Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), also known as Moondog, was an American musician, composer, theoretician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. He was blind from the age of 16.
Hardin lived in New York City from the late 1940s until 1972, and during this time he could often be found on 6th Avenue, between 52nd and 55th Streets, wearing a cloak and a horned helmet sometimes busking or selling music, but often just standing silently on the sidewalk. He was widely recognized as "the Viking of 6th Avenue" by thousands of passersby and residents who were not aware of his musical career.[1] (wiki)
I remember well the first time somebody mentioned his name. It was a feature in "rororo Rocksession 03" (also a topic of "fandom", these books offered then, in the 70ies, what I expect from rock-critics, deep insights instead of just hype).
Given the fact that there was no internet, no google, no napster and no blogs, even no disc in the record collections of my friends, but being very curious listening to what this blind indian created as music, I had to wait a while until I could grab my first records - meanwhile more informed by several gerrman public radio features and Karl Lippegaus portraying him in a two hours long "soundcheck".[JD left this in the comments, a very good read with more information i have to share (aside of german radio rock features as my favourite sources of information. "The ear is the way", to quote JE Berendt)]
There's a lack of Moondog Boots (if you have some, please comment here) so I assemble some youtube stuff to pay tribute to this curious guy.
some full records
and some guys paying tribute
I found your article curious & oblivious from the expected sources. But while my recollection comes from actuality rather than wiki-whatever I feel i should share. I remember seeing Moondog in the 60s in NYC. He wasnt "unknown"- He was known as Moondog. Even to suburban teenagers. We knew who he was & his name & that he was a musician. Perhaps he was mentioned in the Village Voice which was part of why we visited Manhattan. He was also commonly in the Village- not just uptown. Lastly for all the discussion about "bootlegs". There are albums & there is this https://www.francemusique.fr/en/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-moondog-viking-6th-avenue-20499 a well worthwhile read
ReplyDelete> I remember seeing Moondog in the 60s in NYC
ReplyDeleteah, thanks for sharing. Interesting to hear that he was more of a public person than in my imagination. To me he's representing one of the kind of those folks with a (to others) strange vision of what to do with his life and not getting disturbed by those who don't ... and being remembered for that while others trying to flow with the stream and being forgotten ;)
> oblivious to the expected sources
As I mentioned I started with this article in that book. The whole series "Rock Session" almost had formative influence on my personal favourites (book 1 started with "Rock & Magic - The magical view of The Can") and the rest was formed in a pre-internet era by radio features in german radio.
> bootlegs
Also in the 70ies I became a "deadhead", parts of the scene I grew up was heavy into trhe Dead and listening to their live-recordings, so to me a band isn't just the records they made - i like to hear them live. I would be glad if there were boots of moondog (being aware of all the records he made)
Thanks for the link, I added it in my post.