Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Moondog
"Logründr No. XVII in E Major"

Moondog
Instrumental Music by Louis Hardin
LP
(Musical Heritage Society, 1978)


Moondog (née Louis Hardin) was a blind, homeless, Viking-garbed musician and composer who lived on the streets of Manhattan in the mid twentieth century. Probably not what you'd expect of the composer of this beautiful piece for pipe organ. He recorded and released scads of records from the late 1940s until his death in the late 1990s.

The parent of today's piece is an album of instrumental classical compositions, though Moondog also dabbled in jazz, madrigal, big band music, and stuff that's much harder to genrefy other than to call it Moondogesque. I first heard of him when I bought a 7" EP of all Moondog covers by the band Love Child in the late 1980s. I picked up a CD compiling his two major label albums for Columbia Records not long after, and was hooked.

NOTA BENE: I tagged this West Germany, in addition to USA, as Moondog moved there in 1974, a few years before this was recorded.

3 biased opinions:

VirginiaM said...

Speaking of oddly garbed Manhattan street musicians...let's have some Thoth!

Biki Honko said...

Very good! Please post more of him. Not a cover, but actually him. Please and thank you!

Lightning Baltimore said...

This is him! Louis Hardin is Moondog, and vice-versa.