When I brought this blog back I promised I would post at least once during a weekday. I have two hours to turn in something. I've been busy this week but I will push on. Must...make...post...look...to Devo...for inspiration.
"Planet Earth," the last song on Devo's Freedom of Choice isn't the album's best moment. That would be the one-two punch of "Freedom of Choice" and "Gates of Steel." It's still a great song and it fascinates me. It profiles a type of mentality I often find in myself as well as other people who happen to be smarter than most of those around them. It's a real feeling but not one I hear in a lot of popular music.
Brian Posehn may have named his album Nerd Rage but that might as well have been the name of every Devo album. When I first started to go through Devo's catalog I was surprised how much anger there is to the band best known for "Whip It." I knew the name and philosophy of the band came from the idea that man is de-evolving, as evidence by the human fallibility and chaos around us. I didn't know that the band in general, and Mark Mothersbaugh in particular, set their sights so intensely on their contemporaries in Akron and the rest of America, harboring a healthy supply of resentment and ire against them. "Jocko Homo," the band's anthem and my personal favorite Devo song, seems to indict the human race for being "teachers and critics" who still manage to find time to cut loose and dance. Devo doesn't temper their point-of-view with much introspection (Well, almost no introspection but we'll get to that later). They have so much confidence in their cynical outlook that even the thinnest evidence is forceful.
"Jocko Homo" comes from the band's first album Q: Are We Men? A: We are Devo! By the time third album Freedom of Choice came around the jagged experimentation led into this tight synth-pop sound. You could place the album alongside The Human League and Missing Person's work as an example of the best of synthesizer-based new wave. The anger in the band can still be found, though. It's hard not to miss it on the album's closer.
Over one of the most energetic and jerkiest melodies on the album Motherbaugh chronicles his irritations with the dominant species of his home planet. First it's the materialism so prominent in the Reagan '80s. The opening lines seem to be a reaction to a commercial for beauty products (or at least the body image anxieties the fashion industry can instill in women) as well as energetic, Gordon Gecko-like Wall Street fervor: "I heard a girl in a dress/Say her face was a mess/I heard there's no reason why/I heard that now's the time to buy."
I said earlier that Devo's anger isn't tempered by introspection. While I still think that's for the most part true "Planet Earth" captured my attention the first time I heard it becuase of the regret heard in Mothersbaugh voice and lyrics. The chorus says "On planet Earth/I'll probably stay." Mothersbaugh's voice deepens on that second line. He sound depressed that he's trapped with the rest of these man-apes who "Drive around in cars/Get drunk in local bars" (I have been told by people from the Midwest that those two activities make up the bulk of an average evening's fun). Mothersbaugh is so fed up with it that he doesn't yearn to leave his city or his country. He wishes to be away from the entire planet (and probably the whole solar system just to be safe). His desires exceeds mankind's actual achievements in space travel (unless he wants to spend the rest of his days in MIR). But having an imagination greater than those he despise, they who make up the majority, is just the problem.
That yearning in the song is one I've seen in so many people, mostly men, who are a little too clever and a little too opinionated. They fit the profile of a nerd, no doubt about it. Since you can't fly off to another planet the only escape you have is to go deeper into your own mind with more cerebral entertainment than a game of high school football. Devo is band that's there for the kid who savors sci-fi paperbacks, superhero comics and the humor of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. The only other piece of popular culture that expresses this sentiment so well that I can think of are the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels by Douglas Adams. There the Earth and everything on it is destroyed within the first few pages. The only humans left are the meek Arthur Dent and the woman he fancies Tricia McMillan (I haven't even gotten to how sexual desires fit into the subject's psyche). The mostly harmless inhabitants of Earth are done with early on. There are much bigger and better worlds to see. Looking at the above performance clip Devo looks like a band that could have a residency at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
I still find the song somewhat hopeful, although it's not from anything acknowledged within the lyrics. Listening to the song I want to grab Motehrsbaugh by the shoulders, as well as anyone who agrees with him, and tell them that they aren't above the human race in any way. These feelings of alienation they have are just as much a part of the human experience as any of the greediness illustrated. The very idea that someone can think past that and that there is an alternative should offer some relief. There is some greatness to strive for. The last verse offers a grim look at what happens when someone doesn't realize this: "I saw a man on a stage/Scream put me back in my cage/I saw him hang by his tie/I saw enough to make me cry." When Motehrbaugh sings of "a man on a stage" could he be talking of himself and/or his bandmates? Maybe, but with the line about being hung by a tie it's more likely that he's invoking your average office drone. That man probably wanted more than what the humans he saw around him had to offer but had no outlet for it. The millions that Devo have entertained throughout the planet and for over thirty years do have somewhere to go when they want to think of more than just "dream[ing] of being stars." There's a good reason why the band has such a strong following. They have a way of touching the innermost felt feelings of a person without ever sounding emotive. The more they looked outward the more they spoke to feelings many had dared not made public. Permanent Link: 9:59 PM |
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