Roxy Music 'Siren' vs 'Oh No, It's Devo'

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Do you ever feel that everybody in the world is just taking, taking, taking from you and giving NOTHING back? That ppl have all the time in the world to boo fucking hoo over every tiny non-problem their cosy little circles of stupidity can appropriate from daytime TV, while your REAL problems attract no response but finger-wagging and derision and told-you-so's and maybe-you-should-get-real's and after-how-you've-treated-ppl's etc?

Do you ever find yourself so consumed with pain and incomprehension at the ease with which you are so regularly made to feel disposable that you start to develop elaborate theories to attempt to explain other ppl's behavior as a last resort to stave off insanity? Do you begin to suspect that even conceiving of these theories may be a route to madness as well? Is the only reason you can see for avoiding 'madness' the fact that your breakdown will reinforce the correctness of how everybody else appears to regard you anyway?

Do ppl treat you like a child, or a mental patient, or somebody with Alzheimer's, or somebody who's been publicly humiliated (an event they aren't slow to reveal a hint of satisfaction from)? Do their eyes drift off into faraway land and their mouths drift toward their phones (no matter who they're calling, it's in that panicked 'Hello? Security?') the exact instant you reveal anything that could possibly be construed as a) a 'personal revelation' b) an appeal for assistance of any nature? Are the ppl who treat you in this way the same ppl who on other occasions accuse you of being cold and superficial? Are you becoming ever more certain that the only reason anybody speaks to you at all is to confirm their own prejudices and they only speak to *you* because you're so weak and insubstantial that *they're* guaranteed a captive audience cuz you're so needy of companionship? And that if you deviate from the script you've been so charitably given then you get rudely reminded of everybody else's higher priority in the great chain of being than yours, and how 'putting you in your place' has become an established discipline with it's own academy and techniques and craft which has been distributed free of charge by official channels to everybody in the world except you?
Do you ever get sick and tired and thoroughly fucked-off and homicidally violent when ppl tell you to stop using broad generalisations all the time? And do you want to respond, "I am completely and totally alone now. The last bridges have been dynamited long ago in a fit of pique because it was bad enough that it was all one-way traffic in the first place but when you all started charging me an automatic toll every time I crossed over to your side that was the last fuckin' straw. You ARE all the same, and it's obviously not very important to you to attempt to prove otherwise. If you cannot help me then please leave me be. Goodbye."

dave q, Thursday, 6 March 2003 13:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

(Alt q - A Myers v C Watts)

dave q, Thursday, 6 March 2003 13:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

(Alt q - A Myers v C Watts)

dave q, Thursday, 6 March 2003 13:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

(Alt q - A Myers v C Watts)

dave q, Thursday, 6 March 2003 13:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ummmmmm.......

Err........

If the title of the thread is sincere, I'll say Oh No! It's Devo every damn time, but Dave's message is otherwise a cause for some concern.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 6 March 2003 14:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't know what you're talking about, but both albums are highly underrated. I'd have to go with Siren.

Patrick South (Patrick South), Thursday, 6 March 2003 16:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Classic!

Kris (aqueduct), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

Quite.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

You're a wonderful, amazing man, dave q.

Adam A. (Keiko), Thursday, 6 March 2003 20:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

I haven't heard either of these albums. I really like Roxy Music, though. Yesterday I woke up kinda sweaty from a filthy dream and the first thing I did was play "If There Is Something." It sounded just like it's supposed to.

Adam A. (Keiko), Thursday, 6 March 2003 20:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

I haven't quite figured out if Dave Q's monologue somehow relates to the thread title. Both Siren and Oh No It's Devo come at similar points in each band's career... each one is the band's fifth studio album and the last one before each band underwent musical/personnel changes to mixed results.

Call it each band's last gasp - Siren wanders around all over the place, the only direction is that of avoiding their glammy art rock past, though the best songs ("Both Ends Burning", "Sentimental Fool") could have come from one of the earlier albums. Similar situation with Oh No It's Devo - the spuds are directionless and sound like a generic new wave band, but the best songs ("That's Good", "I Desire") are the ones that play up their traditional oddball strengths.

I'll give the nod to Oh No It's Devo, as I believe it's truly underrated. Siren always seemed to be critically overrated, but I like it better if I just skip over "Love Is The Drug" (which I don't like at all)

Chris Barrus (xibalba), Thursday, 6 March 2003 21:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

you skip over 'love is the drug'?!!

agh, two of my favorite bands. i'm gonna be predictable and vote 'siren' on this one.

geeta (geeta), Thursday, 6 March 2003 22:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Siren." I like Devo but they're strictly a one-joke band, sorry.

I think Dave Q. is saying that sometimes it's a refined yet dirty "Siren" world and that's no good for him now...other times it's a real yet synthetic Devo world and no one listens to his real yet synthetic cries of pain. I dunno, dave q. you freak me out but it's OK.

Roxy Music means much more to me than Devo, I often don my smoking jacket and brood to the strains of "Spin Me Round" or dance in my bejewelled bathroom to "Pyjaramarama" or muse on the women in my life to "Amazona." And Dave Q., you need to let the world know that you have those feelings too, and that they're real.

Jess Hill (jesshill), Friday, 7 March 2003 00:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Pyjaamraramma" I can't spell the god dam thing anyway. I'm turning into dave q. and I dont' even do drugs!!

Jess Hill (jesshill), Friday, 7 March 2003 00:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

Didn't like "Love Is The Drug" when I first heard it. Don't like it now.

Chris Barrus (xibalba), Friday, 7 March 2003 01:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Siren" is among Roxy Music's worst albums, while I would view "Oh No..." the best of Devo's output. Thus, a win for Devo, even though I still think that "Avalon" and "Flesh + Blood" are both considerably better than anything Devo ever did.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 7 March 2003 01:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

eighteen years pass...

Back in 1982 I co-wrote a song with DEVO called “I Desire”. It is on their album “Oh No, It’s DEVO”. The album is still selling worldwide, especially in Japan and Europe. I haven’t seen royalties in 35 years. What’s the deal?

— John Hinckley (@JohnHinckley20) October 24, 2021

Josefa, Sunday, 24 October 2021 20:20 (two years ago) link

he's entitled to his royalty money. replies to that based on 'uh you shot reagan" seem to be missing the point. you don't lose royalty monies to songs you wrote because you also committed a felony.

akm, Sunday, 24 October 2021 21:34 (two years ago) link

Yoko deserves royalties for "I Just Shot John Lennon."

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 October 2021 21:44 (two years ago) link

Slicing Up Eyeballs has reported that Siren was released on this day in '75. HBD!

Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 24 October 2021 22:36 (two years ago) link

Hinckley was receiving royalties for I Desire back in the 80s apparently, which was controversial for their record company. Who knows after that? Devo didn't have very successful business relationships so perhaps the rights were lost?

everything, Sunday, 24 October 2021 23:29 (two years ago) link

Son of Sam law, maybe?

Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Monday, 25 October 2021 00:45 (two years ago) link

Hinckley's not even technically a felon as he was found not guilty by reason of insanity on all charges. I think most current Son of Sam laws apply only to those convicted of a crime; whether there are special provisions for cases like his I don't know. Need a lawyer's help here.

Josefa, Monday, 25 October 2021 01:28 (two years ago) link

Time to show those evil spuds what's what, John!

velko, Monday, 25 October 2021 02:29 (two years ago) link


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