional American folksong, recorded many times before Devo. It’s also one of my favorite Devo songs though.

  2. Pete on April 23rd, 2010 7:14 am

    Nice post.

    “It Takes A Worried Man” is actually a cover of Carter Family recording from 1930 with slightly adapted lyrics. The song was originally called “Worried Man Blues,” and was an adaptation of a traditional folk song. Before Devo got a hold of it, the song was also adapted by Woodie Guthrie, The Kingston Trio, Ralph Stanley, George Jones, and many, many others under a few different titles including “It Takes A Worried Man.”

    Devo is really just extending the tradition of adapting the traditional folk song with their arrangement of this song.

  3. Pete on April 23rd, 2010 7:17 am

    Oh, I noticed Dustin’s comment above just as I hit “submit.” Looks like he beat me to it by nearly 6 months.




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