performing a cover of ¡°Tighten Up¡± by Archie Bell & the Drells, two years after the November 1978 release of the trio¡¯s eponymous first album
Dressed in logoed button-downs with red armbands, conjuring images of Mao Zedong¡¯s Red Guards, the three members performed a curiously fresh update of the early funk hit that featured a vocoder, synths and exaggeratedly accented lyrics spoofing Asian stereotypes in the West: ¡°We are YMO! From Tokyo, Japan! We don¡¯t sightsee, we dance. You understand?¡±
Planted in the studio audience of hip, mostly African-American, youth was the group¡¯s manager, Yoichi Ito, in boxy glasses and a business suit. With cameras dangling from his neck, he held aloft a paddle that read ¡°Wow.¡± Though he was meant to stand still, a prop for the joke in the song¡¯s increasingly desperate refrain (¡°Japanese gentlemen, stand up, please!¡°), he got caught up in the dancers, who grooved and cheered him on. The whole thing was joyous.
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