On February 10th, Hardcore DEVO Live!, the iconic band’s new Blu-ray/DVD/CD/2xLP will be released. The show was recorded live last year at a theater in Oakland while the band was in the midst of their 2014 tour. This time out they weren’t supporting a new album, nor were they strictly playing their most familiar material. Instead, DEVO re-visited the experimental work they recorded between 1974 and 1977.

“Jocko Homo” is one of those formative tunes. Though it was included on their debut LP, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!, a different version appeared as the b-side of their first single in 1977. Later on, “Whip It” was a big hit, and is still their most famous track, but “Jocko Homo” stands as DEVO’s anthem.

Front-man Mark Mothersbaugh:

‘Jocko Homo’ was one of the first songs I wrote for the band. The whole song was meant to be a theme song for the theory of de-evolution and for DEVO, what we were about. It was meant to lay out the story right there. It was a collection of discussions we had where we sat around in Kent after students had been shot, and decided that what we were seeing happening on the planet, when we looked at the news and read the paper, was not evolution but was more appropriately described as de-evolution. (Songfacts)

In our exclusive clip from Hardcore DEVO Live!, the group is seen playing “Jocko Homo” without guitarist Robert Casale, who passed away in February of 2014. “Bob 2,” as he was known, was a founding member, and the tour was a tribute to him. It may be forty years on, but here the band is as animated as ever, especially Mothersbaugh, who—as he has been wont to do during performances of this number over the years—enters the audience for the “Are we not men? We are DEVO!” chant. Stick around until the end for a brief interview with Mothersbaugh on the confrontational history tied to the track.

If you missed it here a few months back, be sure to check out Howie Pyro’s fascinating DEVO post on the genesis of their de-evolution theory, which sprang largely from the discovery of the obscure anti-evolution religious pamphlet, Jocko-Homo Heavenbound.

Most of the tunes that comprise the Hardcore DEVO Live! set can be found on their demos collection, Hardcore, which is totally essential.

One more thing: the phrase “Are we not men?” was borrowed from the creepy horror classic, Island of Lost Souls.

Okay, let’s go!: