Robert Bell - Devil You Know (Book)

This is my forward to Rob's book of lyrics that has just been released - you can get it directly from Rob - contact him at either his Facebook page, The Psyatics or the Unwieldies.


Rob Bell and I met at the debut gig of his band, the Psyatics, and since then our combos have played together numerous times and, in fact, I am now play guitar in his group, so I suppose you could say that I dig his work. With the tumultuous din and crash’n’bash caused by the music, it is sometimes difficult to understand Rob’s lyrics in a live setting and even on record his rockingly raucous yelps’n’slurs’n’howls’n’croons can make deciphering the code a demanding challenge. I believe it was due to the Yeller Bellies fine recordings (his previous band) that I was able to discern his turn of phrase and his penchant for telling a tale in a two-to-three minute format. I have always said that the Psyatics should include lyrics with their releases but that is not very cost effective so instead, Rob has decided to publish some of his faves in book form for those who are literarily inclined.

 Compiled here are his personal selections with many taken from the Psyatics as well as the Yeller Bellies, Seminiferous (previous to the YB’s), a smattering of brand new scribblings and some that just never found a home. Intelligent, incredibly humorous, absolutely sacrilegious, sexy, dark (a cornucopia of combinations of film noir and EC Comics), incisive, tender, personal and sometimes truly uncomfortable, his words may not be pretty or put you at ease, but whoever said that poetry should do that?

 I especially appreciate Rob’s notes he has added after each of the lyrics, explaining a bit about his thought process or at least his state of mind at the time of writing and occasionally reassuring you that he is not the man in the narrative. There are clever similes’n’metaphors, religious imagery galore, crime tales, hedonism, individualism, a bit of politics, relationship twists’n’turns and lots more but you should discover these for yourself. Dive in and be certain to purchase the albums to have the compendium soundtracks!