July 10, 2013
Warner Bros. Records | US promo LP | 1980 | WBMS 115
Devo: The Warner Bros. Music Show US Promo LP [1980]
- Whip It
- Snowball
- It’s Not Right
- Girl U Want
- Planet Earth
- S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain)
- Secret Agent Man
- Blockhead
- Uncontrollable Urge
- Mongoloid
- Be Stiff
- Gates Of Steel
- Smart Parol / Mr. DNA
- Gut Feeling (Slap Your Mommy)
- Come Back Jonee
The “DEVO Live” saga began here at the point of this Warner Bros. promo only album featuring almost an hour of DEVO captured on their then current “Freedom Of Choice” tour. Like any syndicated radio program from the dawn of the 80s, this record is incredibly difficult to come by. I’ve never seen a copy and furthermore, it’s a bit groove crammed with almost an hour of program with scant minutes available for ads and station breaks. There may be as few as 500 copies of this floating around, so spuds could hardly be faulted for not having a copy in their archives.
Warner Bros. Records | US | EP | MINI 3548
DEVO: Live US EP [1981]
- Freedom Of Choice Theme Song
- Whip It
- Girl U Want
- Gates Of Steel
- Be Stiff
- Planet Earth
I remember being a little floored by the appearance of this on the racks by the late spring of 1981. It rendered down the Warner Bros. show into a six cut EP largely programmed from “Freedom Of Choice” with the old rarity “Be Stiff” given its only US airing in this form [at that time]. The “Freedom Of Choice Theme Song” is an instrumental overture that opened their gigs, and was surprisingly absent from the promo LP concert for radio use. The most striking thing about this was its packaging. The record was held in a clear PCV sleeve with a cardboard insert in front with the LP art and liner notes! I had never seen anything like this walk down the pike in the US and at first glance, I mistook this for an import album. Pretty exotic for Warner Bros. but they had a left field band with a surprise hit [“Whip It,” in case you’ve forgotten] so they worked that action like the pros they were [and probably charged the packaging against the band’s royalty rate]!
Warner-Pioneer | JPN | CD | 1991 | WPCP-4172
DEVO: Live JPN CD [1991]
- Freedom Of Choice Theme Song
- Whip It
- Girl U Want
- Gates Of Steel
- Be Stiff
- Planet Earth
The eighties came and went without the program making the leap to digital. Leave it to the band’s Japanese label to make the first move. Warner-Pioneer issued the straight CD in 1991 with no added bells and whistles. Unless you count the traditionally amusing English transliteration of the lyrics included in most Japanese releases. This one didn’t sit on my racks either. I missed seeing this in the eyeball straining ads I was perusing in Goldmine Magazine at the time. Nor did it populate the racks at the various record shows I was attending, but had I seen it, I’m sure I would have snapped it up.
Virgin | UK | CD | 1993 | CDV 2106
DEVO: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO/DEVO Live UK CD [1993]
- Uncontrollable Urge
- Satisfaction
- Praying Hands
- Space Junk
- Mongoloid
- Jocko Homo
- Too Much Paranoias
- Gut Feeling
- (Slap Your Mammy)
- Come Back Jonee
- Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin’)
- Shrivel Up
- Freedom Of Choice Theme Song (Live)
- Whip It (Live)
- Girl U Want (Live)
- Gates Of Steel (Live)
- Be Stiff (Live)
- Planet Earth (Live)
- Social Fools
- Penetration In The Centrefold
- Soo Bawlz
I was at a record show when I did run across this little gem. Thanks to the band’s UK label, Virgin records for putting out six of the groups releases on CD format as two-fers that were packed with bonus tracks besides! Sure, the usual “two albums/one disc” cover art was as graceless at it always was, but these issues were my digital DEVO that finally happened years after US Warner had grudgingly issued only albums number one and three on the mirrored discs. The B-side material from the UK Virgin archives was all new to my Record Cell, though I remember hearing “Soo Bawlz” on the Doctor Demento show, of all places. He had the class to have the band as guests when flogging their second album as I recall.
Rhino Handmade | US | CD | 1999 | RHM2
DEVO: Live US DLX RM [1999]
- Freedom Of Choice Theme Song
- Whip It
- Girl U Want
- Gates Of Steel
- Be Stiff
- Planet Earth
- Bonus Tracks
- Freedom Of Choice Theme Song
- Whip It
- Snowball
- It’s Not Right
- Girl U Want
- Planet Earth
- S.I.B.
- Secret Agent Man
- Blockhead
- Uncontrollable Urge
- Mongoloid
- Be Stiff
- Gates Of Steel
- Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA
- Gut Feeling
- Come Back Jonee
The title remained in this form until in 1999, when Rhino Handmade, a label the specialized in short run, low-demand, long-tail releases gave the world the expanded CD version of this album in an edition of 3000 copies. Perversely enough, the CD began with the commercial EP program of six tracks and continued afterward with the [almost] full concert. Never mind that some songs appeared twice in the program! Most importantly, the original packaging of the US EP was replicated for maximum DEVO mojo! The clear PCV sleeve + cardboard insert lived anew. The Rhino handmade store appears to have gone the way of the dodo, but copies still exist in the world that are still affordable. One of these days, [sooner then later] I need to have one of these in the Record Cell.
– 30 –
I’ve got that CD on bottom – it’s an odd listen unless you start at Track 7!
LikeLike
Critter Jams – Yes, the sequencing on that is a real head scratcher. It may have to do with licensing issues. His labels get charged for access to masters for releases often comes down to what is or isn’t ruled to be a compilation. Rhino might have gotten a better rate as a straight reissue of the 6-track “DEVO Live” with everything else considered “bonus tracks.” Due to the live segues, the decision was probably made to include them twice for reasons of “flow.”
LikeLike
A completist like yourself ought to get the appeal here… you want the original 6-track EP unaltered? You got it. You want the original full rare promo concert LP unaltered? You got it. All the stuff. No compromises. No different from one of your BSOG discs that may have a handful of mixes of the same song on the disc!
LikeLike
I bought that original six track vinyl way back in the day when it first came out, I was living in a small town in northern Wisconsin and it was part of a pop culture landscape that kept me sane living in a city where the main activities were protesting Indian spearfishing and supporting the Posse Commitatus. There are some things about the 1980’s that I don’t miss. I listened to this album and New Traditionalists A LOT while living in that hole.
LikeLike
Tim – I was only stuck in Boreblando… You win!!
LikeLike
DEVO was my first rock concert experience. I saw them twice @ the Orpheum in Boston in 1979 & 1980. They had no opening act. Instead they had something called “videos”, including their first version of “Satisfaction”.
LikeLike
diskojoe – You were a lucky guy! DEVO played my town on the “Freedom Of Choice” tour in 1980, but I was unable to attend. I was too young to drive and no one I knew was going either.
LikeLike