DEVO Corporate Anthem

Instrumental Name: DEVO Corporate Anthem   [ AKA Corporate Anthem]

Artist: DEVO

Appears On: 

• Duty Now For The Future,  Greatest Misses

• DEVO: Live 1980  

Year: 1977

Year Released: 1979 (album version)

Years Performed/Video Projected:  1977-1982,  2006-2008,  2010-2013,*  2024-present

Run Time: 1:14 (album version)

Writing Credits: Mark Mothersbaugh

Sung By: 

• Album version and "early version" is an instrumental.

• The alternate song version was presumably sung by Mark.

Alternate Versions:    Song version, with lyrics.

Demo Versions:  Devo Corporate Anthem (Early version) (1:14)

Song Connections:

• Chango  (The lyrics in the alternate song version of the corporate anthem.)
• Lolla Theme  (video clip)

Trivia / Info:

• Inspired by the film Rollerball (1975)
• Performed live before the video/tour film was made.
• *Since the 1979 video was made, the DCA was often played at a set/costume change during concerts, via tape. or projection.
• Footage from this, and other videos was assembled into the pre-concert film for the Lolla Theme.

• Electronic instruments are used to play the Corporate Anthem, instead of a medieval drum and a buisine.
• This modern feudal music is related to G.V.C.'s repeated statement that we live in a "corporate feudal state"
• In The Men Who Make the Music, DEVO work for the monopoly corporation Big Entertainment.
• The company DEVO, Inc. was founded in 1978

Onstage Behavior:    While DEVO are offstage, the audience watches the corporate anthem video.

Lyrics: 

• The album version is an instrumental.
• Mark said the alternate song version has lyrics, including "I come down the river to kill many people!"
  (See "References" below).

Video:

Tour Film / Music Video

Appears on:  The Men Who Make the Music,  The Complete Truth About De-Evolution

• The Corporate Anthem first appears on The Complete Truth About De-Evolution as the soundtrack during the on-screen title, and to the subsequent General Boy appearance at his desk.

• The video shows DEVO standing in the wind and saluting (presumably as a corporate flag is raised). It was often projected at DEVO performances.

• The black "Noseguard" sunglasses featured in this video would be worn again by Alan (paired with the Yellow Suit) at the end of the Freedom of Choice video.

• Since this video was completed in 1979, DEVO has not performed a live rendition of this instrumental. Instead, the audience views this tour film, or simply hears this audio, during a costume change.

Additional Info:

•  In a certain online forum Jerry wrote that in the Corporate Anthem interstitial tour film, DEVO salute the “Big Media” flag. This indicates that the “DEVO Corporate Anthem” may be for Big Media, and not for DEVO Incorporated.

 (The flag may feature the Big Media logo, resplendent on a coloured field.

 Any DEVO, Inc. pennant, pennon, or flag would be hoisted below Big Media’s waving banner.)

•  The Corporate Anthem is used in “DEVO Communiqué #9”, which begins with shots of the American flag and amber waves of grain.

•  “DEVO Corporate Anthem” has been used in many fan videos

References:

https://peoplesgdarchive.org/item/15218/the-rocket-seattle-wa-aug-1980

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