Devo - R U Experienced?

“This,” I told my son, “is Devo” as I pressed play. He was in his booster seat in the back as I drove. I tried to steal eye contact with him in the rear view mirror as I explained, “You are not going to like this right now… but you will when you get older.” He was probably six years old, and I was (probably) correct. The song was “That’s Good,” and at the time my son definitely did not like it. He still doesn’t, but hope springs, etc., etc..

But I want to talk about Devo’s “R U Experienced,” which, is, obviously, a Jimi Hendrix cover. Devo had done covers to greater acclaim before: the Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” and Lee Dorsey’s “Working in a Coalmine,” so re-tooling classics was not new territory for the band. While Devo’s “Experienced” sounds mid-80s industrial-lite and like it was recorded in a foundry, it’s definitely not as deconstructed or mischievous as their “Satisfaction” cover. This was not smashed on the floor and then re-assembled through a kaleidoscope on a merry-go-round. It also drains any and all sex or sensuality from the original. This version is cold and sterile, but still vibrates with energy.

There is something I appreciate about the straightforwardness of Devo’s take — maybe Mark Mothersbaugh just liked the song and didn’t want to lose too much of it. Mothersbaugh did alter the title to the Prince-esque “R U Experienced” and devolved(?) Hendrix’s lyrics from “trumpets and violins I can hear in the distance” to “beautiful mutants I can hear in the distance.” Devo’s version neither desecrates the original nor elevates it nor blasts it into a dystopian techno-pocalyptic wasteland where it becomes mutated-ted-ted. What it lacks in experimentation, however, it hopefully makes up in accessibility. Not that accessibility is really even in Devo’s catalog to begin with. But I remain a fan of Devo’s songs, and can’t wait for my son to get older and experience them.