When I was a kid, about 10 or 11 years old, my cousin Tim, who was a hippie at the time, showed me his latest toy. It was the most intriguing, fascinating, totally captivating thing I had ever seen. Ever. I didn’t know what it was, or what it did. But, it had wires sticking out of it in every imaginable direction. At that time, I loved wires. It didn’t really matter what they did, I just loved the wires. So, we turned it on, it did nothing. He then explained to me that it was a synthesizer. It made sounds. However, since he couldn’t afford the real thing, he had made this one himself. It was the first purely electronic musical device. Instead of playing beautiful notes like an organ would, this thing sounded like rockets going off, guns shooting, slingshots, bells, just about any imaginable sound except what you would expect to hear coming out of a keyboard. What made it really cool was those sounds could change pitch just like a musical note would. You could play a melody of gunshots going off. You could play a rocket lifting off. You could create sounds no man had ever heard before. It was cool. I was totally in awe of this electronic device that combined my love of wires with my love of music.
Some time later Tim came to visit and informed me that he had gotten the real thing and didn’t need his generic any more. I took it. For a year or so I wore that thing out, literally. When I was 14 or 15 or so, some friends and I formed a band and I played that thing as best I could. Since it didn’t really play music, I had to backup and play a Fun Machine for the music. But, whenever possible, I would add some strings or something via the homemade synthesizer. However, it kept bombing out on me and I soon realized why Tim had spent the money to get the real thing. I soon had to abandon my synthesizer for a more reliable instrument. I just as quickly abandoned the band entirely because "their" music didn’t suit my tastes in expanded possibilities of music. It would be many, many, many years later that I would rekindle that same flame via computerized midis. However, what computerized midis did was allow me the same options I had using Tim’s homemade version of this:
The Moog synthesizer. Now, whoever’s playing this one isn’t pushing it for all it’s worth. You could have twice as many wires running. What made the old Moogs fun to watch was to see how quickly the performer could re-program their keyboard in mid-song. The early masters included who I consider the all-time rock and roll greatest keyboard player of them all, Rick Wakeman:
Now, Rick didn’t really use the Moog for much other than effect. But, not only did he have about five keyboards going at all times, but he was re-wiring his Moog in mid-song as well. His hands would just be flying everywhere making these far-out spacey hippie songs. Given his druthers, he would just play piano. Another candidate for all time greatest keyboardist would have been Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. They did some pretty far-out sounds as well. Here’s Keith with his Moog and the topic of this post:
That guy on the left is Bob Moog. The guy who invented the Moog synthesizer. The ultimate geek. The man who actually thought you could take the soul and heart of music and apply it with nothing but electricity. And, he did it. And, it worked. Today, most all music is electronically created. Whether it’s the over-synthed guitar sounds, the enhanced vocals of Britney Spears or any of the "alternative" bands, the ripping of old songs by rappers, or whatever. That’s all just electronically enhanced music. The thing I enjoy doing most when I am completely alone late at night is electronically remixing songs I grew up with. Doing it totally electronically on my PC.
Doing it purely as the brainchild and concept of Robert Moog.
Robert Moog died yesterday of a brain tumor. He was barely 71.
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