Public Image Ltd. "Rise" vs. Devo "Satisfaction"

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Two songs with little in common besides the 1980's that I had never heard before until I heard them on the radio earlier this week and really liked both of them. Which song do you like more and could you please say some interesting things about it that I probably do not already know? If you pick the Devo song, don't mention that it's a Rolling Stones cover because I already knew that. And if you pick PIL, don't mention that their singer was in the Sex Pistols, 'cause I knew that too.

Famous Athlete, Saturday, 29 March 2003 04:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

I choose Devo. I love the babybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybaby
part

Davlo (Davlo), Saturday, 29 March 2003 04:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

Neither tune is indicative of each respective band's best work (I'd say "Public Image" or "Poptones" for PiL and "Jocko Homo," "Wiggly World" or maybe "Gates of Steel" for Devo.) In any event....between the two, I think I'd go for "Rise." Devo's "Satisfaction," while completely hilarious and inspired, is essentially a one joke cover, while "Rise" just sounded so different when it came out (oweing virtually nothing to the PiL material that pre-dated it). Those big huge drums (Ginger Baker?) that Bill Laswell production, that screaming, metallic guitar (Steve Vai) and that incendiary reprise: "ANGER IS AN ENERGY! ANGER IS AN ENERGY! ANGER IS AN ENERGY!" Genius.

That said, I'm a much bigger Devo fan than PiL fan.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 March 2003 04:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

i like devo lots but 'satisfaction' was totally weak

geeta (geeta), Saturday, 29 March 2003 05:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

Whew, I'm back on track with Alex! I agree with everything he said. Was "Rise" was the last really good PiL song? It seems like it to me, but I can't say I really followed his career after that.

Arthur (Arthur), Saturday, 29 March 2003 05:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

Umm, Devo. But Devo wins every argument because they went to Kent State and majored in Art like me. But I only did it for one year before my cousin ratted on me to my folks that I was a pothead and they cut off the funding so I had to either join the military or get a job at McDonalds and move in with my loser dropout friends.

Yeah, Devo wins everything.

I like
Explosions.

Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Saturday, 29 March 2003 06:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

devo because lydon wanted them to be PIL in the first place and i totally 100% absolutely wholeheartedly belee dat.

your null fame (yournullfame), Saturday, 29 March 2003 07:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

Herb Alpert's "Rise" vs. the Residents' "Satisfaction"

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 29 March 2003 10:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm gonna side with Devo but am very surprised how much I had to think about this. the songs are very different but not so different that picking one over the other indicates some sort of aesthetic allegiance of any sort. although James Van Der Beek/Dawson listening to "Rise" pleasant culture memory of 2002.

James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 29 March 2003 10:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

was that herb alpert tune from circa 86-89 and they showed it on BET alot?

James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 29 March 2003 10:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

'79

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 29 March 2003 11:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

what's the one I'm thinking of? (three bucks sez it's from some quincy jones thing)

James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 29 March 2003 11:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Satisfaction" cuz I saw a stupid review that said "They audaciously omit the main riff" when of course it's buried in the mix at the end. Plus Alan Myers is God

dave q, Saturday, 29 March 2003 11:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

Oh, that Alan!

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 29 March 2003 11:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hands down, Devo.

Also, the video for Satisfaction rocks very, very hard.

David Allen, Saturday, 29 March 2003 16:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Devo. Their "Satisfaction" cover may be the only thing of theirs I really like. "Rise" is entertaining when it comes on vh1 classic, but the lyrics don't add up to much more than a bunch of disconnected slogans, and I am NOT a fan of Laswellian production.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 29 March 2003 17:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

b-b-b-buy Anthony, Good Charlotte are NOTHING but sloganeers too!

The video for "Satisfaction" is indeed a work of unfettered brilliance. The video for "Rise"? Ehhh....not so much (Lydon walking around empty streets in the wind, laundry on lines blowing..)

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 March 2003 20:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

you forgot the old man staring off screen and whimpering.

Good Charlotte's slogans cohere into a complete statement on each song. Can't say that about "Rise."

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 29 March 2003 20:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

Fair enough.

Incidentally, Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge" is light years more Punk Rock than anything Good Charotte will ever be able to manage.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 March 2003 20:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

well, it DOES sound like a hard outtake from Talking Heads: 77, so I guess...no. Maybe more "punk rock" by yer definition, but that's very different from it being BETTER. Which it ain't, nyeh.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 29 March 2003 20:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

How does it feel to be so wrong all the time?

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 March 2003 20:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

Devo/Heads = Sab/Zep

hobbits ok, ironmen rool, Sunday, 30 March 2003 10:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

Good Charlotte?? My 15 yr old AIM buddies spit on them, get a new gimmick etc

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 30 March 2003 10:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Rise", sorry, it was a weird thing for the 8 or so yearold me. It still kinda is, that unreserved enjoyment of anger... Devo's is a fun cover. Woohah woohah!

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 30 March 2003 11:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wasn't "Rise" on Beavis and Butthead once, and they commented on John's orange hair?

What ever happend to Jah Wobble?

Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Sunday, 30 March 2003 22:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

I remember that B&B

hey, they're beating rugs...

I could be wrong
YER WRONG!
I could be right
I could be black
I could be white
YER WHITE!

Hey Beavis, that guy has a hair stiffie...

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 30 March 2003 22:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

What ever happend to Jah Wobble?

Reconvened -- briefly -- with Martin Atkins in The Damage Manual (with Geordie K. Walker of KILLING JOKE on geeetar) and released one decent e.p. and one frankly crap album (thanks to Chris Connely's shite vocals and Atkins' cloth-eared production). Abandoned ship just a few dates into the requisite tour (his place filled by the gent from My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult). Wobble is invariably back to making solo records with Invaders of the Heart.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 30 March 2003 23:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

I heard that Damage Manual album (yes, crap, yes) and too wondered what happened to that thing.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 30 March 2003 23:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Despite the promising pedigree, the Damage Manual is best forgotten.....tho' they originaly asked Lydon to be vocalist (he declined, of course). That might've been a bit more interesting (basically Metal Box era PiL with Geordie in for Keith Levene). Alas, `twas not to be.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 30 March 2003 23:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

eleven years pass...

So is this "12 inch version" really any different than the album version? They're roughly the same time (a bit over 6 minutes) - I know the 7" version is 4:30 but that's clearly an edit of the LP version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv0efmUKP9s

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 5 November 2014 01:32 (nine years ago) link

You seem to dislike my posts. I suggest you don't read them.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 5 November 2014 01:40 (nine years ago) link

It's hard to know: Can anyone tell the two versions of "This is not a love song" off the 12" apart?

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get "Rise" as an advance white label 12" (instrumental version on the other side), and was all "This Is Tremendous!!" and wanted to take it that night to the After Dark club for the DJ to play. But they'd have probably just ignored me/it (or nicked it) so I didn't.

Mark G, Wednesday, 5 November 2014 10:00 (nine years ago) link

two years pass...

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall while they were working up their version of 'Satisfaction', just to witness the whole process behind it!

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Monday, 25 September 2017 20:19 (six years ago) link


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