Saturday, May 23, 2009

Happy Birthday Doc

I've had some relationship with Moog synthesizers since I was very small. From my love of The Beatles who managed to use the Moog so tastefully on Abbey Road to Gershon Kingsley who recorded an album in my grandfather's temple and featuring his iconic voice.

As a young artist I dreamed of being really professional, at least enough to warrant my owning a Minimoog. A short time later I had the gear and was trading and debating ideas with Bob Moog himself when it came to things like alternative controllers, our shared love of the then forgotten Theremin and later his effects pedal line.

I don't think Bob cared whether a customer was famous or if a good idea came from the peanut gallery. He was generous with his time and loved what he did.

Shortly before he died I began my dream of building a Moog modular. I was advised by a friend that this would be a waste of time and money given the difficulty of the task of buying a few modules at a time WHEN I could find them.

Over the years I met a hell of a lot of people, almost all terrific and interesting. People who worked with Moog (the man), at Moog (the company) and of course with Moog the instruments. Some of these people became friends and some shared their stories of a funny man who caused a funny machine to make funny sounds.

The piece of music I played tonight was for one person, whether he heard it or not.