Working In A Coal Mine

In memory of the death at age 61 of former Devo guitarist Bob Casale, here's the band's highest-charting New Zealand single. It's not the better-known new wave classic Whip It, which only reached number 11 in January 1981 (there's no accounting for taste - the number one single that week was Joe Dolce's Shaddap You Face). Rather, it's Devo's cover of Working In The Coal Mine, an Allen Toussaint track that was a hit for Lee Dorsey in 1966. Devo's version reached number 8 in the New Zealand pop charts in November 1981 just before the general election and stayed in the New Zealand charts for an impressive 21 weeks. Here's a nifty clip featuring impressive set design - not a bad investment for a two-and-a-half minute song.



See also:
Music: Lee Dorsey - Working In The Coal Mine (UK video featuring a young Jools Holland)
Music: XTC - We're All Light, 7 February 2014

Music: Split Enz - Give It A Whirl, 24 January 2014