This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

It's hard to overstate just how important record album art was to music

before we downloaded everything.

Our experience with a record or CD used to be visual.

The design of the record cover was your first impression of what was to come.

I would stare at the fonts on the cover and pour over the liner notes the first time I put an album on.

It was a ritual.

I'm not saying that era of music was better. It wasn't, it was just different.

The art on the records tried to encapsulate the essence of a band and then that essence was transferred to you because you were a fan and it became part of your identity too.

At least that's what it felt like.

Album art was certainly important to my friend and reporter Sean Cole,

one certain album and one certain band in particular.

Roman, were you ever a Devo fan?

I was more of a Devo appreciator.

I don't think I was really a fan.

Like I listened, I liked the songs I heard.

I remember Whip It when I was a kid.

I remember they were not a devotee. I remember they were not a devotee. I remember the red hats and I have a particular

memory of them doing a cover of I can't get no satisfaction by the Rolling Stones on Saturday Night Live wearing these yellow hazmat suits

You know like they were really weird. Yes, weird. Yes

So this story is about that Devo album, the one that they were promoting on that's our Night Live performance you saw.

More specifically, it's about the album art of that record.

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