Bob Casale of Devo has passed away.

Some might question why I'm placing this death notice in this forum. Well the simple reason why is because it really is the appropriate place for anything about Devo and really talking about who these guys were and what they experienced is more respectful to Bob Casale than just sticking a notice in the Music forum. Devo wasn't just a quirky little band from the 70's and 80's. The members of Devo were actually young anti-war protesters at Kent State and present when the National Guard opened fire upon the unarmed protesters, killing 4 and injuring 9. In their own words, the event destroyed them and when they came back to school the next fall, it seemed to them that everyone was "asleep". Their response? Devo. No Kent State shootings = probably no Devo.

vimeo.com...

Although their lyrics tend to conjure up images of whips and spud guns, the name of the band actually stemmed from the word, "devolution". Their definition of devolution was more along the lines of, instead of humanity progressing, that instead, humanity was regressing. Not evolving but devolving. The shootings at Kent State crystallized their concept of devolution:

en.wikipedia.org...

Devo wasn't just a cool and quirky new wave band. Not in the slightest. They were anti-war protesters who witnessed the murder of their peers while protesting. They were singing about our idiosyncracies, fallacies, and more. As anti-war protesters, the revelations of COINTELPRO would've been notable to them. Suddenly "Peekaboo" isn't quite a song about a child's game anymore, is it?

Rest in peace, Bob Casale. Here's to not devolving.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Respect and RIP, very influential band

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Rest in peace Bob...



Kindest respects

Rodinus

Some of the more recent tongue in cheek cynicism that drove Devo. They actually made a whole series of satirical videos that basically poke fun at some of the driving forces of today's world including marketing by doing their own "focus groups". All of them can be found on their youtube channel, DEVOvision.

Thank you for posting, Rest In Peace.

His music will live on for a long time.

Grew up listening to Devo. ''Whip It'' was my fave. We used to speed skate to it on the racing team at the local skating rink when I was a kid. Good times back then. R.I.P. Bob.

A sad passing. Devo was a pretty influential band for me as well.




...and he wore a hat...and he had a job...and he brought home the bacon so no one knew, he was a mongoloid... and it determined what he could see.

Another large part of my past has passed.
Always liked Devo, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo in particular was a regular on my turntable.

I was fortunate to catch them live in Manchester some time in 1990 I think.

I'm glad you posted this... it stunned me and I'm not usually affected by impersonal "celebrity" death.

DEVO and their whole subculture is with me to this day... I truly love their ideology, dry and wet humor, and most of all, the music.. and even their "sub-par" later work. I am a big music enthusiast (and still an anti-pop snob) and think they're one of the biggies as far as talent and influence.

I was part of a group in the 80's - 90's dubbed "Barrio Devo" ... a informal bunch of strange kids in AZ, basically, who identified strongly with the semi-serious observation about de-evolution and loved the music (and exploring altered states of consciousness). Someone wrote a doctoral thesis about us, I just found out... weird, but people write them about the lamest subjects, so no big surprise.

Anyway, their first four albums are amazing and their live performances were the best I've seen, and I saw hundreds of bands through the years. Alan, who died a few years ago, was a fantastic drummer and Bob 2, a great guitarist. Their smart geek-punk was ground breaking and the song "Whip It" while good, is not their best -although most people only identify them with that song, their one "break-out" hit.

So, it really makes me feel mortal and I'm sad... and sad for the other guys in the band as they are some of the nicest, smartest people around.

He was really too young... we're all De-vo. Maybe the lucky ones are gonna be the first to go.

And wanted to add this poor audio quality live song, one of their greats, Wiggly World and one more Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA Live

reply to post by Baddogma


I remember trying to order a DEVO hat when I was younger. Loved them so. My mother wouldn't stand for it, lol. Devo was huge for me growing up, too. They often seemed to be the only band at the time that had the same satirical, cynical view of the world that I did. I think I understand them a lot better as an adult now than I did as a kid but even as a kid, I could still "get it". Love that there was an actual group of kids somewhere in the US like that. I only knew a couple of people that loved DEVO as much as I did, lol, outside of "Whip It".



Super smart guys in my book and their music is sneaky. I don't think it's meant to be loved by everyone (despite their claim of having something for everyone lol) and that's a pity because they do really have an interesting theme.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Yup, DARK, cynical, mocking and deeply, deeply subversive with a hint of depressive joylessness couched in anthemic, acid-techno... what's NOT to love?

Eno and Devo (followed closely by Bowie in his drug days) were my first musical love affairs... I was a strange 10 year-old.

And yeah, most of their observations/humor fly far over most folk's heads... making them perfect for a sub culture that found MENSA puerile, stuffy and hilarious.

I got to hang out at Timothy Leary's house with R.A.W., that guy who started the Church of Bob Dobbs and Mark Mothersbaugh, one afternoon, and almost killed Tim Leary's son, Zak, while driving him to Mark M's house for music lessons in L.A. (ran a stop sign in Beverly Hills). I didn't get to engage as much as I would have liked because I was a tongue tied kid who was too cool to fawn over my heroes and I ended up hanging out with the dog while listening to those guys riff. The producer for Top Gun came over, too, and was a total douche. It was surreal for a tripping kid from AZ.

Mark and Zak were cool enough to not rat me out to Mr. Leary... So I met Mothersbaugh, at least, and know they are, truly, beautiful mutants. I miss that whole group of luminaries (I met them through a girlfriend in the 80's) and the world is a duller place without them.

Very Sad, if you find a problem Dave mate, just whip it. great band, will be sadly missed by us oldies.