Mark Mothersbaugh (b. 1950) - Devo

Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (b. May 18, 1950) is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games.

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Devo is an American band formed in Akron, Ohio in 1973. The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single Whip It, and has maintained a cult following throughout its existence. Their style over time has shifted between punk, art rock, post-punk, and New Wave. Their music and stage show mingle kitsch science fiction themes, deadpan surrealist humor, and mordantly satirical social commentary. Their often discordant pop songs feature unusual synthetic instrumentation and time signatures that have proven influential on subsequent popular music, particularly New Wave, industrial and alternative rock artists. Devo was also a pioneer of the music video, creating many memorable clips for the Laser Disc format, with "Whip It" getting heavy airplay in the early days of MTV.

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Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! is the debut album by the American new wave band Devo. Produced by Brian Eno, it was primarily recorded in Cologne, Germany and released in the U.S. on Warner Bros. Records in 1978.

The album received somewhat mixed reviews from critics and peaked at number 12 on the U.K. album charts and number 78 on the U.S. Billboard charts. Recent reviews of the album have been more uniformly positive, with the album charting on several retrospective "best of" lists from publications including Rolling Stone, Pitchfork Media and Spin.

On May 6, 2009 Devo performed the album live in its entirety for the first time as part of the Don't Look Back concert series curated by All Tomorrow's Parties. On September 16th, 2009, Warner Brothers and Devo announced a re-release of Q: Are We Not Men? and Freedom of Choice, with a tour performing both albums.

There was some initial jockeying for the job of producing Devo's first album. In 1977, David Bowie and Iggy Pop received a tape of Devo demos from the wife of Michael Aylward, guitarist in another Akron band, Tin Huey.

Both Iggy and Bowie, as well as Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, expressed interest in producing Devo's first release.

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."

Eventually, Eno was chosen to produce the album at Konrad Plank's studio located near Cologne, Germany.

Bowie was busy with filming on Just a Gigolo but helped Eno produce the record on weekends.

Two tracks, "Come Back Jonee" and "Shrivel-Up", were recorded at Different Fur in San Francisco. All tracks were mixed at Conny's Studio. 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.

In return for his work on the album, Eno asked for a share of any subsequent deals.

The recording sessions were a source of frustration for Eno and Devo. Eno found the group unwilling to experiment or deviate from their early demos of recorded songs.

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."

Devo received offers to release Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! from Warner Bros. Records, Island Records, Virgin Records and David Bowie's production company Bewlay Brothers.

Virgin obtained rights to release the album in the United Kingdom, while Warner Bros. held the rights for North America.

The album was released in the United States in August 1978 and in the United Kingdom on September 1, 1978.

Virgin also released a picture disc version of the album, illustrated with a still from the band's 1974 music film The Truth About De-Evolution.

Initial critical reaction to Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was somewhat mixed. Tom Carson, writing Rolling Stone, claimed that "There's not an ounce of feeling anywhere, and the only commitment is to the distancing aesthetic of the puton", 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."

Critic Robert Christgau gave the album a positive rating of a B+, but noted, "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."

Nonetheless, it was voted one of the best albums of the year in the Village Voice's highly influential Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1978.

In January 1980, Trouser Press also named it one of the best albums of 1978.

Later reception of the album has been more uniformly positive. Steve Huey of the online music database Allmusic gave the album four and a half stars calling it "arguably Devo's strongest set of material, though several brilliant peaks can overshadow the remainder", and "a seminal touchstone in the development of American new wave."



Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! has been placed on several "best of" lists, including Spin's 50 Most Essential Punk Records and Pitchfork Media's top 100 albums of 1970's

Side One

No. Title Length



1. "Uncontrollable Urge" (Mark Mothersbaugh) 3:09



2. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) 2:40
3. "Praying Hands" (Gerald V. Casale, M. Mothersbaugh) 2:47
4. "Space Junk" (G.V. Casale, B. Mothersbaugh) 2:14



5. "Mongoloid" (G.V. Casale) 3:44
6. "Jocko Homo" (M. Mothersbaugh) 3:40

Side Two

No. Title Length
1. "Too Much Paranoias" (M. Mothersbaugh) 1:57
2. "Gut Feeling" / "(Slap Your Mammy)" (M. Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh)/(G.V. Casale) 4:54
3. "Come Back Jonee" (G.V. Casale, M. Mothersbaugh) 3:47
4. "Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin')" (M. Mothersbaugh, B. Mothersbaugh, G.V. Casale, Gary Jackett) 2:40
5. "Shrivel Up" (G.V. Casale, M. Mothersbaugh, B. Mothersbaugh) 3:05

[8951 Bunnell / 8950 Mothersbaugh / 8950 Wonder]

Stevie Wonder (b. 1950)

Stevland Hardaway Judkins (b. May 13, 1950), name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris, known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and activist.

Blind from shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records' Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown.

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Living for the City is a 1973 hit single by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label, from his Innervisions album. Reaching #8 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and #1 on the R&B chart, the record is driven by a slow bass synth groove (provided by the enormous TONTO modular synthesiser) that manages to exude a certain amount of tension, an appropriate soundscape for the angry social commentary of the song.

Some of Wonder's best known works include singles such as Superstition, Sir Duke, I Wish, and I Just Called to Say I Love You. Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions, and Songs in the Key of Life.

He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits.

Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States.

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Sir Duke is a song composed and performed by Stevie Wonder, from his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. Released as a single in 1977, the track topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Black Singles charts, and reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart, his biggest hit there at the time.

The song was written in tribute to Duke Ellington, the influential jazz legend who had died in 1974. The lyrics also refer to Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.

The artists, apart from Stevie Wonder, who perform on the original version were: Raymond Pounds (drums), Nathan Watts (bass), Mike Sembello (lead guitar), Ben Bridges (rhythm guitar), Hank Redd (alto saxophone), Trevor Laurence (tenor saxophone), Raymond Maldonado (trumpet), and Steve Madaio (trumpet).

Wonder re-recorded the song for the 1995 live album Natural Wonder.



[8950 Mothersbaugh / 8950 Wonder / 8948 Paice]

Peter Frampton (b. 1950)

Peter Kenneth Frampton (b. April 22, 1950) is an English-American musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies in the United States alone and spawned several hits. Since then he has released several major albums.

He has also worked with David Bowie and both Matt Cameron and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, among others. Frampton is best known for such hits as Show Me the Way; Baby, I Love Your Way; Do You Feel Like We Do; and I'm in Yo -- which to this day, remain staples on classic-rock radio. He has also appeared as himself in television shows such as The Simpsons, The Colbert Report, and Family Guy.

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Show Me the Way is a song written by Peter Frampton, which was originally released on his 1975 album Frampton and as a single, but gained its highest popularity as a song from his 1976 live album Frampton Comes Alive!. The song reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his biggest hit until I'm in You in 1977.

The song was one of Frampton's earliest to feature the talk box effect, which would become one of his signature sounds.



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I'm in You is the fifth studio album by Peter Frampton, released in 1977. Frampton returned from touring in 1976 to record this album. Stevie Wonder is also featured.

Under pressure to deliver a studio follow up to one of the biggest selling albums of the decade, Frampton faced a virtually impossible task. He came up with the album I'm in You, recording it at Electric Lady Studios in New York, where Frampton's Camel had been recorded four years earlier, with Frampton demanding bodyguards to protect him from overzealous fans who were going to disrupt the recordings, made even more difficult by the fact that in the two years since he'd cut any new material, he had evolved musically away from some of the sounds on Frampton Comes Alive!

Seven million albums later, he had become a solid lightweight rocker who had set sales records and who would soon find himself welcoming Stevie Wonder, Richie Hayward, Ringo Starr, and Mick Jagger into the studio for his follow-up album.

The result was mostly a surprisingly laid-back album steeped in lyricism and craftsmanship, particularly in its use of multiple overdubs even on the harder rocking numbers.

I'm in You rose to the #2 slot on the Billboard album charts, whose keyboard driven, dominated by the sound of the opening bars Baldwin Piano, ARP String Synthesizer-generated string section, Moog synthesizer, rather than a Guitar, and eventually involves a Gibson Les Paul, and Acoustic Guitar, played by Frampton, it was clear that Frampton was exploring new sides of his music. The title track became his most successful single yet, and the album and same-titled single reached platinum and #2, respectively.

The song Rocky's Hot Club was a novelty song written about Frampton's dog Rocky, who lay across his lap as he wrote the song. On the track Frampton actually plays harmonica, and guitar.

Frank Zappa ridiculed the title track of this album in the song I Have Been in You and in the monologue Is That Guy Kidding or What?

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I'm in You is the hit title song released by Peter Frampton as a single from his album I'm in You released in 1977. It rose to #2 on the US singles chart, becoming his most successful single.

I'm in You was written by Peter Frampton after returning to New York from touring to record his live album Frampton Comes Alive! in 1976.

The song is about Frampton being recently separated from his first wife, the model Mary Lovett.
The song was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Frampton demanded that bodyguards keep overzealous fans from disturbing his recording sessions.
This title song is mostly a keyboard driven number, featuring background vocals from Mick Jagger, with the sound of a Baldwin Piano, Moog Synthesizer, ARP String Synthesizer, Gibson Les Paul, Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, Percussion, and Vocals.

Frank Zappa ridiculed this track in the song I Have Been in You on his album Sheik Yerbouti and in the monologue Is That Guy Kidding or What? on Baby Snakes.

[8950 Wonder / 8950 Frampton / 8948 Paice]

Peter Gabriel (b. 1950

Peter Brian Gabriel (b. February 13, 1950) is an English singer, musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis.

After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music.

Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

[8950 Frampton / 8950 Gabriel / 8949 Livgren]