Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

In 1977, David Bowie and Iggy Pop received a tape of Devo demo songs from the wife of Michael Aylward, guitarist in another Akron, Ohio, band, Tin Huey.[8] Both Pop and Bowie, as well as Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, expressed interest in producing Devo's first release.[9] At Devo's New York debut show in 1977, Bowie proclaimed that "this is the band of the future, I'm going to produce them in Tokyo this winter."[9]

The earliest material on the album includes "Come Back Jonee" and "Shrivel-Up" recorded at Different Fur, San Francisco, California in October 1977 with Patrick Gleeson acting as producer, mixed and overdubbed later.[10] Eventually, Eno was chosen to produce the rest of the album at Conny Plank's studio located near Cologne, Germany.[9] The band were flown to Germany in February of 1978.[11] Bowie was busy with filming Just a Gigolo but helped Eno produce the record during weekends.[9][12] Since Devo was without a record deal, Eno paid for the flights and studio cost for the band, confident that the band would be signed to a record contract.[9] In return for his work on the album, Eno asked for a share of any subsequent deals.[13]

Gerald Casale was not present for the first day of recording, as he had missed the flight. With their bassist missing the group spent the first day playing with Eno, Bowie, Holger Czukay and Dieter Moebius.[14]

The recording sessions were a source of frustration for Eno and Devo. Eno found the band unwilling to experiment or deviate from their early demonstrations of recorded songs.[15] Devo later admitted that "we were overtly resistant to Eno's ideas. He made up synth parts and really cool sounds for almost every part of the album, but we used them on three or four songs."[16] A majority of the tracks were later remixed by David Bowie; excluding "Space Junk", and "Shrivel Up", which had Eno's production still intact.

Outtakes from the album include Be Stiff, released as a non album single that same year, Social Fools, released as the B-Side to Come Back Jonee and Penetration In The Centrefold, released as the B-Side to The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprize in 1979.

The phrase "Are we not men?" is from The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), by H. G. Wells.[17] It is part of the litany of the Law,[18] spoken by the Speaker of the Law to the Beast Folk, creatures surgically force-evolved by the mad doctor.

The cover was illustrated by Joe Heiner. According to an essay by Devo co-founder and bass guitarist Gerald Casale included on the Complete Truth About De-evolution DVD, the cover of their debut album is based on an image of the famous professional golfer Juan "Chi-Chi" Rodríguez that they had found on a golf strap. According to Casale, David Berman, Senior Vice President of business affairs at their recording company Warner Bros., decided that the image could not be used because "he was a golf fan and felt we were making fun of Chi Chi." The band offered to contact Rodriguez personally but had time constraints, due to the forthcoming production of their album. The manager of the company's art department, Rick Serini, recommended an artist who could airbrush and alter the face of the picture, while lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh offered a picture he'd procured from a local newspaper that morphed the faces of U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. These ideas were later morphed with the original "Chi Chi" Rodriguez image to create the cover art of the album.[13]

The band did eventually get Rodriguez's permission to use the original photograph. Since the "morphed" album sleeves were already in production by that time, Serini claimed it would cost the band $2,500 to halt production and reinstate the image intended originally by the band, which forced the band to keep the morphed version. According to Casale, "we were able to come out with something that by the corporate interference and misunderstanding of the business side of Warner Bros. Records, actually unwittingly produced something far more Devo than the original [image]."[13] The original cover illustration, with Rodriguez's face intact, turned up on the picture sleeve for the band's third single "Be Stiff".

The European version has a completely different artwork, consisting of two photographs similar to the stills on the American version's inner sleeve (front cover: man with goggles, bow tie, and rubber gloves, back cover: heads with sunglasses under nylon stockings),[19] stills which were taken from the music video for Jocko Homo..

A history of the design of the sleeve is presented in an episode of the podcast '99% Invisible'. Episode 328 – 'Devolutionary Design' contains interviews with members of the band, Chi-Chi Rodriguez and representatives of the record industry from the time.

Devo received offers to release Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! from Warner Bros., Island, Virgin and David Bowie's production company Bewlay Brothers.[9][16] Virgin obtained rights to release the album in the United Kingdom, while Warner Bros. held the rights for North America.[16] The album was originally planned for a Spring 1978 release, but had to be delayed due to legal disputes between Warner and Virgin.[20] It was eventually by Warner released in the United States on August 28, 1978, and in the United Kingdom by Virgin on September 1, 1978.[16][21] Virgin also released a picture disc version of the album,[22] illustrated with a still from the band's 1976 music film The Truth About De-Evolution.

In North America, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! peaked at No. 78 on the Billboard charts, while in the United Kingdom it entered the charts on September 16, 1978, and remained there for seven weeks, peaking at No. 12.[23][24] Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was also successful in Japan.[25] The album went "gold" in the United States on July 27, 2001 (2001-07-27) and "silver" in the United Kingdom on January 15, 1979.[21][26]

The album's opening track, "Uncontrollable Urge", has been used in several films and television shows, including The Wolf of Wall Street, Fun with Dick and Jane, Ridiculousness, and Jackass.[27]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[28]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[29]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10[30]
The Village Voice	B+[31]

Initial critical reaction to Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was somewhat mixed. Tom Carson, writing in Rolling Stone, claimed that "There's not an ounce of feeling anywhere, and the only commitment is to the distancing aesthetic of the put-on", and opined that "Devo lacks most of Eno's warmth and much of Bowie's flair for mechanized melodrama. For all its idiosyncrasies, the music here is utterly impersonal."[32] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice reacted with muted praise, highlighting Devo's "catchy, comical, herky-jerky rock and roll" while concluding: "In small doses it's as good as novelty music ever gets, and there isn't a really bad cut on this album. But it leads nowhere."[31] Nonetheless, it was voted one of the best albums of the year in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1978.[33] In January 1980, Trouser Press also named it one of the best albums of 1978.[34]

Later reception of the album has been more uniformly positive. Steve Huey of the online music database AllMusic termed it "arguably Devo's strongest set of material" and "a seminal touchstone in the development of American new wave."[2] Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! has scored on several "best of" lists, including Spin's list of the "50 Most Essential Punk Records", Pitchfork's list of the 100 best albums of the 1970s and Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[35][36][37] It is also listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

On the European version the second song appears as "Satisfaction (I Can't Get Me No)".[38]

Devo

• Mark Mothersbaugh – lead and background vocals; keyboards; guitar
• Gerald Casale – lead and background vocals; bass guitar; keyboards
• Bob Mothersbaugh – lead guitar; backing vocals
• Bob Casale – rhythm guitar; keyboards; backing vocals
• Alan Myers – drums

Production

• Brian Eno – producer; additional synthesizers on "Space Junk", and "Shrivel Up"; distorted vocals on "Space Junk"
• David Bowie – additional co-production
• Patrick Gleeson – engineer
• Dave Hutchins – engineer

To support the album, Devo undertook a lengthy world tour lasting from October 1978 to June 1979. The look of the tour was largely based around the live act they'd been developing throughout the previous year, with the only differences being the increased budget allowing for higher quality costumes and a basic set, and a focus on the album's material, whilst teasing then unreleased songs for the next album.

The show would open with 2 short films, the band's 1976 The Truth About Devolution film, followed by their 1978 Satisfaction and Come Back Jonee films. When the band arrived on stage they performed two songs that were not on the album supporting the tour. Then Mark Mothersbaugh would get a modified electric guitar, which would only be used for the songs "Satisfaction", and "Too Much Paranoias." As the show would continue, the group's signature yellow suits would be gradually torn, until "Jocko Homo," where Devo would strip down to black shorts and T shirts with knee and shoulder pads. During the intro to "Smart Patrol" the group donned orange helmets, which were shaken off during the next song, "Mr. DNA." The show was ultimately concluded with lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh becoming Booji Boy and singing two songs, "Red Eye" and "The Words Get Stuck In My Throat."[41][42][43][44]

The song "Uncontrollable Urge" has been covered by numerous bands, among them SNFU for the tribute compilation We Are Not Devo.

Indie rock band Claw Hammer covered the album in its entirety on their 1991 release Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are NOT Devo![58]

Rob Dyrdek covered the song "Uncontrollable Urge" as the theme for the MTV Show Ridiculousness.

• Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! at Discogs (list of releases)
• Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! at Rate Your Music
• Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! at MusicBrainz (list of releases)