The sort of rooster-man dance he used to do

September 25, 2017 8:33 PM

The making of Devo's "Satisfaction".
posted by Chrysostom (44 comments total)

I say this without hyperbole: Devo is my favorite band of all time. I grew up in the 70's listening to music on the radio, and the stations I listened to played the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, REO Speedwagon, and Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond singing a duet (you know the one). When my older brother brought home the LP of Devo's Freedom of Choice, it was like a whole new world suddenly made itself visible, or rather audible, to me. Devo was the first band I saw live in concert, at the tender age of ten, and that as much as anything sent my life careering onto its current path (for better and for worse).

My young self considered Devo's cover of "Satisfaction" to be of a piece with the Residents' cover of "Satisfaction"—A great big middle finger to the bloated excesses of classic rock. Now that I'm quite a bit older, I can appreciate that it was a loving homage. I had no idea that Mick Jagger signed off on it himself, though! If only I knew in high school that Devo and the Stones were "on the same side," I could have avoided a lot of pointless and stupid music arguments.
posted by ejs at 9:04 PM on September 25, 2017 [21 favorites]

Unlike most of the world – and despite growing up with, and enjoying, "the bloated excesses of classic rock" – I always have much preferred the Devo rendition. As opposed to Jagger's version, those guys truly sound like they can't get any satisfaction. (Mick claimed that "you can't always get what you want," but I find it hard to believe that he doesn't always do pretty much whatever he feels like.)

p.s. Never heard The Residents's version before. Still prefer Devo.
posted by LeLiLo at 10:12 PM on September 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Neat article! I love Devo and their version of Satisfaction is so great. I hadn't heard the Residents' version before and I adore it but for different reasons. In my opinion nothing tops the Otis Redding version, though.
posted by drinkyclown at 10:21 PM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

How lucky we are to have freedom of choice.
posted by flabdablet at 10:25 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Every time our dads bought beer we took one and hid it until we had this mighty arsenal of skunked beer. His parents went out of town and we've pulled out the couch to watch SNL and we get this?

I tried. And I tried. And I try-try-try-try-try-try-tried to wake him up. He missed it. He never found satisfaction.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 11:39 PM on September 25, 2017

Keith Richards always said that Otis Redding version comes closest to the way he heard the song in his head when the riff first came to him. He'd always envisaged the song with horns.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:58 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow. I am such an...old.

Among other bands, I got to see Devo and The Residents live in concert WAYYYYYYY back in the day (for Sherman and Mr. Peabody values of back in the day).
posted by Samizdata at 2:31 AM on September 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

From the article:

"Casale thinks Warner may have been worried that their cover was so different that it might have been considered satire—a separate legal entity for which one needs permission."

Earlier in the par, this piece acknowledges you need no permission for a straightforward cover version, but then it adds this caveat about satire. It's the first I've heard of any permission being needed to satirise a song. Can anyone tell me (a) whether this is true and (b) how the hell a legal requirement like that is supposed to work in practice?
posted by Paul Slade at 3:30 AM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Awesome article.

And yeah I thought it was the opposite too. You don’t need permission to satirize a song. Satire has first amendment protection. Although Weird Al always asks because he’s a nice guy.
posted by fungible at 4:03 AM on September 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby come back maybe next week
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:28 AM on September 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

I love Devo, and I love this song. But I must admit it gives me a headache because everytime I hear 'babybabybabybabybaby' my brain immediately tries to make me do it and I simply cannot make my mouth do that.
posted by ian1977 at 4:40 AM on September 26, 2017

Although Weird Al always asks because he’s a nice guy.

I don't think I actually watched the Devo Satisfaction video before - now I know where Weird Al got the carpet breakdancing guy for Dare To Be Stupid.
posted by kersplunk at 4:43 AM on September 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

In other interviews, Jerry Casale has claimed that DEVO’s manager, Eliott Roberts had contacted Mick’s lawyers and said “to act like he liked it because it was going to make him a lot of money.”

For what it’s worth, add me to the list of folks who prefer DEVO’s version. It feels sincere in a way that The Rolling Stones doesn’t. Who do you think is more likely to get laid? An already successful rock musician like Mick Jagger, or a bespectacled nerd in yellow coveralls?
posted by SansPoint at 4:45 AM on September 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

From that New Yorker article:

“I think those are some of the most amazing lyrics that were ever written in rock and roll,” Mothersbaugh said, “dealing with conspicuous consumption and the stupidity of capitalism and sexual frustration all in one song. It pretty much encapsulated what was going on with kids at that time, much more than any of the hippie songs, as far as I was concerned.”

Over in England in 1965 I don't recollect any hippy songs, but Satisfaction hit the spot as the joyously danceable expression of an evolving critique of English/British society at that time.
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:50 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

A friend and I watched the SNL performance live at his house. I remember it very well; as 17 year-old Oklahoma kids brought up on southern rock and top 40 neither of us were really sure what to make of it, but we both knew we had seen something important.
posted by yhbc at 5:34 AM on September 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

For those who may be interested, here's an interview I did with Mark a few years back in Green Bay, Wisconsin
(GO PACK?!). He talks about the band creating "Satisfaction" at the 5:12 mark.
http://archive.ttbook.org/book/mark-mothersbaugh-devo

And as a bonus, here's a much more recent piece where Mark talks about the Roxy Music song, "Editions of You":
http://archive.ttbook.org/book/deep-tracks-mark-mothersbaugh
posted by DougieGee at 5:42 AM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

My 4 year old daughter has just decided that Devo are the only acceptable music for the car. Life is good. The end, no moral.
posted by selfish at 5:52 AM on September 26, 2017 [20 favorites]

Also: I just found this, worth sharing
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j85l1t0jag4xyes/mystruggle.pdf
posted by selfish at 5:54 AM on September 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

Maybe around 1982 or so a hip punk girl my older brother knew made a cassette tape for him. It had Devo doing Satisfaction, The Flying Lizards "Money", The Slits doing "Heard It Through The Grapevine", the Hollywood Brats doing "Then he kissed me", followed by most of side one of the B52s first album. ("Planet Claire", "52 Girls", "Rock Lobster".) That tape changed my life.
posted by Catblack at 7:38 AM on September 26, 2017 [13 favorites]

I tweeted the author of the new Yorker article with a question about the satire point I mentioned above, and he was kind enough to send me a couple of links explaining it. One of them says:

This question explores the somewhat arcane legal fine line between “parody” and “satire”. A parody makes fun of the underlying copyrighted work itself. Examples: a Mad Magazine or Saturday Night Live spoof of a TV show or movie or many Weird Al Yankovic songs. A satire does NOT make fun of the underlying copyrighted work but uses it as a platform for making a comment about something else. A parody is typically considered a “fair use” of a copyrighted work for which neither permission of the copyright owner nor payment to the copyright owner is required. A satire, however, typically does NOT qualify as a fair use and thus permission of – and usually payment to – the copyright owner would be required.
posted by Paul Slade at 7:49 AM on September 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Catblack: If you dug those covers, you should also check out POLYSICS cover of "My Sharona". Not only is is a great, DEVO-esque deconstruction of the original song, but "My Sharona" was also the inspiration for DEVO's 1980 song "Girl U Want".

(Which, in turn, became the sonic inspiration for "Each Life Each End" by POLYSICS, taking it full circle.
posted by SansPoint at 7:52 AM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

IANAL, but:

You don’t need permission to satirize a song. Satire has first amendment protection.

Satire as a genre has first amendment protection, but that doesn't mean the creator of a satire has free reign to use someone else's work in creating that satire.

It's the first I've heard of any permission being needed to satirise a song. Can anyone tell me (a) whether this is true

It's complicated but true, more or less. Campbell vs. Acuff-Rose Music (2 Live Crew vs. Roy Orbison's publisher) in '94 established that parody can count as a "Fair Use" exemption of copyright infringement. But that ruling also drew a line between "parody" (mocking the original work), and "satire" (mocking/drawing attention to larger social/political issues), with satire still needing approval from the copyright owner. Not, apparently, a very clear line, but a line that further court decisions seem to have used.

pdf link to what seems to be a roundtable discussion outline from the American Bar Association giving some of the complications/considerations of the line between parody and satire, including cases post-Campbell.

(b) how the hell a legal requirement like that is supposed to work in practice?

In practice most copyright infringement cases are handled through the civil courts (people get sued) rather than through actual law enforcement.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:58 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yay Metafilter for more music I have never even heard of before!

Gotta admit, I kinda like Polysics. Anything with their manic beat pattern tends to get me.
posted by Samizdata at 8:23 AM on September 26, 2017

Also: I just found this, worth sharing
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j85l1t0jag4xyes/mystruggle.pdf

This doesn't seem to be reading AT ALL for me, with all my PDF programs showing it as damaged/corrupt.

Anyone?
posted by Samizdata at 8:25 AM on September 26, 2017

I'm not in the habit of opening random internet PDFs, much less random internet PDFs named after fascist propaganda, so I'm gonna let somebody else take the risk on that one.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:33 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm not in the habit of opening random internet PDFs, much less random internet PDFs named after fascist propaganda, so I'm gonna let somebody else take the risk on that one.

Normally, I don't. But them being a MeFi buys a certain amount of trust. I have never had a bad experience with Blue media.
posted by Samizdata at 8:36 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I mean, yeah, I'm assuming from context that it's Booji Boy's "My Struggle" and not the other one. But I'm still not gonna click and find out.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:58 AM on September 26, 2017

All you spuds are OK by me. Duty now for the future.
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:40 AM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I remember watching Devo premiere Satisfaction on SNL. Definitely one of the prime WTF??!? moments of my teen years. I think that was my first ever experience seeing something I was very familiar with deconstructed so thoroughly. IT WAS REALLY FUCKING WEIRD, not to mention scary and dystopian. I didn’t really get it at the time, but looking back it makes so much more sense now. Cool to know more of the song’s backstory w/Devo.
posted by mosk at 11:08 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Satisfaction," one of the few songs in rock to employ a cha-cha-cha beat. Hey hey hey
posted by NedKoppel at 11:13 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, yeah, I should tell my "Satisfaction" story too.

I'm a bit too young (Born in 1983) to have seen it the first time around, but it was re-run on NBC late one Saturday night/Sunday Morning, back in 2000. After a new episode with AC/DC as the musical guest.

I'd just started getting into DEVO, so when I heard Don Pardo's voice say "Musical guest... DEEE-voooooo" I was super shocked and excited. I'd never seen them perform live, and I'd certainly never heard their cover of "Satisfaction." When they started playing it, something snapped in my brain. I knew and loved "Weird Al" like any nerd, but this was different. I didn't know you could do that to The Stones. I wanted more.

Then came "Jocko Homo" later that night. If "Satisfaction" snapped something in my brain, "Jocko Homo" completely broke it, then smashed the parts with a hammer, and reformed it into something new and different.

I became a DEVO fan that night. I saw them play live eight times. I have the Duty Now For the Future logo tattooed on my upper right arm. All, in large part, thanks to a lucky rerun.
posted by SansPoint at 12:48 PM on September 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

I saw this when I was 11 or so, so probably a rerun in 1979, and it's an origin point for me. At the time I was into KISS and whatever my brother was into, Cheap Trick, Van Halen, etc. I had recently begun playing drums, and the pattern affixed itself to my brain permanently (their version of Working in a Coalmine harkened back). The pedals taped to the guitar, the stiff choreography, the sheer foreign-ness of their version of a song I did already know. This performance sent me towards my own taste. In comparison Jocko Homo was more self-consciously odd, more like Fish Heads to me.

I still have never been able to hit the right number of "maybe"'s. Man, the way the band cruises along behind that part hits me in the kisser, then the vocals swoop right back into the pocket.

This is also an incredible SNL episode in general, Fred Willard was the host. The Lucille Ball bit with Bill in the news is another permanent fixture in my personal culture.

Bill: Let me ask you this: how are Fred and Ethel?
Lucy: Fred is dead.
Bill: Freddy's dead?
Lucy: That's what I said.

Formative shit!
posted by rhizome at 9:12 PM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Are We Not Men?
posted by flabdablet at 11:38 AM on September 27, 2017

If only I knew in high school that Devo and the Stones were "on the same side," I could have avoided a lot of pointless and stupid music arguments.

It was 6th grade, not high school, but the dumbest argument I was ever in was if Ace Frehley or George Harrison was the "better" guitarist. (ACE FREHLEY? That's the hill you want to die on?)
posted by thelonius at 12:00 PM on September 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I love the Devo version. It's fun to play this and then play Cat Power's version.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 12:17 PM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

...one of the few songs in rock to employ a cha-cha-cha beat.

I'd recently read that the producers for the session (Loog Oldham) asked Watts to try something like the beat for The Four Tops 'I Can't Help Myself', which was then a current hit. The record company rushed the single into distribution, and it then nudged The Four Tops song out of the number one spot on charts in America at the time.
posted by ovvl at 4:34 PM on September 27, 2017

Loved this song when it came out. Hearing it for the first time in decades, I'm hearing the influence of Stevie Wonder songs such as Superstition.

Another great song on that first Devo album that's much weirder is Shrivel Up. (Live 1980; super slow demo) Funkier band than they get credit for.
posted by msalt at 4:56 PM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Where I grew up in the country, we didn't get the TV reception for the channel that showed SNL. By a fluke, that weekend we were billeted in a motel in the big city with our farm crew for the annual livestock sale, and we were all watching generic cable TV when Devo suddenly appeared. Everyone was speechless, for various reasons. I actually don't remember any comments afterwards.
posted by ovvl at 4:58 PM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I know that jam! The first time I was ever able to watch MTV was in a vacation motel.
posted by rhizome at 5:02 PM on September 27, 2017

Funkier band than they get credit for.

People tend to forget how talented of musicians the spudboys were when confronted with the whole glorious presentation storm that is Devo.
posted by Samizdata at 8:36 PM on September 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Samizdata: When DEVO were at their peak (1978-1982), they were as tight a live band as one could be. Their 1979 appearance on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert proves it. And even their live shows after getting back together were still some of the tightest, hardest playing I'd seen from a live band.
posted by SansPoint at 8:46 AM on September 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'd recently read that the producers for the session (Loog Oldham) asked Watts to try something like the beat for The Four Tops 'I Can't Help Myself', which was then a current hit.

I think that's what they called "boogaloo" at the time; fusing R&B with Latin. Bassist Carol Kaye was really into that.
posted by thelonius at 9:20 AM on September 28, 2017

I came to a stoplight a couple of weeks ago and the redneck truck next to me was blasting Girl U Want. Which, is not something you see every day.

I had to catch up at the next stoplight to hear the rest.
posted by ctmf at 2:24 PM on September 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

Great video, SansPoint.
posted by msalt at 11:08 AM on October 4, 2017 [1 favorite]