Devo's Freedom of Choice

by Evie Nagy, Fred Armisen

Overview

Finally, after all that waiting, The Future arrived in 1980. Ohio art-rockers Devo had plainly prepared with their 1979 second LP Duty Now for the Future, and now it was go time. Propelled by the new decade's high-tech, free-market, pre-AIDS promise, 1980's Freedom of Choice would rocket what Devo co-founder Gerald Casale calls his "alternate universe, hermetically sealed, alien band" both into the arms of the Earthlings and back to their home planet in one scenic trip.

Before an artistic and commercial decline that resulted in a 20-year gap between Devo's last two studio records, Freedom of Choice made them curious, insurgent superstars, vindicated but ultimately betrayed by the birth of MTV. Their only platinum album represented the best of their unreplicable code: dead-serious tricksters, embracing conformity in order to destroy it with bullet-proof pop sensibility. Through first-hand accounts from the band and musical analysis set against an examination of new wave's emergence, the first-ever authorized book about Devo (with a foreword by Portlandia's Fred Armisen) explores the group's peak of success, when their hermetic seal cracked open to let in mainstream attention, a legion of new Devotees, and plenty of misunderstandings. "Freedom of Choice was the end of Devo innocence–it turbaned out to be the high point before the s***storm of a total cultural move to the right, the advent of AIDS, and the press starting to figure Devo out and think they had our number," says Casale. "It's where everything changes."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623563448
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/21/2015
Series:	33 1/3 Series
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	296,811
Product dimensions:	4.70(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Evie Nagy is an arts and business jourbanalist who has been a staff editor and writer at Rolling Stone, Billboard and Fast Company. She lives in Oakland, CA.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Fred Armisen

Introduction

1. Girl U Want
Look at you with your mouth waterin', look at you with your mind spinnin'. Why don't we just admit it's all over?

2. It's Not Right
I sit around in a trance all day and think about you all the time.

3. Whip It
Go forward, move ahead, try to detect it, it's not too late.

4. Snowball
Like a snowball grows, until it gets too big. Until she lost control. And it rolled back down.

5. Ton O' Love
Take your turban, now make your move. Crush that doubt with a ton o' love.

6. Freedom of Choice
Freedom of choice is what you got, freedom from choice is what you want.

7. Gates of Steel
Half a goon and half a God, a man's not made of steel.

8. Cold War
I owe you absolutely nothing.

9. Don't You Know
I got a rocket in my pocket, but I don't know what to do.

10. That's Pep!
Vigor, vim, vitality and punch.

11. Mr. B's Ballroom
Yellin', laughin' tryin' hard to act smart, we put 'em under pressure and you watch them fall apart.

12. Planet Earth
Planet Earth, it's a place to live your life.

Acknowledgments

Notes

Editorial Reviews

Evie Nagy's 33 1/3 book on Devo's Freedom of Choice is fantastic, nerdy, swift and meticulous, and the book you have been waiting for if you even like Devo a little bit.” —Jessica Hopper, Senior Editor, Pitchfork

“Nagy’s little book helps us stay in a special moment in new-wave rock history.” —Ed Komara, Association for Recorded Sound Collections Jourbanal

“Evie Nagy's book on Freedom of Choice is a solid look back at the point where everything changed for Devo. As 33 1/3 books go, this is one of the more straightforward ones, built on research and interviews with a lot of the key players, looking at the album's creation and its place in Devo's career, It's a good read, and Nagy gets Devo's mix of nerdishness, humour, and serious political intent … Nagy does a solid job bringing together new quotes from Devo members, others involved with the album, other people from Devo's circle over the years, and other musicians as well as bits from contemporary articles to tell a story that's well worth reading for anyone interested alternative music or 1980s pop culture.” —TheFifteenth

“Get straight! Go forward! There's no Hazmat jacket required to whip through Freedom of Choice, which motors through Devo's rich history with all the relentless precision and curveball flourishes of their greatest works, and-best of all-vividly renders the very human souls behind the automaton anthems that devolutionized an era.” —Sean Howe, author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“Excerpted” —Fast Company

“Nagy's look at Devo offers some great anecdotes for the spuds out there. There are coked-out stories about the band in the studio and on the road, as well as a look at how the oddball aesthetic of Devo left its fingerprints on nerd culture over the last few decades, maybe even initiating the whole geek chic thing.” —Hubert Vigilla, Ruby Hornet

“Nagy has conducted interviews with the remaining Devo members, has quoted extensively from interviews and has told in detail the history of the album including the elaborate studio sessions with producer Robert Margouleff ... This is compulsory reading for fans.” – HHV-Mag

“Spuds will love the nostalgia and the insiders' information in Devo's Freedom of Choice … Non-spuds who think of Devo as a one-hit wonder will be surprised to read of Devo's impact and musical influence. Spuds and non-spuds alike will want to dust off their old LPs or cassettes, or pull up some songs on YouTube, and relive the early days of Devo, a great band ahead of its time.” -Reading Glutton

From the Publisher

Nagy's look at Devo offers some great anecdotes for the spuds out there. There are coked-out stories about the band in the studio and on the road, as well as a look at how the oddball aesthetic of Devo left its fingerprints on nerd culture over the last few decades, maybe even initiating the whole geek chic thing.

Ruby Hornet - Hubert Vigilla

Excerpted

Fast Company

Get straight! Go forward! There's no Hazmat jacket required to whip through Freedom of Choice, which motors through Devo's rich history with all the relentless precision and curveball flourishes of their greatest works, and-best of all-vividly renders the very human souls behind the automaton anthems that devolutionized an era.

Sean Howe

Evie Nagy's book on Freedom of Choice is a solid look back at the point where everything changed for Devo. As 33 1/3 books go, this is one of the more straightforward ones, built on research and interviews with a lot of the key players, looking at the album's creation and its place in Devo's career, It's a good read, and Nagy gets Devo's mix of nerdishness, humour, and serious political intent … Nagy does a solid job bringing together new quotes from Devo members, others involved with the album, other people from Devo's circle over the years, and other musicians as well as bits from contemporary articles to tell a story that's well worth reading for anyone interested alternative music or 1980s pop culture.

TheFifteenth

Evie Nagy's 33 1/3 book on Devo's Freedom of Choice is fantastic, nerdy, swift and meticulous, and the book you have been waiting for if you even like Devo a little bit.

Jessica Hopper