'What the Hell Is This?' - Livelifebytraveling

Viewers had been greeted with an surprising picture on Oct. 14, 1978, once they tuned into Saturday Night Live. Instead of a grizzled rock band or the hottest pop star, the evening’s musical company had been 5 guys in yellow biohazard fits who known as themselves Devo.

The Akron, Ohio, group had simply launched their debut album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! Produced by Brian Eno, the LP was initially met with combined evaluations. Critics didn’t perceive the band, although they developed a passionate underground fan base.

Are We Not Men? fared higher abroad, particularly in the U.Ok. the place the album climbed to No. 12. The lead single, a transforming of the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” was a modest hit.

READ MORE: Top 10 Devo Songs

Mick Jagger was truly a fan of the cowl. When Devo performed him their model previous to together with it on the album, the Rolling Stones frontman reportedly jumped up and began dancing.

How Did Devo Get on ‘Saturday Night Live’?

Jagger’s seal of approval apart, there gave the impression to be little or no motive that Devo could be handed a coveted SNL gig. But, because it turned out, the band’s supervisor had an ace up his sleeve.

Elliott Roberts was a music business veteran, having labored with a few of the largest names in rock and pop. He believed (appropriately) that SNL creator Lorne Michaels had little curiosity in having Devo on the present. However, Roberts additionally knew that Michaels was keenly fascinated with one other one in every of his purchasers, Neil Young.

A deal was proposed: Have Devo on the present now and Elliott would make sure that Young carried out later. Michaels accepted, and Devo was booked for Oct. 14, 1978.

The band was nervous about their Saturday Night Live efficiency, and Michaels’ disinterest in the group didn’t assist issues. “Lorne didn’t give a shit,” Devo bassist Gerald Casale defined on The Vinyl Guide podcast. “But the cast, John Belushi decided we were cool. Laraine Newman decided we were cool.”

Watch Devo Perform “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

Meanwhile, “Belushi snorted the entire contents of the first gram of coke I ever purchased,” Casale mentioned in a separate interview, whereas additionally noting that Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh ended up in a long-term relationship with Newman.

Stress hit a excessive level moments earlier than Devo took the stage for his or her nationwide tv debut. “The lights go off and Lorne Michaels comes over with an assistant with a flashlight pointing at his face from below him, like Ghoulardi on Halloween. And he goes, ‘Alright, you guys. Don’t make a sound,” Casale recalled.

He remembered precisely what Michaels mentioned to do as soon as the band was launched: “‘You start playing your asses off. I don’t care if the lights don’t come on. I don’t care if your amplifier doesn’t work. I don’t give a hell what’s going on. You’re live and you’re in front of 15 million people. Don’t blow it.’”

Twenty seconds later, the band was on. “If you could shit your pants,” Casale added, “you would.”

Watch Devo Perform ‘Jocko Homo’ on ‘Saturday Night Live’

Like Nothing Fans Had Ever Seen

The outcome shocked even Casale. “When I see an old clip of us from that night … it’s outrageous,” he admitted. “It doesn’t seem plausible, what you’re looking at. And of course, we were so pumped up and so nervous, that we played faster and tighter than ever – and it doesn’t look real. People said, ‘Oh, you manipulated the video that night, didn’t you?’ It’s like, ‘No, Lorne Michaels would never do that.’ It had to be real, and it was all live.”

For their first track, the new wave group robotically delivered their quirky Rolling Stones cowl, wearing brilliant yellow hazmat fits and transferring spasmodically. Later, the band ripped off the jumpsuits throughout their second track of the evening, “Jocko Homo.”

READ MORE: Top 40 New Wave Albums

“People didn’t believe what they were seeing or hearing,” Casale noted. “The audience at home said, ‘What the hell is this?’”

Devo’s performances solely bought a spattering of well mannered – and presumably confused – applause from the studio viewers, however the impression SNL had on their profession was monumental. A beforehand deliberate tour needed to be fully rescheduled as demand skyrocketed.

“It just went from nobody knowing who the hell Devo was to that night of Saturday Night Live,” Casale recalled. After “we started playing … 2000, 3000 [capacity venues], and it just mushroomed.”