Moondog: The Viking of 6th Avenue

I must have had my head under a rock or sumpthin'-- just found out about Moondog and now my head feels like it's exploded. Wow, this guy was out of this world. Can someone please loan me their time machine?

LISTEN TO OO DEBUT and VOICES OF SPRING by MOONDOG
I loved his music so much I had to share it here--- if it causes "problems" these two files may have to disappear, so cherish it whilst you may...

Born 26th May 1916 in Maryville, Kansas, Moondog wrote all his music in braille having lost his sight in an accident involving a dynamite cap at the age of 17. He studied music at the Iowa School for the Blind and later at Memphis. He was mostly self-taught determining chord structures by ear and developing his skills and theory from books. Initially he was drawn to the percussion element of music citing that his first drum kit at the age of five was nothing more than a cardboard box. His father, a minister had once taken the young Louis to the Arapaho Sun Dance whereupon he met Chief Yellow Calf and played the buffalo skin tom-tom, and rhythmical device that would reappear in his later work.

Perhaps to some degree the legend of Moondog supersedes his music, if that is at all possible, for in 1943 he came to New York in order to be closer to the 20thC classical scene. The name Moondog didn´t occur until 1947, reflecting on how he came by the title he remembered fondly a dog he owned way back in Missouri:
"We used to howl at the moon."

Arriving with no contacts and only one month´s rent, for the next 30 years he became something of a cultural enigma. It was during this period of flirtation with the Big Apple that the Moondog legend began...

CONTINUE READING AT THE OFFICIAL MOONDOG WEBSITE