Devo -- Jocko Homo

 

Ahhh, yes....the early days of music video! It was definitely the wild n' woolly n' wonderful West out there in terms of imagination for musicians and directors alike as they played with this brave new world of MTV and Much Music (here in Canada) like a kindergartner with Silly Putty. In those days, there were some really weird videos out there. In fact, there were enough of them that here in Toronto, one of the local video shows decided to present the eccentric stuff on late Friday nights on "City Limits". As long as I was allowed to stay up on Fridays, I could catch the earlier David Bowie songs, Nina Hagen, and The Residents.

I'm fairly certain that the music video for Devo's "Jocko Homo" would also make for a fine citizen on "City Limits". Strangely enough, up until a week ago, I'd thought that this song by the famous Akron, Ohio band was "Are We Not Men?" all these decades. I learned something! Anyways, welcome to another ROY article.

The thing is, though, that the March 1977 single "Jocko Homo" wasn't the first time that I had ever heard of Devo. It was actually the video for "Whip It" via a K-Tel record commercial that first exposed me to the craziness that was the Mothersbaugh brothers' collective. As time went by into the 1980s, I learned some more about the band and the whole thing about devolution, including the video which when I first viewed it scared the heck out of me due to its overall bizarre grainy nature, Booji Boy, and the band members wearing panty hose on their heads. Now, when I see Booji Boy scampering around the factory and Mark Mothersbaugh dancing and prancing around, I get all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings for the ancient music video days and nights. And indeed, I think that this was the song and video combination that sent Devo on its merry way into fame and fortune.

Now, which singles were released in Japan in March 1977? Well, the first two were actually released far earlier but Showa Pops has them listed in the list for that month, so I'm assuming that they were re-releases.

Hideo Murata - Sugata Sanshiro （姿三四郎）

Hibari Misora -- Kage wo Shitaite（影を慕いて）

Hiromi Iwasaki -- Omoide no Ki no Shita de （思い出の樹の下で）

The reason that I brought Devo into ROY tonight was because of that POLYSICS song which I profiled last week.