Devo were booked by their soundman in 1975 as a joke to open for experimental jazz artist Sun Ra at the WMMS-FM Halloween Party.

The results were hilarious in retrospect, but at the time some attendees were so upset with Devo, their music, and their antics they were forced off the stage with the threat of violence.

This was a bit out of the ordinary for the powerful Cleveland rock station who fancied itself a bit of a rebel, whose sassy buzzard was its mascot.

But Devo that Halloween were intentionally obnoxious.

The soundman, Eddie Barger, knew people at the FM station and billed the relatively unknown New Wave pioneers as a Bad Company cover band.

In '75, Bad Company had released their second (and some say their best) album, Straight Shooter, which contained such staples as "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Good Lovin' Gone Bad," and "Shooting Star."

Who wouldn't want to hear a Bad Company cover band at your private workplace Halloween party?

Well Devo had no intention of playing any of those songs nor "Can't Get Enough" or "Ready For Love" or "Bad Company" all from the debut album Bad Company. Nor would they ever.

Even though Devo is known for creating one of Mick Jagger's favorite Rolling Stone covers, "Satisfaction," they've only covered five artists more than three times and none are named Bad Company.

Devo, as the staffers of the Cleveland rock station quickly found out, are one of the most original bands to ever come from Ohio and that night they'd only play their own material, and some of the songs got the extended treatment to be especially annoying.

They also got the live debut of one of their most beloved tracks, their theme song in a way, the classic "Jocko Homo" which includes the lyrics "Are we not men? We are Devo," which they used for the title of their debut album.

Even though the 4-track recording of the show was made by the band and later cleaned up and released on The Mongoloid Years compilation, the 28 minutes that made it to vinyl is reportedly only half of the infamous performance.

Bassit Gerald Casale described the scene that night in The Mongoloid Years liner notes:

"Dressed as witches, gangsters, and hunchbacks, and high on nitrous oxide (provided by the station), hash and liquor, they are eagerly awaiting a slick cover band who can deliver precise, immaculate, renditions of Bad Company hits," he wrote. "Instead, they are subjected to DEVO. Appearing as four theatrical characters (Booji Boy: Mark Mothersbaugh; Clown: Bob Mothersbaugh; Jungle Jim: Jim Mothersbaugh; and Chinaman: Gerald V. Casale) and using homemade electronic drums, a mini-moog, a clavinet, a customised lobotomized Hagstrom guitar, and bass, we proceed to torture stoned urban hippies with "performance art" way before that label even existed."

Casale continued writing that when they debuted the robotic song, they almost wanted there to be an altercation.

"Playing 'Jocko Homo" here for the first time, we incite members of the hideously costumed audience to invade the stage," he recalled. "They threaten to 'beat the shit out of you assholes.' We, of course, decide it is our duty to keep going. By the time Sun Ra opens his set with '25 Years To The 21st Century,' DEVO has managed to clear the entire auditorium. Only the band and a half-dozen friends from Akron are there to hear Sun Ra's incredible performance."

Mothersbaugh later told The Onion Devo practically scared Sun Ra out of appearing.

"Sun Ra almost never came out on stage, because there were fist fights between the audience and Devo. They were doing tequila sunrise out of a big 50-gallon vat and taking... What drug were they taking? Oh, the one you inhale. Laughing gas or something," the singer said.

"At the time, we were a lightning rod for hostility. We would play a song like 'Subhuman Woman' for seven minutes. We'd play 'Jocko Homo' for 30 minutes, and we wouldn't stop until people were actually fighting with us, trying to make us stop playing the song. We'd just keep going, 'Are we not men? We are Devo!' for like 25 minutes, directed at people in an aggressive enough manner that even the most peace-lovin' hippie wanted to throw fists. We were in a negative-energy vortex back in the mid-'70s."

Devo is currently on their farewell tour, so some of the advertisements and posters say.

The band begs to differ, claiming the shows they are doing right now are simply their 50th Anniversary gigs.

This November Devo will be traveling around the west coast and in December they have three gigs booked in Australia.

Will they finally play "Bad Company"? Get your tickets on their website and find out.