Artist Profiles/Tributes/Bios

[Ruby]

Stumbled upon what I thought was quite a nice song by a band called Moondog. Looking them up resulted in finding something completely different! A true eccentric who went by Moondog and was also known as ‘The Viking of 6th Avenue’. In brief, Louis Thomas Hardin (26 May 1916 - 08 September 1999) was a composer, poet and inventor of musical instruments – a street busker who’d lost his sight at the age of 16 due to picking up a cap of dynamite and not realising what it was. Dreadful. He wasn’t homeless, or indigent, and had, in fact, even ended up on an obscure children’s record with Julie Andrews which must be one of the most bizarre collaborations in the world, as well as having known the likes of Charlie Parker and Phillip Glass. From what I’ve read the Viking apparel that Moondog used to wear came about because before he started dressing that way, people would refer to him as resembling Jesus (or their idea of him) which he didn’t like – and because of a lifelong interest in all things Nordic, along came a horned helmet (which doubled as a protection against bumping into poles) and sword!

One of life’s more fascinating characters – a counter-culture proponent of note and entirely his own unique personage – he liked unusual time signatures which he called 'snaketime rhythms', rebelled against regularity of most descriptions and famously (or infamously) declared “I’m not gonna die in 4/4 time”. Interestingly though – he garnered a fair amount of respect in the circles of the day as a serious musician and composer and was far from being a complete flake, other than in outward appearance perhaps - books/covers, never a good idea to make assumptions! A snippet that struck me was that he did not improvise – all his work was notated. Perhaps due to the loss of his sight, he was acutely aware of all sounds he experienced and which he incorporated into his work in different ways. There’s a lot more about him on the www.

Oh well – that little investigation has satisfied my curiosity for now, and I quite like his tribute to the aforementioned Charlie Parker – “Bird’s Lament” which is his best-known piece. He does interesting things to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” too (or what sounds very much like it). Busy listening to his eponymously title album at the moment. Forgot all about the other lot which seem rather tame by comparison. Lol!

Some references, bits and pieces:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moondog
https://www.macleans.ca/culture/the-weir...f-moondog/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neLfKmGHwgo

“Bird’s Lament” – the very long version – you only need to listen to two minutes and you’ll have the gist – carries on in the same vein – some people love the endlessness, others won’t. Nice artwork.