Bob Moog died this afternoon. Synthesizer enthusiasts have known about his battle with an inoperable brain tumor for months; frankly, it never looked remotely hopeful for the guy, but we all sent him our prayers and best wishes.
Moog’s contribution to modern music is almost incalculable; his modular moog systems and later the Minimoog synthesizer had an enormous impact on the direction of modern music, truly changing the course and guiding the development of all genres of music and all music technology that followed.
It really is strange when I look at my moog equipment (the moogerfooger pedals and the more recent Mimimoog voyager) and think “this guy’s not around anymore.”
Wow. My brother dated his daughter, and my wife dated a theramin-player, and I believe he lived here in Asheville. I imagine my social group is going to be kinda rocked by this.
I had an album years ago, “Everything You Always Wanted to Hear on the Moog”. First time I’d heard Bolero.
I have a Theramin, but it’s not a Moog. In the closed MPSIMS thread, a couple of Theramin players reported in. And now a couple in this thread. I run my Theramin through a guitar effects box for added fun, but I’m hardly a virtuoso.
Don’t know if he still lived there during his illness, but he definitely was living there a few years ago. Saw him at services at Beth Israel a few times when I was visiting with my wife’s family.
According to something I saw on Slashdot, it’s supposed to be pronounced as the latter (as in “Worf, son of,” as a Slashdot wag pointed out), but that the man himself said that he kind of liked the “cow” sound better.
Yep–he lived in Asheville, although I was wrong about who his daughter was. She was a friend of my brother’s, not a girlfriend, and a very sweet person.
Back when I was in college, one of our professors (Dick Grayson*) was a friend of his. They performed together and I saw 'em. Great, cutting edge stuff. I’m am saddened beyond words.
