TURN THIS MUTHA OUT! It's the Alternate 1970s Albums Poll on ILX — Results Thread

Oh yes! It's (going to be) Devo.

starting to realize the rest of ILM does not consider early Joe Jackson the crowning achievement of humanity, btw

I put "I'm The Man" 20th in my ballot!!

also FIVE first-place votes for RB well I'll be

I mean it is *awesome* and all

(I maintain that Soft Machine - Third is better, as I've said!)

Really enjoying this reveal as unlike the other polls I've no idea what's going to be posted, though I'd be gobsmacked if Iggy, Roxy and Tusk missed out.

Yeah Alice! Journey was my #3 as well, but depending on my mood it could have been #1 as well.

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned McCartney's Ram! That was one my "boring" picks that I figured would be way up on the list, but it's nowhere to be found.

ilx is pretty anti-mccartney as a whole though

4. Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo (1978) [310 points, 27 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i49.tinypic.com/250l57c.jpg

Haven't done one of these is a while, but I feel truly remiss in not bestowing this honor on an album as magnificent as this. So, joining the ranks of Destroyer, Nothing's Shocking, It'll End in Tears, Group Sex, The Fat of the Land, The Kings of the Wild Frontier, and Mothership Connection, I give you....Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo

Inspired by recently picking up their dizzyingly exhaustive new bio of the same name by Jade Dellinger and David Giffels, I was recently struck by how very few albums make me a unabashedly happy as this positively seminal classic. I do remember seeing them on "Saturday Night Live" and thinking they were just another surreal sketch until a few weeks later I wrapped my ears around this record. They seemed a thousand times more subversive than conventionally 'dangerous' bands like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols and Kiss. There was truly NOTHING like them (before or since).

But beyond their singularly bizarre and unique aesthetic, there were actually hugely satisfying tunes on this debut album. Even if you were put off by the yellow suits and the whole schtick, "Uncontrollable Urge", "Praying Hands", "Gut Feeling" and of course "Mongoloid" and "Jocko Homo" (to say nothing of their notorious cover of "Satisfaction") are just simply great, great songs. Eno's production is sharp and suitably alien sounding, retaining their raw edge, but filtering it through a patina of strangely sythetic sounding elements. And unlike some of their later records (wherein they truly succumbed to de-evolution, quality-wise) this album quite literally ROCKS!

As an extra bonus, I remember my older sister getting actively disquieted by their unflinching weirdness (most evident on "Shrivel Up" and "Too Much Paranoias"...to say nothing of the thoroughly inexplicable faux-Chichi Rodriguez-morphing cover art) and what's not to love about that when you're a perpetually disagreeable twelve year old? The fact that this album acted as a palpable irritant to my family (way more so than Kiss etc.) as well as thoroughly rocking made it a virutally priceless addition to my then fledgling record collection.

It's younger brother, Duty Now for the Future is also positively brilliant in the same wonderfully deranged manner, but after than, the band seemingly acquiesced to the demands of the music industry. The albums were still dazzlingly fresh and unfailingly interesting, but they seemed a bit de-fanged and housebroken after Freedom of Choice, the album that firmly tied the one-hit-wonder albatross that was "Whip It" around their collective neck. They would never again sound so alive and frantic as on Q:Are We Not Men?..

If you can't appreciate this album for the thing of unique brilliance that it is, truly someone has sucked the marrow of life out of your joyless bones. Discuss.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, October 7, 2003 9:40 AM (6 years ago)

I think "Space Junk" deserves its own thread. It's arguably the best song on the album which makes it arguably the best song ever. The main riff is seriously pretty: melodic and taut and simple. The one-note vocal melody is almost stupid, but you don't notice that, you notice how it meshes with the rest of the song, completely unobtrusive but an essential part of the whole, like a grain of sand on an Ohio lake beach. Then the middle part kicks in, the weird part, the part that makes you completely confounded, coalescing with the pretty part, but separate and new. Tex-aaaasssss, Kan-saaasss. Then the Americana guitar, the early rock n roll roots, to remind us where we came from, and how in the world we got to be so odd, and how in the world, indeed, Are We Not Men?

― scott m (mcd), Tuesday, October 7, 2003 3:18 PM (6 years ago)

Devo is a lock for top five, I'm calling it now.

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Friday, January 8, 2010 10:57 PM (Yesterday)

xposts:

happy for x-ray spex! thx ilm. for more enthusiasm, see the poll currently in progress.

i was saying to a friend the other day that every time i go through an x-ray spex phase, i become at least briefly convinced that poly styrene was the punk genius.

woot! My #6 :)

So I'd uh like Devo, right

Hell yes!

i've always wondered if that's supposed to be a golf ball on the cover

How have you never heard Devo?

ciderpress I always thought it was a golf ball

I really really really hope Curtis beats Tusk and Fear Of Music, would be a shame if boring ilm canon takes the top 2 places in an alternate poll.

How have you never heard Devo?

He's Britishes.

The Britishes don't pay attention to Devo?

I've never heard Robert Wyatt tbh

WAIT A SECOND

This top 10 is looking pretty great.

Curtis was my number one but I really think Tusk will come out on top, which would be a huge shame. Fear Of Music is great album but they had their moment in the 80's poll.

HOLD THE PHONE, I JUST HAD A CRITICAL REALIZATION

Devo's profile in the UK is close to zero as far as I can tell. "Whip It" was a minor hit I think but that's it.

The alacrity of your response (7 seconds!!!) has convinced me

...I've seen that video with the clown face and the spinny cube! It's GREAT. No idea how I haven't heard any yet. I know they're a band beloved by C******s.

Pfunkboy otm; the entire top 11 has been awesomeness itself so far, but I don't think Talking Heads or Fleetwood Mac are for me really. This said I have a CD copy of Tusk with me right now and am in a good position to judge! It's not like I'm going anywhere.

EEPHUS OMG rectify this situation

oops big xp

cool to see Alice (even though i put UC higher on my ballot) and Rock Bottom. i'm one of five who put RB at #1 btw, that probably is the last of my influence on this poll.

LJ, Third is also great but not in many ways the same thing as Rock Bottom.

LJ is still the only britisher who hasnt heard devo

Comparing my #1 vote with what someone else said upthread, I know what one of top 3 is, and it will BLOW YOUR SOCKS OFF

SO EXCITED

My boring top 10 pick that I thought would obviously make it and seems now to have gotten the shaft: BOSTON

I really really really hope Curtis beats Tusk and Fear Of Music, would be a shame if boring ilm canon takes the top 2 places in an alternate poll.

Well, I voted for Curtis but not the other two, so that should do it, right?

I like "Nothing Can Stop Us" better as a Robert Wyatt album, tho it came out in the 1980s & I think it is generally less loved.

WHAT A NIGHTMARE IT WOULD BE IF POPULAR MUCH-LOVED ABLUMS WERE TO WIN A POLL OF FAVOURITE ABLUMS

LJ the talking heads album is great, i own it, Tusk is ok, but as i said much earlier it's not in the spirit of an alternate poll if they're in the top 5

I know they're a band beloved by C******s.

whaaat?

feel like the nba draft lottery up in here

Tusk is ok, but as i said much earlier it's not in the spirit of an alternate poll if they're in the top 5

Is Tusk actually canonical? I've never seen it on a Rolling Stone list or anything.

LJ i think you would like fear of music btw

This last run's been fantastic. This really is shaping up into something like an alternative canon. Well done! Thanks to everyone who voted whole hog for the over-the-top, so eccentric it might as well be crazy, sui generis works of genius. I LIKE.

I know Third is nothing like RB! It's way less intimate, way less ornate or 'perfect' but it's wilder, weirder and for me at least more mindblowing. Plus, Moon In June is as exquisite an evocation of the uncertainty of youth that I've heard. And the instrumental blow-out is to die for. However, no problems with RB ranking higher. It's certainly more of a sophisticated construct.

Have *never* got Talking Heads. May have to try.

Devo's profile in the UK is close to zero as far as I can tell.

Naaaaah. That's not true. They're probably not considered as pop over here as in the US, but they're incredibly well-known.

Seriously, everyone start videotaping themselves, making sure your socks and the space 15 in front of them is in the frame, because lots of socks are about to be blown off.

I want to join in the butthurtedness. No Randy Newman on the first poll. And none here? BUTTHURT I TELL YOU

But doesn't the fact that Fear of Music and Tusk didn't crack the original top 100 already make for a kind of non-canon gestalt?

Abbott, you know who! (Clue: I rather like them) Timmy S has always been a big Devo fan. Also, take a random straw poll of 22 year-olds here and see how many of THEM have heard Devo ffs

They're probably not considered as pop over here as in the US, but they're incredibly well-known.

I have literally never met anybody who has so much as mentioned them in passing.

I'm starting to get terrified that my full ordered ballot never reach Johnny Fever (for some reason 2 of the votes kept disappearing off of it, no matter how many times I sent it) and that my #1 won't get the full 40 points.

I've just finished an MA course where most people on it were around 22, and I bet a large proportion of them have heard Devo. I can think of at least 5 of them who definitely had. So ner.

ALSO, they were the big draw at ATP not so long ago.

tbf the only lol indies I talk to nowadays are like 16 year old screamos.

I've heard Devo! Just never a full album! I've liked what I've heard.