Monday, December 22, 2008

Devo E-Z Listening Cassette


If you saw Devo in concert in 1981 (as did I; the very first concert I ever saw) - when you entered the arena, you listened to muzak versions of Devo's hits on the way to your seat.

The recordings proved so popular with fans, they were sometimes stolen from the audio boards at the shows.

To combat this behavior, the band released the Devo E-Z Listening Cassette through it's fan club. Of course I purchased it, and listened to it frequently.

Some of the tracks were quite good; in fact, the "muzak" version of "Girl U Want" was so good, Devo changed the arrangement of the song to the muzak version when the performed it in 1982.

The cassette (and it's 1984 sequel) are written about lovingly in a great blog posting here. You can even download MP3 files of all the original tracks. (The blog, by the way, is quite good. I highly recommend you look around while you're there.)