Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

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Q: Are We Not Men?
A: We Are Devo!
Q: Are We Not Men?A: We Are Devo! cover
Studio album by Devo
Released July 1978
Genre New Wave
Length 34:24
Label Warner Brothers
Producer(s) Brian Eno,
Chuck Statler
Professional reviews
Devo chronology
Be Stiff EP
(1977)		 Q: Are We Not Men?
A: We Are Devo!
(1978)		 Duty Now for the Future
(1979)


The correct title of this article is Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!. The article title conflicts with an existing namespace.

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! is the first album by New Wave musicians Devo, released in 1978 (see 1978 in music).

The album was produced by Brian Eno, working in Conny Plank's studio in Cologne, Germany. Eno actually paid for the recordings himself, as the band had yet to conclude legal wranglings and sign contracts with Warner Brothers and Virgin Records. The band had come into contact with Eno when they managed to hand a demo tape to David Bowie when he played a show in Cleveland.

Bowie and Iggy Pop became fans of the band and Bowie went to see them perform at Max's Kansas City in New York City after Mark Mothersbaugh stated in an interview that he would like either him or Brian Eno to produce their first record. Bowie announced to the crowd during the interval that he would be producing them that winter in Tokyo. The next day Bowie told them that he would have to postpone producing the album until the following Spring due to filming commitments. That evening the band visited Brian Eno and Robert Fripp at the latter's home, where Eno expressed a wish to produce the band in Berlin, taking care of travel and accommodation for the band, who were without money to stay anywhere at the time.

Eno is on record as describing one of Devo's New York shows in 1979 as "the most exciting live performance I have ever seen". However, the studio sessions did not proceed on such a positive note, with the band seemingly intent on replicating specific effects and arrangements from their demo recordings stretching back to 1974. Eno found this an obstacle to his famously intuitive and spontaneous way of working in the studio, and described the band as "anal". In Eno's 1995 diary, A Year with Swollen Appendices, he claims he has still never been paid by Virgin for producing the sessions.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Uncontrollable Urge" – 3:09
  2. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" – 2:40
  3. "Praying Hands" – 2:47
  4. "Space Junk" – 2:14
  5. "Mongoloid" – 3:44
  6. "Jocko Homo" – 3:40
  7. "Too Much Paranoias" – 1:57
  8. "Gut Feeling" – 4:04
  9. "Slap Your Mammy" – 0:51
  10. "Come Back Jonee" – 3:47
  11. "Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin')" – 2:40
  12. "Shrivel Up" – 3:05

(The track listing is from the 1993 CD re-issue, which splits "Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy" into two separate tracks. This album was originally released on LP and cassette, on which said songs are on a single track, lasting 4:57.)

  • The 1993 UK CD re-issue included the EP DEV-O Live and the additional tracks "Social Fools", "Penetration In The Centrefold" and "Soo Bawlz".

[edit] Album & Song Facts

  • The album title references Erle C. Kenton's 1933 horror film Island of Lost Souls, which was based on H. G. Wells' novel The Island of Dr Moreau. In the 1933 film, a mad scientist performs operations on wild beasts in order to make them more human and able to undertake menial tasks. When the beasts acted in an inappropriate manner the scientist Dr. Moreau would crack his whip and challenge the beasts:
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to eat meat, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to go on all fours, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to spill blood, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men? [1]
Lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh felt as though these half-man, devolved beasts were not unlike his fellow Akron, Ohio residents, and decided to write about it.
  • "Come Back Jonee" alludes to the title character of Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode.
  • "Too Much Paranoias" lyrics incorporate the text from Burger King TV commercials of the 1970s: "Hold the pickles. Hold the lettuce. Special orders don’t upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way."
  • The album's cover features a piece of found art, originally depicting the head of golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez in his trademark Panama hat superimposed over a golf ball. However, Warner Music would not allow use of the found art due to copyright reasons even though the band had cleared it with the golfer already. A heavily modified version of the art, combining the Rodriguez picture with an artist's conception of a combination of the facial features of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford was placed on the cover instead. When the album came out, a confused Rodriguez apparently commented "Hey, this doesn't look like me."

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Production

  • Producers: Brian Eno, Chuck Statler
  • Engineer: Patrick Gleeson, Conrad Plank
  • Design: Erik Munsön
  • Photography: Barbara Watson

[edit] Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1978 Pop Albums 78

Album - (UK)

Year Chart Position
1978 UK Album Chart 12

[edit] External links

Devo discography
Albums: Be Stiff EP | Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo | Duty Now for the Future | Freedom of Choice | DEV-O Live | New Traditionalists | Oh, No! It's Devo | Shout | E-Z Listening Disc | Total Devo | Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace | Smooth Noodle Maps | Devo's Greatest Hits | Devo's Greatest Misses | Hardcore Devo: Volume One | Hardcore Devo: Volume Two | DEVO Live: The Mongoloid Years | Adventures of the Smart Patrol | Pioneers Who Got Scalped | Recombo DNA | The Essentials | Whip It and Other Hits | Devo Live 1980 | Live in Central Park
Side Projects: P'Twaaang!!! | Devo 2.0 | Army Girls Gone Wild | Mine is Not a Holy War
Home Video: The Men Who Make the Music | Human Highway | We're All Devo | The Complete Truth About Devolution | Devo Live | Devo Live In The Land Of The Rising Sun | Devo Live 1980
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