The article recounts Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh’s unexpected encounter with John Lennon after a 1978 show at Max’s Kansas City in New York. Lennon recognised the Beatles-inspired opening of Devo’s ‘Uncontrollable Urge’ and enthusiastically shouted its “yeah, yeah, yeah” refrain, turning what Mothersbaugh described as a deliberate musical theft into a striking endorsement from one of his heroes.

Mothersbaugh had modelled the song’s introduction on ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, songs that had influenced him since seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show aged 12. Lennon, who was with Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter and reportedly drunk, leaned into Devo’s van to sing the refrain; Mothersbaugh later said the encounter felt so extraordinary that he “could die now” and go to heaven.