Moondog New York
Where did Hardin play the drums?
Where did Moondog play the drums?
From the late 1940s until 1972, Moondog lived as a street musician and poet in New York City, playing in midtown Manhattan, eventually settling on the corner of 53rd or 54th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. He was not homeless, however, or at least not often: he maintained an apartment in upper Manhattan and had a country retreat in Candor, NY, to which he moved in 1972. He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry and his musical philosophy. In addition to his music and poetry, he was also known for the distinctive fanciful "Viking" cloak that he wore. Already bearded and long-haired, he added a Viking-style horned helmet to avoid the occasional comparisons of his appearance with that of Christ or a monk, as he had rejected Christianity in his late teens. He developed a lifelong interest in Nordic mythology, and maintained an altar to Thor in his country home in Candor.  In 1949 he traveled to a Blackfoot Sun Dance in Idaho where he performed on percussion and flute, returning to the Native American music he first came in contact with as a child. It was this Native music, along with contemporary jazz and classical, mixed with the ambient sounds from his environment (city traffic, ocean waves, babies crying, etc.) that created the foundation of Moondog's music.  In 1954, he won a case in the New York State Supreme Court against disc jockey Alan Freed, who had branded his radio show, "The Moondog Rock and Roll Matinee", around the name "Moondog", using "Moondog's Symphony" (the first record that Moondog ever cut) as his "calling card". Moondog believed he would not have won the case had it not been for the help of musicians such as Benny Goodman and Arturo Toscanini, who testified that he was a serious composer. Freed had to apologize and stop using the nickname "Moondog" on air, on the basis that Hardin was known by the name long before Freed began using it. CANNOTANSWER
playing in midtown Manhattan, eventually settling on the corner of 53rd or 54th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan.
Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), known professionally as Moondog, was an American composer, performing musician, theoretician, poet, and inventor of several musical instruments. Largely self-taught as a composer, his work drew inspiration from jazz, classical, Latin, and Native American music. His music, strongly rhythmic and contrapuntal, later influenced minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

Moondog was blind from the age of 16. He lived in New York City from the late 1940s until 1972; during this time he could often be found on 6th Avenue, between 52nd and 55th Streets, wearing a cloak and a horned helmet. He sometimes busked or sold music, but often just stood silently on the sidewalk. He was recognized as "the Viking of 6th Avenue" by thousands of passersby and residents who were not aware of his musical career.

Biography and career

Early life
Born to an Episcopalian family in Marysville, Kansas, United States, Hardin started playing a set of drums that he made from a cardboard box at the age of five. His family relocated to Wyoming and his father opened a trading post at Fort Bridger. He attended school in a couple of small towns. At one point, his father took him to an Arapaho Sun Dance where he sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a tom-tom made from buffalo skin. He also played drums for the high school band in Hurley, Missouri.

On July 4, 1932, the 16-year-old Hardin found an object in a field which he did not realise was a dynamite cap. While he was handling it the explosive detonated in his face and permanently blinded him. After learning the principles of music in several schools for blind young men across middle America, he taught himself the skills of ear training and composition. He studied with Burnet Tuthill at the Iowa School for the Blind.

He then moved to Batesville, Arkansas, where he lived until 1942, when he obtained a scholarship to study in Memphis, Tennessee. Although he was largely self-taught in music, learning predominantly by ear, he learned some music theory from books in braille during his time in Memphis.

In 1943, Hardin moved to New York, where he met classical musicians including Leonard Bernstein and Arturo Toscanini, as well as jazz performers such as Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman, whose upbeat tempos and often humorous compositions would influence Hardin's later work. One of his early street posts was near the 52nd Street nightclub strip, and he was known to jazz musicians. By 1947, Hardin had adopted the name "Moondog" in honor of a dog "who used to howl at the moon more than any dog I knew of".

New York City
From the late 1940s until 1972, Moondog lived as a street musician and poet in New York City, playing in midtown Manhattan, eventually settling on the corner of 53rd or 54th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. He was rarely if ever homeless, and maintained an apartment in upper Manhattan and had a country retreat in Candor, New York, to which he moved full-time in 1972. He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry and his musical philosophy. In addition to his music and poetry, he was also known for the distinctive fanciful "Viking" cloak that he wore. Already bearded and long-haired, he added a Viking-style horned helmet to avoid the occasional comparisons of his appearance with that of Christ or a monk, as he had rejected Christianity in his late teens. He developed a lifelong interest in Nordic mythology, and maintained an altar to Thor in his country home in Candor.

In 1949, he traveled to a Blackfoot Sun Dance in Idaho where he performed on percussion and flute, returning to the Native American music he first came in contact with as a child. It was this Native music, along with contemporary jazz and classical, mixed with the ambient sounds from his environment (city traffic, ocean waves, babies crying, etc.) that created the foundation of Moondog's music.

In 1954, he won a case in the New York State Supreme Court against disc jockey Alan Freed, who had branded his radio show, "The Moondog Rock and Roll Matinee",  around the name "Moondog", using "Moondog's Symphony" (the first record that Moondog ever cut) as his "calling card". Moondog believed he would not have won the case had it not been for the help of musicians such as Benny Goodman and Arturo Toscanini, who testified that he was a serious composer. Freed had to apologize and stop using the nickname "Moondog" on air, on the basis that Hardin was known by the name long before Freed began using it.

Germany

Along with his passion for Nordic culture, Moondog had an idealised view of Germany ("The Holy Land with the Holy River" — the Rhine), where he settled in 1974.

Moondog revisited the United States briefly in 1989, for a tribute at the New Music America Festival in Brooklyn, in which festival director Yale Evelev asked him to conduct the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, stimulating a renewed interest in his music.

Eventually, a young German student named Ilona Goebel (later known as Ilona Sommer) helped Moondog set up the primary holding company for his artistic endeavors and hosted him, first in Oer-Erkenschwick, and later on in Münster in Westphalia. Moondog lived with Sommer's family and they spent time together in Münster. During that period, Moondog created hundreds of compositions which were transferred from Braille to sheet music by Sommer. Moondog spent the remainder of his life in Germany.

On 8 September 1999, he died in Münster from heart failure. He is buried at the Central Cemetery Münster. His tomb was designed by the artist Ernst Fuchs after the death mask.

He recorded many albums, and toured both in the U.S. and in Europe—France, Germany and Sweden.

Music
Moondog's music took inspiration from street sounds, such as the subway or a foghorn. It was characterized by what he called "snaketime" and described as "a slithery rhythm, in times that are not ordinary [...] I'm not gonna die in 4/4 time". Many of his works were highly contrapuntal, and he worked hard on counterpoint.

Moondog's work was praised by Artur Rodziński, the conductor of New York Philharmonic in the 1940s. He released a number of 78s, 45s and EPs of his music in the 1950s, including an unusual record of stories and songs for children with Julie Andrews and Martyn Green, in 1957, called Songs of Sense and Nonsense - Tell it Again, as well as several LPs on the Prestige, a jazz label. For ten years no new recordings were heard from Moondog until producer James William Guercio took him into the studio to record an album titled Moondog for Columbia Records in 1969. "Stamping Ground" from the album was included on the 1970 CBS sampler Fill Your Head with Rock. 

A second album produced with Guercio, entitled Moondog 2, featured Moondog's daughter June (b. 1953) as a vocalist and contained song compositions in canons and rounds. The album did not make as large an impression in popular music as the first had. The two Columbia albums were re-released as a single CD in 1989.

Inventions

Moondog also invented several musical instruments, including a small triangular-shaped harp known as the "oo", another which he named the "ooo-ya-tsu", and a triangular stringed instrument played with a bow that he called the "hüs" (after the Norwegian, "hus", meaning "house"). Perhaps his best known creation is the "trimba", a triangular percussion instrument that the composer invented in the late 1940s. The original Trimba is still played today by Moondog's friend Stefan Lakatos, a Swedish percussionist, to whom Moondog also explained the methods for building such an instrument.

Influence
Moondog's music from the 1940s and 1950s is said to have been a strong influence on many early minimalist composers. Philip Glass has written that he and Steve Reich took Moondog's work "very seriously and understood and appreciated it much more than what we were exposed to at Juilliard".

In July 1956 the British jazz composer and musician Kenny Graham recorded the album Moondog and Suncat Suites with a thirteen-piece band featuring such performers as pianist Stan Tracey and drummer Phil Seamen. "Moondog" featured Graham's arrangements of ten Moondog compositions, whereas "Suncat Suite" consisted of a sequence of six of Graham's own compositions inspired by Moondog. HMV issued the original LP album in 1957; Trunk Records reissued it on CD in 2010.

Moondog inspired other musicians with several songs dedicated to him. These include "Moondog" on Pentangle's 1968 album Sweet Child and "Spear for Moondog" (parts I and II) by jazz organist Jimmy McGriff on his 1968 Electric Funk album. Glam rock musician Marc Bolan and T. Rex referenced him in the song "Rabbit Fighter" with the line "Moondog's just a prophet to the end…". The English pop group Prefab Sprout included the song "Moondog" on their album Jordan: The Comeback released in 1990. Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin covered his song "All Is Loneliness" on their 1967 self-titled album. The song was also covered by Antony and the Johnsons during their 2005 tour. Mr. Scruff's single "Get a Move On" from his album Keep It Unreal is structured around samples from "Bird's Lament". New York band The Insect Trust play a cover of Moondog's song "Be a Hobo" on their album Hoboken Saturday Night. The track "Stamping Ground", with its preamble of Moondog reciting one of his epigrams, was featured on the sampler double album Fill Your Head with Rock (CBS, 1970).  Canadian composer and producer Daniel Lanois included a track called "Moondog" on his album/video-documentary Here Is What Is.

Between 1970 and 1980, a blind bearded mystic called "Moondog" appeared as the title character in a four issue series of Underground comix written and illustrated by George Metzger.

Since the early 1970s, a number of professional wrestlers have been named The Moondogs, taking inspiration from the artist.

Discography

Singles
"Snaketime Rhythms (5 Beat) / Snaketime Rhythms (7 Beat)" (1949), SMC
"Moondog's Symphony" (1949–1950), SMC
"Organ Rounds" (1949–1950), SMC
"Oboe Rounds" (1949–1950), SMC
"Surf Session" (c. 1953), SMC
"Caribea Sextet"/"Oo Debut" (1956), Moondog Records
"Stamping Ground Theme" (from the Kralingen Music Festival) (1970), CBS

EPs
1953 Improvisations at a Jazz Concert, Brunswick
1953 Moondog on the Streets of New York, Decca/Mars
1953 Pastoral Suite / Surf Session, SMC
1955 Moondog & His Honking Geese Playing Moondog's Music, Moondog Records

Albums
1953 Moondog and His Friends, Epic
1956 Snaketime Series (not the same as the 1954 LP), Moondog Records
1956 Moondog, Prestige
1956 More Moondog, Prestige
1957 The Story of Moondog, Prestige
1969 Moondog (not the same as the 1956 LP), Columbia
1971 Moondog 2, Columbia (with insert: Round the World of Sound: Moondog Madrigals with scores)
1977 Moondog in Europe, Kopf
1978 H'art Songs, Kopf
1978 Moondog: Instrumental Music by Louis Hardin, Musical Heritage Society
1979 A New Sound of an Old Instrument, Kopf
1981 Facets, Managarm
1986 Bracelli, Kakaphone
1992 Elpmas, Kopf
1994 Sax Pax for a Sax with the London Saxophonic, Kopf/Atlantic
1995 Big Band, Trimba
2005 Bracelli und Moondog, Laska Records

With Julie Andrews and Martyn Green
1957 Songs of Sense and Nonsense - Tell it Again, Angel/Capitol

Compilations
1991 More Moondog/The Story of Moondog, Original Jazz Classics (reissue of Prestige albums listed above)
2001 Moondog/Moondog 2, Beat Goes On (reissue of the two Columbia albums issued above)
2004 The Viking of Sixth Avenue, Honest Jon's
2005 The German Years 1977–1999, ROOF Music
2005 Un hommage à Moondog tribute album, trAce label
2006 Rare Material, ROOF Music
2007 The Viking Of 6th Avenue (disc inside biographical book), Process ().  Reissue, Honest Jon, 2008
2017 The Viking of Sixth Ave., Manimal

Various artist compilations
1954 New York 19 (recorded and edited by Tony Schwartz), Folkways
1954 Music in the Streets (recorded and edited by Tony Schwartz), Folkways
1958 Rosey 4 Blocks (arrangement by Andy Forsythe), Rosey
1970 Fill Your Head With Rock, CBS
1998 The Big Lebowski motion picture soundtrack, Mercury
2000 Miniatures 2, Cherry Red
2006 DJ-Kicks: Henrik Schwarz, K7 Records
2006 The Trip: Curated By Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey, Disc 1 Track 19: "Pastoral"
2008 Pineapple Express Motion Picture Sound Track, Track 9 "Birds Lament," Moondog & The London Saxophonic.

Performed by other musicians
1957 Moondog and Suncat Suite by British jazz musician Kenny Graham features one side of interpretations of the work of Moondog
1967 "All Is Loneliness" by Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin, on their self-titled first album 
1968 "Moon Dog" by Pentangle on Sweet Child
1968 "Spear for Moondog (parts 1 and 2)" by jazz organist Jimmy McGriff on Electric Funk
1970 "Be a Hobo" by The Insect Trust on Hoboken Saturday Night 
1978 Canons on the Keys by Paul Jordan, unreleased
1983 Here's to John Wesley Hardin by R. Stevie Moore, unreleased
1985 "Theme and Variations" performed by John Fahey on the album Rain Forests, Oceans and Other Themes
1990 Love Child Plays Moondog, EP, Forced Exposure
1990 "Moondog" by Prefab Sprout on Jordan: The Comeback 
1993 "All is Loneliness" by Motorpsycho on Demon Box (album) and Roadwork Vol. 4: Intrepid Skronk
1995 Alphorn of Plenty by Hans Kennel, Hat Art
1997 "Synchrony Nr. 2" by Kronos Quartet
1998 Trees Against the Sky compilation album, SHI-RA-Nui 360°
1998 "Paris" by NRBQ, live, on You Gotta Be Loose and NRBQ: High Noon - A 50-Year Retrospective
1999 "Get a Move On" (structured around samples from "Bird's Lament (In Memory of Charlie Parker)") by Mr. Scruff on Keep It Unreal
2004 Bracelli und Moondog CD Ensemble Bracelli, Germany w Stefan Lakatos. LASKA records
2005 "All Is Loneliness" by Antony and the Johnsons, live 
2005 Sidewalk Dances by Joanna MacGregor & Britten Sinfonia, Sound Circus SC010
2006 Moondog Sharp Harp by Xenia Narati, Ars Musici
2007 "Paris" by Jens Lekman, live
2009 "Rabbit Hop" by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
2009 "New Amsterdam" by Pink Martini on Splendor in the Grass
2010 The Orastorios - Moondog rounds by Stefan Lakatos/Andreas Heuser, Makro 
2011 Making Moonshine - Moondog Songs by Moondog Fans by Various Artists, SL Records
2011 Chaconne 1 & Viking 1 by R. Stevie Moore, unreleased
2013 Seeds of Immortality Spirit of Moondog w Stefan Lakatos. Moondog music for saxophones.
2013 tRío lucas - homage to Moondog in the introduction of the song desintegración de la antimateria by tRío lucas
2013 Moondog Mask by Hobocombo
2014 Perpetual Motion (A Celebration of Moondog) by Sylvain Rifflet & Jon Irabagon
2015 Beyond Horizons Moondog Piano/Percussion by Mariam Tonoyan and Stefan Lakatos and friends. CD Moondogscorner.de/Rockwerk records
2015 Cabaret Contemporain Plays Moondog by Cabaret Contemporain
2016 A Tribute To Moondog by Condor Gruppe (2016) on Condor Men Records – Format: Vinyl, LP, Mini-Album
2017 New Sound by Ensemble Minisym (2017) on Association Bongo Joe Records (Genève) – Format : Vinyl, CD, LP
2018 Moondog by Katia Labèque & Triple Sun
2018 Erk-Moondog Ensemble Bracelli w Stefan Lakatos. CD Moondogscorner.de/Rockwerk records Germany
2019 The Witch of Endor by Kreiz Breizh Akademi #7 "Hed" (Brittany, France)
2019 Moondog Piano Trimba by Dominique Ponty and Stefan Lakatos, SHIIN Records CD (France)
2019 Moondog - The Stockholm 1981 Recordings Moondog & Stefan Lakatos w friends. Vinyl LP brus&knaster KNASTER 048. Sweden

References

Further reading

Articles

Books

External links
 Moondog's Corner
 Moondog discography at Discogs
 Moondog: the Man on the Street, WBAI; ubu.com
 Moondog's Artist Page on Spotify

1916 births
1999 deaths
Musicians from Kansas
Musicians from New York City
Musicians from Wyoming
People from Marysville, Kansas
American street performers
American jazz composers
American male jazz composers
Blind musicians
Street people
American Modern Pagans
Outsider musicians
People from Uinta County, Wyoming
American experimental musicians
Inventors of musical instruments
Avant-garde jazz percussionists
Minimalist composers
20th-century American poets
20th-century American composers
Modern Pagan poets
Jazz musicians from New York (state)
20th-century American inventors
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century jazz composers
Performers of Modern Pagan music
Tim Hardin 1 is the debut album by folk artist Tim Hardin, released in 1966 on Verve Records.

History
Tim Hardin 1 contains one of his most well-known and frequently covered songs, "Reason to Believe"a notable hit for Rod Stewart in 1971. Some of the songs were demos that ended up on the final release. Hardin was reportedly displeased with the string arrangements added after principal recording was completed.

The album photography was shot by Lisa Law (credited as Lisa Bachelis) in the garden of her home, which was known as "The Castle" and where Bob Dylan was staying at the time. One of the outtakes of this album shoot was used for Hardin's last album as well as he died the day Law was to photograph him for his new album, Hang On to a Dream.

Tim Hardin 1 was re-released on CD in 1998 by Repertoire along with Tim Hardin 2.

It was voted number 711 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).

Reception

Allmusic stated in their review: "Tim Hardin 1 is one of the most powerful and compelling records of its era... The result is a seminal folk-rock album, every bit as exciting and urgent as it was in 1966, and as important a creative effort as Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. And this wasn't even Hardin's best album, though it set the pattern for everything he did after."

Track listing
All songs written by Tim Hardin; except where noted
Side one
"Don't Make Promises" – 2:26
"Green Rocky Road" (Traditional, with lyrics by Len Chandler and Robert Kaufman) - 2:18
"Smugglin' Man" – 1:57
"How Long" – 2:54
"While You're On Your Way" – 2:17
"It'll Never Happen Again" – 2:37

Side two
"Reason to Believe" – 2:00
"Never Too Far" – 2:16
"Part of the Wind" – 2:19
"Ain't Gonna Do Without" – 2:13
"Misty Roses" – 2:00
"How Can We Hang On to a Dream?" – 2:04

Personnel
Tim Hardin – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Gary Burton – vibraphone
Bob Bushnell – bass
Earl Palmer – drums
Buddy Saltzman – drums
Jon Wilcox – drums
John Sebastian – harmonica
Phil Kraus – background vocals
Walter Yost – bass
Artie Butler – string arrangements
Technical
Val Valentin - engineer
Lisa Bachelis - photography

References 

1966 debut albums
Tim Hardin albums
Verve Forecast Records albums
Albums produced by Erik Jacobsen Bird on a Wire is an album by folk artist Tim Hardin, released in 1971. It was Hardin's second release on Columbia Records. It peaked at No. 189 on the Billboard Pop Album charts and was his last album to chart.

Background
Hardin had one of his few commercial successes with his single of Bobby Darin's "Simple Song of Freedom", which reached the US Top 50. He did not tour in support of the single and failed to capitalize on its success. For his second Columbia release, producer Ed Freeman had most of the backing tracks recorded in advance for Hardin to later come to the studio and perform his vocals. Although Hardin later considered it one of his best performances, calling it "good clean superiority", the album did not sell well. Shortly after its release, Hardin moved to England.  In contrast to Hardin's previous releases where he had written all his own material, Bird on a Wire includes cover songs for four of the ten tracks. By this time, his drug addictions were beginning to take a larger toll on his live performances and songwriting output. It was his last recording done in the US.

The sessions featured contributions from numerous jazz musicians including  Joe Zawinul, Miroslav Vitouš and Alphonse Mouzon of Weather Report, Glen Moore, Ralph Towner and Collin Walcott of Oregon, and future Peter Gabriel/King Crimson bass guitarist Tony Levin (at the time, still working mainly in the jazz and fusion field).

Bird on a Wire was re-issued on CD by Sony in 1989 and Sony Japan in 2005.

Reception

In his review for Allmusic, music critic Bruce Eder wrote "The singing is exquisite, poignant, and powerful and the production is as tasteful and eloquent as any in Hardin's output. This might not be the place to start listening to Tim Hardin (though there are worse places for that as well) in terms of finding out what he was about, but it's also as essential as anything in his output and a lot closer to the core of who he was than, say, Tim Hardin 4."

Track listing
All tracks composed by Tim Hardin; except where indicated

Side one
 "Bird on the Wire" (Leonard Cohen) – 5:29
"Moonshiner" (Trad.)– 3:15
 "Southern Butterfly" – 2:53
 "A Satisfied Mind" (Joe Hayes, Jack Rhodes) – 2:07
 "Soft Summer Breeze" – 2:59

Side two
 "Hoboin (John Lee Hooker, Joe Josea; arranged by Joe Zawinul) – 3:28
 "Georgia on My Mind" (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell; arranged by Joe Zawinul) – 4:33
 "André Johray" (arranged by Bill Chelf) – 2:50
 "If I Knew" – 3:55
 "Love Hymn" – 4:37

Personnel
Tim Hardin – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Joe Zawinul – keyboards
Warren Bernhardt – keyboards
Sam T. Brown – guitar
Bill Chelf – keyboards
Ed Freeman – guitar, string and horn arrangements
Monte Dunn – guitar
Steve Haas – drums, percussion
Paul Hornsby – keyboards
Bill Keith – pedal steel guitar
Tony Levin – bass
Glen Moore – bass
Richard Bock – cello
George Ricci – cello
Margaret Ross – harp
Ralph MacDonald – drums, percussion
Natoga (Daniel Ben Zebulon) – drums, percussion
Alphonse Mouzon – drums, percussion
Mike Mainieri – vibraphone, background vocals
The Canby Singers – background vocals
Robert Popwell – bass
Rob Rothstein – bass
Joe Rudd – guitar
Bill Stewart – drums, percussion
Gilles Malkine - guitar
Ralph Towner – guitar
Miroslav Vitouš – bass
Collin Walcott – vibraphone, background vocals

Production notes
Produced by Bob Devere and Ed Freeman
Engineered by Jim Greene, Lacy O'Neal, Doug Pomeroy
Mastered by Lous Schlossberg

References

External links
Triste 1 article by Ian Sharrock

1971 albums
Tim Hardin albums
Columbia Records albums