Wisdom in Unlikely Places (We are Devo)

Whenever anyone asks me my top favorite bands there's always a curious omission. I usually leave out Devo. Maybe it's really not that curious at all. Devo is essentially an anti-band. They sang anti-lyrics. They had an anti-drummer. On their debut on SNL that to this day I still probably haven't recovered from when I saw it in real time, when Bob 1 (or Bob 2...I forget) did his guitar solo and flopped down and spun around on the stage I'm pretty sure he spun anticlockwise. Just the fact that they looked like they were TRYING not to get laid alone gives them eternal musical bonus points. They were so fucking dorky on purpose that for about two seconds I actually thought it was a spoof thing, until they hit those first few robotic notes. Speaking of, besides Kraftwerk, Devo was one of the few robot bands I liked enough to go out and buy. Actually I wouldn't call them a robot band at all. They rock. First impressions.
 One thing they undeniably were was batshit-bizarre, at least for the day. If you don't believe me I'll put a link to their version of "Satisfaction" by the Stones, from that same debut show way back in 1978. Supposedly one of the Stones laughed so hard he pissed himself. No not really, but almost. Back then you had to actually ask an artist's permission personally if you wanted to cover a song for profit (it's true), and the story goes that the Stones were still laughing when they gave the official okay. Who knows though...that could be an anti-story, but that's what we heard anyway.
 Well, I digress big time. Sadly the title song to their first S/T album, which they played before Satisfaction, doesn't seem to be on Youtube, but Satisfaction is. If you happen to check it out but aren't familiar with Devo, don't be too quick to judge. There's real music there. I totally get that it's not everyone's cup of tea but it's not just weirdness without talent. Second (and main) drummer Alan Meyers, who in true Devo fashion quit after a decade and became an electrician, was the most interesting drummer I've ever heard, and to be honest the only drummer to ever make me sad about not having "what he had." I'm not sure he was from this planet (RIP, Alan).
 Their version of Satisfaction couldn't have existed without the drum beat. It starts the song and it's so distinctive that even ordinary listeners who know nothing about drums or rhythm, can sense that something is "wrong" with the beat, even though precision-wise you could set your watch to it. To try to describe what makes it so utterly different and brilliant to a non-drummer would be tough, but it's stiff, syncopated, ass-backwards, brutally simple, and I guarantee as a drummer that some of the best technical drummers alive would have a very hard time with this beat. There are two notes per beat which is about as economically as a drummer can play. The bass drum plays on the offbeats, sort of like traditional Reggae beats but different, which makes the whole tune sound backward. For those keeping score it's a "linear" beat, which means that no two notes are played simultaneously, such as with normal beats where the hi-hat is played at the same time as the snare and bass drum. It was the first recorded example of this, at least on a Pop record, and it showed a whole generation of amused drummers a different way of thinking and playing. Guys write books about it now. Alan started all that. He was brilliant. I've never heard another drummer like him. He rocked...sort of.
 I digress more but I have to say that to me in the late-70s and 80s they changed music as much as the Beatles did, or anyone else. Lots of jaws besides mine dropped on that night way back in good ol' 1978. Before people could catch a breath trying to process what they'd just witnessed with their debut tune they launched immediately into Satisfaction, which until then was absolutely the most twisted cover version of a famous song most of the general public had ever heard. Today it'd seem quite normal, if not charming, but back then they were about as out as a band could be and still be legit Pop musicians.
 Aside from being able to stay perfectly on pitch in the days before Autotune, they sang so differently from other "Pop" bands that it was a bit surreal. I couldn't understand every single word they sang on that live show but I got the gist of it, and next day when I ran out and bought the record on sniffy vinyl, I could read the lyrics I missed.

They tell us that we lost our tails
Evolving up from little snails
I say it's all just wind in sails

 The whole point of this unintended Devo pep rally was to mention those lyrics. To be fair these three lines don't tell the whole story of the song, which brilliantly broke down the "forth wall" (kinda) and both introduced the band and explained their "philosophy" in one go on their very first song. Their name is short for "de-evolution," which in itself was at least partially an anti-thing. They sang about subjects that back then nobody else would touch, if the thought of singing about them ever crossed their minds to begin with. The only way Devo got away with it at all is because it was crazy-ass Rock music, and even then they had to sing about a whole bunch of crazy shit at once, so people would just give up and cut them some slack. All the other freaks like me probably had to go buy the album before they could understand all the lyrics either, and these probably didn't mean all that much to them compared to all the other crazy shit they sang about, except to sort of tell the beginning of the story and be a funny rhyme, but they resonated with me. They sang it in a quirky manner. My friend and former bandmate Randy and I called it "Quirk Rock." Quirky or not, I agree with these lyrics.

"Are We Not Men?" by Devo (studio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdkwCWbVJ8Y