POX: DeVo

1. "Gates of Steel"
2. "Uncontrollable Urge"
3. "Be Stiff"
4. "Mongoloid"
5. "Jocko Homo"
6. "Shrivel Up"
7. "Freedom of Choice"
8. "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA"
9. "That's Good"
10. "Through Being Cool"

Note: "Whip It" might make it into my Top 25, but definitely not top 10.

1. Uncontrollable Urge
2. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
3. Praying Hands
4. Space Junk
5. Mongoloid
6. Jocko Homo
7. Too Much Paranoias
8. Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy
9. Come Back Jonee
10. Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin')
11. Shrivel Up

Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy
S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain)
Triumph of the Will
Soo-Bawlz
Snowball
The Super Thing
Big Mess
Shout
Gotta Serve Somebody
The Words Get Stuck in My Throat

* Devo Corporate Anthem
* Enough Said
* Mr. B's Ballroom
* Freedom of Choice
* Uncontrollable Urge
* Big Mess
* Race of Doom
* Going Under
* Social Fools
* Clockout

Praying Hands
Mongoloid
Jocko Homo
Clockout
It's Not Right
Snowball
Freedom of Choice
Through Being Cool
Peekaboo!
I Desire

Strange Pursuit is definitely in the 11-20.

5.->6. gut feeling -- slap yr mummy
(similar rock-out momentum buildup to punk trash 'whip-it' angle)

7. snowball
8. shrivel up
9. go monkey go/ mongoloid/ blockhead/ girl u want/ freedom of choice
10. the coalmine & satisfaction covers

or 1, .. is their live set with the jocko home/devo corp anthem/ dna live medleys as bookends (King Biscuit Flower Hour)

11-20

Clockout
Timing X
Girl U Want
Jocko Homo (single version)
Mongoloid
Pity You
Gates of Steel
Through Being Cool
I Saw Jesus
Happy Guy

21-30

Beautiful World
Soft Things
Love Without Anger
Peek-a-Boo!
Theme From Doctor Detroit
Jerkin' Back and Forth (E-Z Listening Disc version)
Stuck in a Loop
Space Girls (Toni Basil w/ the Akronites)
Dare To Be Stupid ("Weird" Al Yankovic)
Panorama (The Cars)

Let's keep these.

I say it’s all wind in sails

just wind in sails

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVgludGcI5I their best song most have never heard before!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHUnBRwkSHM second favorite song most have not heard before!

As someone with only cursory knowledge of Devo, the new Netflix doc is pretty damn good fun. Loved the Bowie, Eno and Lennon anecdotes.

very excited for your new journey

I know the music! I just wasn't familiar with a lot of their origin story and history- Kent University, the Jocko Homo 1930s pamphlet, early performance art, etc.

Watched this last night, very enjoyable, love how sharp they are when being interviewed on all those squarejohn tv shows

yeah well done bio, succinct but also revelatory for anyone but hardcore fans (I didn't quite realize how many years they were doing this in Akron before a record deal, for instance; in my mind it was a year or two but it seems like it was 4-5)

the "Hardcore" period covers 74-77 and "Art Devo" has some recordings from 1973...honestly hearing some of that stuff its crazy they even got a record deal at all. does the doc cover exactly how that happened? I can't imagine hearing that stuff and going, yeah, we can get a hit out of these guys

In the movie they attribute Bowie and Eno's patronage to them getting a record deal(s).

Also they learned that the key to breaking through was to play faster, which crowds liked better and allowed the record company to file them in with the burgeoning "new wave" movement.

Also the singles that the band licensed to Stiff Records had blown up enough in the UK that they earned a cover story from NME, which opened a lot of heretofore closed label doors.

I highly recommend checking out Mark Mothersbaugh's episode of WTF from 2017. He really goes deep on his childhood and Kent State, plus gives a more elaborate explanation of "Whip It" being directed at Jimmy Carter.

The Lennon story was priceless. I can't imagine what it would feel like to have him point his finger in your chest after your first NYC show and yell "Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah! You're that guy!"

That SNL performance was pretty critical to them taking off. I still remember watching that with my young mouth agape. Who were these guys? Were they even human? In hindsight that choreography must have taken a lot of work to pull off.

my parents actually went to school with those guys...Firestone High I think. they were freshmen when the Devo guys were seniors.

Surprised Pere Ubu didn't get a mention in the doc, unless I missed it. Always thought they must have been kindred spirits of Akron to Devo.

I didn't realize they had to personally audition "Satisfaction" for Mick Jagger before they could put it on the debut album. I guess I'm naive enough about the music biz that I've always figured if you want to cover a song, you just do it, and as long as the original writers get credits/royalties/etc. everybody's cool.

I like how Mick’s feedback wasn’t a simple yes or no but to instead dance around the room like a chicken.

Also very timely being released with what’s going on in the USA.

I knew Devo was from Ohio but had no idea they were old enough to have been on the scene at Kent State.

I guess I'm naive enough about the music biz that I've always figured if you want to cover a song, you just do it, and as long as the original writers get credits/royalties/etc. everybody's cool.

― henry s, Monday, August 25, 2025 12:03 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've always wondered about this too. surely not every Stones cover out there has been run by Mick. in Weird Al's Behind the Music he talks about getting permission from the original artists but I thought that was mostly just him trying to be nice.

It might have been just fishing for an endorsement that would look good in a press release: "Mick Approved!"

xxp Casale at least was old enough to have been a grad student at Kent State at the time of the shootings.