Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace
Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace is a live album released by American new wave band Devo, recorded during their 1988 "comeback tour" in promotion of the "Total Devo" album. It contains performances of several cuts from "Total Devo" but largely focuses on earlier material and also contains one exclusive song, "It Doesn't Matter to Me." Song arrangements. The first part of the show was a semi-acoustic set, in which the band played heavily altered versions of earlier hits. The show's opener was an acoustic  version of "Jocko Homo," which was now significantly slower and had a vocal melody change. The ballad-esque delivery of the song prompted Jerry Casale to exclaim, "I'll bet you didn't know that was such a sad song." The next change was applied to "Going Under," which was performed in a style similar to the "E-Z Listening Disc" version. The rest of the set was largely based on the original studio versions. (The only notable difference was in "Gut Feeling," where the fast "Slap Your Mammy" jam had been removed from the ending and was replaced by  the song "Gates Of Steel.") The album's closing track is an eleven-minute medley of "Shout," "Somewhere" from "West Side Story" and "Disco Dancer." This is the second-longest track found in Devo's catalog and a longer studio version totaling eighteen minutes later appeared on the "Recombo DNA" rarities compilation. The studio version features a longer instrumental section and the addition of an older Devo song called "Social Fools." Devo's performance of "Disco Dancer" is nearly identical to the remixed version heard in the song's music video. The songs "Pity You" and "Beautiful World" were performed  during the live set but are not included on the album. Artwork. The cover art and tagline were based on the 1971 book "The Beginning Was the End". Initial vinyl pressings were double LPs that contained three sides of music and a fourth "blank" side with etched signatures from the band. The label of the fourth side was marked, "ATTENTION SPUDS! NO GROOVE! DO NOT PLAY!" Album length. The description of the album as containing "More than one hour of uncensored sonic proof" is a deliberate joke on the part of Devo. The album's length is 60 minutes and  1 second. "Somewhere With Devo" includes an excerpt of "Somewhere" by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, but is not credited on the back cover and inner label. Personnel. Credits adapted from the album liner notes.