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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Chi Chi & Devo!

Chi Chi & Devo!

by | 65 Comments

This post is in: 

Wag sent this to me on Monday:

Today is Chi Chi Rodriguez’s 88th birthday and here’s a cool video about his connection with Devo.

Wag assures me that you guys will know who Chi Chi and Devo are!  (I apparently need to get out more.)

I thought we could all use something fun; it’s been a hard week and it’s only Tuesday!

Others will know. Chi Chi was a PGA golfer in the 60s and 70s alongside Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer.  Raised in central Florida, Chi Chi worked as a child in the sugar plantations, then got a job as a caddy.  He learned to golf and become the working class golf hero. My grandfather loved Chi Chi, along with Mohamed Ali.

Devo was one of the original underground new wave bands from the 70s and early 80s.   Along with Talking Heads, Blondie, etc. they defined underground rock. Devo was heavily influenced by dada art and politically are opposed to fascism following their time as students at Kent State during the anti war protests and the shootings of protesters by the National Guard. Their unique approach to performance and cutting edge sound was the antithesis of what I think of when I think of golf.

The video documents a surprising and heart warming connection between these two seemingly disparate groups.

Here’s a couple of videos of Devo for context:

On Saturday Night Live in 78 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mEPQXz-CkKQ

Their biggest hit, Whip It https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QLzthSkfM

Their best (in my opinion) video, Its a Beautiful World.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  2. 2.

    cain

    I definitely know Devo “whip it good!”, but no idea who Chi Chi is.. and JFC, golf? I only know Jack because of all the video games with his name on it. Otherwise, at that time – I could care less about golf related stuff. :D

  4. 4.

    cmorenc

    Chi Chi’s trademark gesture was whenever he sank a putt that had a challenging degree of difficulty, he would pantomime shoving his putter like a sword back into an imaginary holster-shield by his side, with the look of joyous satisfaction of a skilled swordsman/putter.

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    @cain: I am not a golf person, either, except for the happy memories of my dad lying on the couch on Sunday afternoons, watching golf, often with his eyes closed.

    If you turned off the TV, he would tell you he was watching.

    But there’s some serious HAPPY in the first 30 seconds of the video, so you might consider giving it a look for a minute;

  11. 11.

    Punchy

    If interwebs comments are to be believed, the GOP is looking to do a McCarthy/Jordan mashup of Speaker/Asst Speaker roles.  Some sort of power sharing, probs better described as McCarthy as a complete figurehead and Jordan running everthing thru his stooge.

    These guys just absolutely suck ass at everthing.

  15. 15.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Gravenstone: thank you for the link; it was the first thing which came to mind when I read “Chi Chi.”  After watching that episode of WKRP, my father always used Les’ pronunciation.

  16. 16.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    My friend’s family invited me to stay at a cottage in the early 80s.  It had a working jukebox in the rec area with mostly shite songs.  It did, however, have Whip It.  We must’ve played it 50 times that weekend. Good times.

  17. 17.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! is the debut studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in August 1978 on Warner Bros. in the North America and Virgin Records in Europe. Produced by Brian Eno, the album was recorded between October 1977 and February 1978, primarily in Cologne, West Germany.

  18. 18.

    steppy

    @raven: I was always greatly amused by Mark’s descriptions of the early days when they would do “Are we not men?” for like 20 minutes at a time, until the crowd would get genuinely angry and ready to throw fists.

  21. 21.

    Alison Rose

    @raven: God I love Scissor Sisters. Fun fact: I first heard them when they opened for Depeche Mode at a 2006 show I was at. An interesting combo, but they were so damn fun, I bought their album the next day.

  22. 22.

    MagdaInBlack

    @raven: no, we are DEVO

    Im pretty sure that SNL clip is the first time I saw DEVO. I was horrified. Now I am very amused and know the words.

  28. 28.

    Brachiator

    Devo always amused me. I never knew that Chi Chi was used for a Devo album cover.

    Loved their cover of Satisfaction.

    “Uncontrollable Urge” is another great song.

  29. 29.

    raven

    @Alison Rose: Hmm, I feel ya. My mobility seems to be worsening despite all the surgeries and physical therapy. Of course I’m old and beat up so I did it to myself!

  32. 32.

    HumboldtBlue

    Washington Post editorial board headline:

    Democrats should help elect a Republican speaker.

    We are fucking doomed.

  33. 33.

    PatrickG

    Hate to pollute a good feeling thread, but wanted to leave WaterGirl et al with a gift link from my now-cancelled WaPo account for future posts: Democrats should help elect a Republican Speaker (gift link). It’s some jaw-dropping drivel.

    Back to good feelings, and apologies for the interruption!

    ETA: All bad feelings about interrupting good feelings should now be directed at HumboldtBlue.

    ETA2: I did enjoy writing the “cancelled my account” email, at least. :P

  34. 34.

    Dan B

    My father was a “duffer”.  He won a trophy at the Rubber Group Open in… Akron, of course.  So golf and Devo were part of my youth.  What a combo.

    And one of my brother’s girlfriends was at Kent Stat, at the shooting.

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    @Gravenstone: ​
    Classic WKRP. Not a match for the turkey drop but a good contendah for 2nd place.

    Anybody wishing further evidence of Devo’s awesomeness, check out the vast list of Mark Mothersbaugh’s film and teevee work.

    https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006205/

    Also, Devo came from the same musical beginnings as Chrissie Hynde.

  44. 44.

    brendancalling

    How is it that people don’t know who DEVO is? One of their original members was a regular at diarist at Daily Kos back in the goodle dayze—BobDevo.

    I was a huge fan as a teenager. Still am…

  45. 45.

    phein64

    @trollhattan: I have since found out that (wild) turkeys can fly!  They roost in trees at night to protect themselves from predators.  A few of those trees are in my daughter’s backyard in northern Illinois, so it’s not unusual for us to watch them take a running start before flying up onto her roof, and from there fly up into the trees.

    Of course, the turkeys we eat are so front heavy that I doubt that they can fly.

  46. 46.

    phein64

    @brendancalling: Devo was big in the late 70’s/early ’80’s.    Let’s see, that is 40-something years ago.  When I was slam-dancing at Phases II back in the day, 40-year old music would have been the Andrews Sisters, big band music, and the Harmonicats.

  47. 47.

    Barbara

    That was so much fun. I remember Devo but I wasn’t a cool kid so I wasn’t really clued in. My dad used to caddie at Oakmont Country Club when he was a kid, and would take us to putting greens and driving ranges. It didn’t take, but I found that I liked watching it during the pandemic. It’s slow and involving and every shot counts.

    Thanks for posting that!

  49. 49.

    zeecube

    I  am fairly certain I have some permanent hearing loss from attending a Devo concert at McCalister Auditorium at Tulane U. many years ago.  It was worth it.

  50. 50.

    Citizen Alan

    @Cheryl from Maryland: Les Nesman mispronouncing chi chi rodriguez’s name was funny. Johnny Fever quietly whispering the right pronunciation in his ear, followed by a second of visible panic on Les’s face, followed by Les continuing to deliberately mispronounce the name rather than admitting he was wrong was what elevated it to utterly hilarious.

  53. 53.

    Memory Pallas

    I was exactly the right age so that exposure to Devo in my late teens entirely reconfigured my relation to pop culture. Afterwards I couldn’t listen to music without a hefty dose of edge and irony for, like, a few decades (I can now because I’ve become a sentimental oldster swimming in nostalgia.) Anyone interested in Devo as artists please consider taking a look at this video. Gerald Casale (the John Lennon-ier creative partner vs Mothersbaugh’s sunny McCartney) has completely rebuilt himself as a new pop culture character in his seventies while the rest of rock’s grand old men just play themselves as old men. The music in the video might be a bit strident, don’t set the volume too high but it’s amazing. I can’t watch it without kind of seeing him embodying Joe Biden and Donald Trump cartoons wagging fingers at each other “don’t be gaslighting me, mofo!” I’m Gonna Pay you Back​

  55. 55.

    Tehanu

    @Gravenstone: I always remember Les from WKRP in Cincinnati absolutely mangling Chi Chi’s name

    Me too! And back when my hearing hadn’t got so bad, about maybe 10 or 15 years ago, we saw Devo (again) at the House of Blues and they were better than ever.

    @zeecube: I am fairly certain I have some permanent hearing loss from attending a Devo concert at McCalister Auditorium at Tulane U. many years ago. It was worth it.

    My hearing loss isn’t from them, but I’m totally with you on this.

  56. 56.

    Citizen Dave

    This was great!  Hat tips to all responsible

    Devo have a Neil Young connection.  He worked with them, and I believe one of them mentioned the Rust-O-leum (NE Ohio company) slogan Rust Never Sleeps to Neil.  The guy got a co-writer credit on HeyHey My My.

  58. 58.

    Rokka

    We knew a golf pro, went to the Crosby Clambake and saw Chi Chi a few times. The first time was at the 8th green at Pebble Beach where Chi Chi was finishing out on the front nine. He had a six foot putt for par that may have been worth about $100 so he knelt down, used his putter as a pool cue, sank the putt and did the entire sword brandish thing for about twenty spectators.
    The first time I saw the first Devo album was at the home studio for someone who eventually became a semi-famous studio/side man (Byrne, Jewel, R.E.M. Sheryl Crow etc) I said “Chi Chi made the cover!” and had to explain that Chi Chi was the de-evolution guy of golf.​

  59. 59.

    Wag

    @Tehanu:  I blame my hearing loss on the Ramones, 1979, third row.  The toes of  Johnny’s Converse high tops hanging off the edge to the stage just in front of me.

  61. 61.

    Manyakitty

    I saw Devo and the Pretenders at a Summit County (Ohio) Democratic Party fundraiser at the beautifully restored Civic Theater. It was for Obama, so a few years ago, but those dudes ROCKED THEIR FACES OFF. 🤘🤘

    (Now where is my energy dome?)

  63. 63.

    Phaedrusonbass

    Huge DEVO fan. Never made the connection with Chi Chi on the first record. What a great story.

    The only reason this had a happy ending was that Chi Chi is such a wonderful human being.

    Although, I will never get past how Les Nessman pronounced his name on WKRP :)

  64. 64.

    AM in NC

    That was GREAT!  Thanks for sharing this. And yes, Les Nessman was also the first thing I thought of when I saw this post.

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