TS: "Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy)" vs. "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA"

it was kind of cool not just being able to look it up on the internet straight away to contextualise it - what on earth is this weird alien thing? where did it come from?

the opening piano bit to "Gut Feeling" is just so weirdly pretty in a way that Devo never really attempted again (until "No Place Like Home"?)

'Out Of Sync' is Devo's prettiest moment imo, but I think lots of their songs are pretty!

I must have listened to 'Chango' and 'Plain Truth' dozens of times before I realised that the latter is a re-write of the former, 'Plain Truth' brings out the prettiness more I guess, but they are both pretty!

It's odd thinking about how much of their post 1980 work is re-writes of stuff they did in the 70s, all the way up to that song about Mitt Romney's dog that was a version of 'Doghouse Doghouse', or just slogans + bits of dialogue from videos that cropped up later in song lyrics

terre thaemlitz's version of "gut feeling/slap your mammy" is lovely (and not on youtube or i'd link to it here!)

Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA is my favourite Devo song.

― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, July 22, 2015 1:36 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ this. so amazing. have always wanted to be in a band that covered it, especially the latter part. the awesome rotation around the three repeated lines, all the nervous intense energy in that. whole song feels like it's whirling around and around, daring itself not to fly apart. and of course the devo trademark vibe of 1950s positivity slathered over in layers of plastic and nuclear radiation to the point where all the paranoia and sex and authoritarianism of the original becomes more visible and more ridiculous, arriving at anarchy along the way. absolutely my one "devo and what they're about" desert island song. "gut feeling" is cool and all. like an extended, devo-flavored take on a surf instrumental song. but it's never gotten my blood worked up like that.

yeah prophylactic tour. my fave also.

'Out Of Sync' is Devo's prettiest moment imo, but I think lots of their songs are pretty!

I must have listened to 'Chango' and 'Plain Truth' dozens of times before I realised that the latter is a re-write of the former, 'Plain Truth' brings out the prettiness more I guess, but they are both pretty!

It's odd thinking about how much of their post 1980 work is re-writes of stuff they did in the 70s, all the way up to that song about Mitt Romney's dog that was a version of 'Doghouse Doghouse', or just slogans + bits of dialogue from videos that cropped up later in song lyrics

Yeah "prettiness" is kind of an odd thing to talk about this way because I think there's a lot of it in songs like say "Snowball". I think they just don't go for it too often. "Plain Truth" I kinda forgot about, like everything else on Total Devo. But I do remember it now, cuz yeah last time I heard "Chango" I did think exactly that. On a similar note I think "Happy Guy" sounds like a rewrite of Gary Numan's "Bombers".

The album by Jihad Jerry and the Evildoers has new versions of a few old Devo tunes - "I've Been Refused", "Find Out", and "I Need a Chick". The first two at least are awesome. They certainly re-appropriated a lot of the non-album stuff though they do have an unusually rich catalogue in that way. Surprised "Modern Life" never got a rework!

Been listening to a lot of live Devo on youtube thanks to this thread. It occurd to me that the voice of Booji Boy is almost a parody of Mickey Mouse.

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Wow.

That was close!