"Devils Haircut" is a song by the American musician

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, 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 mus ...

, released in December 1996 by

DGC Records DGC Records (an initialism for the David Geffen Company) was an American record label that operated as a division of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, which is owned by Universal Music Group. In 1999, after the PolyGram merger into UMG which crea ...

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 num ...

'' (1996). Both co-written and co-produced by Beck, the song 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 advertis ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the 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), o ...

, number 23 on the ''Billboard''

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

chart and number 22 on the UK Singles Chart. Its music video was directed by

Mark Romanek Mark Lee Romanek (; born September 18, 1959) is an American film, music video and commercial director and photographer. He is best known for directing the films ''One Hour Photo'' (2002) and ''Never Let Me Go (2010 film), Never Let Me Go'' (2010) ...

and filmed in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' ranked "Devils Haircut" number six in their list of "Singles of the Year" in 1996, while ''

Q Magazine ''Q'' was a British popular music magazine. 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''. ''Q'' was published in print in the ...

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

Critical reception

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

'' wrote, "The original "Devil's Haircut" is the

we all know, love and hope doesn't move in next door with his weird pets and garden sculptures. It starts like a Sixties stripper bar band ..and goes on to puree

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and lunacy into one springy pop tune while Mr Hansen rambles space-cake poetry about mouthwash and briefcases over the top." After the song was ranked number six on the magazine's "Singles of the Year" list in December 1996, they added, "Rickety hip hop propping up a twisted R&B tune, stabs of

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

and electro, ridiculously abstract lyrics which somehow made sense. Novelty item? Inventive delight." ''

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 We ...

'' gave 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 Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' declared it as "a typically aberrant mixture of beatbox pop and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

poetry from the gifted

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

n oddball."

Music video

The accompanying music video for the song is directed by American filmmaker and photographer

. It features Beck walking through various

locations, wearing cowboy attire and carrying a

boombox A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape players/recorders and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid-1990s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered thro ...

. 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 ...

. 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 directed by John Schlesinger, adapted by Waldo Salt from the 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy. The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with supporting roles played by Sylvia Miles, J ...

'' and ''

The 400 Blows ''The 400 Blows'' () is a 1959 French Coming-of-age film, coming-of-age Drama (film and television), drama film, and the directorial debut of François Truffaut, who also co-wrote the film. Shot in the anamorphic format List of anamorphic forma ...

''. 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 honor 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 in February 1997 by DGC Records as the third single from his fifth album, ''Odelay'' (1996). It was written by Beck with John King and Michael Simpson, and produced by Beck with D ...

" and "Devils Haircut" won two: Best Editing and Best Male Video. The video for "Devils Haircut" was later made available on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

in 2009 and had generated 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, funk and jazz musician. He is known for his precise time-keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the Purdie sh ...

's " Soul Drums"; the drumbeat during the verses comes from

Them Them or THEM, a third-person singular or 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-fict ...

's cover of

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

's "

Out of Sight ''Out of Sight'' is a 1998 American action comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Frank, adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1996 novel. The first of several collaborations between Soderbergh and actor George Clooney, it was ...

"; and the guitar riff was taken from another Them track, "I Can Only Give You Everything" (written by

Scott Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sas ...

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# "Devils Haircut" 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 serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for since 1999. The district covers most of the eastern portion of the state, including Idaho Fa ...

Critical reception

Music video

Samples

Track listings

Personnel

B-sides and remixes

Charts

References

External links