Devo guitarist Bob Casale has died at the age of 61, from health complications that led to heart failure. In a post on the group’s Facebook page, Casale’s brother Gerald said that Bob’s death “came as a total shock to us all,” and that he was “a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got.”
Casale had been a member of the new wave group since about 1976, when the then-in-flux band began firming up its personnel. Bob was brought to the group by his brother Gerald, and along with brothers Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh and Alan Myers, they created a weird, offbeat type of rock that ultimately took them to mass-market fame with the success of 1980’s “Whip It.”
Bob Casale was born in Kent, Ohio in 1952, and was a trained medical radiation technician before leaving the field to join Devo. The group released its first single, “Mongoloid/Jocko Homo” in 1976, the b-side of which came from a film about the band, The Truth About De-Evolution. A 1978 EP, Be Stiff, caught the attention of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, who got the band a deal with Warner Bros. Records. The group’s first record, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, was released in 1978 and featured production from Brian Eno. A second LP, Duty Now For The Future, followed in 1979.
The group’s real breakthrough came in 1980 with the release of Freedom Of Choice and its single, “Whip It.” The track quickly became a Top 40 hit, and affirmed the group’s recent move toward a more electronic sound. Devo released several more records to diminishing returns before being dropped from Warner Bros. in 1984.