My Top 1000 Songs #895: Gates Of Steel

February 20, 2025

My Top 1000 Songs #895: Gates Of Steel

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Devo's third album, 1980's Freedom Of Choice, managed to bring them some commercial popularity on the shoulders of the "Whip It" single. But I was never crazy about the song, which felt very novelty-track-ish, and was a little on the grating side (my issue with a lot of Devo's music, which makes me prefer them in small doses rather than album-length chunks); plus, the video (problematic?!) got played to death on late night cable shows, and then again when MTV showed up a year later.

But "Gates Of Steel," off the same album, is a more traditional rock song, every bit as quirky and novel and distinctively Devo, but brought back down to earth by more familiar-sounding power chords. And a clanky, metallic synth riff seems to harken back the The Who's "Baba O'Riley," a possibly unintentional tethering of the band to rock's forerunners.

One of my first encounters with Devo was when they showed up on Fridays, the short-lived SNL imitator, and they made an unforgettable run through this tune (though it wasn't quite the world-up-ender as their performance of "Uncontrollable Urge"). Those appearances played a large role in suggesting to my young teenage self that there was a lot of interesting music outside the boundaries of my suburban radio station.

Also, I've seen Yo La Tengo play it live a few times, validating it as a great, old-school punk-flavored rock & roll song.