Chango

Song Name: Chango

Artist: DEVO (cover song)

Appears On: 

Hardcore Volume 2 (1991)

DEVO Live: The Mongoloid Years (1992)

Year Recorded: 1975

Run Time: 3:10

Writing Credits: Gerald V. Casale / Mark Mothersbaugh

Inspired By: Kwambï ceremony songs, and a women's song

Sung By:

Jerry (with Mark?) [Hardcore demo]

Jerry [live]

Partial Performances:

10/31/75 - WHK Auditorium, Cleveland, OH (WMMS-FM Halloween Party)

07/25/77 - Starwood, West Hollywood, Los Angeles County, CA

Onstage Behavior: Unknown.

Alternate Versions:

Lyrics paired with the music for the Corporate Anthem

Live versions have distorted vox.

Song Connections:

• Lyrics lightly adapted from kwambï ceremony songs, and a women's song
• Lyrics including "'I come down the river to kill many people" were paired with an early version of the "DEVO Corporate Anthem", according to Mark.
• The synth line starting at 01:11" was later redone and featured on "Plain Truth"

Trivia / Info:

• Changó means monkey in Spanish. This song title may also reference a a transliteration of a Yoruba god name.[3]
• The character voices in this song include that of a certain uncle, and his nephew. Mark reportedly voices the "Dear Uncle" to "Deaf (Death) Debbie" section
• The full 10/31/75 live recording of Chango was cut from Live: The Mongoloid Years

• In addition to using the transcribed song lyrics, DEVO may also be interested in Basso’s detailed account of Kalapalo society, including a sport played with a latex rubber ball, and the concept of a "Shadow Self".

• This song has some of DEVO's weirder lyrics

Lyrics:
[Transcribed lyrics]

    Chango!
    Chango!
    
    Your bailer!
    
    I come up the river
    like Meat Man
    I come up the river
    like Skunkman Fly
    I come up the river
    to kill many people
    I come up the river
    with my laser gun
    
    Dear Uncle, Dear Uncle, Dear Uncle
    Dear Uncle. Dear Uncle
    Your son just had intercourse
    with Baggy Breast
    Your son just had intercourse
    with Deaf Debbie
    
    My mommy didn't hold me when I was young
    She didn't give me breast and went insane
    My mommy didn't hold me when I was young
    She didn't give me breast and went insane
    
    Now I come up the river
    like a Beat Man
    I come up the river
    like Skunkman Fly
    I come up the river
    to kill many people
    I come up the river
    with my laser gun
    

Video

Short Fim / Music Video - None.

Fan Videos -

⸰ “CHANGO” uploaded to YouTube by el Giron

⸰ “Devo Chango Left Minus Right Audio Channel Mix US Enclosure Company” uploaded to YouTube by David tHOMAS

⸰ "Chango" has also inspired dance, film, and music interpretations.

Song Reviews:

⸰ “‘U Got Me Bugged’ and ‘Chango’ are unclassifiable collages of distortion and terrifying electronic industrial noise.” - Nick Reed (2013)

⸰ “...The album’s middle section consisting of “U Got Me Bugged” and “Chango”, which is either Devo at their best or Devo at their most unlistenable.” - CRITTERJAMS (2022)

Additional Info:

The lyrics are about sex, violence, and neglect:

⸰ ”I come up the river like Meat Man” - “Meat Man” is an alter ego of a DEVO co-founder, [redacted]. He is included in the earlier “Polymer Love”.

Additionally, Jerry has said he and Bob 1 drove a meat truck in Akron.

⸰ ”I come up the river like Skunkman Fly” - Skunkman Fly is reportedly a stylish pimp. An animated Skunkman was to have appeared in an online club that featured musical performances by several DEVO characters.

⸰ ”Dear Uncle, Dear Uncle, Dear Uncle...”

”Your son just had intercourse with baggy breast”

”Your son just had intercourse with Deaf Debbie”

- [Chango] is addressed by his nephew, regarding his son’s relations with a certain Debbie, who may be genetically unfit, but still lives.

The above lyrics were taken, nearly verbatim, from a traditional women’s song, translated by Basso, Phd. (Basso, 1973, 102 [PDF 121])

⸰ “My mommy didn't hold me when I was young” “She didn't give me breast and went insane” - These DEVO lyric lines are from a kwambï song, and they resonate with certain “Huboon Stomp” and “That’s What He Said” lyrics that convey the idea:

I have been hurt, I will hurt others.

(Basso, 1973, p.74 [PDF 93])

⸰ “Now I come up the river like a Beat Man” - “Beat” Man is from a transcription of the second iteration of this verse. This idea resonates with lyrics from the later “That’s What He Said”:

“Big man beats the little man, and the little man starts to beat...”

⸰ “I come up the river to kill many people” is directly from the English translation of a kwambï song. (Basso, 1973, p.10 [PDF 29])

⸰ ”I come up the river with my laser gun.” - “Laser gun” was originally “With war clubs, with bow and arrow drawn,...” (Basso, 1973)

•   A person from a small stone age society, who is technologically sophisticated [with a laser gun], would embody a certain DEVO ideal.

References

Further reading:

Basso, Ellen B. (University of Arizona) "Relationships With Human Beings and Nonhumans" [Chapter 2], and ”The Network Of Kinship And Affinity” [Chapter 6];

The Kalapalo Indians Of Central Brazil : Case Studies In Cultural Anthropology, General Editors George and Louise Spindler, Stanford University. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. (1973):10

(PDF, 29 of 175), and 102 (PDF, 121 of 175)

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