He howled at the moon before Allen Ginsberg, freewheeled it to New York from the Midwest before Bob Dylan, and was more adept at self-fashioning than either of them. An object of fixation for the bohemia of the ’50s and ’60s — from Charlie Parker to Leonard Bernstein to Dylan and Ginsberg — he never saw the mainstream success of the fashionable artists who championed him. Moondog (born Louis Hardin in Marysville, Kansas) was attractive to the avant-garde partially because he was unmarketable (though Columbia records briefly tried, releasing two Moondog records in the late ’60s/early-’70s): blind, homeless, stubbornly eccentric and always dressed in his customized translation of Viking attire, he was an outsider in the most fundamental sense. A composer, poet, street performer, and inventor of instruments, he went without all but the most basic comforts and dedicated himself fully to his art.
This is a truly welcome & long-overdue tribute to the legendary Moondog, a devotional love letter to the man Louis Hardin. Once you know about this guy, there's little you can do to shake his melodies and rhythm from your head. There's a remarkable counterpoint in his music between his collection of totally unique home made instruments and an apparently innate sense of harmonics.
This collection comprises some scandalously rare new york eps from the late forties and early fifties with a splash of later material, Moondog should be a lifelong obsession for any person and when you hear his mingus-like horns on the track mr scruff unashamedly ripped wholesale for "get a move on", you should have an inkling how important this guy is. An absolute must, no joke.
| 1. Theme And Variations |
| 2. Down Is Up |
| 3. Bumbo |
| 4. Big Cat |
| 5. Oo Debut |
| 6. Lament 1 'Bird's Lament' |
| 7. Moondog's Symphony 1 |
| 8. Moondog's Symphony 2 |
| 9. Rabbit Hop |
| 10. Rimshot |
| 11. Snaketime Rhythm |
| 12. Instrumental Round |
| 13. Double Bass Duo |
| 14. Why Spend The Dark Night With You? |
| 15. All Is Loneliness |
| 16. Snaketime Rhythm |
| 17. Dragon's Teeth |
| 18. Oboe Round |
| 19. Be A Hobo |
| 20. Dog Trot |
| 21. Oasis |
| 22. Avenue Of The Americas |
| 23. 2 W 46th Street |
| 24. Lullaby |
| 25. Fog On The Hudson |
| 26. Utsu |
| 27. On And Off The Beat |
| 28. Chant |
| 29. From One To Nine |
| 30. Improvisation In 4/4 |
| 31. Enough About Human Rights! |
| 32. Viking |
| 33. Rimshot |
| 34. Chaconne In G Major |
| 35. Oasis |
| 36. Invocation |
He howled at the moon before Allen Ginsberg, freewheeled it to New York from the Midwest before Bob Dylan, and was more adept at self-fashioning than either of them. An object of fixation for the bohemia of the ’50s and ’60s — from Charlie Parker to Leonard Bernstein to Dylan and Ginsberg — he never saw the mainstream success of the fashionable artists who championed him. Moondog (born Louis Hardin in Marysville, Kansas) was attractive to the avant-garde partially because he was unmarketable (though Columbia records briefly tried, releasing two Moondog records in the late ’60s/early-’70s): blind, homeless, stubbornly eccentric and always dressed in his customized translation of Viking attire, he was an outsider in the most fundamental sense. A composer, poet, street performer, and inventor of instruments, he went without all but the most basic comforts and dedicated himself fully to his art.
This is a truly welcome & long-overdue tribute to the legendary Moondog, a devotional love letter to the man Louis Hardin. Once you know about this guy, there's little you can do to shake his melodies and rhythm from your head. There's a remarkable counterpoint in his music between his collection of totally unique home made instruments and an apparently innate sense of harmonics.
This collection comprises some scandalously rare new york eps from the late forties and early fifties with a splash of later material, Moondog should be a lifelong obsession for any person and when you hear his mingus-like horns on the track mr scruff unashamedly ripped wholesale for "get a move on", you should have an inkling how important this guy is. An absolute must, no joke.
2 comments:
This is excellent stuff - great posting.
Nik
you're welcome nik... & i agree,it's an awesome album.x
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