it must have been in 1978. every late afternoon through the night i was staying at conny planck’s studio in wolperath near cologne in germany to get my album 'movies' ready for mixdown. conny 's place actually became a hot spot for meeting people from anywhere in the world. i just had finished a bass recording for brian eno + cluster when a group fell into the studio which conny introduced to me as devo. the first overall impression i had from them was that they had a quirky 'jack steam in the streets' (mark) trying out this and having a taste of that and of course they had a sinister and merciless looking guitar player in a trench coat who could have fitted in very well for hanging ceremonies never saying an unnecessary word. as for my part having just left can reaching out for new horizons it became a kind of a test meeting with a real band again. one evening after a delicious dinner prepared by conny’s virtual wife christa i left the round with a cup of coffee heading into the studio where devo had already set up their equipment. hmmm…i don’t know what kind of impulse i was following but i picked up their bass and started playing 'yoo doo right' (can monster movie) when the band also joined in on their instruments. out came something i had missed with can for a long time: a punky punchover strike along a railway which needed to get urgently aligned - to characterize the musical situation in a few words. the guys obviously didn’t know about 'yoo doo right' and so their playing was more characterized by the forwarding dirtiness of the 80's than the ending process of the revolutionary 60's.
But what was most important to me and why i will never forget this happening was the fact that devo didn’t care about making mistakes at all. when they got out of rhythm sync by accidental obstacles they got back in again in shortest time. after 30 minutes or so the session stopped and i had a feeling like jesus christ rising up to heaven 7. u n b e l i e v a b l e! why didn't anyone criticize my bass playing? unlike i had experienced with can who had criticized me to death so that i was unable get out a single note from my instrument anymore.
thank you, devo for the wonderful experience and the eh…successful medical treatment.