Moondog, born Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), was a blind American composer, musician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. In New York from the late 1940s until he left in 1972, he could often be found on 6th Avenue between 52nd and 55th Street wearing a cloak and Viking-style helmet, sometimes busking or selling music, but often just standing silent and still. He was widely recognized as "the Viking of 6th Avenue" by thousands of passersby and residents who had no idea that this seemingly homeless eccentric standing on "Moondog's corner" was a respected and recorded composer and musician. (Read more at Wikipedia.)
Links to Peel[]
Peel played a number of tracks from a CD reissue of Moondog’s work in autumn 1991. On his 21 September 1991 show, the DJ noted that he had initially come across the artist's music many years before:
“I first heard that recording [‘Conversation And Music At 51st St. & 6th Ave (New York City)’] in the mid-1960s in Frank Hessey’s record shop in Liverpool…. Never bought the record at the time, because I couldn’t afford it and I wasn’t quite sure whether I liked it, but it was certainly strange, I knew that…. One of the other tracks, which I’ll play you another time, he dueted with the whistle from the Queen Elizabeth on the Hudson River…. Just remarkable stuff throughout.”
Just months before, Peel had again heard the U.S. musician, who resettled in Germany in 1974, and apparently tried to book him for a session:
“I heard him on Radio 3, I think it was, about three or four months ago, with the bass player Danny Thompson. … Phoned up in some sort of a panic to try and track him down and try and get him in to do a session before he disappeared back into the middle of Europe, or wherever it is that he is, and wasn’t able to sort that out. But if he ever comes back over here, I certainly will have another go.”
Peel promised to play another track from the CD the following evening (22 September 1991), but it is not known whether he did this, due to the limited information available on the show. Further tracks were played in subsequent programmes.
Moondog's best-known record was an eponymous LP for Columbia/CBS, which was issued in the UK in 1970 among a batch of progressive rock and jazz-rock albums on the label. It was praised in the underground press and received some airplay on the BBC's Sounds of the Seventies programmes, although so far there is no evidence of any plays on Peel's shows of the time. However, Big Brother and the Holding Company recorded a cover version of his song "All Is Loneliness" on their first LP, and Peel played it in 1967, on the Perfumed Garden; and Pentangle percussionist Terry Cox composed a tribute, simply entitled "Moondog", for the band's second LP, Sweet Child, issued in 1968.
Festive Fifty Entries[]
- None
Sessions[]
- None, although Peel did make an attempt to book one in 1991 (see comments above).
Other Shows Played[]
Moondog - Conversation and Music at 51st St. 6th Ave. (New York City)
- 21 September 1991: Conversation And Music At 51st St. & 6th Ave. (New York City) (album - More Moondog / The Story Of Moondog) Prestige
- 22 September 1991: Hard Shoe (album - More Moondog / The Story Of Moondog) Prestige
- 28 September 1991: Tugboat Toccata (album - More Moondog / The Story Of Moondog) Prestige
- 06 October 1991: Autumn (album - More Moondog / The Story Of Moondog) Prestige