MOONDOG – The Story Of Moondog. 4-Men With Beards 4M 177. FACTORY SEALED NEW VINYL RECORD ALBUM. Originally issued on the Prestige label in 1957. This remastered edition issued in 2010. Pressed on 180g vinyl. TRACKS, SIDE 1:  Up Broadway, Perpetual Motion, Gloving It, Improvisation, Ray Malone Softshoe, Two Quotations In Dialogue, and 5/8 In Two Shades. SIDE 2:  Moondog’s Theme, In The Doorway, Duet, Trimbas In Quarters, Wildwood, Trimbas In Eights, and Organ Rounds.

 

DESCRIPTION: 

 

Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), aka Moondog, aka The Viking of Sixth Avenue, (an outsider whose streetwise excentricities and approach to music was similar to that of fellow outsider Eden Ahbez) enjoys something of a more unique biography than your average contemporary musician and composer. Blinded in a farming accident at the age of 16, Moondog spent many years eking out a hand-to-mouth existence on NYC street corners, living homeless, dressed in somewhat idiosyncratic garb (horned helmet, cape) with his wild but regal beard and mane of hair. He apparently adopted these sartorial accoutrements because he kept being mistaken for Jesus. But before you start imagining some beyond-eccentric street corner nut job, Moondog was a composer of complex simplicity who maintained a unique balance of freedom and sophistication. He built up a loyal clan of fans largely due to his patch being near the 52nd Street Nightclub, a famous Jazz joint. Among his admirers he could count Duke Ellington, Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, Dylan, and Steve Reich, who attempted to dub him the Godfather of Minimalism. It was a title that the Viking politely but firmly refused. You might know Moondog, though. The rather tedious Mr Scruff lifted Birds Lament (from Moondog 1) for his world-famous Get A Move On (which later went on to be used to sell nappies or matches or something) and that gives you a sense of the strange motion at work here. Hardin loved Native American music and Bach, and also invented various instruments during his career:  the one that is featured on this album is the OO, a shimmering harp-like sound device that further adds to the feel of what could be described as a kind of urban shamanism. The Story Of Moondog, originally issued on the Prestige label in 1957, represents Moondog in the raw; a small world away from the lush orchestrations of later albums Moondog 1 & 2, which were recorded at the tail end of the 60s and early 70s, respectively, when he was rediscovered and brought to Columbia Records by Chicago and Buckinghams producer James William Guercio.

 

Moondog learned to play drums on a cardboard box when he was five, and all of his work glistens with a strange rhythmic off-kilter heartbeat. This becomes the foundation for further percussion, chanting, saxophone (though that rarely appears on these early releases), occasional piano, tap-dancing, New York traffic, poetry, readings from the man himself and... tugboat horns. The music alone is remarkable by anybody's standards but all these environmental snippets, the overheard conversations and the life of Moondog's exterior surroundings transform the release into a surreal field recording- a shifting soundscape pivoting on the Viking's inherent lopsided (outsider) aural perception of life, the world, the universe, and everything. It seems pointless to single out individual tracks. Listen to this for what it is - a subtly shifting journey and a remarkable snapshot of a remarkable man and the people and the city around him.

 

SIDE BAR: 

 

PART 1:  This is the 15th title in Moondogs discography (includes both singles and albums). The cover is by Andy Warhol, hand-written by his mother, Julia Warhola (this can be seen at the down right corner of the original front sleeve; this edition has it in tiny print along the lower right edge of the jacket). No more than 5,000 copies were made of the original Prestige release. (SOURCE: "Andy Warhol: The Record Covers 1949-1987", The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Prestel Publising).

 

PART 2:  In the early 1950s, a young Cleveland disc jockey named Alan Freed got his hands on a copy of Moondog Symphony, and was instantly obsessed with it. He began calling his show The Moondog House, touted himself as The King of the Moondoggers, and used Moondog’s album as his show’s theme song, without permission. When Moondog’s fans heard the program, they immediately recognized that Freed had capitalized on the musician’s talent, and urged him to take action. So, in 1954, Moondog -- the bearded, homeless, Merlin-look-alike -- took on radio’s hottest DJ in court, filing an injunction against him. Despite the fact that Moondog’s works were not copyrighted, he was awarded $6,000 in personal damages, and Freed was forced to discontinue the use of Moondog -- largely thanks to the fact that prominent swing musician Benny Goodman had come to Moondog’s defense. 

 

 

 

THIS ITEM IS NEW AND UNPLAYED. Used items will include condition details for the cover, disc, inserts, etc.

 

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