At my secondary school one day in the late Seventies, our Music teacher Mr Trumble tried something different. He was a nice guy and looking back, must have had the patience of a saint to deal with a bunch of hormonal teenagers who were never likely to take music lessons remotely seriously for a minute. Anyhow, one afternoon he let us bring in Pop singles that we liked and played them, also playing singles of his own from back in the day, Peter & Gordon I seem to remember, Naturally we were dismissive of such outdated fluff. We had The New Wave after all. One of my classmates, Simon Daniels, now in New Zealand ,brought in DEVO's The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise. Mr Trumble didn't think much of it but I did. It sounded good to me then. It still does now. It was a good lesson anyhow. The kind that teachers don't often teach. One of the most memorable from my time at secondary school.
DEVO found it hard to be taken seriously when they first emerged in the late Seventies from their hometown Akron, Ohio. No wonder really. Despite having proper heavyweights in their corner, the likes of Bowie and Eno, (and later Neil Young), they never really stood much of a chance against the massed ranks of music critics who expected something more transparently 'serious'.
Their disdain I think was largely because DEVO appeared with a fully fledged concept that appeared on the surface to be a fad and there's nothing a music critic enjoys swinging a wrecking ball at as an artist trying to get above their station. They were the true intellectuals after all. The judges and juries for all creative and cognitive endeavour. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau, one of the most self-inflated and pompous of this breed derided DEVO as 'Kiss for college kids.' Dave Marsh in a completely withering review of Duty Now For The Future was even more damning 'sort of the Rock equivalent of Kurt Vonnegut, taking off from premises it only half understands.... '
DEVO have stood the test of time better than most of these crabbed and rather embittered slurs. Their basic idea was pretty straightforward and seems to have been borne out by the passing decades. The fact that the human race is devolving rather than evolving as we're commonly encouraged to believe. Erm, Donald Trump?
The formation of DEVO came from a big idea, a big moment in American history the Kent State Shootings of 1970 where future band members Gerald Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh and Bob Lewis were studying at the time. The idea that the armed guard who were there to look after you might turn their guns on you if push came to shove and blow you away. More than enough to make you question the very basis of your own culture and society and want to make a statement about it.
DEVO built their package, uniforms and live performance and presentation organically over the next few years. Then Punk arrived and with it, their moment. Unusually for a band they often had a couple of brothers Casales and Mothersbaugh in their ranks, (three Mothersbaughs at one point), though you couldn't tell them apart anyhow as they consistently presented themselves in mass uniform outfits.
Other writers at the time, (generally younger ones), were more supportive and charitable to their cause than the likes of Christgau and Marsh. Jon Savage and Paul Morley particularly. DEVO were very Punk and openly confrontational onstage but they were also just great fun which naturally led them to being considered disposable and throwaway by many. But they were the kind of thing a fourteen year old kid could readily understand and Rock and Roll is ultimately aimed at ,fourteen year old kids rather than thirty year old music critics, and quite rightly so.
By the time of their second album Duty Now For The Future in 1979 DEVO were quite an established entity particularly in the UK where they'd signed initially to Stiff Records who readily marketed them as a gimmick, a novelty, from where they moved on to Virgin who were scooping up all the New Wave acts they could at the time. Even with corporate backing though DEVO were still not taken 'seriously' in the same way as contemporaries Pere Ubu or Talking Heads, (who also had an ironic slant), were.
None of this seems to matter forty years on. DEVO had the last laugh. Their albums are still not for the most part seen as Rock classics. They still don't always make critics lists. Perhaps the one you need most is debut, Q; Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! That and a Greatest Hits. Duty Now For The Future is a worthy enough consolidation on Are We Not Men? but it's hardly a smooth listen. It's probably not meant to be. It's often a jerky irritant, pure and simple, definitely not the kind of music your parents would want you to listen do or catch you dancing around your bedroom to.
DEVO peaked in the UK at around about this point and then began to make inroads on the American market with third album Freedom of Choice, the advent of MTV and particularly the Whip It video, where they experienced their big commercial breakthrough. They started making inroads into the Mid west heartlands, which frankly must have been deeply gratifyng for them.
In 2021 the DEVO story continues. Although Bob Casale died recently, they are still an active concern. They have been nominated for inaugaration into the Rock and Roll of Fame twice in recent years without success. It's probably about time they were welcomed in.
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