I admit to being a closet Devo fan. When I was in high school, I listened to Devo as religiously as I did to Beethoven, John Williams, and Gilbert & Sullivan, and I can quote any lyric from their debut album (“Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!”) up through “Shout” (when they lost it). This is likely due to my association with a band of skate punks, who were skate-punking well before skate-punking was cool. I never did seek out Devo’s come-back album, “Something for Everybody,” but most of the reviews I have read say it is a return to form.

Devo co-founder and front man Mark Mothersbaugh mostly writes for the movies these days (“The Lego Movie,” “Thor: Ragnorak,” a lot of Wes Anderson films). But in his spare time, he happened to stumble across some session tapes he had done with Brian Eno and David Bowie 40 years ago.

I love that some people just happen to have jam session tapes with David Bowie just lying around.

Band members fighting with girlfriends on the telephone – it makes me so nostalgic:

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/12/recording-of-david-bowie-and-brian-enos-jam-session-with-devo-has-been-found-by-mark-mothersbaugh/?fbclid=IwAR3Z7saEc6GVplSgG1PQcKGgTm0GEjrLlk9gwrYR40KCAXxAH9NAvz8x_QQ

While I’m being all pop-cultural: Peter Tork died this week?????????? Apparently Tork was classically trained. I always thought the Monkees were TV actors who had to hurry up and learn to play their instruments. In Tork’s case, not so. Not only did he play the guitar, he recorded the piano intro to “Daydream Believer,” played the harpsichord on “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” and riffed on the banjo on “You Told Me.” He also played the French horn. Naturally, after the show was cancelled, he wound up teaching high school and waiting tables. Thank God for reunion tours.

I used to enjoy the show’s zany humor as a kid. I predict another Saturday – or perhaps Pleasant Valley Sunday – misspent on YouTube.