Dylan Producer Don DeVito Dies
The man helped make the album Desire sadly passes away aged 72
DeVito, who worked as a producer and A&R executive at Columbia for forty years, died of prostate cancer on 25 November aged 72.
During a remarkable career in the industry he worked with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, the Byrds, Aerosmith, but he will probably be best known for producing Dylan's Desire and Street Legal albums.
Rolling Stone Magazine reports that DeVito began his tenure at CBS when he joined the Executive Training Program in 1967. He was placed in the sports division but soon transferred to CBS Records, where he worked as the Local Promotion and Artist Relations representative in Miami. In 1971 – soon after CBS became Columbia Records – DeVito moved to New York to work in the marketing department. He was instrumental in bringing Dylan back to the label in 1974 after the singer worked briefly with Geffen.
And it was his work with Dylan in 1976 on the Desire album (which contained an array of Dylan classics such as "Hurricane," "Isis" and "Romance in Durango") which really made his name.
In more recent times DeVito won the Best Traditional Folk Recording Grammy in 1989 for the tribute disc Folkways – A Vision Shared: A Tribute To Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly while in 2001, he helped organise The Concert For New York City 9/11 tribute at Madison Square Garden.
In a statement Columbia Records said that DeVito had been suffering for prostate cancer for the past 16 years before he sadly passed away last Friday.
RIP Don DeVito, 1939 - 2011