“It’s all my fault”: How Iggy Pop gave Devo their start in music
By all laws of the music industry, a band like Devo should never have been given a record label. In contrast to the prevailing pop and new wave groups of the time, Devo were not malleable; behind the band was a staunch musical manifesto and unwavering concept. The resulting sounds were unlike anything that the musical mainstream had ever heard before, and very few bands have managed to recapture the trailblazing spirit of the Ohio group in the decades since their formation. So, how did the band escape the regressive clutches of the industry?
Devo’s formation preceded the advent of punk rock, a period in which the old ideas of acceptability were thrown out of the window in favour of creativity and originality. This movement certainly impacted the attitude of Devo, but the group had little in common with punk in a musical sense. Opting for synthesisers and energy domes rather than barre chords and safety pins, the Ohio band were essential in developing the punk spirit into the musically diverse landscape of new wave.
Still, neither punk nor this strange electronic style that Devo were purporting regularly featured in the singles charts, so how did Mark Mothersbaugh and company get their breakthrough? The answer lies with another punk icon, Iggy Pop. The former Stooges frontman was instrumental in the development of punk and alternative music, and, as a result, he always kept his ear to the ground for up-and-coming young groups.
During the mid-1970s, Pop was often defined by his relationship with legendary songwriter David Bowie. Together, the pair inspired each other to create some of their best material, forming an incredibly strong bond in the process. It was this infallible partnership that led Pop to uncover the weird and wonderful world of Devo, too.
At the time, as Pop recalls, “A lot of people were throwing their cassettes in the general direction of David Bowie” in the hopes of being ‘discovered’ by the songwriter; a young band could go a long way on a recommendation from Bowie. “A bigger and bigger pile of tapes were kept in a suitcase,” Pop recently recalled on his Iggy Confidential radio show. “I was delegated to – ‘Why don’t you go through this stuff, Jim, and see if anything is good?’”
In that suitcase, like a diamond in the rough, was a cassette tape by a young band from Ohio. “Among them was Devo,” Pop remembered, “And, wow, it was really, really good. So, I alerted the production team of Bowie and Eno, and, uh, it’s all my fault.” This fateful discovery of Devo’s demo tape led Bowie, Pop, and their good friend Brian Eno to become strong advocates for the emerging young group. In fact, it was their recommendation which secured Devo’s first major record deal with Warner Bros.
On top of that, Eno wound up producing the band’s stunning debut album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo, which launched them on a path to mainstream success. Although the group never tried to appeal to mainstream audiences, opting instead to be the voice of America’s geeky outcasts, the support of Eno, Bowie, and Pop was enough to bring their music to much wider audiences. This could certainly be seen in their sophomore effort, which produced the top 20 single ‘Whip It’.
Eno and company might not have stayed on board the good ship Devo forever, with Robert Margouleff producing their second record, but their role in the history of the band cannot be overstated. If Pop had never been bothered to listen to that suitcase of cassettes, or Bowie never cared enough to keep all the demos he was sent, then the world might never have known the distinctive sounds of Devo.
