DEVO - "Uncontrollable Urge (Live)", "Going Under", "Peek A Bo

Devo will forever be one of my all-time favorite bands. But, for reasons more significant than their innovative and infectious music alone. In fact, Devo was the foundation of my grad school thesis based upon the notion of pop culture subversion. Like the Beatles (who were obviously far more successful at rallying the zeitgeist of a naive youth culture to make massive changes), Devo dramatically impacted and changed our culture en-mass by knowing the only way to deliver a message that's truly meaningful is to express it ways that are utterly  beyond meaning. That is, Devo's lyricists Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale managed to write songs that sounded as lyrically pedestrian as all other contemporary pop

music, but which spoke a message far more surreptitious and revolutionary. That's a tough task, to pass the LCD bean-counters of the major labels (in the pre-Nirvana early-80s mind you.) Nonetheless, Devo had at least one hit album. Unfortunately, very few listeners were actually thinking and interpreting in the way that the band had hoped. Cynical songs like "Freedom of Choice" being about our own psychosocial deception and "Whip It" being about our sado-masochistic need to control and be controlled were taken as literal anthems. Regardless, a band of nerds from Akron, OH taking their name in celebratory/mockery of a bizarre pseudo-science book written by a presumed Nazi-in-hiding German ex-pat broke into the Top 10. That's impressive by any stretch of the imagination.

But, perhaps what I also admire about Devo was that the band has never quite acquired "hip" status amongst the indie-rock elite (i.e. those who've essentially inherited their neo-hippie luddite, anti-corporate, trust-funded and outmoded values from dear old dad, not dada.) Devo were true overmen -- they joined and even embraced the system that they despised and subsequently transcended it by outwitting the shills who ran the business. All that without ever needing to play the tired role of angry rebels.

I'll shut up for now and let these songs speak for themselves. But, suffice to say, I think each song has a radically significant message that speaks beyond simplistic "left or right" political values, or whatever other anarcho-radical adolescent fantasies might be floating out there in the ether that you might require from music. Don't ask what the songs are about. You might get what they were thinking, or you might think something on your own, either way, the point is made. Devo only supplies the color for the palette. The painting is yours to create.

This version of "Uncontrollable Urge" is a live recording from May 1977 at Max's Kansas City in NYC that's much faster and more energized than the album version. "Going Under" (click here for lyrics) is a sinister song about various types of seduction from their 1981 New Traditionalists album. "Peek A Boo" is from their 1982 album Oh No! It's Devo.

(Download - "Uncontrollable Urge" live)

(Download - "Going Under")

(Download - "Peek-A-Boo!")

Comments

[Ray Cooter]

THANKS FOR THE DEVO DAVEY HAVOK

[jeff]

devos music videos were the shit too.

[erik]

I don't know, all their songs the same to me. Maybe they are just too smart for me, DEVO=overratted.

[Lil Mike SF]

Eric's comment is a typical example of a de-evolved fundamentalist evil spud yammering on the loose. Needless to say, you either "get it" and all their groundbreaking post Kent State corporate concepts or you don't. Why fall prey to the smart patrols...

DEVO... way more than a band, and way too much for far more than one consumer to handle... ask Bob Dobbs

[todly]

my roommate during my freshman year of college stayed in the closet the entire time we shared a room, even though i knew from a friend of a friend that he was gay. im not a homophobe in any way, but it made me uncomfortable that he didnt feel like he could be open with me about it. i mean, shit... imagine sharing a common living space with someone for 9 months, knowing something like that (at one point i even asked him about it, to which he lied to me, possibly for the sake of awkwardness) but not having any way of communicating about it. this is where DEVO comes in. every night when i would come home drunk (ie pretty often), i would go to my stereo and throw on "whip it", knowing that in my own ridiculous way i was subversively urging roomie's queerness to be thrown out there, keeping in mind the applied meaning to the song in this particular context. every now and then i would say "c'mon buddy, just whip it." man he hated that song. but wouldnt you know, three months later he comes out. coincidence? i think not. and he is a much happier man for it, im sure. all hail the amazing subversive effects of de-evolution.

[Panzram Futurechild]

Wow, Todly, you make Queer Fear sound so... sexy! "Subversively" bullying your roomie into outing himself to you for no particular reason whatsoever, as though you were entitled to evaluate said person's private life! "Whip It" indeed!
However, Todly, you like many of the other "let's dress up in retro-80s Devo suits" levellers are not practicing anything remotely "subversive." More like being typical assholes who want to "be OK" with everyone who is not like you by classifying and codifying them in one wacky we-accept-but-don't condone-your-weirdness rite. No, that's not what Devo was about. But, yes, if that's what it is to you... Devo was so dead-on, it's sickening to think it.

[Ray Cooter]

whoa dudes harsh vibes... smoke a doobie brother

[todly]

sarcasm can inspire such hateful rants... read between the lines big guy, and you might even smile, or are you too busy waging pointless internet warfare?

[Panzram Futurechild]

OK, "big guy." Last time I checked, sarcasm involved the use of an ironic remark -- the expression of one's meaning by using the words of opposite meaning. So, apparently, you were making fun of... what? Homosexuals? Devo? College Students? The author of the post? Because, apparently, you seem to be "sarcastically" patting someone on the back for his/her self-congratulatory denigration of what they don't understand. And, frankly, your poorly worded statement doesn't express sarcasm whatsoever without a final twist to clarify your point. A critical element of comedy is that the audience will understand that a punchline is at hand.
...Todly?

[anonymous]

My ass smells like poop.

[Dick]

I have this fucked up feeling that Panzram Futurechild is really David Spade in disguise.

[p]

Fuck that Shit!!

Devo hates homos!

[burndownradio]

homos, poop, & weed...thats sounds like SanFran to me...guess its the only way to roll in that hood.

[todly]

explaining my post to you is about as pointless as the braille instructions on a drive-up atm. im sick of interacting with people who are too fucking liberal (or conservative) for their own good - they always think theyre right, and they cant take a god damn joke. in hindsight, i admit my post was ambiguous, but such are the perils of communicating online. do you actually think that my roommate would have applied any meaning to that song other than it was the annoying song i liked to play when i was drunk? i was just trying to get a laugh out of him (he was kind of an uptight guy). im attempting to show that for as great a band devo was, certain people will never understand their concepts because they dont listen to music with the same kind of examination that the fucking nerds on the buddyhead blog do. i would like to point out that i would have to be the most self-important, ignorant fuckhead in the world to think that me playing a fucking devo song would have even the most minor factor in my roommates decision to come out. end of discussion. man, i gotta stop posting on this thing, i feel like a huge dork.

[Ray Cooter]

you said poop...

[andrew]

Devo and the Goodyear blimp, my hometown's only claims to fame and I'm okay with that. Actually the scene around Kent State was pretty decent like ten years ago- check out Harriet the Spy and Party of Helicopters.

[Freddie]

andrew, Akron also shit out Maynard from Tool, Chrissie Hynde, Joe Walsh, The Black Key and The Bizarros.