Bob Casale, the guitarist and original member of the US New Wave band Devo best known for the 1980 hit Whip It, died on Monday from heart failure at the age of 61, his brother and bandmate said.
"His sudden death from conditions that led to heart failure came as a total shock to us all," Gerald Casale said on the group's website on Tuesday.
Devo, whose name is a contraction of "de-evolution," was formed in 1972 in Akron, Ohio, and later moved to Los Angeles. The band consisted of the Casales and brothers Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh. The group's former drummer, Alan Myers, died of cancer last year.
Devo started out as an underground band and released an influential debut album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo!, in 1978 that was produced by British recording pioneer Brian Eno.
The band hit the mainstream with the 1980 song Whip It from its Freedom of Choice album. The video for the single received wide play in the early days of MTV.
Devo also recorded off-beat covers of the Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and Allen Toussaint's Working in the Coal Mine.
"As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning. He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer, and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got," his brother wrote on the band's website.
"He was excited about the possibility of Mark Mothersbaugh allowing Devo to play shows again."
Thank you for posting this. I'd just read about it on a news site and was wondering/hoping someone would make mention here. As was said in your post it was shocking. Along with his bandmates he supplied good music. He will be missed.
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boomerang
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Tue 18 Feb, 2014 05:33 pm
Awww. I loved Devo. They were so much fun. I saw them in concert many years ago and it was one of the most visually interesting bands I've ever seen.
I've been thinking about them lately -- Mark Mothersbaugh had a short profile piece in the current issue of "Esquire". One of the things he says in the piece that I love is:
Quote:
Devo could have been a church that married creationsim and evolution. Science and faith could have come together and held hands as Devolution and we could have changed everything. Instead of going to clubs and dancing disco, we could have had a church that would have done organized calisthenics.
When I read that I thought "I totally would have gone to that church."
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hingehead
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Tue 18 Feb, 2014 11:11 pm
I remember them fondly - when New Wave hit in the late 70s so many incredibly different sounding bands playing genrebending stuff. My first band did Mongoloid in our first repertoire of five whole songs. Up there with Gang Of Four, XTC, The Cure, The Clash, Human League, The Jam, OMD, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Psychedelic Furs, Ultravox, B-52s, The Saints all hacking their own paths through popular music with a machete.
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