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ABBADirectors uncredited. Pro.duced by Polar Musiclnternational. Montereycassette. Beta Hi-Fi, VHSstereo. S39.95. 60minutes.Tn" u s.-while never themost discriminatrng of coun-trreg yy6"n tl comes to taste-aclually lelt the brunt of ABBArate: than the rest of the Wesl-ern worid Durrng the Swedrshsupergroup's eight-year reignas a working band, it con-

people. Another shows thequartet suPPosedlY in the studro, with vocalists Agnetna"Anna" Faltskog and Annr-Frrd "Frida" Lyngstad-Fre-drrkson-Andersson crowdedrnto a cramped space wtthkeyboardrst Benny Anoerssonand gurtansl Blorn UlvaeusEach vrgnette ts aboul as con-vrncrng as Lee loccoca dnv-rng a Volkswagenano rl thal's the c.ase . .what's the pornt?

Even given the fact that thisis a 1980 tape, and that some

sound irke a Woody Allen rou-trne-the anony,'nous Sweo'tsh drrectors here swiped tromlngmar Bergman constantly.wrth hall-faces jornrng to be'come a whole face, and ex-treme close-ups of youngwcmen stanng like sisters rntothe otstance. I can hearWoody now. "Swedish rockvrdeo drreclors? HmmmEverythrng's I ngmar Bergmanmetaphysrcai lt s the only wayyou could hope 1o underslandthe deep inner meanrng oi acomplex song hke 'DancrngOueen."'(Another ABBA vioeo program, a 12-song concert. tsavailable on vrdeodrsc fromMCA Home Vrdeo)THE POLICEAROUND THEWORLDDirected by Derek Bur-bidge. IRS Video. Beta Hr-Fi VHS stereo, 77 minutess33.95It Ste*art Copetano. Anoy,Summers and Silng nad asingle hard day s night trornJapan, where thrs rock travei-ogue begrns-through Aus'trai|a, lndra, Egyol GreeceFrance. Brazrl and InallyL.A.-il doesn't show on thjs tapeTrue, the Pohce apparentlyhad to cancel an Australran

grg when Strng developedtnroai problems. bul the con-sequences aren't explored-drd the group reschedule?Were fans who came milesand mrles srmply disap-pornted? Drd the Police losemoney or prestige? Whoknows?

As a result of this unwilling-ness or rnabilrty to explore theconsequences of day-to-dayevents. subsequent scenes ofthe band playing tourist like"reg'ler guys" -snapprng pic-tures. nding mopeds, jockey-rng camels-grow tiresomequrckly The concert footagepopprng up amidst thesepostcards do liile, unfortu-nately, to reheve the tedium.Though decently filmed, theconcerl scenes rarely stir up asense of being rn exotic lo-cales whrcn is supposed tobe part ot thrs program's ap-peal. lt's a brt embarrassrng,too, to see sex-symbol Stingand hrs compatnots travel theworld squeaky-clean withscarcely a mentron ofgroupies. afterconcert partiesor any olher aspect of lourrng,otner than work or srghtsee-rng True, there's a smarmy bitwrth ex-Squeeze keyboardist..lools Hohand and some loud-mouthed bimbo. but, as forthe boys rn blue, iorget it-notwhile they re on duty. Dis-agreements. recreattonal

quered most of Europe morehandily than Napoleon. andthe rest of the Americas likeradio-wave Conq u istadors.Critics rn the States have al-ways had a hard time dealingwith such a phenomenon,complaining on the one handof ABBA's rcy, formulaic,marchrng-band pop, and con-ceding on the other, thal theformula worked, that ABBA'shook'heavy singles werecatchy as hell.A good thing, too, becausethis collection of '14 film andvideo clips, apparentlycreated lor European TV hasiewer yrsua/ hooks than ablank brick wall. Several ofthese lip-synced aflairs aresemi-conceptual piecesportraying the mega group asJUst another drsco band, play-ing to a iew dozen happy

of the clips are variously older-it's unnerving to see thegroup age and grcw youngfrom one clip to the other, andto realize how ragged the fourgot with the strain of stardom-even so, the lack of imagi-nation on display is hard tounderstand. The clip "One OnOne." does, at least, strut anrcely edrted brt. with ani-mated still-photos of the bandin concert, filp-book style. lnthe chp for "Eagle," there's anearly example of vrdeo "chro-makeyrng" - heightening orlessening colors and contrast-levels to produce abstract el-fects. lnterestingly. song titlesaccompany each tune for afew seconds, but since the ti-tles are also listed on lhepackage, this seemssuperfluous.Frnally-and thrs may

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BYFRATKLOr/ECEexploitative promotersjust about everything

aside from some un-about stageand customs in Cairo,glossed over. That re-me-anybody here seers Sprna/ Tap? (slaynext issue)

Exceptional concert footagehave made this glossymore interesting, butdon't even get that.the audio quality of the

is inconsis-Halfway through "WhenWorld is Runnin' Down,"

from con-recording to original re-and you can hear thewith one ear tiedyour back.To be fair, this is old footagefrom a 1980 tour, and

sure the current resourcesthe band, of IRS Video anddirector Burbidgeof the most successful

directors and fastone of the best-be put to better use. Ithe tape is as unde-popular as it is be-

simply, there's no otherPolice video. When

think of the impact thecontinue to have, andvisual flair the grouP dem-

on its current videothis is a mystery worth

ALt DEVOby Gerald V.and Chuck Statler.Devo, LaraineTimothy LearY,Schwartz, RobertMothersbaugh, CraigRothwell. SonY. BetaVHS stereo. 529.95.minutes.ong betore society becameto environmental dis-

in the days of moralover words like

"Three Mile lsland," and"Love Canal" and "Dioxin,"Devo had made a video, envi-sioning the band as good-ol'-boy radiation workers happilylugging waste across a sicklylandscape. "Everything isfucked up, it's all comingdown," the band chanted inthis clip for "A Worried Man."Self-consciously eccentric andmusically limited as Devo maybe, the Akron quintet hit thebreeder-reactor on the head:what was nightmarishscience-fiction has come topass. Pollution is accomplish-ing what all those "silly en'vi ronmentalists" predictedand a power-mad Americanpresident is conducting waron his own, rbgardless ofCongressional viewpoint. Partof the craziness of it all is theway the spud-boy absurdistshave ended up as proPhets.Unbelievable! Devo wasright.Rock purists tend to dismissthe band, of course, becauseprescient vision has nothing todo with dancing, and becauseGene Vincent's "Be Bop aLula" gave teenage empti-ness and desire all that wordsever needed. But Devo hasalways aspired to be morethan a rock band. lt becameclear that Devo-long beforeLaurie Anderson becamefashionable-was best aPPre-ciated not on the strength ofthe band's often unlistenablesingles, but as a multimediaact. Not surprisingly, Devowas a video pioneer-the"Satisfaction" clip here is from1978, and "The Day My BabyGave Me a Surprise" wasmade in '79. Amazingly, theband's vision has remainedconsistent, as this retrospec-tlve videocassette demon-strates.Not all 14 clips here aregems, however. The latest, a1983 promo clip for the filmDr Detroit is directionlesshash, and the high-school

auditorium shenqnigans of'Girl U Want" seem hokey.Sequences featuring the co-medic talents of Schwartz andNewman-as a record-com-pany exec and his Valley Girldau ghter- are overplayed,and the audio quality in thesebits is very poor. I also don'tunderstand the skateboardersin the otherwise excellent"Freedom of Choice" clip, ex-cept that the sport was in vo-gue at the time of production.The 1980 "Whip lt" vicieo,on the other hand, encapsu-lates everything sincere andinnovative about the band. ltlooks like nothing else on TVIt's shot in the deliberatelyamateurish manner of sur-realist filmmakers, i ncorporaling such jarring contradictionsas gorgeous, cross-eyedwomen, with a humordus ma-nipulation of conventional TVimagery, such as cowboysand subtitles.

"Love Without Anger"stands out as well, thanksmostly to an ingenious spatbetween Bqrbie and Ken dollsthat graphically illustrates thesong{itle's irony.A few of these clips haveappeared elsewhere, inWarner Home Video's re-re-leased, 1980 Devo lape, TheMen Who Make the Music; inlnstant Replay's Video Musicedition of its videotape "mag-azine" (or "videozine"), and inthe seldom-glimpsed NeilYoung movie, HumanH ighway. Variously di rectedby Statler or bassist-bandleader Casale, some-times in tandem, the clips area little tacky, and they can be-come tedious, but far more of-ten, they're mesmerizing inthe way they make the ab-surdities, the corruption andthe cruelties of our society soapparent.We're All Devo, indeed.