A Boho Hobo Street Fixture's Half-Century Compiled at Last
Mike Powell
Tuesday, March 3 2006
Most Popular
-
Scientology's Crushing Defeat A previously unpublished saga of an $8 million check
-
The Houses That Ruthlessness Built Welcome to middling baseball in sleek new cathedrals
-
Trash Talking with Harvey Weinstein Juicy details plucked from the garbage of a movie mogul
-
Rap's 2008, Beyond Lil Wayne Praising outstanding new hip-hop records sadly subsumed by Weezymania
-
Columbia's Knotty Noose Problem There's still no culprit for a notorious noose at Teachers College—but plenty of evidence behind the firing of Madonna Constantine
By now, Moondog's well-cut boho/hobo bio sounds more like lore than ever. Born Louis Harding, blind in the Midwest, he played the tom-tom at the Arapaho Sun Dance, moved to New York, tried—unsuccessfully—to kiss Arturo Toscanini's hand, and set up an unofficial residency on Sixth Avenue and 54th Street, where he recited poetry and played music. In a Viking's helmet and a cape. Which is less funny when you remember that he didn't know what he looked like. Not that he ever made huge changes in his original sound—"maximum effect but with minimum means." The music on this first compilation spanning his 50-odd-year career sounds practically arcane: quasi-modal miniatures and amateur jazz-brut colored with the pretense of city-as-primitive cartoon, skyscrapers stacked like totem poles, the rhythm of the streets as tribal thump, the pre-digital NYSE as a cauldron of war whoops. Moondog projected a vibrant city that was forbidden even before his color got bleached out with the jizzmoppers by way of urban renewal.
Recent Articles
More by Mike Powell
Please Ignore the Embroidered Dog Sweater
Vampire Weekend’s jaunty, wordy pop is meant to inspire joy, not rage
There Might Not Be Blood
The apocalyptic comfort of the Arcade Fire
Micro-Cosmic Thing
Black Dice remain willfully obtuse, but at least they're more playful now
The Pied Piper's TV Party
Marveling at the eloquent insanity of the Dirty Projectors' new Black Flag tribute
Soundboy Punishments
Dubstep that bypasses weed stupor and heads straight for Armageddon
Village Voice Insiders
- Weekly villagevoice.com
- Weekly freebies and Special Offers
- Daily "What To Do in NYC" E-mail
- Information on the Performing Arts
| buy, sell, trade 3,434 | musician 2,745 |
| rentals 18,798 | jobs 5,757 |
| adult entertainment 9,581 | |
| classifieds | backpage.com | Post ads for free! | |
|---|---|
