Robert Moog

August 21, 2005 8:50 PM

Robert Moog has passed away after battling a brain tumor for several months. There aren't any news stories up yet, but simply key his name into Google and it's plain to see his influence on every aspect of music. The family has a caringbridge page filled with tributes and several journal entries.
posted by teletype1 (77 comments total)

He gave the world sounds it had never heard before. Rest in peace, Bob.
posted by omnidrew at 8:54 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by realcountrymusic at 8:57 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by FormlessOne at 8:58 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by maxsparber at 8:59 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by brundlefly at 9:04 PM on August 21, 2005

his various inventions have given me so many years of pleasure. what a great pity.

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posted by soi-disant at 9:05 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by neckro23 at 9:09 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by cosmicbandito at 9:12 PM on August 21, 2005

The documentary Moog has fascinating interviews with Bob and many of the artists that used his gear early on. He explains how he can "feel" what's going on in electronic circuits and how some musicians make the same emotional attachment to his gear. Certainly not your average engineer.
posted by lasm at 9:13 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by eriko at 9:13 PM on August 21, 2005

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Every time I drove through Trumansburg I'd look for him just in case he was out and about...
posted by Vidiot at 9:22 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by drezdn at 9:23 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by minkll at 9:28 PM on August 21, 2005

That's a damn shame. The Minimoog Voyager and other recent products showed he still had great ideas and the ability to turn them into reality. Who knows what else he might have had up his sleeve...

Rest in peace Bob.
posted by fleetmouse at 9:34 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by adzm at 9:35 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by ruby.aftermath at 9:45 PM on August 21, 2005

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(. as run through a vocoder)
posted by fungible at 9:49 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:53 PM on August 21, 2005

This is so sad, though I could see it coming, since he'd been battling the tumor for a while. Still, though, he was one of my heroes (so much that I got a theremin signed by him through Big Briar!). And Moog is such an excellent documentary.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 9:59 PM on August 21, 2005

rest in peace, realmoog at bigbriar dot com. thanks for the great audio toys.

fungible: :)
posted by clyde at 10:00 PM on August 21, 2005

WTF? I looked at that page for the first time today just before they said he had died! Oh no!

RIP, Mr. Moog!

I'm going to put some Perrey and Kingsley on. :(
posted by redteam at 10:04 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by swordfishtrombones at 10:08 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by trip and a half at 10:11 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by one.louder.ash! at 10:16 PM on August 21, 2005

fare thee well. the vibrations just got a little less good.
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posted by nonreflectiveobject at 10:17 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by leecifer at 10:20 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by ParisParamus at 10:21 PM on August 21, 2005

Still remember all that Walter Carlos stuff from the early 70's; it was, basically, my intro to classical music....
posted by ParisParamus at 10:42 PM on August 21, 2005

so sad.

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posted by Silky Slim at 10:57 PM on August 21, 2005

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Damn, I didnt notice this before I posted the same thing a few articles up. 8-(
posted by mrbill at 11:11 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by wakko at 11:14 PM on August 21, 2005

I just watched the documentary *yesterday*, and then saw this tonight. Man, what a bummer.
posted by mrbill at 11:14 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by shoepal at 11:22 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by Rothko at 11:43 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by aGreatNotion at 11:48 PM on August 21, 2005

There aren't any news stories up yet, but simply key his name into Google and it's plain to see his influence on every aspect of music.

Metafilter: Look it up in Google.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:54 PM on August 21, 2005

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posted by arialblack at 12:30 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by Igor XA at 12:52 AM on August 22, 2005

I remember serious arguments about Moog (ELP) vs. Arp (The Who) vs. those VCS3s Pink Floyd used to battle each other with on their early albums. How the less enlightened would think Elton John's Funeral for a Friend intro was the best example of what synth was about. How Queen's false pride on their album jackets claiming "No synthesizers" was kind of lame considering all the guitar overdubbing Brian May did to build his sound.

Played bass in a prog rock band in the mid 70s. Keyboard player was fabulous with his wall de Moog. But it would take him 5 minutes of pulling plugs and adjusting knobs and referring to his notes to just start the next frickin' song.

(beep) no, wait... (bleep) hang on... (blzeep) Got it. A 1. A 2. A 1234!

RIP.
posted by hal9k at 1:01 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by mert at 1:22 AM on August 22, 2005

Now God too can get into that funky electronic sound. Heaven is a buzzin'!
posted by Goofyy at 2:30 AM on August 22, 2005

~~~~~~~ .
posted by sfslim at 2:36 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by pyramid termite at 3:56 AM on August 22, 2005

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I remember 8 years ago when I first moved into this town, I got a job managing a small restaurant. This beaming old eccentric-looking gentleman came in, made a few jokes, and left with his order and a big smile. I asked a coworker who that guy was... he said Bob Moog and I nearly fell over. Moog lived in Asheville, and was a common sight tooling around in his Toyota stationwagon, covered in swirls of paint, handprints, and a little mountain vista. We recently hosted a Theremin event which he would've loved, but at the time he was at the height of his suffering at a hospital a few hundred miles away. Hopefully the vibes caught up with him.
posted by moonbird at 4:19 AM on August 22, 2005

Rick Wakeman tells a nice anecdote about how he invited Bob Moog to a Yes gig, and happened to mention to him during the interval that the damn thing kept going out of tune. So he offered to have a look to see if there was anything he could do to fix it. To Wakeman's horror, when he arrived back on stage for part two of the gig, Bob Moog was sat on stage behind the curtain with his synth completely in pieces, as the intro music began to play. Rick subsequently introduced him to the crowd and he got the biggest cheer of the night.
posted by chill at 4:19 AM on August 22, 2005

Er, "the damn thing" = "the Mini Moog".
posted by chill at 4:20 AM on August 22, 2005 [1 favorite]

... a Yes gig, and happened to mention to him during the interval that the damn thing kept going out of tune.

You have to make sure and keep Jon Anderson from extremes of cold and heat and store him properly in his case after the gig. Cinching up his balls requires a factory trained technician and could otherwise void his warranty.
posted by hal9k at 4:51 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by benzo8 at 5:03 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by jepler at 5:23 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by gwildar at 5:36 AM on August 22, 2005

As if by magic, Switched On Bach chimed in [on my psychic winamp shuffle] just as I read this.

71 is plenty long a life. Longer than I wish to be. Had no idea he had brain cancer though...

Robert, the world is better for what you gave us. Thank you.
posted by phylum sinter at 6:06 AM on August 22, 2005

*synthesized Taps*
posted by hellbient at 7:53 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by Herr Fahrstuhl at 7:54 AM on August 22, 2005

Meanwhile, the BBC has put an obituary online.
posted by Herr Fahrstuhl at 8:02 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by fletchmuy at 8:19 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by TheDonF at 8:21 AM on August 22, 2005

I met him last year, he was exhausted from travelling but a sincerely nice guy with everyone. What struck me was how his eyes lit up every time he talked to a young musician who was using his stuff. It was inspiring for me to talk to a 70-year-old geek who once got badly ripped off by the business world, but still hadn't lost his love of tinkering and seeing people use his inventions. Rest In Peace.
posted by fuzz at 8:25 AM on August 22, 2005

One of my friends in Asheville had me over for dinner one night and Bob Moog was also a guest. Apparently he was really good friends with my friend's father. He was a quirky witty man...very interesting conversations.

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posted by schyler523 at 9:45 AM on August 22, 2005

Also

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posted by stet at 10:11 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by Outlawyr at 10:17 AM on August 22, 2005

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A MicroMoog launched me into electronic music.
posted by Foosnark at 10:36 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by hampton at 10:46 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by entropy at 11:24 AM on August 22, 2005

The AP obit mentions two particularly fantastic songs: the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," and Stevie Wonder's "Livin' for the City." It also includes this:

...Moog drove an aging Toyota painted with a snail, vines and a fish blowing bubbles. "When I drive that thing around, people smile at me," he said. "I really feel I'm enhancing the environment."
posted by mediareport at 11:37 AM on August 22, 2005

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One of my fondest memories of university was spending hours on end with 3 huge tone generators from a Moog. The keyboard itself was broken, so it was merely through patch cords and knobs that I was able to slide into a warm fuzzy heaven of sound for a semester.

My biggest regret is that I didn't purchase them when I had a chance, since I was moving around a lot then. By the time I had become less nomadic, the professor had changed his mind on parting with them and left for his next gig.
posted by myopicman at 11:42 AM on August 22, 2005

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posted by mr.curmudgeon at 12:38 PM on August 22, 2005

The NYT obit, a cool timeline at the Analog Days site and tons of cool ads, articles and memorabilia at the Moog Archives.

It also looks like there's some confusion over whether Pete Townshend used a Moog at all on "Who's Next," as mentioned in the AP obit. Lots of folks take it as accepted fact, but others say he used an ARP synth, which, given the competition and legal troubles between the two companies, seems like a significant difference.
posted by mediareport at 1:09 PM on August 22, 2005

I spent a nice morning with Bob about 13 years ago when he had Big Briar. We chatted about many things including the history of music synthesis and the most expressive modern instrument (we agreed it was the electric guitar). A very nice and friendly guy.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:18 PM on August 22, 2005

Moog drove an aging Toyota painted with a snail, vines and a fish blowing bubbles.

I remember seeing this car; I think his daughter painted it.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:19 PM on August 22, 2005

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posted by melissa may at 6:52 PM on August 22, 2005

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posted by philosophistry at 8:11 PM on August 22, 2005

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/me plugs in things
posted by bdave at 10:24 PM on August 22, 2005