Rock n roll or what (1 Viewer)

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Better than the original version.

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Feelies' version of Paint It Black.
 
i was once the photographer at a friend's wedding; i asked them beforehand what the music was going to be (performed by juergen from the jimmy cake, and judith ring) and they told me 'wild horses'.
for some reason that entered my head as 'crazy horses' (i.e. by the osmonds) and i didn't even question it because it was the first wedding i was official photographer at and i was balls out stressed enough worrying about light levels to think about the music.
 
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Preceded Devo's version... also a reminder I need to buy my ticket for their show.
 
On the Stones, without much research I always assumed Mick Taylor was the one thay kept them on the straight and narrow with Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile really being their strongest records by a distance. But i havent read into how much influence he actually had. Don't want to know either, leave me with my boring drunk chat opinions to blow some minds.
 
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Preceded Devo's version... also a reminder I need to buy my ticket for their show.

Its a whole different thing to the Devo version isn't it? Where did the idea that these bands are in competition come from? I've come across it a few times.
 
Its a whole different thing to the Devo version isn't it? Where did the idea that these bands are in competition come from? I've come across it a few times.
Devo’s take on Satisfaction sounds like The Residents but not like The Residents’ version of the song.
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To me Devo have always come across as a lightweight Residents - weirdo versions of pop, mix of commercial and experimental styles, costumes, and both were early adopters of video as an art form rather than an advertisement. Were Devo ripping off The Residents? No, they were coming from a similar place but having heard The Residents first, I find it hard to get anything from Devo.
 
On the Stones, without much research I always assumed Mick Taylor was the one thay kept them on the straight and narrow with Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile really being their strongest records by a distance. But i havent read into how much influence he actually had. Don't want to know either, leave me with my boring drunk chat opinions to blow some minds.
Dunno about that. He certainly brought something to those albums but Mick and Keith had tapped into something during that period and were just writing banger after banger
 
Its a whole different thing to the Devo version isn't it? Where did the idea that these bands are in competition come from? I've come across it a few times.

Devo’s take on Satisfaction sounds like The Residents but not like The Residents’ version of the song.
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To me Devo have always come across as a lightweight Residents - weirdo versions of pop, mix of commercial and experimental styles, costumes, and both were early adopters of video as an art form rather than an advertisement. Were Devo ripping off The Residents? No, they were coming from a similar place but having heard The Residents first, I find it hard to get anything from Devo.

Mark Mothersbaugh :See I have a soft spot for The Residents and for a very good reason. They, um... Crocus Behemoth who later became David Thompson, when he decided to use his own name, and was the singer of Pere Ubu

Richard Henderson : ...David Thomas.
[page break]
MM: Yeah, David Thomas. One time when Devo played in Cleveland he said "You know, you guys aren't the only guys who recorded "Satisfaction". And I go "Really?" And he played me the Residents version and I thought "OK, our version is better but that's pretty good" but then I started checkin' out their stuff and I really liked them and um, I don't know, coupla years later we signed with this hippy lawyer named Eliot Roberts.

RH: Neil Young's manager.

MM: Yeah Neil Young's manager... Did I just call him a lawyer? I'm really not going to do good today, I can tell already. Yeah, he's a manager... So we signed with Eliot Roberts. He signed us because Neil Young told him to. He didn't really know what we were doing. But anyhow, we did our first tour over in England and while we were over there, you'd meet young bands who were interested in Devo and they'd give you a tape and you'd talk to them, and this band called The Human League gave us this tape, and they were really good. It was kinda like the guys who'd split away cos they thought the Human League had gotten too soft and they were called Heaven 17. It was those guys and The Human League guys all together, those first few demos were actually much better than what came out as the first Human League album. But, they gave us this tape and I went back to LA and I gave it to Eliot and said "I found the tape of this really great band you gotta sign, they're going to be really big." And he said "What 'r' they called?" and I said "Heaven 17" and I played him the tape and he said "If that music makes it big I'll eat my hat". He said that exact cliché to me. And it's like, somebody signed them and they had hit records on both sides of the Atlantic. And after that he said "Are there any other bands you like?" And I was like "Yeah! There's this really great band from San Francisco called The Residents!" And I talked him and Billy Gerber into signing The Residents and all I remember is they played in Pasadena as a showcase of - God, what tour was it? - the Mole tour or something. All I know it was their weirdest thing I'd ever seen them do so far as looking like a high school production. I mean it really looked like a high school production. There were people with cardboard things where the craft paper was peeling off of the front thing cos it wasn't tacked down right...it looked like they had the budget of a high school production because they were all in leotards and stuff, and carrying this stuff around and people would run out with a little flash light. It looked so dinky! And I was sitting there thinking "Wow, this is the dinkiest thing they've ever done". It wasn't like their videos, cos their videos were kind of scary...

RH: ...and really produced.

MM: And all I remember is Eliot, as soon as the show was over, walking up to me and saying "Don't ever recommend another band to me." Ha ha!

RH: Haha!

MM: I thought he needed to see that anyhow. I always liked them. And they have had things they did which were pure genius in their time. Probably my all-time favourite thing they ever did though was "It's A Man's World" the James Brown song, where they had what sounded like an emasculated little lab rat singing the song. I just thought that was so excellent.

RH: Well I brought them into this because, when you're coming out of the murk of the early 70s when the whole world had gone Allman Brothers and then suddenly you started seeing these weird little singles that people were putting out themselves. I mean, English imports were the only interesting things in '73, '74, '75, and then suddenly all these things started coming out like Devo's first two singles and The Residents' first things.

From: Mark Mothersbaugh Unedited Transcript - The Wire
Surprisingly easy to source. Good anecdote-laden interview with a nice nugget about giving his fancy microphone to Alan Vega.

The gall of Mothersbaugh to say their version is better haha!

I'm not saying it was a competition. Both versions are great. I suppose they are comparable as they both conspicuously subvert the original. Also, something about emasculation which Mothersbaugh mentions above in another Residents' cover.
 
Another point of comparison between the two is the notion of the personalities in the band being rendered irrelevant; the idea of a band or facsimiles of this band [ e.g Devo envisioned multiple versions of themselves didn't they?] being like a franchise or team - the players would put on the 'uniform' or costume of this band, and be replaced in time with the brand/franchise going on to infinity [in theory].

This is something the Residents have succeeded with a lot better than Devo. Hardy Fox, the Bobby Heenan of the experimental music performance world, is dead but Residents go on with new cast members being drafted in, the impersonal body of work or idea/mise-en-scene really is the thing...Devo probably couldn't really work without Mothersbaugh or whoever.
 
Devo’s take on Satisfaction sounds like The Residents but not like The Residents’ version of the song.
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To me Devo have always come across as a lightweight Residents - weirdo versions of pop, mix of commercial and experimental styles, costumes, and both were early adopters of video as an art form rather than an advertisement. Were Devo ripping off The Residents? No, they were coming from a similar place but having heard The Residents first, I find it hard to get anything from Devo.

I'm not a huge fan of Devo or anything but I always saw them as a force for good. I've listened to the Residents and they're certainly more extreme than anything i've hard by Devo, it's interesting stuff but I'm still waiting to hear a Residents songs that doesn't sound like a nightmare come to life. Devo do have a bunch of fun songs that don't go out of their way to be incredibly offputting, not sure I can say the same about The Residents (not that I think that's a bad thing btw).


Also, fuck Mark Mothersbaugh for that "actually the demos are better than the original album" Human League nonsense. Does he have an account on here or something? I assume they're those The Future demos, they're good stuff but get a grip.
 

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