Moondog, The Viking of 6th Avenue: The Authorized Biography

by Robert Scotto

"Moondog is one of America’s great originals."—Alan Rich, New York Magazine Here is one of the most improbable lives of the twentieth a blind and homeless man who became the most famous eccentric in New York and who, with enormous diligence, rose to prominence as an internationally respected music presence. Born Louis Thomas Hardin in 1916, Moondog first made an impression in the late 1940s when he became a mascot of The New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. His unique, melodic compositions were released on the Prestige jazz label. In the late 1960s the Viking-garbed Moondog was a pop music sensation on Columbia Records. Moondog is the noted inspiration for the contemporary freak folk movement led by Devendra Banhart. Moondog's compositional style influenced his former roommate, Philip Glass, whose Preface and performances of Moondog works appear in the book. Moondog's work transcends labels and redefines the distinction between popular and high culture. A CD compilation with a variety of Moondog's compositions is bound into the book. The CD tracklisting is as 1: Caribea (1:32)Performer/ To a Sea Horse (1:43)Performer/ Trees Against the Sky (.51)Performer/ Oo Debut (1:09)Performer/ Autumn (2:07)Performer/ Moondog Monologue (8:24)Performer/ Moondog’s Theme (1:53)Performer/ Trimbas in Quarters (1:47)Performer/ I Came Into This World Alone (1:19) Moondog, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon Be a Hobo (1:22) Moondog, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon Why Spend the Dark Night With You (1:40) Moondog, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon All is Loneliness (1:38) Moondog, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon Organ Rounds (2:04)Performer/ Canon in F Major, Book I (.43) Paul Canon in B Flat Major, Book III (1:36) Paul Canon in B Flat Major, Book I (.43) Paul Canon in B Flat Major, Book II (.28) Paul Canon in G Sharp Minor, Book I (.44) Paul Canon in C Sharp Minor, Book II (1:32) Paul 5/4 Snakebite Rattle (3:41) Stefan Trimbas and Woodblock in 5/2 (1:26) Stefan When I Am Deep in Sleep (2:17) Stefan Rabbit Hop (2:25)Performer/ Dog Trot (2:25)Performer/ Bird’s Lament (2:00)Performer/ Viking 1 (2:55)Performer/ Heimdall Fanfare (3:06)Performer/ Intro and Overtone Continuum (2:22)Performer/ Moondog

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout my whole life I have heard of, or was aware of Moondog, but oddly enough I didn't listen to his music till a year ago. My family had the first Moondog album - and it is perhaps one of the first records that I was aware of - nevertheless I avoided him I think mostly because the way he looked. And he was old! So, about a year ago, I began to play his music, and it was a "oh wow" moment for me. Now, I can't get enough of him, and I'm still surprised in finding his music so fresh sounding as well as having beautiful melodies. And of course I hear the Philip Glass essence in his work, due that Glass lived with Moondog in the 1960s. Also Robert Wyatt now comes to mind as well. Moondog is surely a major influence on a lot of contemporary music artists. Which is not surprising, because his music is so inviting. Author Robert Scotto is truly a fan of Moondog, and it shows through his writing. Which is good, but often I feel I'm reading a fan-boy's love of his subject matter - and no distance. Sometimes the distance is a good thing, especially in writing a biography. Nevertheless a whole book on Moondog is a superb thing to have and read.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man I love Moondog and it's so great to see the ascendancy of his work amongst young listeners thanks to the great Honest Jons comp. from the other year and that sweet grey area reissue of the 'Snaketime' record and etc.

Lots of great, thorough scholarship went into this book. It's not super well written but at least it's not OVER written unlike so many music books. That makes certain clunky passages or repetitious ones a lot less bothersome to me.

The accompanying CD -- which features the debut release (I think!) of Moondog's amazing music played by a group featuring Steve Reich and Philip Glass -- is worth getting this thing for alone.

Here's a bit of an interview I did with him ages ago FYI:
http://www.moondogscorner.de/press/pe...

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

I confess I learned about Moondog via a utoob accident. Frankly I think this minimal movement in music became a horse skeleton already probably even before the Velvets did their Heroin. Nevertheless, one still finds oneself occasionally charmed.

I remember last time I tried to watch Koyaanisqatsi I felt like Alex being reprogrammed at the end of Clockwork Orange. When I first saw it I was literally bolted to my seat in fascination. It's a one=shot deal.

But not only is Moondog a (dead) composer of minimalist music, he was also known as "the Viking of 6th Avenue". I'd paste a photo here, but there's already too much jpg and gif action on gr and also it'd take an extra effort to download/upload/link=up/ETC, so I'll just wiki=link you here so you can catch sight of his countenance. Or just look at that bookcover? Pretty cool ::
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moondog
er, right :: google-image is better for countenance catching ::
https://www.google.com/search?q=moond...

And here's a play list thing from utoob for your work=a=day enjoymeant ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK0yv... Seems I miss=understood where that link’d take you. Here’s the straightfoward Moondog=utoob=search=results, which is plenty of this stuff ::
https://www.youtube.com/results?searc...

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moondog was a fascinating musician and person. Blinded at 16 by an accidental explosion, he moved from Wyoming(?) to New York City in the late 1940s. Moondog lived on the streets or in hotels for the most part, performing his music for anyone who would hear with instruments of his own making. He made his own clothes, started dressing as a viking, and moved to Europe in the 1970s to be closer to his roots. Moondog made several albums and influenced many artists. This book is an authorized biography that seemed random enough times to notice as the author mixes and matches spoken as well as written quotes throughout the book from a huge amount of sources. The book could have done without the author's psychological evaluations of his subject. One small example is that he mentions Moondog loses trust in the world when he learned at 10 that Santa Claus was not real. Wow, very insightful and necessary. Because the author had collected so much information on Moondog, the resulting biography is stuffed full with quotes and minute details that don't all jive together and break the flow of the story. Anyway, it's still probably written better than this review. HA! The book comes with a CD of some Moondog ditties and collaborations, which is a huge plus. I have yet to hear it, so it is yet to be seen with me if Moondog is revered only because of his personality and circumstances or because he was actually gifted and influential. It's probably a mixture of both. All in all, this book did pique my interest in his works.

[Joe Immormino · Rating 1 out of 5]

That such an interesting life could be the subject of such a tedious, numbing tome is a feat in and of itself. A testament to the author's committment to pretentious prose.

[Jonathan L · Rating 1 out of 5]

I truly love Moondog's music, so I got this book as a gift. I was so excited! and then so disappointed...

How can you write such an incredibly shallow, poorly written and redundant story about a man who had the most insane life??

Shallow because personal matters are presented as if they were a list of unconnected facts (with the exception of the occasional cheap psychanalytic analysis with regard to his mother... that alone should be a shame for the author), Moondog's music is only discussed with regard to its so-called popularity or lack of it.

There is no discussion whatsoever on what the unique music he created meant for him, or even other artists, what was he trying to express with it, what was the connection between the music and his experiences... anything!

Moreover, the writing style is heavy and cumbersome. The author seems to be more interested in using unusual words than to convey a story.

The book is extremely repetitive because the author keeps adding useless references to the future or the past that totally break the chronology without providing any insight. For instance, in the part of the book about Moondog's life in NYC, the author will constantly have sentences such as "10 years before Moondog eventually left the country, he was back living in this hotel where he had been living 10 years before". What is the point? Sure, accommodation was a major worry in Moondog's life but
1. you don't need to refer to the future to say it, and
2. you cannot fill up hundreds of pages about his housing problems.

I'd rather havefewer pages about Moondog or his music than the author's reflections on his difficulties to find a home.

In summary, as much as I like Moondog, I don't think I would recommend reading this. Sad.

# This review was originally published in Amazon, at the time of its reading.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to give this 3.5, but rounded up. Moondog's music is amazing, and this book definitely gave me a deeper perspective on his work and accomplishments. The author, however, has a little blindness to the complexity of Moondog's character. He cites Philip Glass's comments on Moondog and his misogyny, notes that his second marriage ended because his wife saw him fondling their 7 year old daughter (Moondog, being blind, said he was just trying to "see" her), and just barely notes that around the age of 50 Moondog impregnated a 16 year old girl (this was so minimally mentioned that had to read it a few times to be clear). Scotto never puts these things together, and sticks strictly to his heroic conception of Moondog.

Nevertheless, Moondog was incredibly original and wrote some innovative and remarkable music. The book is worth reading, and will provide great insight into the man and his music.

[Jeanli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Huge Moondog fan here, but I gave up on this biography less than halfway through. It's tedious and not well written, though I learned a few things I suppose ...but I spent more time wondering about what an author wants from his biography than I did about the subject of the biography. Bummer. Probably better to spend your money/time on some Moondog records instead! Two stars because Moondog.

[Alex Heigl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Desperately wanted to like this, but as other reviewers have noted, Scotto's prose is so overly purple and enamored of his subject that it verges on uselessness: It's less of a biography and more of a semi-well-researched sermon on The Virtues of Moondog. A perfect example of this is Jack Kerouac's two mentions in the book: Upon his first mention, he's named as part of a list of famous midcentury icons Moondog interacted with in New York; on the second, Moondog is mentioned as one of Kerouac's heroes, with zero intervening details or explanation. This isn't just irresponsible, it's outright dishonest.

Reading over and over about the braveness and significance of the subject's particular foibles as the larger narrative constructs a somewhat sad vision of a man constantly marginalized and isolated by those foibles is at best numbing. But at worst, it feels like an elaborate smoke-and-mirrors show obscuring a lack of real explanation or evidence as to why Louis Thomas Hardin refashioned himself into the Viking of 6th Avenue with a dedication that cost him his family, personal health, and ultimately, any chance for success.

I love Moondog's music, which is truly singular: But the book also doesn't invite many external voices in to analyze or provide any further insight into the compositions at anything other than a layman's level. Most of what we hear about what makes Moondog's music special is either from Scotto's unending torrent of praise or clippings from the press or record labels. This does a disservice to some of the particulars of the man's music, eg, how his preference for odd meters like 5/4 and 7/8 (which he referred to as "snake time") squared with his fondness of the canon form, which becomes trickier in those meters. The same goes for Moondog's collection of handmade instruments: They're mentioned as part of his genius but there aren't many details about how he learned to make them, how they were made, how they differ from other similar ones, etc.

Any artistic quibble with Scotto's prose is rendered irrelevant when his authorial vision hand-waves away Moondog's racism, anti-Semitism, and interactions with women, all of which none other than Philip Glass -- who housed Moondog for a year -- mention explicitly in his introduction. Moondog's anti-Christian attitudes, stemming from his Nordic obsession could be charitably explained by the very real historical persecution of Nordic peoples and religions by the Christians, but Glass recalls him being genuinely saddened and perplexed by discovering the fact that friends were Black or Jewish. Also, his deeply disturbing line to Glass that "I can't be prosecuted for rape because they can't do that to blind people" is similarly glossed over in discussions of his relations with women.

Ultimately the book's shortcomings are most on display when it fails to answer to answer how Moondog squared his marginalization with his behavior. There are plenty of examples of iconoclasts who were able to balance their beliefs with the world they lived in. Simply characterizing Hardin as a man out of time whose vision was too pure for the modern world absolves him of genuinely harmful, antisocial behavior that almost certainly burnt the many bridges he had to powerful, influential admirers seemingly intent on helping him.

People with any less than an extreme tolerance for overwriting and an interest in Moondog's music more than his legend would be better served by researching some of the academic articles written about Moondog, because this book falls extremely short.

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous book which traces Moondog from his beginning to his end. The book is written brilliantly in a style which takes some getting used to which I can see has turned off other readers. Scotto focuses on the man and how his life inspired his work and I loved this approach. The commentary on his music is fairly minimal which I appreciate as you can listen to it and fill in the blanks yourself. I came to this book wanting to understand the man behind the bewitching music I heard on his albums. I leave the book feeling I now know Moondog to a decent degree despite never having met him. He was a man who built a future for himself out of the past, never acquiescing to the modern world and it's often unnecessary expectations. Robert Scotto puts it best himself in one segment of the book,

"The Viking's emergence from the near past to a more distant one was a splendid metamorphosis: in dress, from drab squares to color and costume; in philosophy from cause consciousness to poetic myth; in music, from the percussive and the primitive to canonic form and sound saga. Private yet garrulous, open yet firm, soft-spoken yet unshakable, he danced between extremes. Some of his ideas were outrageous in their implications; some of his verse was chillingly effective, for those who knew no poetry at all as well as for those who thought his poems in the main amateurish and trendy; some of his music intimidated the uninitiated traditionalist and impressed the open-minded, flexible professional. His activities, like his creations, cut across boundaries, castes, and cultures. The sophisticated admired the complex expressions of primal experience, and the undemanding enjoyed the familiar if slightly unusual tonalities so comfortingly close to what they knew and felt. But what did it feel like to create, with so many obstacles to overcome? What was a typical day for a man whose life was so enigmatic and strange? He had to live, whatever occupied his mind, in physical space and time. The images he cloaked himself with created distance through violent distortion, making a statement as they shielded him. Blind Tiresias, prophet of doom, a benevolent instrument of the gods; Father Time, with Olympian serenity reading the pulse of a decadent nervous culture; Viking foot-soldier and bard, reasserting archaic values in the most cosmopolitan and urbanized of civilizations. However, most of his days passed by without special revelations, impressive discoveries or grave setbacks. Even pariahs live in clock-time and meet the tax man. The life of a public man is measured by the impressions he leaves on those he touches, on the illuminations he transmits through his works and deeds, seldom by the manner in which the work and image is produced. While the exterior may be glitter and gloss, the long hours spent in lonely labor are barely worth mentioning."

Moondog is all of what the above passage mentions and more. His music and his vision are magnificent. Finally I leave you with my favorite piece by Moondog which he composed and sang at age 62, "High On A Rocky Ledge" from the album "H'art Songs" released in 1978. To my ears it sums up life, a delicate beauty doomed to failure but with a glory in its journey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dijb-...

[M Rins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an engaging read to be sure, but I can't help feeling that it is somewhat clouded by hero-worship and also there is a habit of suddenly jumping back/forward in time to reference something that isn't always clear or that is sometimes repeating previously discussed matters. The CD was a nice touch though and the supplementary sections were interesting to read - I still haven't quite figured out the perpetual calendar!

I would have liked more in the way of photographs though, Moondog being such a visually striking personality it seems a shame that we have only some 3 or 4 pages of photographs to get only a small idea of his character.

All in all a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the man himself

[Jo Pachamama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent I knew nothing about him. I do now.

[Tom Shannon, Jr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moondog (aka Louis Hardin, American, 1916 - 1999) was a highly unusual blind artist (street musician, accomplished prolific composer, and eccentric cult personality.) I'm glad I got this book by Scotto, who knew Moondog since the 1960's and interviewed him. It's informative and a fine addition to my arcane music library.

I wanted this book because some of Moondog's records are fantastic & catchy, and stand the test of time, so I had to learn more about him. Some of his other records are mere poetic weirdness that I don't get, or gratuitous artsy exercises in weird time signatures that are not my cup of tea. So I kind of expected this to be a mixed bag, information-wise, and I hoped that the writing would hold my interest.

I'm glad to soak up all the great information organized in chronological order (his upbringing, tragedies, personal/family life, life on NYC streets and living in a cave upstate, brushes with celebrities, philosophy and study of Norse mythology, lawsuits, creative process of both braille composition and instrument-making, travels across America and to Europe, etc.) Much of the info was welcome news to me. Unfortunately the author doesn't know how to write a biography! He meanders and generalizes a lot, includes unnecessary information and speculation, and sometimes left me a little confused, or questioning what his facts were based on. As a result, I never felt quite engaged in this book. After reading this book, I listened to a wonderful 2006 pre-publication interview with the author via WFMU podcast. What a dynamic, engaging communicator he is! I would never guess this to be true based on his writing.

There are appendices in the back covering Moondog's discography, his weird perpetual calendars and poems.

There are some black and white pictures but not enough. For example many references are made to Moondog's pamphlets, yearbooks and other publications, but while reading descriptions of what they look like, I found myself wondering, "Why couldn't a picture of even one publication been included?"

There's an index at the end but I'm disappointed to say it's incomplete. There are memorable references in the book to Janis Joplin & Big Brother and the Holding Company, and references to pieces on Moondog in People Magazine and a piece by Johan Kugelberg in Ugly Things Magazine, but I can't tell you what pages they are on, because they are absent from the index. A bibliography would be a nice addition.

This softcover book comes with a nice CD in a flexible plastic sleeve affixed inside the rear binding. If the disc is in its sleeve in the back cover, then the back cover is prevented from flexing at all by the right hand. When trying to break the seal on the sleeve to remove the CD for the first time, I cracked the rear binding slightly -- ugh. Even with the disc removed from its sleeve, the rear cover doesn't flex as easily as the front cover, because the plastic sleeve is more rigid than the heavy cardstock book jacket which is right next to it. This edition isn't easy to read, and is irritating.

In summary, if you're a Moondog fan, you will certainly find some value in this, but it's not a fun read.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a slog to finish, and I really wanted to love it because I like the subject so much. As much as I appreciate the meticulous research and detail that went into this labor of love, the author never quite manages to bring Moondog to life. His treatment of the man's itinerant childhood years felt the most developed and effective, but once Moondog moves to NYC, the author never convincingly evokes his subject. Instead much of the text rambles in repetition of facts, especially recording dates and geographical position within the city or in retreat, but the characterization of his subject, and indeed of the supporting players in Moondog's life, falls flat. He captures Moondog's preoccupations but doesn't seem able to step inside his subject's head outside of a rare insight. Perhaps that it's an authorized biography inhibited the author's presentation, but that doesn't explain his turgid prose. Hopefully the upcoming documentary on the Viking of Sixth Avenue tackles some of these issues a little better.

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember the first time I heard Moondog, but, as with Robert Wyatt's post-"Soft Machine" output, I was blown away by how varied the guy's music was, and how impossible to categorize it was. This book does a good job balancing details about Moondog's s personal life with his unorthodox theories of music, which have been admired and appropriated by everyone from minimalist maestro Philip Glass to hip-hop producers. The author neither glosses over nor gets bogged down in the details of Moondog's controversial political beliefs, the contradictions in his Nordic/Aryan philosophy contrasted against his friendships with people from many races and walks of life.

Kudos also need to go to Scotto for avoiding the easy temptation to reduce Moondog to a curiosity, a fancifully clad homeless oddity who walked the streets of NYC, rather than a serious musician who never let his disability cripple his creativity (again, like Robert Wyatt). Recommended.

[Giles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too bad that such a weak story teller tackled such a mysterious subject. i'm really interested to know about moondog's life, but can't get myself to pick the book up again. the author goes on all these digressions about what it must have been like for moondog growing up that are truly vacuous. oh well

[Craig B · Rating 1 out of 5]

This nearly ended up in the bath with me after 50 or so pages. Great CD - although there are better Moondog collections/releases on offer.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, but too dry and academic for my taste.

[Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring tale of one man's determination to make his music count for something. From blind street musician to one of the 20th century's most inspiring composers. Fantastic - plus a free CD!

[Forest Juziuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is a touch flowery & the book is a bit of a slog with some peculiar movements between spans of time. Interesting nonetheless, a remarkable if somewhat difficult document.

[Lucky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting. CD included. really great!

[Maximilien Lacour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading for the great man alone.
Criminally underrated subject-matter.
Let me identify myself now// Songsters both and both clad in brown// The hermit thrush and I dwell far out of town

[Keith Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic, engrossing biography of one of the 20th centuries most fascinating eccentrics and counter-culture figures. The book takes you back to Louis Thomas Hardin's (AKA; Moondog) lonely, unconventional upbringing, to the freak accident that rendered him completely blind and how from a most unimaginable tragedy emerged an unstoppable creative force. Moondog's story is a tale of perseverance and adaptation, and of remaining 100% dedicated to one's life mission against impossible odds (being a blind street musician in New York City). Robert Scotto does a great job of assembling the details of his life, from the various friends and foes who helped steer his career path, to his singular and inventive approach to music making, and the intimate (and chaotic) family history that shaped his ideals that only became more refined with age.

There are a few faults with the writing style, as it can seem a bit pretentious at times, and the first chapter alone tends to veer wildly with needless tangents, but things pick up the pace once you realize you're approaching the day Louis Hardin's freak accident is about to occur. I believe this may have been a literary device employed by Scotto to build suspense. It is also evident that Robert Scotto is emotionally invested in his subject. It's hard not to be, given the tragic elements that made him who he is. The book adeptly anchors itself at key moments on the one overriding issue that is to make or break his legacy in classical music; was he truly a gifted musician of prodigious talent or only a moderately talented eccentric propped up by a quirky image? Fortunately, there are enough quotes by Moondog himself and accounts of all his various side projects to affirm (in my eyes) that, yes, he was a very intelligent, lucid and sophisticated man with a clear, albeit unconventional, objective. One would have to be very callous to NOT admire Moondog once you realize who is behind the Viking garbs.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is already a huge fan of Moondog. Regardless of whether or not the writing style is "difficult", it is worth it if only for the fact that it is a book about Moondog, simple as that.