1996 single by Beck
"Devils Haircut" is a song by the American musician Beck, released in December 1996 by DGC Records as the second single from his fifth album, Odelay (1996). Both co-written and co-produced by Beck, the song peaked at number 94 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 23 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 22 on the UK Singles Chart. Its music video was directed by Mark Romanek and filmed in New York City. Q Magazine included "Devil's Haircut" in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever" in 2003.[1]
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".[2] British magazine Music Week 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."[3] David Sinclair from The Times declared it as "a typically aberrant mixture of beatbox pop and punk poetry from the gifted Californian oddball."[4]
Music video
The accompanying music video for the song is directed by Mark Romanek. It features Beck walking through various New York City locations, wearing cowboy attire and carrying a boombox. At some points, the action freezes and the camera zooms in on Beck in tableau. Later the camera zooms in on spies that have been following Beck the whole time. The video has references to the films Midnight Cowboy and The 400 Blows.
At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, Beck won a total of five awards. Three were for "The New Pollution" and "Devils Haircut" won two: Best Editing and Best Male Video.[5]
The video for "Devils Haircut" was later made available on YouTube in 2009 and had generated more than 10.5 million views as of September 2021.[6]
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's "Soul Drums"; the drumbeat during the verses comes from Them's cover of James Brown's "Out of Sight"; 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.[7]
B-sides and remixes
"Devils Haircut" was released with a number of B-sides, which included many remixes:
CD #1 includes two remixes. One by Noel Gallagher of Oasis, and the other by Mike Simpson of The Dust Brothers. The former adds a roaring guitar, emphasized over all other instruments on the track while the latter is a more jazzy 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 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 "The New Pollution".
Another remix, "Richard's Hairpiece", was done courtesy of Aphex Twin, 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 "The New Pollution".
