Appearing at a news conference at the Venice Film Festival in September to promote the Bob Dylan biopic “I’m Not There,” Heath Ledger, who died on Tuesday, spoke of his “obsession with an artist by the name of Nick Drake,” an English-born singer/songwriter whom he characterized as a “very mysterious figure.”
“I was obsessed with his story and his music and I pursued it for a while and still have hopes to kind of tell his story one day,” a soft-spoken and fidgety Ledger told the assembled media, though he also said that any such aspirations had “faded away.”
But in an eerie postscript to the actor’s own death on Tuesday, MTV News has learned that Ledger recently shot and edited a music video for a Drake song called “Black Eyed Dog,” so titled because of a Winston Churchill quote describing depression as such. It is also reportedly the last song Drake recorded before overdosing on antidepression medication in 1974 at the age of 26.
A representative for Drake’s estate described the “gorgeous” and “extremely moving” clip as a stark black-and-white composition, consisting mainly of the director turning the camera on himself. In the end, Ledger is seen drowning himself in a bathtub.
The video, which has not been released commercially and has apparently not yet leaked to the Web, has been screened just twice, once last Labor Day weekend at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle and a second time in October at “A Place to Be,” an event honoring Drake held in Los Angeles.
Ledger also directed Ben Harper’s video for “Morning Yearning” and announced plans to start a label with the singer called Masses Music Co. last year. The label’s first signing was a singer from Ledger’s hometown of Perth, Australia, named Grace Woodroofe; Ledger also directed a video for her cover of David Bowie’s “Quicksand.”
While Drake garnered just a cult following during his life, his music has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. In 2000, Volkswagen scored a ubiquitous television ad with the title track from his 1972 album, Pink Moon, after which Drake’s albums reportedly sold more in one month than they had in the previous 30 years. This past November, fans were treated to a limited-edition box set that included not only the three albums Drake recorded in his short career, but also a book and a DVD documentary about his life.
2007 – Bob Dylan and his brother bought Aultmore House a mansion in the Scottish Cairngorms National Park, near Nethybridge, Inverness-shire.
Bob Dylan has just purchased a sprawling Scottish estate. Britain’s The Telegraph reported that Dylan and his younger brother David Zimmerman purchased the secluded property for over $7.8 million under the family name, Zimmerman. The property, called Aultmore House, sits in the foothills of the Cairngorms, near Inverness in the central Highlands — a local that Dylan immortalized in his 1997 song “Highlands,” which closed his Grammy Award-winning Time Out Of Mind album.
The property was built at the turn of the 20th century for a wealthy owner of a Moscow department store, and in recent years has become an upscale wedding venue. The mansion has “ten bedrooms, a billiard room and a garden room with mosaic floor and the interior features pillars, arches and marble fireplaces.”
Dylan, who is an avid golfer and plays off a 17 handicap at Malibu Country Club near his California estate, will be situated close to the Abernethy golf club. Jack McCool, the club’s treasurer, said that Dylan is welcome to come play for the day, but should he decide to become a member, no special privileges will be afforded him due to his celebrity, explaining that, “Mr. Dylan would have to apply in writing just like everyone else and be vetted by the committee.”
Rolling Stone magazine’s associate editor Austin Scaggs told us that Dylan has made a concerted effort over the past decade to seem less enigmatic to the public: “It’s obvious that in the past few years, you know, Dylan it seems has made has kind of made a point to strengthen out some of the historical inaccuracies of what the press has written or what’s been perceived about him.”
Bob Dylan kicks of a 26-date European tour on March 28th in Stockholm.
2006 – For the first time in 30 years, Bob Dylan tops The Chart Toppers 200 with “Modern Times.” Not only is it the legendary songwriter’s first album to reach the throne since Desire in 1976, it’s also his highest debuting album and his best sales week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.
2005 – Bob Moog, inventor of his namesake range of synthesizers and one of the most significant figures in the evolution of electronic music, dies at his home in Asheville, N.C. He is 71. A native of N.Y., Moog was diagnosed with brain cancer in late April and had since undergone radiation treatment and chemotherapy.
Dr. Robert Arthur Moog (pronounced /ˈmoʊɡ/ to rhyme with “rogue”) (May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.
Life
A native of New York City, Robert Moog attended the Bronx High School of Science, graduating in 1952. Moog earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Queens College, New York in 1957, another in electrical engineering from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell University. Moog’s awards include honorary doctorates from Polytechnic University (New York City) and Lycoming College (Williamsport, Pennsylvania)
During his lifetime, Moog founded two companies for manufacturing electronic musical instruments. Moog also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research at Kurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988, helping to develop the Kurzweil K2000. He spent the early 1990s as a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
Moog received a Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1970. In 2002, Moog was honored with a Grammy Tech Award, and an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music.
He gave an enthusiastically-received lecture at the 2004 New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME-04), held in Hamamatsu, Japan’s “City of Musical Instruments”, in June, 2004. Moog was the inspiration behind the 2004 film Moog.
Moog’s first wife was Shirleigh Moog (née Shirley May Leigh) a grammar school teacher whom he married in 1958. The couple had 3 daughters (Laura Moog Lanier, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog) and one son (Matthew Moog) before their divorce. Moog was married to his second wife Ileana Grams, a philosophy professor, for nine years until his death. Moog’s stepdaughter, Miranda Richmond, is Grams’ daughter from a previous marriage. Moog also had five grandchildren.
Robert Moog was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor on April 28, 2005. Nearly four months later, Moog died at the age of 71 in Asheville, North Carolina on August 21, 2005. His end of life journey was captured using CaringBridge. The Bob Moog Foundation was created as a memorial, with the aim of continuing his life’s work of developing electronic music.
Development of the Moog synthesizer
Main article: Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer was one of the first widely used electronic musical instruments. Early developmental work on the components of the synthesizer occurred at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, now the Computer Music Center. While there, Moog developed the voltage controlled oscillators, ADSR envelope generators, and other synthesizer modules with composer Herbert Deutsch.
Moog created the first subtractive synthesizer to utilize a keyboard as a controller and demonstrated it at the AES convention in 1964. In 1966, Moog filed a patent application for his unique low-pass filter U.S. Patent 3,475,623 , which issued in October 1969. He holds several dozen patents.
Robert Moog employed his theremin company (R. A. Moog Co., which would later become Moog Music) to manufacture and market his synthesizers. Unlike the few other 1960s synthesizer manufacturers, Moog shipped a piano-style keyboard as the standard user interface to his synthesizers. Moog also established standards for analog synthesizer control interfacing, with a logarithmic one volt-per-octave pitch control and a separate pulse triggering signal.
The first Moog instruments were modular synthesizers. In 1971 Moog Music began production of the Minimoog Model D which was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers.
One of Moog’s earliest musical customers was Wendy Carlos whom he credits with providing feedback that was valuable to the further development of Moog synthesizers. Through his involvement in electronic music, Moog developed close professional relationships with artists such as Don Buchla, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, John Cage, Gershon Kingsley, Clara Rockmore, and Pamelia Kurstin. In a 2000 interview, Moog said “I’m an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers. They use my tools.”
R.A. Moog Co. and Moog Music
The Moog Music logo
The Moog Music logo
Main article: Moog Music
In 1953 at age 19, Robert Moog founded his first company, R.A. Moog Co., to manufacture theremin kits. During the 1960s, the company was employed to build modular synthesizers based on Moog’s designs.
In 1972 Moog changed the company’s name to Moog Music. Throughout the 1970s, Moog Music went through various changes of ownership, eventually being bought out by musical instrument manufacturer Norlin. Poor management and marketing led to Moog’s departure from his own company in 1977.
In 1978 after leaving his namesake firm, Moog started making electronic musical instruments again with a new company, Big Briar. Their first specialty was theremins, but by 1999 the company expanded to produce a line of analog effects pedals called moogerfoogers. In 1999, Moog partnered with Bomb Factory to co-develop the first digital effects based on Moog technology in the form of plugins for Pro Tools software.
Despite Moog Music’s closing in 1993, Robert Moog did not have the rights to market products using his own name throughout the 1990s. Big Briar acquired the rights to use the Moog Music name in 2002 after a legal battle with Don Martin who had previously bought the rights to the name Moog Music. At the same time, Moog designed a new version of the Minimoog called the Minimoog Voyager. The Voyager includes nearly all of the features of the original Model D in addition to numerous modern features.
Theremin
Robert Moog constructed his own theremin as early as 1949. Later he described a theremin in the hobbyist magazine Electronics World and offered a kit of parts for the construction of the Electronic World’s Theremin, which became very successful. In the late 1980s Moog repaired the original theremin of Clara Rockmore, an accomplishment which he considered a high point of his professional career. He also produced, in collaboration with first wife Shirleigh Moog, Mrs. Rockmore’s album, The Art of the Theremin. Dr. Moog was a principal interview subject in the award-winning documentary film, THEREMIN- An Electronic Odyssey, the success of which led to a revival of interest in the theremin. Moog Music went back to its roots and once again began manufacturing theremins. Thousands have been sold to date and are used by both professional and amateur musicians around the globe. In 1996 he published another do-it-yourself theremin guide. Today, Moog Music is the leading manufacturer of performance-quality theremins.
Pronunciation
The surname Moog is one of the most divergently pronounced names in popular culture. The following interview excerpt reveals Robert Moog’s preferred pronunciation:
— Reviewer: First off: Does your name rhyme with “vogue” or is like a cow’s “moo” plus a “G” at the end?
— Dr. Robert Moog: It rhymes with vogue. That is the usual German pronunciation. My father’s grandfather came from Marburg, Germany. I like the way that pronunciation sounds better than the way the cow’s “moo-g” sounds.
(Note that the English , which has a monophthong and devoiced final consonant.)
In a deleted scene from the DVD version of the documentary Moog, Moog describes the three pronunciations of the name Moog: the original, Dutch pronunciation . Moog reveals that some of his family members prefer the English pronunciation, while others, including himself (and his wife) prefer the Anglo-German pronunciation.
2005 – Dozens of artists perform on stages around the world during Bob Geldof’s Live 8 concerts. In the United States, those not attending the show in Philadelphia, can catch everything from highlights to entire regional concerts via television, online, satellite radio and mobile broadcasts. The massive global initiative is spearheaded by Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof in an attempt to fight poverty and influence G8 summit leaders.
2005 – Bob Marley’s widow Rita Marley announces plans to disinter his remains and move them from Jamaica to the Rastafarian stronghold of Shashemene, Ethiopia. She describes the African nation as his “spiritual resting place.”
2004 – Actor William Shatner’s infamous 1968 album “The Transformed Man,” which finds the venerable Capt. Kirk reading poetry over ultra-serious musical accompaniment and covering such contemporary classics as Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” is reissued by Geffen.
2004 – Forbes Magazine names Elvis Presley the highest-earning dead celebrity. Presley’s estate pulls in around $40 million a year in merchandise sales. John Lennon, George Harrison and Bob Marley also make the Top 10 list.
2003 – The RIAA certifies AC/DC’s Back In Black as the world’s second-best-selling album of all time, behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
Back in black
I hit the sack
It’s been too long I’m glad to be back
Yes, I’m let loose
From the noose
That’s kept me hanging around
I’ve been looking at the sky
and it’s gettin’ me high
Forget the hearse ’cause I never die
I got nine lives
Cats eyes
Cruisin’ every woman, never wonderin’ why
CHORUS:
‘Cause I’m back
Yes, I’m back
Well, I’m back
Yes, I’m back
Well, I’m back, back
Well I’m back in black
Yes, I’m back in black
Back in the back
Of a Cadillac
Number one with a bullet, I’m a power pack
Yes, I’m in a bang
With a gang
They’ve got to catch me if they want me to hang
Cause I’m back on the track
And I’m beatin’ the flack
Nobody’s gonna get me on another rap
So look at me now
I’m just makin’ my play
Don’t try to push your luck, just get out of my way
CHORUS
Well, I’m back, Yes I’m back
Well, I’m back, Yes I’m back
Well, I’m back, back
Well I’m back in black
Yes I’m back in black
hooo yeah
Ohh yeah
Yes I am
Oooh yeah, yeah Oh yeah
Back in now
Well I’m back, I’m back
Back, I’m back
Back, I’m back
Back, I’m back
Back, I’m back
Back
Back in black
Yes I’m back in black
Out of the sack
Back in Black is the 7th studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released on July 25, 1980. Back in Black was the first AC/DC album recorded without former lead singer Bon Scott, who had died at the age of 33 on February 19, 1980. The band considered disbanding following Scott’s death, but ultimately decided to continue and shortly thereafter hired Brian Johnson as their new lead singer and lyricist. Producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who had previously worked with AC/DC on Highway to Hell, was again brought in to produce.
The album was remastered and re-released first in late 1994, then again in the Bonfire box set in 1997, and as part of the AC/DC Remasters Series in 2003. In addition, a Dualdisc version was released in 2004, featuring the album in enhanced LPCM Stereo format and the video documentary The Story of Back in Black.
It has sold an estimated 42 million copies, making it second only to Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the best-selling album of all-time as well as the best selling album ever released by a band.
Overview
Back in Black contains some of AC/DC’s biggest hits, including “Hells Bells”, “You Shook Me All Night Long”, and the title track “Back in Black.” According to Angus Young the album’s all-black cover was a “sign of mourning” for Scott, as black is the traditional Western colour of mourning. It is AC/DC’s best selling album, the second best-selling album of all time, and the biggest selling album by any band, with more than 42 million copies sold worldwide.
In 1989, it was ranked #26 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80′s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 73 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. VH1 named ‘Back in Black’ as one of the biggest comeback albums of all time.
Track listing
* All songs written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young, and Brian Johnson.
1. “Hells Bells” – 5:12
2. “Shoot to Thrill” – 5:17
3. “What Do You Do for Money Honey” – 3:35
4. “Givin’ the Dog a Bone” – 3:32
5. “Let Me Put My Love into You” – 4:15
6. “Back in Black” – 4:15
7. “You Shook Me All Night Long” – 3:30
8. “Have a Drink on Me” – 3:59
9. “Shake a Leg” – 4:06
10. “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” – 4:15
It should be noted that “Givin’ the Dog a Bone” was originally spelled “Given the Dog a Bone.”
Personnel
* Brian Johnson — lead vocals
* Angus Young — lead guitar
* Malcolm Young — rhythm guitar, backing vocals
* Cliff Williams — bass guitar, backing vocals
* Phil Rudd — drums, percussion
Production
* Robert John “Mutt” Lange — Producer
* Benji Armbrister — Assistant Engineer
* Bob Defrin — Art Direction
* Robert Ellis — Photography
* Bob Ludwig — Mastering (original LP)
* Barry Diament — Mastering (original CD releases)
* Ted Jensen — Remastering (EMI/Atco reissue)
* George Marino — Remastering (Epic reissue)
* Tony Platt — Engineer
* Brad Samuelsohn — Mixing
* Jack Newber — Assistant Engineer
Chart performance
Albums
Year Chart Position
1980 UK Albums Chart #1
Billboard Pop Albums #4
Ö3 Austria Top 40 #2
Norwegian Album Charts #11
RIANZ Album Top 50 #1
1981 Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart #1
1990 The Billboard 200 #13
2008 Billboard Top Pop Catalog #1
2008 Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums #4
Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1980 “Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” UK Singles Chart #15
“You Shook Me All Night Long” Billboard Hot 100 #35
“You Shook Me All Night Long” UK Singles Chart #38
1981 “Back in Black” Billboard Hot 100 #37
“Hells Bells” Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks #50
“Back in Black” Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks #51
“Shoot To Thrill” Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks #60
References
* Engleheart, Murray & Arnaud Durieux (2007-01-02), AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, Harper Entertainment, ISBN 0-0611-3391-4, <http://www.acdcbook.com/>.
Notes
1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. “Back in Black > Overview”. All Media Guide. Retrieved on 2007-11-08.
2. ^ “For The Record: Quick News On Ozzy Osbourne, Korn, Paris Hilton, Black Eyed Peas, AC/DC, John Mayer & More”. MTV (2003-12-09). Retrieved on 2008-12-03.
3. ^ http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH_RESULTS
4. ^ “Record Breakers and Trivia: Albums”. Every Hit. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
5. ^ “Top 100 Albums”. Recording Industry Association of America (2006-07-31). Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
6. ^ a b “AC/DC discography”. Rock Detector. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
7. ^ “73) Back in Black”. Rolling Stone (2003-11-01). Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
8. ^ “Charts & awards – Billboard albums”. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
9. ^ “Number 1 Albums – 1980s”. Every Hit. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
10. ^ “Charts & awards – Billboard singles”. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2007-01-29.
11. ^ “Every Hit”. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.
2003 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces it will induct Prince, George Harrison, Traffic, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne, ZZ Top, and doo-wop group the Dells in 2004. Yep, still no Foghat.
2003 – Bob Hope dies aged 100. The comedian topped the charts way back in 1938 with his signature tune “Thanks for the Memories,” and was Bing Crosby’s non-musical foil in numerous Road to … movies.
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