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Credit: Far Out \/ DEVO \/ Tony Barnard \/ Los Angeles Times \/ UCLA Library<\/p>\n
Thu 30 July 2026 19:30, UK <\/p>\n
It took a sly pilfer of one of The Beatles\u2019 biggest hits to gift Devo<\/a>\u2019s Mark Mothersbaugh with a surreal path crossing of his all-time hero.<\/p>\n Long-time spud fans will know that the John Lennon and Paul McCartney songbook pops up from time to time in Devo\u2019s oeuvre. Way before even their first album, Mothersbaugh slung a pastiche nod to his beloved Buggs, an old Fab Four rip-off band that grabbed their slice of Beatlemania and lyrically inspired the early Devo number \u2018U Got Me Bugged\u2019. Jump to 1984\u2019s Shout, and \u2018Please Please\u2019 naturally riffs The Beatles\u2019 first real hit in the title, and Mothersbaugh even wields a Fairlight synthesiser rendition of \u2018Day Tripper\u2019s guitar lick on the digital \u2018The 4th Dimension\u2019.<\/p>\n For all their subversion and rock and roll iconoclasm, Devo were just as indebted to Liverpool\u2019s finest as everyone else. Why wouldn\u2019t they be? The Beatles were the band of \u2018Tomorrow Never Knows\u2019 avant-garde reality rupture, the concr\u00e8te trip of \u2018Revolution 9\u2019, and the ultimate surrealist prank on the more paranoid end of their fanbase with the cryptic \u2018I Am the Walrus\u2019. Much of the Fab Four canon opened the door for the likes of Devo to subsequently bulldoze in the new wave era.<\/p>\n The Beatles\u2019 immortal US TV debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964<\/a> struck Mothersbaugh as hard as anyone else from his generation, the Devo co-founder telling Stereogum in 2022 that the moment he saw the British invasion\u2019s explosive arrival as a young teenager, his musical destiny was forged there and then, thinking to himself the moment they opened with \u2018All My Loving\u2019: \u201cThat\u2019s what I want to do\u201d.<\/p>\n It was The Beatles\u2019 closing song that would yield Mothersbaugh and Lennon\u2019s eventual path crossing. The raucous intro of \u2018I Want to Hold Your Hand\u2019 would rattle around the future Devoman\u2019s head for years, the basic chord progression informing the Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! debut\u2019s excitable first track, \u2018Uncontrollable Urge\u2019. It turned out that such an artful borrowing from the Fab Four wasn\u2019t lost on Lennon, who decided to catch Devo live in New York on the cusp of their punk breakthrough.<\/p>\n The buzz around Devo brought many an alternative A-lister to Max\u2019s Kansas City during their three-night residency in July 1977, Brian Eno, Mott the Hoople\u2019s Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, and David Bowie, all eager to catch punk\u2019s bold new act \u2013 Bowie later to dub Devo \u201cthe band of the future\u201d when introducing them on their return November show. Playing the show on one of the nights for a reported $70, the lack of funds for a hotel forced Mothersbaugh and the band to hole up in their Econoline van to sleep for the night, Mothersbaugh opting for the passenger seat.<\/p>\n But not without a surprise encounter with a former Beatle. Stumbling out of Max\u2019s was Lennon and Hunter, clearly boozed-up and hanging on to each other lest they fall flat on the street amid their drunken fug. Devo\u2019s van was spotted, and a bolshy Lennon decided to stroll over and treat Mothersabugh and the band to a slurred and inebriated rendition of \u2018Uncontrollable Urge\u2019 opening lyrical refrain.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n \u201cHe comes over and sticks his head right in front of my face, and he stinks like beer, and he goes \u2018Yeah yeah yeah yeah!\u2019 right in my face,\u201d Mothersbaugh recalled. <\/p>\n \u201cI was like\u2026 OK, I could die now, and I\u2019d go to heaven. Best thing that ever happened. The fact he made note that that was a reference to him.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re gonna steal, steal from the best. Lennon knew all too well the fine art of looting rock and pop\u2019s yesteryear, cutting his teeth early on with America\u2019s rock and roll and R&B songbook when catapulting from the Liverpool and Hamburg clubs through the early records and ultimate Beatlemania. In \u2018Uncontrollable Urge\u2019s nod to \u2018I Want to Hold Your Hand\u2019, Lennon would have spotted not just flattery, but a reflection of himself when the Fab Four were on the edge of their youthquake explosion.<\/p>\n Favours would be returned. Reportedly, McCartney was such an admirer of Devo\u2019s electronically-coated new wave jab, he\u2019d immerse himself in the sonic possibilities of the Yamaha CS-80 synth for 1980\u2019s McCartney II<\/a>, particularly bottling the spuds\u2019 wonky anti-rock on the eccentric \u2018Temporary Secretary\u2019, phoney Midwestern accent and all.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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