Moondog: Part Two - The Early Years

continuing with Moondog ...

Pre Moondog (Moonpuppy)

Born to an Episcopalian family in Marysville, Kansas, Hardin started playing drums that he made from a cardboard box at the age of five. His family relocated to Wyoming and his father opened a trading post at Fort Bridger. He attended school in a couple of small towns. At one point, his father took him to an Arapaho Sun Dance where he sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a tom-tom made from buffalo skin.
Hardin played drums for the high school band in Hurley, Missouri before losing his sight at the age of 16 in a farm accident on July 4, 1932, involving a dynamite cap. After learning the principles of music in several schools for blind young men across middle America, he taught himself the skills of ear training and composition. He studied with Burnet Tuthill and at the Iowa School for the Blind
He then moved to Batesville, Arkansas where he lived until 1942, when he got a scholarship to study in Memphis, Tennessee. Although the majority of his musical training was self-taught by ear, he learned some music theory from books in braille there

(Moon) DOGGY STYLE: Moondog moves to NYC in 1943 – stays 30 years:

By 1946 he adopted the name "Moondog" in honor of a dog "who used to howl at the moon more than any dog I knew of".

Moondog's music took its inspiration from street sounds, such as the subway or a foghorn. It tended to be relatively simple but characterized by what he called "snaketime" and described as "a slithery rhythm, in times that are not ordinary [...] I'm not gonna die in 4/4 time"

Moondog's music took its inspiration from street sounds from the various sounds that surrounded him -- fog horns, street cars, footsteps, echoes, sirens -- and also learned to appreciate the importance of silence in composition. Pairing these influences with his early inspiration from Native American rhythms, Moondog released his first record,

“Moondog’s Symphony,” in 1949.

Moondog - Improvisations in 4/4

Moondog - Improvisations in 7/4

"I'm into swing. I get that from the American Indians like the Sioux, the Arapahoe and the Apache. They have this drum-beat, heart-beat. Bom, bom, bom. They had the walking beat, which is slower, and the running beat, which is faster. I used that almost all the time on this record. I claim that swing came from them. If you listen to Indian music from the plains, you'll hear that there's a steady swing beat and the big tom-tom is syncopated with swing-type melodies. 'rhythmically I'm in the past. Melodically and harmonically, I'm in the present or avant-garde.'

Single Foot

'Rhythmically in the past,' that goes back to the Indians. Even counterpoint comes out of the past. It's goes back to 1100 or 1200. Harmonically, my music is the same as Bach and Beethoven and Brahms and those people. No difference really. Rhythmically, it also goes back to the past- the swing rhythms of the Indians. You really couldn't find anything more syncopated. If you get a chance, listen to some Sioux Indian recordings or Cheyenne or Blackfoot Indians. You see how syncopated their rhythms are.

Using what he called “snake rhythm” (a slithery, complex beat that was a far departure from popular music at the time), Moondog’s creation was unlike anything ever produced: Moondog Symphony

“’Mr. Rhythm’ would be one of his sobriquets, the ‘off-beat’ percussionist who not only created ‘odd’ ditties in 5's and 7's (and who knows what else) and who also fashioned new instruments to lend them greater distinction, thereby, not by accident, attracting even further attention.”

More about snake time here (and otherwise a great window looking upon Moondogs life in general)… http://www.moondogscorner.de/biography/chap3.html

More odd time signatures

Moondog - Rim Shots

Moondog - Hardshoe (7/4) Ray Malone

5/8 In Two Shades

A Moonchild ...

He was married twice and had 2 daughters (June Hardin, and ???)

First married in 1943 and subsequently divorced.

A second marriage, to Sazuko Whiteing, a musician, in the 1950's, ended in divorce in the early 1960's

A second album produced with Guercio featured one of Moondog's daughters as a vocalist and contained song compositions in canons and rounds. The album did not make as large an impression in popular music as the first had.

Moondog 2

Moondog Dogma …

He identified with the Norsemen reflected in his apparel … he’d adopted a full Viking-esque regalia: a horned helmet (his symbol of “virility”), a long, tapered spear (his symbol of “freedom”), self-crafted leather boots, and a flowing, bulky ensemble of blankets, cloths, and capes. As far as religion, "I went along with what they said. I didn't know any different until I was in my late teens. My sister began reading a lot of philosophy to me and that undermined my belief in Christianity. The Greek thinkers and Pythagorus had a big influence on me. Shakespeare had a big influence on me and I was impressed with what Newton did. Then I gave religion up completely. That Christian influence didn't last very long.” ... a free thinker indeed!

Moondog's view on Street Performing:

“I made my living that way and I got exposure. It really worked because I hadn't been on the streets for more than a few weeks of the fall of '49 when I was written up. By January of '50, I was sitting in the doorway of Spanish Music Center on Sixth Avenue (which isn't there anymore) owned by Gabriel Oller. He said 'I like the music you're making. I made records. Would you like to make some singles?' We did three singles together and then I got other offers including a Columbia album. The first one was with a forty-piece orchestra that (producer) Al Brown got together. He really did a lot for me.”

For 30 years until 1972, Moondog lived as a street musician and poet in New York City, playing in midtown Manhattan, eventually settling on the corner of 53rd or 54th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. He was not homeless, however, or at least not often:

he maintained an apartment in upper Manhattan and had a country retreat in Candor, NY(where he moved in 1972). He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry and his musical philosophy. (Article on stories of Candor … https://www.ithaca.com/news/past_cover_stories/did-you-hear-moondog/article_8f382258-3e10-11e6-8db3-3f84f4362d9e.html)

Hardin built an 8-by-16 foot log cabin in about 1961, with more help from the neighbors, that was both insulated and had a wood stove. Hardin lived full-time in Candor for about 16 months, starting in 1972.

Photo in NYC dressed like Viking at Candor, NY

Moondog - Chaconne in G major

Moondog the Poet:

His poetry and his music share a same interest for rhythm. His couplets – a poem of two lines, of the same meter, that rhyme – can remind of the canons he has been inspired by for his music. As one of the couplets declares: ‘I find the greatest freedom in the stricture of a form/That paradoxes abnormality within a norm’. 50 Couplets is published by Lenka Lente.

From the late 1940's until the early 1970's, Mr. Hardin stood at attention like a sentinel on Avenue of the Americas around 54th Street. Soon after moving to New York City in the mid-1940s, Moondog was granted the rare privilege of listening to Philharmonic rehearsals by director Arthur Rodzinski. Moondog was known first for his appearance, but years of prominence brought people into his life who recognized how serious a musician he was: to give just one example, he lived for a time with the composer Philip Glass, who considered Hardin’s work influential on his own.

He wrote music for radio and television commercials, and one of his compositions was used on the soundtrack for the 1972 movie ''Drive, He Said,'' with Jack Nicholson.

Along the way, Mr. Hardin wrote Bohemian broadsides against government regimentation, the world monetary system and organized religion. He was celebrated by Beat Generation poets and late-1960's flower children.

Poetry examples http://www.moondogscorner.de/poetry/

A snow-flake landed on my hand and said, as if in fear, "I must be on my way, before I turn into a tear."
The Whole declared, "You´ll never know the sum of all My parts, so stop your foolish figuring, and mend your broken hearts."
You like? you like the thoughts? you like the thoughts i think? you do? They're naught to me compared to just one fleeting thought of you.

Viewpoint “I am an observer of life, a non-participant who takes no sides. I am in the regimented society, but not of it.” -- Moondog, 1964

Ostrich Feathers Played On Drum

His passionate unconventionality drew praise from some critics and led to interviews on many television shows, including both ''Today Show” and ''The Tonight Show.''

Surf Session