R.I.P Bob Casale of Devo

Devo’s Bob Casale dead of heart failure

From the article:

Sad, but true.

61? Older than I thought, but still too young. I just went through a re-listen to ( mostly older ) Devo phase a few months back. They kinda became a bit of an overplayed joke in their later years, but they really were humorously subversive early on.

RIP.

Got to see them for the first time a few years ago and they put on a hell of a show. They played their entire “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” album.

Sad news.

Ddamn. Devo has long been one of my favorite groups, even though their output after Oh No! It’s Devo was almost uniformly terrible. Sad to hear of Bob’s death; his guitar work on their older material totally fucking rocked.

Huge fan and got to see them play live a few times. With Mark and Jerry, it would be easy to miss the contributions of Bob 1 and Bob 2, but from reading the Devo biography you realize how talented both in the band and outside they were. Doubly amazing to realize the two set of brothers have basically worked together for almost 40 years on a variety of projects.

RIP Bob 2

Devo was awesome.

R.I.P. Bob. :frowning:

Exactly. I always loved how they were lumped into synthy bands but always had a strong guitar sound. Devo totally rocked - the fact that they did it in a new and different way made them that much cooler.

Thanks, Bob 2.

R.I.P. Bob Casale.
o.k. let’s go!

You’re thinking of Bob 1 - Bob Mothersbaugh is the guitarist. Bob 2 was keyboards.

Regardless, he’ll be missed.

I saw Devo in '08 in Sydney and they totally blew me away–the music had a vitality and urgency that converted me from an admirer to a true fan.

This news is very sad. They were pioneers and masters of subversive rock, and yet too often they’re remembered as simply “those guys with the funny hats”. Too bad–their commentary seems more scarily prescient than ever before.

De-evolution is real!

Sorry, but you’re wrong. What I wrote is correct. Bob Casale played guitar in the band even before Bob Mothersbaugh was brought onboard. It wasn’t until Freedom Of Choice that Bob Casale began playing keyboards, but by New Traditionalists, nearly everyone in the band except Alan Myers was playing keyboards all the time.

In case you still think I’ve got it wrong, here’s some evidence:

Uncontrollable Urge (live on Fridays)
Mongoloid (live in France, 1978)
Gut Feeling (live in NYC, 1977)
Band picture

In fact, most Devo fans know that Mongoloid is based on a Bob Casale riff and that he wrote their awesome tune I’m A Potato.

The person you see on keyboards in those videos in Mark Mothersbaugh, btw.

I’ll whip it tonight in memory. Whip it good.

Damn, I’m sad to see him go.

They rocked so hard, and were wild enough that even heavy metal kids like me liked them way back when. Bob was certainly part of the attraction.

Ouch! Devo was the first band I really got into on my own–Oh No! was one of the first albums I bought (holy cow; I was 13).

My apologies, Bo. Clearly, you’re right. I was thinking you were a youngun’ who got the Bobs mixed up.

Well damn. I never got hugely into Devo, but I always think of them when I’m making whipped cream at work.

ETA: Although, in reality, according to health department rules, if the cream sits out too long, you must … throw it away.

Hey, no prob; thanks for the acknowledgement. Myself, I was impressed that you knew they were referred to by numbers! :slight_smile:

Turns out there are advantages to being nearly 50.

:smack:

FML! I resemble that remark! And ya know, I never would have thought to describe myself that way… until now… :mad:… thanks

:stuck_out_tongue: