Bob Moog

Word reached me via a friend that the inventor of the synthesizer, Bob Moog, passed away at the age of 71 a few days ago. His imprimatur on pop music cannot be underestimated; by my estimation (and probably the estimation of many, many others), Moog's impact was tantamount to that of Les Paul, who was the inventor of the solid body electric guitar as well as multi-track recording, and Leo Fender, who revolutionized the solid body electric guitar that Les Paul started. In a word, a giant.

I first came across the sound of the Moog sythesizer when I was but a wee lad, listening to "Here Comes the Sun" on The Beatles Abbey Road. It really didn't make a big impact on my ears (I was probably seven or eight years of age), but I remember it. It was also featured on the song "Because" on the same album, a song that I really loved at the time. I think it was on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", too. However, the time when I really was blown away by the sound of the Moog was perhaps a year or two later, on listening to Rick Wakeman's solo turn on Yessongs, a live album by Yes recorded in the early 70's. The sound of the Minimoog synth Wakeman was using was nothing short of amazing. Wakeman had his Moogs (he used minimally two at any one time onstage) doing everything from multi-octave glissandos to powerful explosions and air-raid sounds. The sound of these early Moogs cut through everything in ways even the most aggressive lead guitar sound could not. To this day, I've never lost my fascination with those sounds. Judging by the high re-sale value of those old Minimoogs today, I'm probably not the only one.

A year or so back I went to see Keith Emerson at B.B. King's in Manhattan. I'm still a huge ELP fan, and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen anyone play. But what was really cool about the show was the fact that Keith Emerson brought his old Moog cIII, a huge modular sythesizer. (The sound of it can be heard in the solo at the tail end of "Lucky Man".) Every time Keith stepped up to the big Moog modular, people went bananas, standing up, pointing at Keith, and screaming, "Play it! Play it!!!". And the sound, well...there is nothing comparable, even with today's synths that are 50 times more technologically advanced than Keith's 35-year-old Moog. As Keith's tech Will Alexander put it, the Moog is an "icon". Just seeing this huge modular monster on stage thrills people. And the sound is powerful and incomparable.

The Moog synthisizer had a tremendous impact on funk music during the 70's as well. Acts like Parliament Funkadelic and Herbie Hancock had the Moog sound all over their recordings. These days, that sound has become the staple of many (most?) Dr. Dre productions, particularly The Chronic and Doggy Style, where the Moog is pasted onto every track.

Well done, Dr. Moog.