"Devils Haircut" is a song by the American musician

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

, released as the second single from his fifth album, ''

Odelay ''Odelay'' is the fifth studio album by American musician Beck, released on June 18, 1996, by DGC Records. The album featured several successful singles, including " Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution", and peaked at number s ...

'' (1996). It peaked at number 94 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

, number 23 on the ''Billboard''

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart and number 22 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. ''

Q Magazine ''Q'' was a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series ''The Old Grey Whistle Test''. '' ...

'' included it in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever" in 2003.

Critical reception

Justin Chadwick from Albumism picked "Devils Haircut" as one of the "unequivocal standouts" of the ''Odelay'' album, describing it as "rollicking, breaks-driven" and "exhilarating, pop-friendly fare". British magazine ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' rated it four out of five, viewing it as "double bass-heavy eccentricity with a definite commercial edge from the talented US singer/songwriter." The reviewer added, "This one sticks in the mind." David Sinclair from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' declared it as "a typically aberrant mixture of beatbox pop and punk poetry from the gifted Californian oddball."

Music video

The accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for the song is directed by

Mark Romanek Mark Romanek (; born September 18, 1959) is an American filmmaker whose directing work includes feature films, television, music videos and commercials. Romanek wrote and directed the 2002 film ''One Hour Photo'' and directed the 2010 film '' Neve ...

. It features Beck walking through various

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

locations, wearing cowboy attire and carrying a

boombox A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape recorder/players and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid 1980s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered through ...

. At some points, the action freezes and the camera zooms in on Beck in

tableau Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to: Arts * ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled ''Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV'' * ''Tableau viv ...

. Later the camera zooms in on spies that have been following Beck the whole time. The video has references to the films ''

Midnight Cowboy ''Midnight Cowboy'' is a 1969 American drama (film and television), drama film, based on the 1965 Midnight Cowboy (novel), novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. The film was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars ...

'' and ''

The 400 Blows ''The 400 Blows'' (french: Les Quatre Cents Coups) is a 1959 French coming-of-age drama film, and the directorial debut of François Truffaut. The film, shot in DyaliScope, stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, and Claire Maurier. One of ...

''. At the 1997

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

, Beck won a total of five awards. Three were for "

The New Pollution "The New Pollution" is a song by American musician Beck, released as the third single from his fifth album, ''Odelay'' (1996). It samples the song "Venus" by Joe Thomas. In the US, the song peaked at number 78 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and num ...

" and "Devils Haircut" won two: Best Editing and

Best Male Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video was one of four original general awards that have been handed out every year since the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. In 2007, though, the award was briefly renamed Male Artist of the Year, and ...

. The video for "Devils Haircut" was later published on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in October 2009. It has amassed more than 10.5 million views as of September 2021.

Samples

As is common with his ''Odelay''-era songs, "Devils Haircut" is driven by a number of samples: the drums in the choruses and drum breaks come from

Pretty Purdie Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purd ...

's "

Soul Drums ''Soul Drums'' is the debut album by drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, recorded for the Date label in 1967. The single "Funky Donkey" reached No. 87 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1967.Them Them or THEM, a third-person plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to: Books * ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet'' * '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fiction by Welsh ...

's cover of

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

's "

Out of Sight ''Out of Sight'' is a 1998 American crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Frank, adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1996 novel of the same name. The first of several collaborations between Soderbergh and actor George C ...

"; and the guitar riff was taken from another Them track, "I Can Only Give You Everything" (written by Scott and Coulter), replayed by Beck rather than sampled.

Track listings

* 7" # "Devils Haircut" # "Lloyd Price Express" *12" #A1 "Devils Haircut" (LP Version) (3:13) #A2 "Devils Haircut" (Dark And Lovely) (3:38) #A3 "Devils Haircut" (American Wasteland) (2:43) #B1 "Where It's At" (Lloyd Price Express) (4:57) #B2 "Clock"(2:43) *CD #1 # "Devils Haircut"

P Version P, or p, is the sixteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''pee'' (pronounced ), plural ''pees''. History The ...

# "Devils Haircut" emix_by_

emix_by_Noel_Gallagher">Noel_Gallagher.html"_;"title="emix_by_Noel_Gallagher">emix_by_Noel_Gallagher#_"Groovy_Sunday"_[Remix_by_Michael_Simpson_(producer).html" "title="Noel_Gallagher.html" ;"title="Noel_Gallagher.html" ;"title="emix by Noel Gallagher">emix by Noel Gallagher">Noel_Gallagher.html" ;"title="emix by Noel Gallagher">emix by Noel Gallagher# "Groovy Sunday" [Remix by Michael Simpson (producer)">Mike Simpson Michael Keith Simpson (born September 8, 1950) is an American politician and former dentist serving as the U.S. representative for since 1999. The district covers most of the eastern portion of the state, including Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Sun ...

] # "Trouble All My Days" *CD #2 # "Devils Haircut"

# "Dark and Lovely" emix_by_Dust_Brothers.html" ;"title="Dust_Brothers.html" ;"title="emix by Dust Brothers">emix by Dust Brothers">Dust_Brothers.html" ;"title="emix by Dust Brothers">emix by Dust Brothers# "American Wasteland" [Remix by Mickey P.] # ".000.000"

Personnel

: lead and backing vocals, electric guitar, bass,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

, drum samples *

The Dust Brothers The Dust Brothers are a pair of songwriters and producers consisting of E.Z. Mike ( Michael Simpson) and King Gizmo ( John King). They are famous for the sample-based music they produced in the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically for their work o ...

turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

, drum samples *Written by Beck/The Dust Brothers *Programmed by Beck/The Dust Brothers

B-sides and remixes

"Devils Haircut" was released with a number of B-sides, which included many

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es: CD #1 includes two remixes. One by

Noel Gallagher Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the chief songwriter, lead guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis until their split in 2009. After leaving Oasis, he formed ...

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

, and the other by Mike Simpson of

. The former adds a roaring guitar, emphasized over all other instruments on the track while the latter is a more

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

y take on the song, packed with added percussion and jazz horns. CD #2 includes "Dark and Lovely", another sample-laden Dust Brothers remix, and "American Wasteland", by Mickey P, which transforms the song into a fast,

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk ...

style song. Both CDs had one original B-side in addition to the remixes. CD #1 had "Trouble All My Days", an early song from 1993 which is characterized by deep, distorted vocals and Beck's thrashing his loosely tuned strings. "Trouble All My Days" had been featured on " Pay No Mind (Snoozer)", '' Golden Feelings'' and two other releases prior to its inclusion on "Devils Haircut" CD #1. CD #2 features "000.000," a previously unreleased song with a strange, minimalistic instrumental background and difficult to discern lyrics. "000.000" was also released on "

". Another remix, "Richard's Hairpiece", was done courtesy of

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...

, in which the riff is removed, and Beck's vocals are sped up to the extent that his voice is extremely high-pitched. This remix was not included on either CD version of "Devils Haircut", because of Aphex Twin's delay in making it, but it was included on the subsequent CD for "

Charts

Popular culture

* Beck guest-starred on the episode of sci-fi American cartoon sitcom ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...

'' entitled "

Bendin' in the Wind "Bendin' in the Wind" is the thirteenth episode in season three of the animated television series ''Futurama''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 22, 2001. It guest-stars Beck as himself. Bender becomes a folksing ...

" in 2001. He says to Bender, "When I'm upset I write a song about it. Like when I wrote 'Devils Haircut', I was feeling really...really...what's that song about?" as an allusion to the song's oblique lyrics. *

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

made reference to the song and its lyrical complexity on his weekly

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its s ...

show: "We're talkin' about the Devil here on Theme Time Radio Hour. And the Devil always looks sharp. One of the reasons he looks sharp is that he had a good haircut. Here's Beck to tell you all about it. This is from his hit album ''Odelay'', produced by the

Dust Brothers The Dust Brothers are a pair of songwriters and producers consisting of E.Z. Mike ( Michael Simpson) and King Gizmo ( John King). They are famous for the sample-based music they produced in the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically for their work on ...

. Beck says 'This song is a really simplistic metaphor for the evil of vanity.' I just thought you could dance to it." * Scottish band Travis mention "Devils Haircut" (along with

's " Wonderwall", and the

Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh Rock music, rock band formed in Blackwood, Caerphilly, Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar) and Sean Moore (musician ...

' "

A Design for Life "A Design for Life" is a single by Welsh band Manic Street Preachers from their fourth studio album, '' Everything Must Go'' (1996). Released on 15 April 1996, the song peaked and debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Origins The title ...

") on "Slide Show", a song from their 1999 "

The Man Who ''The Man Who'' is the second studio album by the Scottish rock band Travis. The album was released on 24 May 1999 through Independiente. It saw a change in musical direction for the band, moving away from the rockier tone of their debut '' ...

" album. "'Cause there is no design for life, There's no ''devil's haircut'' in my mind, There is not a wonderwall to climb to climb or step around" * "Devils Haircut" plays at the beginning of the first episode of the CW television series ''

Reaper A reaper is a agricultural machinery, farm implement or person that wikt:reap#Verb, reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were ...

''. * The song appears in the film ''

The Big Sick ''The Big Sick'' is a 2017 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Showalter and written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani. It stars Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar, and Anupam Kher. Gordon and Nanji ...

''.

References

External links

Whiskeyclone discussion of Devils Haircut
* {{authority control 1996 singles Beck songs MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video Music videos directed by Mark Romanek Songs written by Beck Song recordings produced by Dust Brothers Songs written by John King (record producer) Songs written by Michael Simpson (producer) 1996 songs DGC Records singles