Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)
DEVO – Mongoloid b/w Jocko Homo (Booji Boy, 1977)
Q: Are we not men? A : We Are Devo!
The title and content of the A-side is quite topical in view of the recent controversy over Ricky Gervais’ casual use of the word ‘mong’ on Twitter. I actually always regarded Mongoloid as the flip-side as Jocko-Homo seemed a lot catchier. The synthetic panic pop in the style of Talking Heads seems deliberately designed as an irritant and, if so, it works a treat.
You can’t hear it without picturing the band with nerdy dance routines, yellow jump suits, silly glasses which made them look like a tacky Ohio version of Kraftwerk.
There is some pseudo sci-fi bullshit behind the whole band concept that doesn’t really merit close investigation.
The single has a novelty value but musically it’s a mess. It ended up in my collection because high profile connections with Neil Young, David Bowie and Brian Eno raised my expectations that this was more than just hype.
“Every man, woman and mutant shall know the truth about Devo” is a line from the promo video and the sad truth is this is a very crap record indeed. “We’re pinheads all!” was an all too apt rallying cry.
